nightmonkey48

Hey, thanks a lot for the advise! So, does that mean that my mic, on its own, has the same volume-recording capabilities as those other mics? That's the only problem with it. I tried recording loud volumes by playing an Arcade Fire bootleg at full volume through headphones, and recording that through the little one-point mic. I tried all kinds of recording volumes, and none of them sounded good. Is clipping where you set it to a recording level, so it won't allow the incoming sound to go any louder than that? Stereo separation is not important to me, but getting it to record really loud is. It would be helpfull if the volume controller is what I need. I've been looking at that for a while now.

I don't know a whole lot about microphones, but I already made a very very bad decision buying this cheap mic. I am planning on recording the Arcade Fire in San Francisco, and possibly The Mars Volta and System in Oakland. I have a Sony MZ-R700, and I need a good mic to go with it. I have been looking at these two mics on eBay: http://cgi.ebay.com/MINIDISC-or-DAT-mic-ST...1QQcmdZViewItem http://cgi.ebay.com/STEREO-Y-MICROPHONE-PA...1QQcmdZViewItem Will either of these do a good job in recording loud loud rock concerts? If so, which one would you guys recommend? If not, what mics are in the 20-30$ range that are perfect for what I'm looking for? Thanks a lot for any help.

Wait, so what do I do if the ribbon is not damaged in any way? My mz-r700 was getting the blankdisc error, so I opened it up. I got it to record a minidisc while still open, so I could see what the little recording arm is doing. It's not coming anywhere near the disc when recording. It's about a fifth of an inch away. How can I get it to write on the disc? Thanks