lunatic

I haven't used the unit in awhile and I have found with my mics that the 9-volt usually goes after a month or so. What I really need to get into the habit of doing is pulling it when I'm not using it. I had the recording set to manual, mic in (should I have used line in? when I tried it I wasn't getting any response from the mics), and the levels cranked to 26 or so. That's why I thought it might be the batteries. When my batteries have been low in the past (with my old Sharp MT877 unit) it seems no matter how high I cranked the levels they were still showing only small response to sound. Anyway, I DO have Audacity but have only ever used it to split tracks and do simple fade ins/outs. Thanks for the tips - I will try that out and let you know how it worked. And yes, definitely I will try to give myself more time before the next gig to get everything set up just right! Thanks again everyone, Melissa

Hello all, I have a Sony MZ-RH10 and last night had a gig I wanted to record. Unfortunately I broke the #1 rule of live recording and totally spaced putting in a fresh battery both into the mic battery box or the AA battery attachment on the unit. Subsequently, you can hear the performance but only with the volume CRANKED and there is a lot of hiss from the unit. So I am wondering if any of you live recording geniuses have any tips or tricks for cleaning up this recording and salvaging something listenable out of it or am I just S.O.L. hosed? And damned if I didn't have some awesome solos on there too. Thanks for any advice, Melissa

Hello all, I've seen this deal on ebay a few times for visivox stereo mics plus a preamp starting at $69 (buy now $79). The link is here: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...Item=7342877586 Seems like one of those "almost too good to be true" deals. I can't find any specs on the mics themselves on visivox website nor could I find much about them here on the forums. Has anyone has experience with these mics? Does this seem like a good setup for recording? I have an RH10 HiMD and mostly record African Drumming in various locations (inside gyms, outside performances, indoor rehearsals, etc) with anywhere from 5-20 people playing at a time. My current setup are teeny tiny clip on cardiod or binaural (I have both) mics made by giant squid audio lab with a battery box through line in. Results are okay, but I'd like to upgrade and pull in more bass. Thanks for any help you can give this gal! - melissa

Awesome. I look forward to it!

Yes I meant yours. I'd love to hear the drum recordings you mentioned!

Where are your recordings? I didn't see them in the member gallery.

I will, thanks. Go try to find some african drummers for me will ya? lol.

Me again. I was doing some more reading and searching around and found this deal on ebay from Visivox: click here Combines a mic with a preamp/battery box. But I couldn't find any specs either on that website or on their own website: product website Anyone have any experience with these folks and can share some info with me? Is this deal too good to be true? thanks!

My guy just walked by while I was listening to that. He said it sounded "movie soundtrack quality". Thumbs up green, that sounds incredible!

You betchya!! I just ordered the Sony RH10 (american - couldn't afford the japanese upgrade if I want to upgrade my mics too) and it should arrive on Wednesday. I'm going to try it out with existing mics a couple of times and then I'm headed to Northern Cali and my old drumming group and would love to get really good recordings of them since I don't see them too often. Let me know when you get some recordings together - I would love to hear them! Cheers and thanks for the offer! Melissa *edit* that rode nt4 mic looks really nice and waaaaaaaaay out of my budget. Thanks for the suggestion though! Maybe I can save up for one someday.

Hey sweet, thanks for that! Unfortuantely, most of the drumming I do is indoors, and twice a week it's in a gym so the acoustics pretty much blow for a recording. With my current set up (Sharp MT877 and giant-squid-audio clip cardiods with a battery box) I got *decent* sound recording from across the room. Anyway, when researching the Reactive Deltas on this site I saw one of the members suggest creating the Delta with a mic on all four sides - have you folks considered that? melissa p.s. I could only get one recording of the Delta on the site to work - the one of the seagulls. The others wouldn't play for me.

Thanks for your response! The mics I have currently are beginner mics. I think I've decided on the Sony RH10 and am hoping to upgrade my mics to something a little nicer. The teeny little mics I have now are clip ons and it is sometimes a pain to get them situated right. I thought the ones listed above with little stands might do a better job as well as have an easier setup. I will definitely be using current mics until I can figure out what to upgrade to. Thanks! melissa

Okay so I think I"m settled on a new minidisc - either the RH10 or the NH900, whichever I can find for a better price. Now I'm looking for mics. Here's my situation: I play West African drums. Twice a week I play in a gym - once for a dance class where there are anywhere from 5 - 10 drums played and once for a drum lesson where the teacher plays each drum part separately and then all together (and there can be 15 people in the class). Also, once a week I play with a performance group. There are five of us and we rehearse in someone's living room. We perform in a variety of places including outside. So I am almost always recording drums but in different arrangements and in different environments. I was looking at these mics which are omnis: Flexible & Adjustable Mini-Tripod Omni-directional Stereo Microphones ( 20-20Khz.) pros: separated, on tripod, omnidirectional, cute (sorry but that's appealing) cons: being omnis they'll pick up street noise, crowd noise (can sometimes be good), kids running around the gym screaming, etc. This one also really caught my eye: http://www.reactivesounds.com/dt1.php pros: cardiod so no sounds of kids screaming, can be separated from unit with micPOD, is hella cool looking (yeah, that's appealing) cons: cardiod, so no nice rich omni sound, have to buy micPOD accessory all in all they come out similar in price (when buying the micPOD). So given my situation would it be better to have one over the other? Cardiod over omnis? Would love to hear ya'lls well informed opinions.

Good stuff. Still sounds like a toss up. I have my eye on a NH700 that I saw for a very good price. We'll see if that works out. Otherwise the prices I have seen for the RH10 and the NH900 are very similar. The same ebay seller that everyone talks about here (sunnylife_jp) has the four colors on ebay (that orange IS nice but the blue is oh so sexy . . .) but $300 is just . . . well OUCH. I know I can't use the Hi-MD to upload discs recorded on my Sharp MT877 easily. I just meant I could use the Sharp machine itself to finish transfering what I recorded before switching over to the much quicker upload format of the Hi-MD. As for the scratching and scuffing of the RH10 - well, it sure does suck that Sony didn't put any thought into the durability of their product (or maybe they did and that's why it scuffs so easily - so you'll want a new one next year! ). But I doubt I'll do much stealth recording - mostly it will be used out in the open so it will be fairly easy to keep the unit in it's bag (though it sounds like even that leads to wear and tear!). Thanks everyone for the great advice. I'll keep looking around for good prices!

Any thoughts on which? Do I recall seeing your support of the RH10 in other threads? *edit* how does the RH910 compare with both of these?

That's the best summary I've read so far! Since I have an iPod I don't really care about mp3s. I would pretty much be using the minidisc for recording purposes only and doing that about 3 times a week - so the ability to upload to a PC and burn a CD in as little time as possible is crucial. Sounds like all the Hi-MDs do that though. Read a lot about the RH10 being easily scratched - that's a bummer. I'm not a huge fan of plastic products so the sturdier build of the NH900 sounds appealing. So it sounds like the only real trade off for me personally is that big OLED screen which sounds wonderful (from what I've been reading). Hmm . . . sounds like price might be the deciding factor on this one. Guess I"ll head to ebay and google and see what I can find. Please feel free to share other thoughts ya'll! I'm not dedicated to one of these two models yet!

Yes I do disconnect the mic from the unit when I am done recording. No there is no power switch It just takes a standard 9 volt. If I don't use it for a few months then I have to replace it or get no levels. I got the mics from giant squid audio lab (http://www.giant-squid-audio-lab.com/). It's not a big deal but it's just one more thing I have to deal with. So from what I've been reading it looks like the NH900 or the RH10 are in hot competition. Any other thoughts on this? What are the major differences between the 1st and 2nd generations? How important is a Line Out? Thanks again!

Cool - good stuff and thanks for listing specific models for me to look into. I am in Oregon in the US (West Coast) so no UK prices for me. I definitely want recording and I will be using 99% of the time for recording drumming, mostly indoors and sometimes outdoors. Most of the indoor stuff is in a loud echo-y gym type room but sometimes just rehearsals in somebody's living room. Sorry about the confusing on the backwards compatability thing. I guess I can use my Sharp mt877 to upload the existing stuff and then just reuse the discs on a new system (reformat to Hi-MD like you suggested). I will definitely read all links you guys have posted. Thanks so much for your responses! Looks like I'll have to do some research on mics too. Right now I have a cardiod clip on with a battery box but the battery is drained pretty quickly and I have to change it frequently. Back when I got the MT877 everyone said a battery box was a must have. Is that still the case? Aren't there any good mics that just run off the device? (esp. if the device was plugged in so power wasn't a problem). thanks again for all your help. lunatic

Thanks for the welcome kurisu. I guess I'd max out at $250-$300 although again, I have no idea what the new technology is priced at these days.

What's up ya'll? Wow. It has been a looooong time since I've visited any kind of minidisc forum. A bunch of years ago I spent all my free time reseraching these gadgets and ended up with a Sharp MT877 which has been great. Now I'm thinking about upgrading. Seems the technology has come a long way forward and I'd like to move forward with it. But I am totally overwhelmed by all the new formats and players. HiMD? What the heck is that? lol. Anyway, I am here to ask for help. I've spent the last two hours browsing and would love to utilize the search button but I don't know what to search FOR. So maybe ya'll can throw a few suggestions my way. I have an ipod, so I don't really care about playing mp3s. What I really need is a good recording device. I play West African drums, often in a gym (for an African Dance class or for drum lessons), sometimes outside, and various venues (I perform in a drumming group also). So I need something that can handle the noise without creating noise, heh heh. I'm also really tired of the real time recording from minidisc to my computer. That is a DRAG. Seems like the newer HiMD models have quick file transfer? Is that right? That would be a blessing. It would be nice if I could find something backwards compatible, so I don't have to waste the discs I already have, but I am willing to sacrifice that for other features. Oh and did I mention I'm not rich? lol, I'm willing to pay a little more for the perfect machine but if I can find something affordable I'd be much happier. If anyone has suggestions (and please don't just tell me "search" because again, I have no idea what to search FOR!) for a couple of models to start looking at I would be forever grateful. Mic suggestions welcome too. Cheers ya'll, lunatic (a girl)