KJ_Palmer

No probs - let us know what you go for, and feel free to ask any more questions about MD transfers etc. I'm sure there'll still be a few of left around for a while!

You can still use your old MDs in the Hi-MD recorders, ie. play them back or record onto them. There are 2 modes for recording on Hi-MD recorders - MD and Hi-MD. MD mode gives you the old compressed formats (apart from mono) - SP, LP2 and LP4. Hi-MD mode uses the newer formats - PCM (lossless), and compressed ATRAC modes - Hi-SP (256kbps) and Hi-LP (64kpbs). Transfer to PC is done via Sonicstage. You can upload Hi-MD mode recordings with any Hi-MD recorder. Only the MZ-RH1 (Mac version = M200) will upload the old style recordings as well as Hi-MD. You'll need to install Sonicstage version 3.4 and upwards as earlier versions (supplied on CD) had more restrictions. You can get a full installer (SS4.0) from the downloads section here. Once in the Sonicstage library you can convert tracks to Wav format for use in other applications, or burning to CD etc.

Hi, yes there are still some Minidisc users left... It depends on what you want to do with your recordings. If you'll be wanting to upload loads to a computer, and edit them, etc. then Hi-MD is probably the best option. There are ways to digitally transfer old style MD recordings to a computer, but that has to be done in real-time and nowhere near as convenient. Non Hi-MD recorders are much cheaper of course. A good place to look for 2nd (or even 1st) hand recorders is of course is eBay. A good starting point for Hi-MD would be the MZ-NH700, and the top of the range would be the MZ-RH1 (M200 = Mac version with a mic).

The Zooms seem very well regarded, small, SD card based and run off AA's, so yes they seem a good alternative to Hi-MD. I would certainly insist on these qualities, though I haven't used one and I'm happy with the Edirol. The Zooms seem a bit cheaper though, so look to be very worth considering,

Welcome onboard DreamOn! Great to have another convert to Team MD!

Outside of Hi-MD, I think you'll still find it hard to find a cheap decent recorder with all the versatily of MD, ie. removable media, lossless recording, replaceable batteries and is a brilliant playback unit to boot. Apart perhaps from Sony's PCM-D50, the nearest I've found (so far) is probably the Edirol R-09HR, which takes SD and SDHC cards (up to 16GB), which is a very good field recorder (24 bit/96kHz PCM and MP3). Though no match for MD as a playback device, it has random shuffle (missing on most flash recorders) and sounds quite decent though headphones, and runs off standard AA's. I don't think it'll ever usurp my Hi-MDs as a general player/recorder, but is quite nice as an alternative, and does benefit from software-free uploading.

Which MD unit is it for? There is some overlap between models, usually from the same period, but older units (eg. the R50) generally aren't compatible with newer ones, and of course some can't take them at all.. You can sometimes find them on eBay (search for minidisc aa batter pack (or similar), eg. this one at the moment.

Hi, you can still download SS4.3 (European version) from here.

Wow, how did you ever get by without shuffle? Couldn't live without it myself..

Press Navi/Menu button whilst playing a disk, Twist jog dial till SubPMode is displayed Press Play (>) button to select Twist jog dial till Shuffle (or SHUF) is displayed Press Play (>) button to select Enjoy Shuffle play mode. This is explained fully in the NH700 manual, page 41. Adobe acrobat required.

Not much minidisc promotion happens around here anymore. Too late for that probably. Oh well, never mind...

... and FLAC support (or other lossless apart from Wav/PCM).

I think that should be all right - many MD players don't display SP (as opposed to LP2/4) as this is as a sort of default playback/recording mode. As long as it's playing back properly in the machine this should be fine.

Yes, judging by that thread, your overwrite head may have gone. Could still use it as a player, but it would be uneconomical to have it fixed. I imagine the radio would work, you may be able to find one on eBay.

Well, you don't need the original earbuds, any ones with a 3.5 mm jack would do. A few questions would help point to the problem if there is one: - How exactly are you recording? Microphone, line in, optical in or via PC with Sonictsage/Simpleburner? - What connectors to your source (CD, cassette, microphone) are you using? - Does the recording level bar in the MD display window fluctuate when recording? - Have you tried the radio - does that work? - If you access to a pre-recorded MD, does that play back OK? Can't think of any others for the moment, but that should hep.

Well yes, Wav/PCM to SP is best, but you can't get true SP from Sonicstage. The SP compatibility transfer from SS only gives (at best) LP2 quality in an SP 'wrapper'. To get true SP (which is still compressed - 292kbps) you need to actually record in real time on the unit via an optical (or analogue line) output. Or there are some CD/MD decks that can transfer at faster speeds.

Hi. Well, Type-S is a playback enhancement for MDLP (LP2/4) recorded tracks. It improves (allegedly) the sound quality over the original MDLP units which use the ATRAC 3 codec for recording and playback. In Type-S units, the recording still uses ATRAC 3 for MDLP but have improved replay quality. Type R affects both recording and playback of Stereo (SP) mode tracks, and is an improvement, in fact the best available, over the earlier SP codecs. Hope that makes sense. What the R & S stand for is anybody's guess...

Sounds like (pardon the pun) the clubs' MD players aren't MDLP compatible. In that case you should use the SP compatibility mode (I think that's what it's called) under the transfer mode settings (the black 'suitcase' icon) in the middle of the Sonicstage screen, and all will, hopefully be well.. However, that transfer method is slow, and results in no better than LP2 quality, so you might as well do the transfer in real time via an optical (or analogue) cable in Stereo mode and get much better quality. Hope that helps.

Luckily the NH900 uses a standard A to Mini B USB cable, such as this one. Should be obtainable from any dececnt electronics/photographic/audio etc store near you.

The JE330 can play MDs transferred in SP compatibilty mode from Sonicstage - that's the whole point of having this mode. The quality won't be true SP though, the best you'll get is something more like LP2 quality, depending on the bitrate of the tracks in SS.

For MD/Hi-MD purposes I use SS4.3, and WMP11 for my MP3 collection. Both only really in an organisational capacity for holding the two 'Libraries' and for transferring to the various media, and they both do an adequate job at that. For editing, tagging (for the MP3's) etc first I use other applications such as Audacity and MP3Tag.

You said it bettter though, Wiz Interesting about the noise fom Onykyo decks. I was thinking about getting one, but if it's noisy it'll probably drive me mad at night. Definitely one advantage of decks with a flash drive input...

As long as you use a microphone with a cable, ie. one that doesn't plug straight into the mic jack you shouldn't have any problems with mechanical noise. Just keep the mic pointing away from the recorder.

That's right, only the MZ-RH1 / M200 can upload to PC (via USB) the 'legacy' recordings that the R700 can make. You'd be stuck with real time transfers to a PC with the R700, or indeed any non Hi-MD recorder. That would obviously be quite a formidable task with 25 or so discs. A non RH1/M200 Hi-MD such as the NH700 would be able to upload its own Hi-MD mode recordings (Hi-SP, Hi-LP, PCM).

Indeed, I actually SF-Edited some of my early SP recordings to death, when it was still a novelty, and quality-loss was (to me) only a vague notion... I now rip all my CDs to Wav first, normalise in Audacity, then import to SS. Tedious, but worth the effort.