insch Posted April 8, 2005 Report Share Posted April 8, 2005 I am considering buying a Hi-MD recorder - possibly the Sony MZ-RH10 when it comes out. I am looking for something compact and very portable to do location sound recordings when I am out and about - these recordings will eventually be used in pieces of music. I'll probably use a Sony ECMMS907 mic.Two questions:i) does this sound like a good purchase for my purpose?ii) I am using an Apple Mac - the Sony blurb says that the software with this MD is not compatible with Macs. Is there any way I can upload and download files from a Hi-MD recorder to a Mac, without having to record stuff on to it in real time.Thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
streaml1ne Posted April 8, 2005 Report Share Posted April 8, 2005 I am considering buying a Hi-MD recorder - possibly the Sony MZ-RH10 when it comes out. I am looking for something compact and very portable to do location sound recordings when I am out and about - these recordings will eventually be used in pieces of music. I'll probably use a Sony ECMMS907 mic.Two questions:i) does this sound like a good purchase for my purpose?ii) I am using an Apple Mac - the Sony blurb says that the software with this MD is not compatible with Macs. Is there any way I can upload and download files from a Hi-MD recorder to a Mac, without having to record stuff on to it in real time.Thanks←Someone posted recently about having success with Virtual PC and Sonic Stage on the Mac, but the post may have gotten wiped out with the problems the forums had a day or two ago. The RH10 should suit you perfectly. Excellent screen, very night readable if you're ever out recording then, addon AA battery pack for extended record time, it's a good setup. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ishiyoshi Posted April 8, 2005 Report Share Posted April 8, 2005 Here's the discussion, which "streaml1ne" referred to. Scroll down to the 5th post. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
insch Posted May 17, 2005 Author Report Share Posted May 17, 2005 Thanks for your help guys.It may be a bold move but I have gone ahead and purchased an MZ-RH10 Hi MD recorder even though I haven't worked out the Apple Mac upload option. Since the whole reason I have bought this item is to have a very compact reasonably high quality recorder that I can use for on-location recordings, I am keen to understand more about how it records. I understand that I can manually adjust record levels (which I want to do) and record uncompressed. Is this true - my understanding is that the only record options are ATRAC which I thought was compressed. Someone did say I could record WAV but is this true?How am I going to get the best possible recordings from a microphone on this machine?Am I right in believing that the only way I am going to be able to get my Hi-MD recordings on my Mac is to play them out via the analgue line out socket of the MD player to my Mac audio interface? Is there no bit of software out there that will allow you to connect a MD recorder to the Mac via USB and rip the files off and convert to something like AIFF? These are my own recordings so there is no copyright issue here!Hope someone can help.All the best Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Low Volta Posted May 17, 2005 Report Share Posted May 17, 2005 (edited) Hope someone can help.←there are a lot of ppl that are nearly experts on the subject of live recording with the RH-10 (like mrsoul, who has already written a lot of usefull stuff about it), but it would be a lot simpler if you would just scan/check/read the live recording forum section first and then post any remaining questions in a new thread in that section, as the real experts don't hang out at the software discussion/faq's and probably aren't scanning a topic named "using mac osx"...but to put you at ease at least a little bit... the RH10 records in PCM (which is wav) too...and there are still ppl who claim that SonicStage (the ONLY software to allow Hi-MD recording uploading at this moment!) works on virtual PC, but otherwise, indeed, the analogue line out/in technique is the only one I see...and...These are my own recordings so there is no copyright issue here!but at this point I noticed you clearly have never heard of Sony before as they will copyprotect your own recordings! at least they did untill SS3.x...since then they installed an atrac->wav converter for your own recordings...so that now only your recordings in atrac(3/3+ and PCM I believe) are owned by Sony, you are free to use your wav-converted-versions as you like Edited May 17, 2005 by The Low Volta Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
insch Posted May 17, 2005 Author Report Share Posted May 17, 2005 Thanks - since posting this I read that I can record in PCM (the unit hasn't arrived yet). It's a shame that there is no software out there that will allow me to get these files off the disc on to the Mac though.best Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cbud Posted May 19, 2005 Report Share Posted May 19, 2005 Thanks - since posting this I read that I can record in PCM (the unit hasn't arrived yet). It's a shame that there is no software out there that will allow me to get these files off the disc on to the Mac though.best←Uploading PCM via USB 2.0 on a PC is only about 1.5X speed. If I was you I would just buy a high quality cable and do it real time using the mac. Virtual PC is going to require a nice Mac and will run SonicStage slow.What kind of mac do you have?To improve the quality of the analogue signal you can buy a non-apple soundcard, such as the Griffin iMic (USB) or the Echo Indigo (CardBus). These cards will alow you to record at higher bit-rates and help decrease system backround noise.The quality will still be quite good via analogue. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
saaron Posted May 20, 2005 Report Share Posted May 20, 2005 In addition to above suggestions you'll find several USB or Firewire audio interface options for digital realtime upload. I use a Xitel DG2 to get digital audio from my powerbook to my G755 MDLP recorder and outside of track-marking issues which are probably due to the way iTunes plays the audio, I get a nice digital recording. The newer devices include optical in as well as out to facilitate recording to your Mac via Wiretap Pro or whatever other recording software you're going to use.The major downside is that you're doing a realtime upload/download, but keep in mind that a major downside to using Sonic Stage to facilitate upload/download of tracks is that any future edits you want to make to the tracks/disc will need to be made with SonicStage as well. I think that is a major drawback to the HiMD and NetMD units as I often make edits "in the field" following a recording via mic, CD, or Mac, so I personally am not bothered too much about not being able to use SonicStage and have other reasons for not upgrading to HiMD.If I've got a lot of recording to do, I just get it going before I got to bed: my powerbook goes to sleep once the playback stops and my MD shuts down and writes the TOC once it stops getting signal. It takes a little scheduling of your life, but unless you're on meth and awake 24/7 I shouldn't think it would pose that big a problem. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Low Volta Posted May 20, 2005 Report Share Posted May 20, 2005 (edited) The major downside is that you're doing a realtime upload/download, but keep in mind that a major downside to using Sonic Stage to facilitate upload/download of tracks is that any future edits you want to make to the tracks/disc will need to be made with SonicStage as well. ←hm, what do you mean? Since SS3.0, you can in SonicStage edit (combine/split) tracks ulpoaded to SS while they also stay on the disc in their original form. Even before 3.x, you could upload recordings and keep them on the disc as well (so you could edit the tracks on the player or on the computer). And since SS3.0, a wav-converter is built in (prior to 3.0, this could be done with Marcnet's hi-md renderer), so recordings can be converted to wav and edited in any sound-editing program you want. Later, after you're done editing, you can simply upload the tracks (with SS) to the same or another disc...the only real limitation of SonicStage is that it will allow recordings to be uploaded to PC only once, but with the above methods and the greatly improved stability/reliability of SS, this isn't a real problem anymore...It is your good right to prefer NetMD over Hi-MD, but I doubt you had a clear view of what uploading recordings with SS means nowadaysgreetings Volta Edited May 20, 2005 by The Low Volta Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
saaron Posted May 20, 2005 Report Share Posted May 20, 2005 hm, what do you mean? Since SS3.0, you can in SonicStage edit (combine/split) tracks ulpoaded to SS while they also stay on the disc in their original form. Even before 3.x, you could upload recordings and keep them on the disc as well (so you could edit the tracks on the player or on the computer)....the only real limitation of SonicStage is that it will allow recordings to be uploaded to PC only once, but with the above methods and the greatly improved stability/reliability of SS, this isn't a real problem anymore...It is your good right to prefer NetMD over Hi-MD, but I doubt you had a clear view of what uploading recordings with SS means nowadays←In relation to the latter I was equating NetMD with HiMD -- I dislike both equally for their SonicStage component.In relation to the former, it may have changed with more recent versions of SonicStage, but I distinctly recall reading that if one records tracks to a disc using Sonic Stage, then you could not use player controls to delete the tracks so downloaded; nor could you do join/split or name edits on the hardware after downloading -- is this no longer the case? Also, as far as I'm aware the only way to modify an LP2 disc with HiMD is to use SonicStage -- ditto for this...true or not? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Low Volta Posted May 20, 2005 Report Share Posted May 20, 2005 In relation to the former, it may have changed with more recent versions of SonicStage, but I distinctly recall reading that if one records tracks to a disc using Sonic Stage, then you could not use player controls to delete the tracks so downloaded; nor could you do join/split or name edits on the hardware after downloading -- is this no longer the case? Also, as far as I'm aware the only way to modify an LP2 disc with HiMD is to use SonicStage -- ditto for this...true or not?←strange, I just assumed that all this would be possible, but editing tracks that are also uploaded to PC on the player actually is impossible...it just gives 'PC track, no edit' which makes sense in some strange Sony way, as uploading a track actually means uploading -> writing SS DRM -> downloading the track + DRM back to the playerdeleting is possible, although there's also a warning that this is a PC-track you're about to delete...If I record in LP2 or SP on a 80min disc in MD mode with my NH900, I can afterwards edit the tracks (have tried adding two trackmarks, erasing the middle bit and combining the two parts left over, in both modes) just fine... but there is no uploading possible with recordings in MD mode...I can't test whether LP2 recordings made with other recorders are still editable with my machine, as I don't have any discs made on other (older) recordersSo some of the things you heard are true, others not completely... You can record in PCM and Hi-SP with Hi-MD and you can edit them on the spot, plus later you can upload these edited tracks and perform basic combine/split-actions in SS and convert them to wav and even edit them more in an audio-editor if needed; at this point the DRM put on by SS is gone so the resulting tracks are free to use any way you want, except for editing further on the player, as they are PC-tracks by now...I just really don't see why that last thing would be that big a limitation, how often do you need to edit tracks? and why does that have to be done on the MD-player (the second time, I'm not talking about on-the-spot editing/titling, which is still possible with Hi-MD)?but this is only my humble opinion, you are very much allowed to differgreetings, Voltaby the way...I think we have strayed enough from the original topic (mac&himd) by now Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Strungup Posted March 9, 2009 Report Share Posted March 9, 2009 Old post any newbies reading this , OSX Tiger has an Option , Md Transfer 2.0 still available from Sony . For HiMD only models are listed on Sony's site2009 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marcnet Posted March 10, 2009 Report Share Posted March 10, 2009 (edited) If you don't want to pay for VMWare (don't worry... this isn't a warez advert or anything) then try this free alternative - compatible with Apple machines running OsX...http://www.virtualbox.org/It's not that sluggish either (at least it's not on my quad-core PC ) Edited March 10, 2009 by marcnet Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Strungup Posted May 21, 2009 Report Share Posted May 21, 2009 If you don't want to pay for VMWare (don't worry... this isn't a warez advert or anything) then try this free alternative - compatible with Apple machines running OsX...http://www.virtualbox.org/It's not that sluggish either (at least it's not on my quad-core PC )I gave the Virtual box a try , IT WORKS , I have an ,.......um ......... IT copy ?!? of XP Pro running on my Mac now ( Not that I will use it for anything ) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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