Golem Posted October 19, 2004 Report Share Posted October 19, 2004 I have recently purchased a Soundman OKM binaural (omni-directional) microphone for making 3D sound installations and am now looking for the best MD platform to use it with. I have been looking at the MZ-NH700 or MZ-NH900 series. The problem is that I am a MAC user and I have been reading about sony's atrocious incompatibillity with macs. Is there any way around this or should I be looking for another MD recorder and if so, which one? Thanks. Soundman's Website: http://www.soundman.de/usa/usa.htm Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dex Otaku Posted October 19, 2004 Report Share Posted October 19, 2004 None of Sony's offerings are Mac-compatible in terms of computer software. With traditional MD equipment this point is moot, though, if what you want is to make recording and transfer them to your computer. PC users have to do it the same way as Mac users - by analogue means. Unless you happen to have a home MD deck with optical out, at least. HiMD, which supports digital uploading of recordings, is only PC compatible at that. Mac support will likely never come to fruition, because Sony deems it so. All the same, A PCM recording made on HiMD [i have an NH700 and use it for this] and transferred by analogue means to your computer through a quality A/D converter still gives you very high-quality results. Last year I worked on a sound/visual installation [the sound part was a 5.1 surround radio play, essentially] and all of my sound effects recording was done using a standard MD in SP mode, copied to my computer by analogue means. The results were far better than I expected. Doing the same from a PCM source would be even better. What kind of installation are you going to be working on? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Golem Posted October 21, 2004 Author Report Share Posted October 21, 2004 Thanks for the informative reply - I had a sneaking suspicion that Sony are on some kind of megalomaniacalworlddominationtrip…. And wont share their toys with ANYBODY. Ok, my understanding of PCM recording is a means of turning analogue pulse (voltage) from binary information into digital code via analogue to Digital Converters (ADC)? So, in essence, would it be wiser to invest in a HiMD MZ-NH series and then transfer recorded sound from the MD via an optical cable to my camcorder (Canon XL-1), which has PCM, and then import it onto my computer as a WAV or AIFF file? Is Sony really the best choice when it comes to semi-pro digital recording devices? My practice essentially revolves around modern environments and in particular corporate masculinity, identity and memory through performance and video installation. I have recently moved towards sonic representation of environments. The (sonic) installations are (hopefully) going to be virtual Internet based environments and site specific installations using non-conventional interfaces (NCI’s). The whole project is a bit of a steep learning curve for me – hence the need for instructions in “simple English” for the meantime, at least. :smile: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dex Otaku Posted October 22, 2004 Report Share Posted October 22, 2004 PCM is the most common way of recording digital audio, ors rather, doing analogue to digital conversion. CD uses PCM. DAT uses PCM. And most videotape formats with digital audio use PCM. Portable HiMDs do not have digital outputs [save the USB connection] so the method you mention using your video camera would not work. I'd still say that, if you really want to use HiMD, and unless you want to get a used PC just to do transfers to/from the HiMD, the easiest method is still by analogue connection. Yes, you'd be incurring one 'generation loss' because of the d/a and a/d conversion happening, but the effects of a single generation of conversions - especially if you have a decent a/d in your computer, and Macs usually have reasonable equipment for this already built in - would be negligible. Otherwise I would suggest looking at an Edirol R1 [ http://www.edirol.it/europe/details.asp?co...346&id=12&la=UK ] or perhaps a Marantz PMD670 [ http://www.soundprofessionals.com/cgi-bin/...item/MAR-PMD670 ], both of which allow PCM recording and transfers to computers without any of the restrictions of DRM. And I don't think it's necessarily that Sony won't share their toys with anyone.. it's that they appear to have something rather specifically against Apple. None of their products have ever offically had Mac support, so far as I know. And - is Sony the best choice? Probably not, actually. I, myself, had an extremely limited budget to buy equipment with. HiMD at that very moment was the least expensive option with high-capacity media, PCM recording, extreme portability, and lastly that takes standard, commonly-available batteries that can be found anywhere cheaply. With one standard alkaline AA battery I usually get 4-5 hours of recording time with my NH700, which is a very significant thing for me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Golem Posted October 22, 2004 Author Report Share Posted October 22, 2004 Thanks. No, I was probably being too harsh on sony, and limited budget seems to be the operative word(s) at the moment. It is frustrating, though. Thanks for the advice and help and I will keep you posted. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.