philippeb

No, sorry. I use it to copy my old cassette master recordings to minidisc. It is actually my second unit. The first one (bought in 1982 if I remember well) died in Africa after 20 years of service, in an battery explosion!

I recently bought a second-hand Portadisc reporter kit (the unit + a Sennheiser MD 46 microphone) for Euro 308.65 on Ebay, and I am extremely satisfied it. n I do analog real time mono radio recordings, sometimes live mono microphone takes. I have been disappointed by the Sony MZ-RH1, that does not do mono :-( The Portadisc is a minidisc reincarnation of the Sony TCD-5M cassette recorder, that I have been using during 20 years. Same look and feel, large controls, readable meters, standard batteries, internal mono speaker, good connectivity, editing capabilities. It also reminds me the Revox B77 tape recorder: the two input channels can be selected and set up independantly when recording in stereo (I do not do stereo, but I can control two different mono recordings simultaneously). I have not tried to upload recordings via USB. I defrag and backup my recordings with my Sony MDS-W1 deck. I recommend the Portadisc to legacy format minidisc lovers, who want to enjoy life without depending on computers and computer software.

The Sony MDS-W1 double deck moves tracks between MD (SCMS free, lossless, 4x speed). There is one on ebay.com: item number 280151955515. In my opinion, this the best unit ever built by Sony. With a little help of service mode, it can also duplicate MDs.

I own two Sony MDS-W1, and cannot imagine life without them. I would like to mention another rare feature of this perfect machine: the unlimited DIVIDE and COMBINE. When an edit operation fails and returns IMPOSSIBLE, a simple defrag suppresses the problem (possibly with the help of a temporary track, for DIVIDE).

And resume play (resuming playback after stopping).

If you mean SCMS bits, they are completely ignored when cloning a track or a disc, that is they are duplicated along with the tracks, without limitation. The reason is that the cloning procedure uses the disc to disc track MOVE operation, which creates copies of the original tracks on the target disc, and then ERASEs the original tracks on the source disc. It is clear that moving tracks should not be limited in any way (and that SCMS bits should be moved along) because no extra copy is created in the process. After moving one or more tracks, I eject the target disc, enter service mode and exit it. This procedure transforms the disc to disc MOVE into a lovely but undocumented lossless disc to disc COPY, because exiting service mode ejects the source disc without writing the TOC! The source disc is left intact, the "deleted" tracks are back, untouched. You can imagine how happy I felt the first time I verified the procedure, that I had figured out *before* acquiring the double deck. It worked perfectly, creating an island of health and sanity in this DRM contaminated world. Had they trusted their customers, omitted SCMS and DRM in the first place, Sony would have conquered the world of digital music recording.

You can read about the MDS-W1 at http://www.minidisc.org/part_Sony_MDS-W1.html These precious double decks are difficult to find. Their owners are usually as happy as I am, and do not sell them. Needless to say that Sony does not make them any more...

I *love* my two MDS-W1 double decks, in my opinion the most versatile decks ever built by Sony. They have an impressive set of almost unique features: 1. Built-in timers. 2. Capacity to chain recordings from disc A to disc B. 3. Lossless ATRAC domain move, defrag and *copy* (yes, with a little help of service mode). 4. Wonderful front panel and display. I do daily analog mono timed recordings of radio programs (FM and Worldspace). I also copy old tape and cassette sound archives to minidiscs. Then I edit my recordings: I divide, delete, copy, swap, move tracks from disc to disc to compose my own mix tapes. I defragment them when needed, often reviving several minutes of recording time. When I am done with a disc, I clone it, label the two identical copies, and send one to my beloved wife (who lives far from me). 20 years ago, my wife and I used to record radio programs on a Revox A77/B77 tape recorder, and to create mix tapes with a Sony TC-D5M cassette recorder. The MDS-W1 deck offers both services, and much more. How useful a deck? For us, almost vital.

There is an alternative solution. What you need is a - hard to find - second hand Sony MDS-W1 double deck. I use my own MDS-W1 to duplicate, rearrange and defragment my minidiscs. These operations are done in the ATRAC domain, at high speed (4x), without loosing any bit. SCMS bits are copied along with the tracks, regardless of their values. The procedure is the following: 1 - Insert your recorded source disc in A and your empty target disc in B. Both discs must be writable. 2 - Move all or selected tracks from disc A to disc B with the "All Move" or "1Tr Move" functions. 3 - Eject disc B. This is your defragmented copy. 4 - Enter the service mode as described in the Service Manual, and leave it. Disc A is ejected without writing the TOC, restoring the tracks which have been deleted by the "Move" operation. Disc A is left unmodified - the deck actually never writes on it. Disc B is a perfect clone of disc A (or a clone of a subset). I backup all my minidiscs with this procedure. Felix