Need Advise for New MD unit

[joeyniji]

i think this is the right section for this post..........

Greetings to my fellow MD-ers,

I just want to introduce myself im really still very new to MD-ing (6 months or so altogether). although ive been in and out of here over the last 2 years, i technically am a newbie. especially to the new net-mds/mdlp/hi-md (ive only used a regular MD). i currently have been using the Sony MZ-R37 w/o remote. i have only done direct recording in other words ive never hooked it up to a computer (i dont even think it came w/software). ive done some basic field recording and then hooked up to a home cd-recorder and made a few cd's. ive also hooked up a cd player to the unit and made my my own compilation MD's (it was alot of fun!). i guess i gave up because i was looking to upgrade to the MDLP format because i didnt want to keep switching discs in the middle of my field recordings (they generally were about 1.5 to 2 hours long). then i moved and just havnt gotten around to it. i guess i just want to get more out of my MD. thats why im looking to upgrade! here are the specs im looking for now...............

ability to upload/download via usb

option for mdlp (2 hr stero recording)

mic and line in

line out and headphone

charger

rechargeable battery

remote

backlight

$250.00 price range

what i want it for.....i want to be able to make field recordings then take them and upload them (via usb) to the computer and then edit them. i want to delete unwanted parts, do fade ins/out and track marks/etc. then i hope to be able to burn the finished result to a CD. (i assume i can do all this w/ Sonic stage, right? )

also can someone please set me straight on these questions...

--if i want to have the ability to upload (via usb) from my minidisc to the computer then the only choice i have is hi MD, right?

-if i have hi-MD can i still use the regular media? if so can i also record the regular Md's in MDlp?

-at this point is sony the only company that offers the HI-MD format?

there you have it my little bio (i hope i didnt bore you) .... i just have those few questions that will help me decide what unit to upgrade to. if anyone has any pointers please reply!

thanks if you reply,

Joey

[The Low Volta]

--if i want to have the ability to upload (via usb) from my minidisc to the computer then the only choice i have is hi MD, right?

indeed... but do not get a model with 'D' in the name, as it is a downloader only and won't record at all... and there are two generations of HiMD so there's a bit more to it

-if i have hi-MD can i still use the regular media? if so can i also record the regular Md's in MDlp?

- first part yes, you can use the old discs and reformatted as HiMD, they can hold considerably larger amounts of data/music

- but for part two the generations are important:

o first gen HiMD can record in the older formats directly but these recordings can not be uploaded to PC through USB! (besides none of these models has a backlight on the recorder)

o second gen HiMD can not record in the old formats

remember using SonicStage you can create discs that will play on your older equipment with both generations so my advice would be: forget about recording in the old formats, use HiSP/PCM, upload to PC, convert to wav, do all your editing, reimport to SS or burn to CD and import through SimpleBurner... it actually is easier than this looks

-at this point is sony the only company that offers the HI-MD format?

yep, for portable players/recorders = Sony only...

according to your preferences, I would advise the RH10 as it has the OLED (a beautifully lit display) and the N-Am version falls within your budget (I believe)... just search these forums a bit, there are a lot of nice reviews of this machine like this one, this one or this one

hope this helps