Roamer

Yes, but only as data, so you can't use them for playback. Sony should provide a new software for the RH1 available later to transfer music. But it might be better to wait for more info on this.

Yes, as long as you format them in HiMD format first. You can only upload if you record in HiMD mode (except with the RH1).

As the previous suggest, you need the MZ-M10, MZ-M100 or the new MZ-RH1 to upload PCM tracks via USB to a Mac. With the RH10, you will have to use Virtual PC or record the output of the headphones.

If you really want to transfer Atrac files from a PC to an other, you should remove DRM first as discussed here : http://forums.minidisc.org/index.php?showtopic=15370

Yes, probably some old DRM checking stuff that is no longer relevant. They should fixed that for a future release, as I got one HiMD that became corrupted (unreadable) due to an upload failure. But at least I fell safer for my 100+ legacy MDs recordings that are waiting for a digital upload.

The standard voltage for phantom power is normally 48V, but effectively some mics have a wider range of choice for voltage input. The voltage specification should be check with the mics to make sure it will work properly. Otherwise this sounds like an interesting project.

The only models with some compatibility with the Mac are the MZ-M100 , MZ-M10 (limited to PCM uploading) and the RH1. The features of the new software for the RH1 are still unknown, but should better than what the others models offer, and it will likely not be available until later in the year ... In any case, an HiMD would still provide more capacity and/or better quality.

I guess you're in the USA, in which you have several mics retaillers : Giant Squid, Church Audio, Core Sound, Sound Preofessionals + some are posting here in the retailing section ... Depending on the mic, with metal genre, you might be able to go direct line-in without attenuator (not with the ECM719). In any case, you should do some test recordings (with similar bands) in advance, as this is likely that the first recording will go wrong ...

What kind of band do you plan to record ? (Acoustic / Rock / Death metal ...? )

1. 352k via SonicStage or 256k via mic 3. Yes. It's in the news and on the main page of the site ...

Europe is in region 2, like Japan, so that's not an issue.

The trick is that you should reencode the Atrac track with the same bit rate and untick the box for the DRM (so it is not really reencoding, more getting ride of the DRM). Then you can archive the unDRM'ed file. That trick doesn't apply to PCM AFAIK, but as I said, PCM can be converted to WAV (and then FLAC). And : 4. Yes, the latest SoundForge should support Atrac. But Atrac is only supported by Sony software, so I don't think it is that wise to archive in a proprietary format for the long term ...

RH10 is reported to scratch easily, and OLED don't last as long as LCD. So I would also recommend going for the RH910.

1. Yes (Not much to do with SonicStage actually ...) 2. Yes 3. Yes and no. Convert Atrac recording to remove DRM. I haven't found a way to remove DRM from PCM recordings. But as long as you can save them as WAV ... 5. Yes (if you encode without DRM) 6. Yes (see above)

Almost all the DRM restrictions are gone with the latest release. Check the thread for the 3.4 release.

You could also record via line-in (analog) with any MD. The only units with limited compatibility with the Mac (USB) are the MZ-M10, MZ-M100 and MZ-RH1.

Could be interesting to post the revision number along with the review to compare with the pre-unit that MDFreak had.

I got mine in Europe (France) and the NH600 does have a remote port as well as line-in.

No, there are actually very few remotes that have a record button (and I'm not sure if Sony as made any ..) . But you can set the unit in REC PAUSE, and start with the remote.

Yes, I believe they haven't made an Atrac codec for the Mac (yet).

I would also recommend using an HiMD. But if you want to use a legacy MD, check Sharp units. They have manual level recording as default (actually my MD-MT190 doesn't have AGC equivalent).

Atrac is a lossy format, so you will get some some quality loss each time you go through decoding/coding. And you're edited version is no longer like the original, and the Atrac encoding will alter it. And right now, I'm actually archiving an unaltered version of a live recording before doing any processing with it. You might be interested in reading these : http://www.minidisc.org/generations.html

SonicStage works only under Windows, but there should new tools for the Mac some time later. Any fluent japanese reader who could sum up the interview posted earlier ? Thanks

For festivals, I use non rechargeable Lithium. This last very long and I can do several PCM recordings (the most power hungry mode) this way with the AA pack. But that's overkill for other purposes ...

Soundforge is an expensive professional software tool and was developped by a team of developpers who had access to the Atrac SDK. HiMDRenderer has been developped for free by one programmer (marcnet) that didn't have access to the Atrac SDK. Comparing the two doesn't seem really fair, and HiMDRenderer still has it's place. And personnaly, I would rather transcode to a more open format (Wav, FLAC ...) than WMA.