mysterymadman

Hi guys, Tnx a lot for your answers, they are very helpful! Some comments: >You can buy a backlit remote if you use it in the dark. Well, I considered that, but I'm not familiar with a remote that will also show advanced settings, like setting the recording value manually (I doubt there are any that will have a display including level meters, etc.), which is a crucial feature. But then, my old MZ-R50 didn't feature a backlit display either, and when lighting the display with my mobile phone, so far I've always managed to make do; even if it is somewhat more of a hassle. Regarding Batteries: yes, the possibility of using a regular AA battery is a BIG plus, and the option of using an external 5V source on the USB port is a great idea too, which I hadn't even considered! Anyway, I am glad to say that today I completed the duration test with another Panasonic 1800mAh battery, and this time I could record 4 complete 1GB discs in Hi-MD PCM mode, before it mentioned "not enough power to edit", at which point the battery indicator still showed it was half full. Anyway, I now have a pretty good insight into the battery usage, and I now know that 2 batteries should be enough to tape the complete festival, and I'll probably bring some 3 to 4 spares, just to be sure. Then regarding Hi-SP vs. PCM: I too directly believe you guys in the respect that the differences are (virtually) not audible. However, there are two reasons for probably trying to go for PCM as much as possible anyway: 1) I'm not much of a trader myself, but I am very well connected in Iron Maiden trading networks. In most of them, the tapers/traders go as much as possible for completely lossless recordings, so even though my previous IM recording was on a regular MD (and sampled into the PC at that), I'd like the quality to be as high as possible, even if the differences are mostly "theoretical rather than audible". 2) I hadn't considered the post processing stage in this. Indeed, I too tend to (at the very least) normalise up to 0dB, which could then perhaps indeed pick up such "compression garbage" and amplify it too. This is a very good point for not using compression for live recordings. Either way: there are SO many factors that can negatively influence a recording, and using slight compression is probably only a minor one of those, so in that aspect one can of course easily relax, especially since these are live recordings for usage amongst fans only, and they are not commercial releases or so. Anyway, of course it's best to eliminate as many negative factors as possible, so whenever possible, I'll simply go for PCM recordings, and if this is not an option, I'll comfortably revert to Hi-SP mode. Finally, regarding data transfer to the Mac: sampling the data into it over the analogue or digital output is not an option for me, as one of the major reasons why I wanted a Hi-MD is the USB support, such that no further data loss would be introduced by having to pass the recording through another D/A - A/D stage. Transfering the data to Windows (and then to OS-X) is no issue: I have Windows XP running in a separate Bootcamp partition, so performing a native Windows XP session is no problem. Also, I have made that same installation available through Parallels, so passing the files to OS-X is a dooze. It would just have been nice if I could have passed it directly to the Mac OS, but fortunately there's no real issue in not being able to do so. Tnx again, and cheers! MM

Hi, I have a few simple, yet important (for me), questions regarding the Sony MZ-NH700 (and perhaps Hi-MD recorders in general). The situation: I used to use a regular MD recorder (Sony MZ-R50), and last week I found out it is pretty much broken beyond my repair skills (I spent quite a few hours on it, but a small mechanical device is not running properly, and I can't finetune it). At present, we have a baby underway, so my financial means are very limited for upgrading the gear (I had set out a maximum of around 100 Euros). Consequently, I looked into the options I had (both in terms of desired specs, and money), and I decided on looking for a good (used) MZ-NH700 recorder. Anyway, I know the disadvantages of not having a backlit LCD screen, etc., but this is the recorder I decided on, and I have acquired a nice one (hardly used at all), including 2 1GB discs, and 11 regular MD discs and a Samsonite carrying bag for 100 Euros. So far, so good. And though the recorder feels a bit more flimsy than my old one does, it nicely meets my stealth requirements, and it can be used with the ECM-717 mic, which I previously also used. Now, I'll already need the recorder on June 16th for taping a major festival. So, time is very short for extensively testing it, and hence, I'm hoping some of you can give me a quick start regarding some rather basic questions. The actual questions: 1-Regarding battery usage: I was most delighted to see it use a regular AA battery (which was actually one of the reasons I chose this recorder), and noticed that it takes a regular(?) provided Ni-MH 700mAh battery. Now, common sense would suggest that the ideal batteries to use, would then be high capacity (e.g. 1800mAh, or even 2500mAh) Ni-MH batteries. However, yesterday evening I tested it with an 1800mAh one, and after having recorded only one full 1GB disc in Hi-MD PCM mode, the recorder already mentioned "not enough power to edit". Perhaps that very battery was flaky, or somehow not fully charged (though it should have been), so I'm repeating that test now with a different battery of the same type. Also, the manual does not recommend using other Ni-MH batteries than the one provided, but rather it recommends only using a regular AA alkaline one as an alternative. Can anyone comment on the most ideal type of battery, and does anyone have any reliable insight into how long one can really record in Hi-MD PCM mode (e.g. using the provided battery, using an 1800mAh Ni-MH one, or a 2500 Ni-MH one)? 2-Regarding PCM vs Hi-SP mode: obviously it would be best to record as much as possible in PCM mode, yet, in order to drastically reduce the amount of required discs (and batteries?), I'm considering taping all of the first acts (some 6 hours worth of music) in Hi-SP mode (which should fit one 1GB disc then), and only the major headliner (Iron Maiden), which is of my primary interest, in PCM mode. Can anyone comment on just how good (or "bad") the Hi-SP mode is? I know that basically any type of compression is frowned upon, but does this also (strongly) hold for the ATRAC3plus 256KHz (i.e. Hi-SP) mode, or is this an acceptable amount of compression within the traders circuit? 3-As far as I can tell from the manual (and also from the recorder?), after having recorded in manual mode (with a custom sound level), and after having stopped the recorder, it reverts back to AGC (= Auto Gain Control?) mode. Is this correct, and if so, is there a way to safe the manual sound levels, etc.? I thought the "disc memory" setting would do this, but that doesn't seem to affect the recording settings, as far as I can tell from the manual... 4-Transferring files to a Windows machine is no problem for me, but my current main machine is a Macbook Pro. So far, I haven't seen any (officially mentioned) direct way of transferring files from the MD to the Mac. Does anyone have a way of doing this? Any suggestions/comments/slacking even, is more than welcome. Cheers, MM

Hi, An update... Yesterday I went to a local store that sells and rents pro studio equipment (shameless plug: The Sample Temple, http://www.sampletemple.com/). I had previously called them and asked if they had some Minidisc decks. They told me they had a consumer version, being the Sony MDS-JE520, and that I was free to use it for a while over there. What luck: the very type that is used in the TOC cloning tutorial. I performed the procedure (with the only difference that I had to dirty the TOC on the machine itself, as they didn't have the control (handy) anymore). The procedure seems to have worked fine on both discs, but the deck kept giving errors on both discs afterwards (C13 and C14, and more severe ones, with one of the discs). The owner told me this happened more often, and using Google I found out that this deck at times becomes flaky and then starts giving these errors time and time again, until it's fixed, or temporarily relieved with a 'test MD'. We did the latter several times, but still both discs were not read correctly. However... When putting the most important of the two in my MZ-R50 at home, it read it just grand! Needlessly to say (but I'll do it anyway), I directly sampled that disc into the computer (using two different volume settings), and hurrah: the most important disc has been recovered!!! My eternal gratitude befalls you guys over here (particularly of course to those who invented and published the TOC cloning procedure). So: THANKS GUYS!!! Then, I fear the other disc may be a (near?) total loss, as it still gives the dreaded 'Disc err' message when putting it into the MZ-R50 recorder.... This Monday I'll have access to a Sony MXD-D1 deck, so perhaps that one does read it. If not, I'll try sending it to someone who has a Tascam deck... Meanwhile: if someone has experience with recovering such erroneous discs and/or with the Sony MXD-D1 deck, I hope they can contact me... To be continued... Cheers! MM

Hi, Last week I posted an item about recovering data from faulty discs (most likely, or at least so I hope, only the TOC is corrupt), which can be found at: http://forums.minidisc.org/index.php?showtopic=17880 Then, as a 'new development', yesterday evening I went to the school where our daughter has music classes, and they have a Sony MXD-D1 deck. Due to a total power black out in the area, I could not test the deck (nor where there any classes, obviously). However, her teacher said I can use it next week to try to recover the TOC, or try reading out the raw data of the discs (and looping it through to my MD, using the optical out of the deck, into the digital in of my recorder). Can anyone tell me: -If they know whether this specific deck is good at reading raw data, regardless of a faulty TOC? -If TOC cloning can be done with this deck? -If so: how exactly? I hope someone can help me with this... Tnx in advance, and cheers! MM

Hi, Tnx for the tip, and I'm very glad to hear that the data may indeed be there! Yesterday (after I had posted the initial item) a friend of mine came across the TOC cloning tutorial of this site, and indeed that sounds very promising! Also, on www.taperssection.com, someone mentioned having a Tascam MD-301 deck, which apparently does wonders in reading faulty discs too. He offered his help too in giving it a try, but unfortunately (for me), just like you, he's living in the USA, whereas I live in The Netherlands. No real problem of course, but if I can come across someone over here, it would safe me some restless nights, not having to worry if my master tapes (well, discs ) made it over there.... In order to try this, yesterday I called a pro studio equipment reseller, and he has an MD deck (though not as fancy one as the Tascam, I think), and he said I could stop by today to see if he can read the discs. In a bit I'll do just that. I'll make very sure to leave the discs write protected, and I shall not try any TOC rewriting or so (if the deck has possibilities for doing so, that is). I'll certainly go with care about this one, as I do not want to risk accidentally wiping away any data that may still be there... Cheers! MM

Hi all, Firstly, I'm a newbie here, so I hope I'm not flogging any dead horses here, or otherwise acting against written or unwritten rules. Then: I really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really (can I stress that enough?!?), hope that someone can help me out with this one: For those of you who do not have the time to read long items: the actual question (posed in more detail towards the end of this post) is if someone has a way of reading out Minidiscs with a probably corrupted TOC. Then, to give the full picture (which may help explaining the issue), I have written down what happened in more detail down below: The situation: for the better part of this year I've been testing my taping rig (a Sony MZ-R50 Minidisc with the ECM-717 mic), all in preparation for an (to me) extremely important recording, which took place yesterday. I had properly set up the gear, I found an excellent 'sweet spot', and I had previously familiarised myself enough with all controls in order to make the recording process go as smoothly as possible. But then, of course, the one thing I couldn't prepare for happened: mayhem broke loose in the recorder: All year long the recorder has had no issues, but exactly at the moment when it matters most, it messed up. I'm not certain what exactly happened, but as far as I could tell, the recorder taped the first of 4 parts I tried to tape just fine, after which I stopped the recorder and waited for the second part. However, when trying to tape it, it gave me a 'Disc err' message, and I could not get that reset no matter what I did, so I fear that disc is broken and didn't record properly (or perhaps more likely: the TOC may be corrupt). Unfortunately, I had accidentally left the emergency spare disc in the car stereo, instead of in the recorder. Hence, with no discs to spare, I could not fall back to another disc for the final two parts (being the largest of them all), and totally missed out on recording the second part. One disc down, two to go.... Then, on to the main part of the recording; parts 3 and 4. Part 3 recorded just grand. 80 minutes without issues, and the disc swapping moment between part 3 and 4 worked out just fine too, and I had it running again at the beginning of part 4. It proceeded to record everything just fine (yes, I double checked that about 5 times or so), and when turning it off, the 'data save' pass went fine too, but the recorder somehow got stuck on the 'TOC edit' part. It just wouldn't respond to anything anymore, and I had to remove the battery in order to alleviate the issue. I'm not certain what happened, as I haven't seen this happen before... Now.... I write protected all discs anyway, and I tried them in the car stereo. Both discs that gave issues were spat out by the stereo. Upon coming home, I put them in the recorder to see what would happen, and the one with part 1 still says 'Disc err' (and doesn't want to play anything any way), and the one with part 4 just says 'Blank disc'. Not good. However... I am hoping that perhaps the data of part 1 and of part 4 is still present on the discs in raw format. It seems that the recorder properly performed the 'data save' pass, and perhaps only the TOC is corrupt... I'm not certain how bad that is, but it would seem to me that it is very well possible that the raw data is still there, and that perhaps it can be extracted with a proper Minidisc deck (or some other pro Minidisc equipment?) or so... ??? I *REALLY* hope someone can help me out with this... If so, apart from my eternal gratitude, I'd love to do something in return (dunno what yet)... Help!!! Please..... Tnx heaps in advance for any suggestion or help, and cheers, MM