Karl Myer

You're a gentleman and a musician, rayzray. You're right-on about the A-minor, on "DREAM...maker," and "we're AF-ter the same rainbow's end." It's a pleasure talking with you.Thanks for clarifying HBD. I'm old -- I don't know these things.

Thanks, bobt! I always enjoy reading your posts.

Thanks, I think, rayzray. HBD = has been drinking [?] MDB = multidimensional database, miniature dwarf bearded, message-driven bean [?] Sorry, you'll have to translate -- I have no idea what those mean. Thanks again for your thoughts on Moon River in the thread "Moon River, Is the most beautiful song" (Posts 26 and 27). In the coming year may all your Bm7b5 chords become Dm6 and resolve nicely into E7.

Thanks, 'bobt' and 'the wizard of oz'! (For wishing me happy birthday in The Official Happy Birthday Thread.) And thanks to the moderators and regulars of the forums for all their help and support since I joined in February. Most of the help has been through searching the archives, but some 'just in time,' timely, such as kurisu's thread back then, "Minidisc Canada Having Nice Sale." That sale was still the lowest price I have seen on the MZ-RH1 ($270 US). I enjoyed kaiwai's post yesterday, reviewing the RH1 he just bought. He emphasized the robustness of the MD system -- not just the RH1. He said, "it does one thing, and does it well." He was quickly corrected in Post #2 by Guitarfxr: "get a decent Microphone and find out what it is REALLY good at." Many times I carry my MD player like 'kaiwai' describes, a couple hours a day. It doesn't need to be coddled as, say, my portable CD player. I'm so glad to have found this website and discussion group. On my last birthday, MD had been long-gone from my consciousness for years.

Thanks, 'bobt' and 'the wizard of oz'! And thanks to the moderators and regulars of the forums for all their help and support since I joined in February. Most of the help has been through searching the archives, but some 'just in time,' timely, such as kurisu's thread back then, "Minidisc Canada Having Nice Sale." That sale was still the lowest price I have seen on the MZ-RH1 ($270 US). I enjoyed kaiwai's post yesterday, reviewing the RH1 he just bought. He emphasized the robustness of the MD system -- not just the RH1. He said, "it does one thing, and does it well." He was quickly corrected in Post #2 by Guitarfxr: "get a decent Microphone and find out what it is REALLY good at." Many times I carry my MD player like 'kaiwai' describes, a couple hours a day. It doesn't need to be coddled as, say, my portable CD player. I'm so glad to have found this website and discussion group. On my last birthday, MD had been long-gone from my consciousness for years.

I'm glad you mentioned you changed my subtitle -- I did not notice, and don't think I ever would have. I'm sure I'll benefit somewhere down the line when someone searches. Possibly I will be able to help that person. I was impressed with your restraint yesterday, by the way. Hopefully you will receive some sort of apology.

Thanks for the suggestion, A WHOLE LOT (I'm not being sarcastic). Sometimes the most obvious methods are the ones we overlook. It wasn't long ago real-time was how everything was copied. And thanks for splitting the topic, Rich. My question may attract more suggestions by being titled appropriately. If you can, would you consider changing the title to "Transferring e-audiobooks to Hi-Md" (instead of audiobooks)? I think people confuse the two. There is no problem copying audiobooks-on-CD to any device at any bitrate. The problem is downloadable audiobooks -- e-audiobooks. You would have been justified splitting the topic earlier. I was expecting it a few days ago. Anyway, our moderators do a fantastic job, I feel, and 99 percent of us are very appreciative. I was sorry to hear you criticized so severely yesterday. It must be very frustrating trying to keep everyone happy. Karl's edit: On second thought, Rich, the way you have it titled is better than my suggestion. Nobody would search for e-audiobooks -- they would search for audiobooks -- and your full title makes clear what the topic is about. Also, you did split the topic at the right point, I now notice. Thanks again.

Thanks for the suggestions, 2-J and Guitarfxr. I downloaded and installed Switch, then downloaded an e-audiobook. Right-clicking on the e-audiobook icon gives a menu which includes the choice: "Convert with Switch." I left click on that. Switch opens with the e-audiobook in its "List of Files to Convert." For "Output Format:", I choose .mp3. I press the button "Convert". I get boxes saying "Loading wma file" and "Saving audio file", then an "Error" box saying "Cannot open file. It is possible that the file is protected with Digital Rights Management (DRM) which limits where the audio file can be used." So, I'm assuming it is an impossibility to get these protected .wma files onto the MZ-RH1. Thanks again for the help, though. It was good exercise and a learning experience.

Here are some of the rules from the library's page: Burning an eAudiobook file to a CD for listening to on a CD player is not allowed. If you do burn an eAudiobook file, encryptions on the eAudiobook file will make the file unusable. You can transfer and listen to eAudiobooks on a wide range of portable devices, including portable music players, portable media centers, Pocket PCs, and even select smartphone devices as long as the device supports playback of secure or protected wma files. Note: Most devices do not support the playback of files lower than 32 kpbs, so you must download the CD quality file if you are going to transfer and listen to the eAudiobook on a portable listening device.

One thing I had been mildly disappointed with the MZ-RH1 is: it does not support the e-audiobook format. Before I was aware of the RH-1, I used to think: "I might someday buy a portable listening device that supports e-audiobooks, but, I certainly would never buy one that doesn't support it." (E-audiobooks are audiobooks that are downloadable from public libraries.) I recently learned, however, Apple iPods don't support e-audiobooks either.

And their reaction to minidisc, whether they just happen to see the player, or you mention some aspect of the system in conversation, is to criticize. That amazes me. Knowing as little as they could possibly know about it, yet they feel a need to denigrate, and always in reference to their preferred method. I don't criticize their choice of music reproduction. I'm thankful to Steve Jobs for bringing portable music so into the mainstream. I no longer feel like an outsider or member of a readily-identifiable fringe group when listening to earbuds in public. I'm suspicious, though, all of a sudden so many developed this incredible love for music that they always listen wherever they go. Some form of crowd-psychology is involved, it always seems to me.

I'm glad to know your background experience, Guitarfxr. Your comment, and Sparda's, bring this thought to mind: You can actually do things with MD, besides mindlessly downloading tunes endlessly.

Congratulations, my friend, on your acquisition! You seem to have a fine appreciation and understanding, and after only 24 hours! It took me years to come to a full realization of its wonderful fit, finish, and overall feel, and I still marvel at its flawless performance. I always considered its sound superlative, as well. I never could fathom the virulent criticisms directed against it from the very beginning. It has always been a pure pleasure listening to it. It is truly a thing of beauty.

podmed2, I can tell you my experience. I am currently backing up my 1993 through 2001 MiniDiscs onto DVD-RAM's, mainly following advice given in these Forums. It has been a long process with a steep learning curve. I acquired an MD capable of uploading legacy MD's to PC (Sony MZ-RH1) three months ago, and it is only in the past couple weeks I emerged from the sweat / many tears phase into the dawn of possible success. Numerous times I was at a dead end / precipice with no way to go forward. Then, some piece of advice would appear in this Forum, or, thinking hard, some insight came, allowing continued progress. What impressed me, through it all, is the stable, trouble-free nature of MD --both recorders and discs -- compared with CD-R, CD-RW and DVD-RAM. MD has been simply flawless, and my original MD's are much older than my oldest CD-R's. I don't know enough yet to give advice, so don't be overly influenced by these thoughts. There's still a lot I don't know, and my problems may have stemmed from my own lack of common sense. If I back up a second time, though, (another thing I learned here: back up more than one place, time, and on more than one medium) I am considering backing up to MD. I think it was "wizard of oz" on this Forum who first gave me the idea. The robustness of MD will tide us over until a future perfect archiving medium appears, whether MD continues to be manufactured or not.

What an excellent memory you have! Thanks for taking the time to write such an interesting response. Minidisc has opened up a new world of possibilites for me. I'm impressed Sony has put so much development into a system that people, at least in the US, have only ever been dimly aware exists at all. After all these years it's still the only format to meet my needs. And whatever new use I come up with MD takes in stride and performs with elegance. I'm impressed when I see all the varied products Sony manufactures, all leading edge, and meanwhile MD lacks nothing and is not a backwater in the least in its engineering development. Someone at Sony believes in MD. Where would we be without Sony? As someone in this forum said recently, there is obviously a lot of thought that went into Hi-MD and the RH1. And that's been true from MD's beginning. It is so encouraging to me that people care at Sony to make MD shine -- they certainly wouldn't have to based on sales. I hope they make tons of money on the rest of their fine products. In the years I fell out of touch with MD I just assumed it had been eclipsed, never suspecting it to be still exciting and vibrant.

Can you -- or anyone -- give us a feel for what the forum was like back then? I too remember this "portal" from its very early days, but vaguely. I wasn't a member but used to visit. I would be interested to see the old format again, just out of curiosity. It was primitive by our standards today, as I remember. I had completely forgotten about this site, and about minidisc in general, until an unrelated search in late January of this year brought me around to it, at which time I got my first hint there was a new MD recorder, the RH1, (and a whole new format, Hi-MD) that completely met my needs and fulfilled MD's potential.

Concerning advice given in two previous posts above -- recommending archiving on DVD-RAM -- this media seems very hard to get on the web or in stores. Can anyone give advice on a particular brand, the Maxell DVD-RAM 4.7 GB 3x Rewritable Disc with Jewel Case Mfr# 636070. B&H Photo has these discs for $4.95 but you must buy 50, and there is no discount. http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller...&sku=375951 Oddly enough, two of my three local Wal-marts have 3-packs of these discs, in jewel cases, for $9.97. The packaging looks the exact same as the B&H but each contains three discs instead of one. One Wal-mart has one 3-pack on the shelf and the other store has 10. Are there any negatives to these Maxells in regard to archiving files from SonicStage? Does anyone have any other recommendations, brand-wise or website-wise? If not, I would like to pick up a few of these 3-packs.

Am I correct the RH1 imports legacy MD's at 292 kbps and converts them to 256 right away? Legacy MD's are 256 after uploading to SS -- I have learned that. But the file, when I look into Documents and Settings > All Users > SonicStage > Packages is called simply "ATRAC" and happens to be the (exact) size of the uncompressed WAV file. I specify that the music also be converted to WAV in Transfer Mode Settings box > Advanced button >Import Settings tab > Save In WAV Format When Importing. SonicStage puts that real WAV file in My Documents > My Music. If the song appears in My Library as 256 kbps from Legacy's 292 it must have been re-encoded and so has lost some quality. I don't like that but I must admit I can't hear any degradation in the music. If that is positively the last loss of quality due to a conversion I suppose I don't mind. I'm just so thankful to get the music into WAV. Thank you once again, Sony, for supporting and improving MD these many years.

Problem solved!The situation deteriorated until no CD-R's I created, on SS or Media Player 9, could be read or played on any player. But, imports into SonicStage from MiniDisc, saved as files to an external hard drive and loaded into another computer, created perfect CD-R's. So, the culprit was the CD writer. I didn't suspect it because: It did create some (albeit a small percentage) CD-R's successfully. It successfully created CD-RW's. The computer is only 9 months old. The CD writer always went through its whole writing process and gave a "Successfully Created" message at the end, and the CD-R's physically looked like they had been written to. I always suspected the media -- 7-year-old Maxell CD-R blanks -- just because they were the only not-new link in the chain. I took the computer in for service at Best Buy today. Thank you for your help, Syrius.

Did you notice they're the same chord? Their different root notes alter their character though-- I can see why you prefer one over the other. Both resolve nicely into that following E7.

Not at all, Ray. You, the performer, and Mr. Mancini the composer are the professionals and I defer to your judgments. I hope my tone wasn't hostile. I did not mean it that way. I apologize it came across like that. I was curious to know your reasons, and thank you for discussing at length. I agree "the myth about minor chords being sad it false." (I did say "runs the risk" of "suggesting" sadness.) But there are no minor chords in the original, just because, I think, there is already that element of sadness in the wistful nature of the 9th-plus-5 chord. To overtly insert a minor chord risks the hopefulness of the lyrics. Artistic license allows you to alter the song and I might very well be surprised, if I heard you perform, with new things your interpretations show me.

Rayzray, you have 40 years hands-on experience actually singing the song, in front of appreciative audiences, so I don't like to contradict, but to me those 9th-plus-5th chords are what express the longing, yearning, striving of the lyrics. Changing to a simple minor chord runs the risk of suggesting sadness only, or sadness in too great proportion. There is a wistful sadness in the song but it is a ("minor") component in a more complex emotion mainly hopeful. Henry Mancini, also very experienced, crafted the chord exquisitely. It expresses the lyric as well as music can express words. I would recognize the emotion being expressed even if ignorant of the lyric, I always feel. If music were our only form of communication, I would know what you are saying to me just from that melody with those exact chords. The layers of complexity in that chord are like the refining and honing of a blade that reaches in and touches the soul at the exact location triggering that emotion. I'm surprised an accomplished musician like yourself would deconstruct it. Changing to "Normal" chords might change it into a 'normal' song.

I am trying to understand an experience I am having Transferring an audiobook. I Imported into SonicStage an audiobook on 7 CD's, converting each to 48 kbps. SonicStage put each uploaded CD in a separate Group/Album because I named them differently: "Paradise Lost CD1/7", "Paradise Lost CD2/7", etc. Then, I Transferred those 7 Groups/Albums from My Library to MD. Then, on the MD, I changed the Groups from 7 (corresponding to the 7 CD's) to 12 (the poem's 12 Chapters). Then I completely Deleted the Imported Groups/Albums from My Library with the Remove Albums dialog box, also checking-off the "Delete this music file from the computer" checkbox. Then, I Transferred the 12-Group MD version back into SonicStage's My Library. To my surprise, it showed up in My Library in its original 7 Albums/Groups configuration instead of 12. Can anyone explain this phenomenon? My reason for doing all this is: I have been repeatedly unsuccessful Transferring ATRAC3plus tracks and groups/albums, Edited in SonicStage, to CD-R. I suspect it might be because I am Dividing tracks in My Library after Importing. Maybe, I was thinking, if I Edit them on the MD, then Transfer them back into SonicStage, they might Transfer to CD-R successfully. I definitely want the Edits, both to Groups and Tracks, whether the version be MD, CD-R, CD-RW, or computer's hard drive. I want them all the same, in fact. By the way, how MiniDisc's attributes stand out in this situation! -- very versatile and friendly compared to these other finicky and obtuse media. And your archived copy can be Edited over the years at your discretion. CD's I Import and don't Edit in My Library Transfer fine to CD-R. CD's I Import and Edit in SonicStage do Transfer fine to CD-RW, but not CD-R. Sonic Stage goes through the whole Create-CD process (Convert, Transfer, Write). When finished it displays a Box confirming the CD Creation process was Successful. The CD-R physically looks like it has been written-to but will not play in my Sony DNE330 CD Walkman, which is new and works fine with MP3 CDs, ATRAC3plus CD-RW's, audio CD's -- and ATRAC3plus CD-R's not Edited in My Library. The CD Walkman just 'hammers' intermittently half a minute trying to Read the CD-R, then shuts off. Nor will SonicStage list the CD-R's contents when inserted into the computer's CD drive. It will Write to it again though as if blank, leaving the same written-area on the CD-R after the Convert-Transfer-Write process, then display the Successfully Created message again. I would greatly appreciate any help with this perplexing problem.

I understand now, Qwakrz, your dissatisfaction with 48 kbps for audiobooks, if they have musical background. And thank you for further explaining M-S encoding / joint stereo. I did not know radio signals were manipulated so extensively. It does not bother me anymore the RH1 can't record in mono. Speaking of audiobooks, I like the feature on the RH1 that cues to every tenth track on a disc with no Groups, by pressing Group+ on the remote.

From your explanation I gather it is not a shortcoming of the MZ-RH1 to not provide mono recording. In fact there are benefits, it seems, especially if the legacy minidiscs I'm uploading to computer are from a monaural source, which mine all are. For those, I don't care about getting the maximum recording time per disc, I care only about high quality, and I preserve them as wav files. It is only for audiobooks I wanted to get the most content per disc -- it's nice to have 1 book on 1 disc. But in some cases, I'm finding, I want to preserve those MD's also, instead of erasing and using the minidisc over again when I'm done listening. So it's nice to have them compressed in the most efficient way. It sounds like my complaint against the RH1 is unjustified. By the way, all my 1993 through 2002 recordings are from a mono source -- a stereo radio station but with a weak signal in my area, so that I had to switch the radio to 'mono' to quiet static and background noise. My AMD-100 doesn't record in mono so those recordings are all 2-channel, even though from the mono source. My MDS-JE530 deck does record in mono, so my MD's recorded on it are from the mono source and recorded in mono. The AMD-100 does play back in mono, reading out correct track timings for MD's made on the JE530 deck, and reading out 'mono' in small LED letters on the display somewhere, as I recall. I hope I'm beginning to understand this correctly, and thank you for taking the time to explain it so thoroughly.