KJ_Palmer

The 'fake SP' transfer by Sonicstage has been well known and documented at this and other forums since the early days of NetMD, although Sony themselves have been (perhaps understandably) somewhat reticent in acknowledging it. Sadly, no -one seems to have cracked/hacked it, so we're stuck with LP2 quality if we want SP compatibility through Sonicstage. The only way to get true hi-quality SP is via real time (optical) dubs, or using a CD-MD combo deck (which can give 4x transfer speed).

Line out (or headphone out if there's no line Out mode) to Line in would be the best option for direct connection. It would have to be real time transfer in this case. If the recording is in a Hi-MD mode and one of you has Sonicstage 3+ installed the track(s) could be uploaded to a PC and downloaded to a new minidisc instead.

Oh, OK thanks - luckily I've never had anything like that problem, generally the results are absolutely perfect. Tagging for v2.3 would be handy, though not a necessity as I always tweak tags anyway using a tag editor. Glad to see more options for file naming will be available. Cheers

Hi Marc, thanks for a great program! I've converted nearly all my 50GB SS Library to MP3 now.. I'm getting the static burst at the end of some files when converting from oma to MP3. It seems quite random - most files in an album are free, but one or two might get the static for some reason. All my oma files are of high bitrates - 256 or 352k and usually coded from (Audacity'ed) Wav files or the original CD. Unfortunately the smallest one I know of that produces static is over 14MB - I can send you that if you like! It's not really been a huge problem, as I can usually delete the static with MP3direct cut, though once or twice it has overlapped the track ending, and obviously it would be best not to happen at all. I'm not sure if this the right place, but I have two (other) requests for the next Hi-MD Renderer version - can we have proper ID3 v2 (preferably v2.3), and preferably have the option not to have the SS track prefix (eg 00-) on the output filenames. Once again, cheers.

... or flowers/chocs Actually, I've seen RH1's for £255+ in Sony stores, so you snaffled a real bargain there!

Not sure if this is what you want, but if you simply want to remove gaps/silences at the end of tracks, you can use the divide function (under the Edit menu) to split off the end of tracks (in Sonicstage) and delete the end bit. The tracks have to be imported in ATRAC format first. A bit less long winded than the Audacity route if the tracks are already in Sonictstage, though you can't do the fading bit.

Live recording to SP (in real-time) would give far better quality. Sonicstage can only deliver LP2 quality at best to standard MD's (even 'SP' is the reduced LP2 quality - padded out to make it work in SP players).

SS 4.3 is only for Vista compatibility really, so if you're not running a Vista machine you're better off using a lower version. SS 4.2 or 3.4 are considered the most stable versions, or 4.0 should be fine, which you can get from the downloads section here. SS 1.5 looks a bit different to them, but it should convert your existing Sonicstage library automatically, and you can use the import function to import any MP3, Wav etc files you may have on your hard disk.

Absolutely - get another as backup if you enjoy the format. There's no reason to stop using minidisc long after the last one has rolled off the production lines (has this happened already?). Even cassette tapes have their uses for us recording enthusiasts/musicians.

Back in 2000, I was looking for a recording medium that was more reliable and better sounding than cassette tapes. No CD-Rs then really, so I bought a Sharp CD-MD micro system. Soon afterwards bought an MZ-R500 (MDLP), a 'proper' deck (MDS-JE640) which is still going, and now have most of the Hi-MD recorders. Great medium, sadly looking like it's on the way out

Looks like an excellent recorder - perhaps the successor to Minidisc? I'll probably also be sorely tempted to pick one up, when funds allow...

You can't upload your tracks with the N707. To do that you'll have to either buy/borrow an MZ-RH1, or record them via line in on your PC using software such as Audacity. The latter option is real-time so will be extremely tortuous if you have a large collection...

Hi-MD renderer is a great tool for converting ATRAC to MP3, and is available for free in the downloads section here. I've converted most of my SS Library to 192 and 320 kbps MP3 for playback on CD portables and the Hi-Fi and haven't really noticed any degradation in sound quality.

That's just pathetic. Sony are fast losing their credibility in the audio market, if they still have any...

You're always better off re-recording from the original to MD, as there will always be some generational quality reduction to a lossy compression format like ATRAC. This may be especially noticeable if the original was of fairly low quality as in this case. The Xitel MD-USB Port would give excellent digital recordings, providing your Mac's OS is up to it, far better than headphone out, which is obviously only analogue. See here for one on ebay: http://cgi.ebay.com/Xitel-MiniDisc-MD-Port...6QQcmdZViewItem

You can, of course do the dividing and deleting in Sonicstage before transferring to MD, after converting to ATRAC of course, or do that to the orignal file in Audacity...

You can upload all your optical digital MD recordings to PC via the RH1 - and transfer them back to Hi-MDs. If they were originally recorded in Hi-MD mode (Hi-SP,Hi-LP,PCM), or LP2/4 then they can be transferred back without quality loss (in the same format). If they were SP there will be some quality loss due to transcoding unless you upload them as Wav. Whether you get an RH1 as MD/ATRAC is a dead format is up to you and your needs - I'm keeping mine...

You should only use these cleaners sparingly though. An MD lens only needs cleaning in exceptional circumstances, not after a few hours normal use, unlike a tape head. Much better to keep the player and discs as dust-free as possible.

Well, the NH900's etc speed control is also described as digital pitch control (DPC), so it's not the 'digital'-ness that makes the RH1's version any better. If indeed that is the case (I haven't checked it yet)...

You need to select Main Play Mode -> Normal from the menu.

Excellent news - it's also a great feature for practising tricky music passages, but as you say, earlier implentations were far from satisfactory. Presumably slowing down gives just as good results - I must give it a go on the RH1.

Defiintely come back to T-board Ray, you'll get a HUGE welcome!

Indeed - count me in too!

Certainly not. If I wanted an Ipod I would've bought one by now. Still happy with MD and CD, actually.

The foot pedal that works with the MZ-B10 and B100 is the Sony FS85B50 footswitch. I use one for my B100 - very useful too, if you can get hold of one. They don't work with any other MD units, only these 'business' machines unfortunately, and as far as I know this is the only type of footswitch there is.