Having used MiniDisc constantly since 1998 I really thought I knew the capabilities of the format. That was until recently when I purchased a Sony CHC-CL5MD bookshelf system from ebay in excellent condition for the bargin price of £30, including 36 used MDs.
As it has a cassette deck I set about copying some of my early DJ sets, mastered to tape before I started using MiniDisc, onto our favourite little discs. This was great as I was able to edit the two sides back together to remake the continuity of the original live performance. The only problem was that the tape recordings were, in some cases slightly longer than the capacity of the disc so the recording would come to a sudden and rather messy stop.
Upon reading the manual for the system I discovered that the MD deck could add a fade out at the end of the recording without having to re-record it. I tried this out and it worked fantastically!
I own several MiniDisc units, both hi-fi decks and MD/Hi-MD Walkmans and I have never come across this before. You can also add fade ins or outs to the begining or end of any disc or track that has already been recorded plus you can raise or lower the recorded audio level after the event.
All very clever stuff and it makes me wonder if there are any other features of MiniDisc of which I'm not aware. I do hope so.