greenmachine

There are propably some *.oma files left in the "\Documents and Settings\All Users\SonicStage\Packages\Hi-MD" and / or "\Documents and Settings\All Users\SonicStage\Packages\Optimized Files" folders. You can delete them manually if no longer needed and in the future check the 'remove/delete from computer' box in the deletion confirmation window when clearing the library in Sonicstage.

You can use Audacity for normalization and other audio-related processes after converting the *.oma files to *.wav with SonicStage.

Sure - long hair helps to hide the cable.

The main reason why you're in trouble is that your MD preamp lacks a low sensitivity setting. You can either 1) buy a different unit with low sens. setting, 2) use an attenuator or 3) the most complex solution - build an external preamp. I've built one according to this design once, using a 2x50 kOhm stereo pot for setting the gain. I've built it for use with a harddisk recorder without a quality internal preamp though, and although it works pretty well, it's pretty much dispensable for use with MD, where i either use mic-in low sens. or line-in with batt. box.

No, it doesn't limit/compress the sound, it just lowers the whole incoming signal - quiet and loud sections equally. The SNR will unfortunately decrease and the mics will get a (slightly) lower bias voltage unless powered separately. Whether you will notice these little downsides or not, depends - usually a less distorted recording outweighs their significance - but it's good to be aware of it at least.

I would be interested to have a look inside such a thing, to know its impedance - would anyone equipped with a multimeter and a camera be willing to disassemble it for a moment?

Unless you have the wiring diagram, a look inside and/or practical experiences from other users, you won't know for sure. If i were you, i'd take a look if i could get something similar for little price in in your region first before spending too much for an untested gadget. I'd suggest to head out and visit some local electronic stores and let us know if you can find a working solution.

I need to do some Hi-SP quality testing as well, i've heard some rumors about inferior quality compared to SP. Placebo is a dangerous beast.

If they only had a the same HQ recording capabilities as MD, they would be much more useful...

Heat shrinkable tubing works very well for fixing the mics at a certain position, but you obviously have to be careful not to apply too much heat [it could damage the diaphragm]. Chances are, you won't even need additional retainers, nobody will notice these tiny mics anyway, especially if you slightly cover them with your hair. I've shot a few pics of my current setup, for the SP-BMC-2's it could look slightly different - notice the difference in mounting position - closer to the ears will give a more natural stereo separation compared to SP's up front mounting position: [attachmentid=430][attachmentid=431][attachmentid=432] Beware of the guy with glasses

Anybody wants to take a virtual ride? http://forums.minidisc.org/index.php?act=m...&cmd=si&img=915 Warning: unedited recording - excessive low frequency content

To avoid distortion when recording loud music, you will most likely need either an attenuator to mic-in, low sens. or a battery box to line-in. Never use the high sens. setting unless you want to record very quiet sounds. The 'Standard' or 'Loudmusic' setting will affect the way the AGC works. If you want to use AGC, use the loudmusic setting, if you use manual levels, the setting has no effect, but you'll need to set the levels manually. You'll get better, dynamically uncompressed results with manual levels, but it needs some practice to set them correctly. Read this live recording usage FAQ: http://forums.minidisc.org/index.php?showtopic=9045 and have a look around in the live recording section: http://forums.minidisc.org/index.php?showforum=18

Only the optical part is used for reading AFAIK.

Location recording exclusively - it's hard to beat this portable, pocket sized, high quality -almost- all-in-one solution with incredibly low power consumption. For portable playback i prefer a non-mechanical medium (flash card based mp3 player). Volta: Patience is a virtue.

My main media: -For music at home: Computer harddisk, various formats with a predominance of MP3; sometimes CDs; sometimes older SP encoded MDs -For portable playback: A MP3 player/recorder with interchangeable CF card -For field recording: 1 GB Hi-MD, preferrably in PCM mode, which i save on HD as *.flac and reuse after uploading I rarely use portable players though, so i'm not sure what to choose. Volta: You'll get a reason to use mp3 as soon as you start to participate in the live recording archive/gallery

Happy birthday, Derek. Without your incredible knowledge we'd all be walking in the dark.

How many active users do we have though? 50? 100?

I don't like their mounting position, they're way too much up front to use the advantages of HRTF ('binaural'). Besides, these thick croakies look ridiculous IMO. ---> DIY

Decode the mp3s to wav beforehand and SS should convert it.

If 2 GB is finally there, people will demand 4 GB. If 4 GB is there, people will demand 8 GB, and so on... I doubt the demand for higher capacity will ever end, whether it be for longer recording time, higher resolution, multichannel, video, backup purposes or anything different. The step from 1 KB to 1 MB to 1 GB didn't take too long, so i don't see a reason why we shouldn't enter the terrabyte realm soon. My motto: If it'll be available in the future, why not use it? As long as it's not there, i don't care about it as i can live with the current limitations.

2000 x 45h = 90000h = 3750 days = >10 years Heh, that's almost sufficient. A little bit more and we wouldn't even need to change the disc once in a lifetime.

Yeah, i'm also pretty happy with the 94 min. PCM recording time, usually shows last anywhere between 3/4 and 3/2 hours; and if it should last longer, a disc change during a pause doesn't hurt me much.

Lossy compression would finally be dispensable, don't you think?

Two little additions: - I'm using omnis all the time, even in very echoey rooms like churches or large empty halls - usually with excellent, lifelike results, you may need to reduce the distance to the source compared to using uni-directional mics in order not to get too much reverberations though. Ideally, what you hear is what you get. If you have control over your recording position, i'd always go the omni way. - I'm not familiar with all these mics, but if you can find a decent mono mic, the following rule applies: Mono x2 = Stereo

Hmm, i don't know what kind of system you are using, but i can download and save them as *.mov files.