DaveNH700

- Just downloaded and installed them, works a treat. Thanks, Dave.

- Many thanks, I shall try installing these drivers tonight. Dave.

Hi all, I recently downloaded and installed SonicStage4.3 from the Sony website to my laptop. When I connect my MZ-NH700 MD walkman it is recognised and allows me to control it and transfer to/from it no problem. But when I connect my MDS-JE780 NetMD deck SonicStage doesn't seem aware of it at all. Windows recognises that a device has been connected but not SonicStage. I've made sure the JE780 deck is in NetMD mode but it doesn't see it in SonicStage. Any ideas why this could be? Should I be using an older version of SonicStage to be compatable with the 780 deck? Any advice much appreciated, Thanks, Dave.

Hi, About a year ago I bought a 2nd hand Sony JE780 home MD deck. It's in very good condition and according to the receipt attached to the manual it was bought in 2003. I've started to use it frequently as the ps2 keyboard connection makes it very easy to edit and label tracks that I record on my portable NH700. My only concern now is how much life is left in it and I sometimes regret not buying a brand new one for a little more money whilst they were still available. My questions are these: 1. Does anyone have any idea of the typical lifespan of a home deck such as the JE780? and 2. Are there any home decks still available new from any manufacturers preferably with a keyboard connection? Thanks, Dave.

Hi, I'm thinking of buying a new microphone for acuoustic instrument recordings. These will sometimes be used to record just a single instrument and sometimes to record group sessions of half a dozen instruments playing at the same time. Up to now I've borrowed an AT9720 (equivalent to today's ATR97) and this has produced good mono results, certainly the best of the borrowed mics that I've tried. So I'm considering buying an ATR97 mic of my own which is an omnidirectional boundary mono mic. I've also had the ATR25 mic recomended. The ATR25 is a stereo 'shotgun' mic and is roughly the same price ans the ATR97. What does the term 'shotgun mic' refer too? With a stereo mic like the ATR25 where the actual left and right mics are very close together will there be a noticable difference in the recorded sound compared to that of a mono microphone? Does a stereo recording benefit from the mic for each channel being further apart? Would I acheive better results by using two mono mics seperated by a few metres feeding the L & R channels seperately? With a stereo mic plugged in to a minidisc recorder but with the recording mode set to mono does it combine the two channels or does it just record one of the two channels? Thanks, Dave.

Hi, Can anyone suggest a suitable microphone to record close up acoustic guitar and banjo sessions on? I purchased a 'Yoga Uni-Directional Compact mic' a while ago. This plugs directly into the MD recorder and is powered from it too. There's no lead so it's quite neat but the results lack bass. It's ok for speach but dissapointing for acoustic music recordings. I borrowed an Audio Technica AT9720 (an old model which I'm told is equivalent to today's ATR97) boundary mic and get better results with that. Is there a mic out there that I would get even better results with? Also, is the sound quality of a recording made in Hi-SP better or worse than a recording made in MD-SP or MD-Mono? If I purchased/borrowed an XLR mic (such as the M-Audio Luna) is there an adapter unit that I could use to plug it into the 3.5mm mic input on my NH700? Thanks, Dave.

Hi, Along with a portable 2nd-hand MD player, I received about twenty recordable discs containing compilations of the previous owners music. Some of which I like and would like to keep whilst other tracks I would like to delete. Whilst playing the discs in my JE780 deck I pause on the tracks I want to delete and through the menu choose 'Tr Erase' and press enter but I get a message saying 'Tr protected'. The disc is write enabled so how can I turn the track protection off? When I put the disc in my portable NetMD player and connect it to a PC I can delete tracks through SonicStage but I can't see anyway of turning the protection on/off so I can erase tracks on my deck as I listen to them. Is there a way I can turn track protection off for one or ideally all/multiple tracks in SonicStage so I can then take the disc back to my JE780 deck and erase tracks as I listen to them without using the PC again? Thanks Dave.

- thanks to all for your replys. I downloaded the service manual for this model but it only shows circuit diagrams for the main board. Any idea where I will find a circuit diagram for the front panel button board? Thanks, Dave.

Hi, Can anyone tell me when the following MD models were manufactured (from - to)? 1. Portable player MZ-NE410. 2. Hi-Fi deck MDS-JE780. 3. Car head unit MDX-CA680. Thanks, Dave.

Hi, I've just received a second-hand Sony MZ-NE410 portable MD player. It plays fine but the Fast-Forward and volume +,- buttons doesn't allways work. Sometimes it responds as though one of the other buttons has been pressed instead. I'd like to remove the top cover to try and clean the button contacts but I can't find an obvious way of taking it off and I don't want to force anything and break the delicate parts. Can someone advise me on the best way to remove the top cover? Are there any pictoral guides on the internet anywhere (perhaps on here?) that would help. I'm assuming it is the well used button contacts that are to blame for this behaviour but perhaps I'm wrong, has anyone else experienced this and know of a solution other than what I'm attempting to do? Thanks, Dave.

- Thanks.

- thanks for your reply. The reason I want to copy to CD is to make a permanent back-up copy onto a non-rewritable/editable medium. How come CDs don't last? - I've got CDs almost ten years old that still work fine. As for them not being very portable, everyone I know has at least one CD player in their home and most in their car too but very few have MD players, so which is the more portable medium? The master MD disc I use to transfer to CD has analogue recordings on it so transfering to CD digitally shouldn't be a problem. Thanks, Dave.

- thanks, will they stay un-copyright protected if transfered back to the minidisc or is it just while they are on the PC? Dave.

Hi, I use my portable MD recorder (NH700) with a mic to make recordings of myself and friends playing musical instruments. I often want to make and edit compilations of these for various purposes including practicing along to. In some cases the copying may be greater than 2nd generation and so the Serial Copy Management System (SCMS) stops me making a digital copy and I have to use the analouge line in/out. I understand why the SCMS is there for commercial copyrighted material sold in the shops but is there anyway round it for recordings you take yourself? Thanks, Dave.

Hi, I'm considering buying a Sony MDS-JE780 MiniDisc deck. I currently have a Sony RCD-W100 deck to deck CD copier. I would like to know if text (track names) from the MD would be transferred to the CD recorder if I record from the MD deck via the optical connection? The the JE780 has a USB port for computer connection, is it possible to both download (to MD) and upload (to PC) tracks via this connection or is it download (to MD) only? Has anyone any idea of the working life span (play/recording hours) of a MD deck? Thanks, Dave.