pre-official announcement petition

[A440]

units: MZ-NHF800, MZ-NH900, MZ-NH600D, MZ-N707 sitting in drawer, MZ-R700 donated to my brother; SP-BMC-2 mics; Core Sound Low Cost Binaural mics; RM-MC40ELK remote; various other mics; way too many MDs

daily use: NH-600D for portable play, NHF-800 for music recording, NH-900 for backup

favorite use: live music recording

alternatives?

portable player: various CD players

request: Every single one of Dex Otaku's great ideas, and a remote with all the capabilities of the RM-MC40ELK PLUS a record button and a brighter backlight.

And welcome back, Dex: you were missed.

[Mikami]

HI-MD Units on the go:

Two MZ-NH1’ s & one MZ-RH10 (as well as the awesome SONY mdr-D66 eggo headphones and the ECM-DS70P mic)

Daily use:

Recording speeches, preservation of old sermons and congregational music, recording and listing to audio books, playback of legally recorded music, background music & sounds for elementary English classes in games and skits.

Favorite use:

Live recording, sampling, audio restoration, recording animal sounds

Professional use:

Archiving valuable cassette recordings, live recording of sermons, and congregational music, producing CD’s of sermons and congregational music for distribution, recoding speeches of English students and then transferring PCM files to audio CD for the PTA.

Alternatives:

Portable DAT, Cassette recorders, soundcard or line in record/ up loading from tape, expensive field recorder/ up loaders (There is no alternative that records both PCM and Atracs on cheap removable media and uploads them so one can burn the to CDROM or DVDrom)

Request:

(1) Make all HI-MD units as aesthetic pleasing and strong as the MZ-NH1.

(2) Only make high end full body magnesium HI-MD portable recorder/players

(3) Advertise to musicians, reporters, school teachers, scientist, Churches, and other professionals, that need to make high end recordings.

(4) Please, don’t make me go back tape. I can’t afford the expensive field recorder/up loaders and the ones I can afford or either too big or do not have much recording time on them.

(5) Keep making HI-MD!

We love your HI-MD products Sony, please don't pull the plug,

Mikami

Edited October 5, 2005 by Mikami

[daniel_cello]

Units: Sony MZ-NH900, Sony MZ-R900 (stolen now), Sharp MD-DR470H, Sharp MD-MS701 (not working anymore)

Discs: 3 Hi-MD discs (but my Hi-MD is still quite new to me) approx. 30 MDs

daily use: listening to audiobooks at home and music on the move (bus, train, plane, walking...), books or music at work, as data disk for computer backups

professional use: recording of singing- and viola da gamba lessons, my blues ex-band concerts and my choir's concerts. You get super quality recordings with a Sony ECM-MS957 microphone and some (a lot, mostly) postprocessing in the computer (most importantly EQ to bring back the underemphasized bass and lower midrange). My fellow singers are extatic about what I can achieve with that little portable recorder!

favourite use: Professional quality recording of live music, convenient way to listen to books.

alternatives: Maybe the M-Audio microtrack 96/24 for recording and a HD-based player, but it's not as "sexy" as Hi-MD and the cost of flash memory compared to Hi-MD media... Ouch .

request:

• Please make it possible to split long tracks on the MD (for instance audiobooks) that have been uploaded digitally using Simple Burner!
• I would also like a playmode that selects folders at random and plays those tracks in order. That would turn it into a jukebox that plays random albums from Hi-MD media.
• Finally, if possible, I would love to see support for even higher capacity media (2-4GB) so recording (I always record to PCM/WAV) of long concerts could be done without worrying about swapping media.

Keep it alive and I will continue to use and endorse MD!

[betamaxDATminidisc]

Units: Sharp MiniDisc MD-MS701, Sharp MDLP and NetMD IM-DR580 and Sony Hi-MD MZ-NH1

2 decks Sony MDLP MDS-JB940 and Pioneer MiniDisc MJ-L5

See my signature

Discs: Many MDs, 7 Hi-MD, 1 MD-Data and 31 prerecorded

Daily use and recording use: Using computer transfer for Hi-MD Data

Using files transfer from MCMD-R1 for Hi-MD Data

Recording from TV/SAT/radio FM RDS (future DVB and DAB)

Editing name and title, copying tracks from Hi-MD to DAT/Digital 8mm (videocamera) and from LaserDisc/CD to Hi-MD (mode PCM)

Listening to MD (mode SP only), Hi-MD (mode PCM only) and prerecorded at home, work, car and way

Professional use: I must purchase new converter/adaptor Behringer Ultramatch SRC2496, new videorecorder professional JVC BR-DV3000 audio track from/to Hi-MD and videocamera Digital 8mm (Behringer and JVC OK) and used Yamaha 4-channel mixer MD-4S with MD-Data (I don't think so).

Favourite use: Live recording music at park, holiday for birthday and festival and my movie and using computer data transfer

Alternatives: See my signature

Requests: Hi-MD home deck and car audio also Hi-MD Video for videocamera.

I would want new disks higher capacity for Hi-MD is 2GB or 2.6GB or 5GB or 5.2GB that use recording mode DSD (Direct Stream Digital) and surround 4-channel recording support like SACD.

Last 3rd generation, new portables Hi-MD with HDD 0.5inch or Memory Stick Duo (or new MS Micro M2) built-in also double deck Hi-MD recorder with UMD player portable and other double deck Hi-MD recorder with cartridge HDD iVDR (Hitachi, Sanyo and Sharp) or new format MDA (Hitachi/Maxell Micro Data Archive) recorder with adaptor card CompactFlash.

Software for Hi-MD of 3rd generation: SonicStage Mastering Studio (PCM and DSD with 2 or 4 channel) and Connect Play (Atrac3plus and MP3).

* EDIT * Add surround 4-channel recording

Edited October 5, 2005 by betamaxDATminidisc

[Funkmother]

Unit: MZ-NH700 HiMD, ECM-DS70P Mic, 21 HiMD disks

Daily Usage: Listening to recordings at home, work and when I travel.

Favourite Use: I bought the HiMD as a replacement for the Compact Cassette standard, to convert my vinyl into a portable and durable format, to record programmes from the radio for later listening and to enable me to record music from vinyl media for radio broadcast because the stations I work at don't support vinyl any more. I have done some live recording and I have used the MD to assist my daughter in the preparation of school assignments.

Reason for purchase: A major consideration for me was to have a format which can interface with my PC and hence be (at least partly) compatible with other digital media, e.g. I can burn my vinyl recordings to CD. More importantly however, I wanted a device which wasn't tied to the computer and which could operate independently from it. The analog input capabilities along with swappable media make this possible.

Alternatives: Given the above, none that I'm aware of.

Requests: I'm not looking to be too demanding here. I'd be happy to see the format continue as it is. I already do more with the NH700 that I imagined when I bought it. The software is a little clunky and DRM seems to cripple it somewhat. I'd just like to see it continue as a digital recording standard for those who want to move beyond open-reel tape, the compact cassette and DAT. There needs to be something else and MD is the only thing that fills the space. I ask you to please reconsider your policy on the MD and to keep it as the format of choice for those who want a portable digital recording device at the amateur and professional levels. This is the strength on which you should promote the product.

Records have been around for over 100 years. I hope you can extract some more life from the MD format.

[rockandroller]

Unit: MZ-NH600, half a dozen standard "80" MDs, recently obtained a box of 1G disks.

Daily Usage: Listening to recordings while commuting, and during excercise (my MP3-CD player has no anti-shock in its MP3 mode). Atrac 256K is excellent for recording rehearsals (more than 2 hours) and i have even pressed it into service recording gigs (1 gigabyte disks were still unavailable here in Moscow, until just last week.. and even then, the Sony store couldnt manage to deliver until the day AFTER my gig). i plan to keep recording rehearsals ("rushes") in Atrac256k, but will be using PCM for gigs from now on

Reason for purchase: I bought this unit specifically for making high-quality digital "soundboard" recording's of my band's rehearsals and performances. (just lifting the analog house mix in stereo, off of our 32 channel digital console) The kicker: Its VERY VERY PORTABLE, and uses removable media - important for me, since i like to archive recordings for editing later (sometimes years later!)

Requests: As long as you keep those 1G media available for a few more years, i'm happy. A car deck would be very handy, indeed... but i'd prefer one that has radio, CD(with MP3CD/CDRW support) in addition to the MD deck. (there is only so much room in the dash, i'd like to have it all, thanks)

One more thing.. if you made a nice single-rack space HiMD recorder, i would gladly install one in my mixer rack!

Addenda: SonicStage has been a COLOSSAL PAIN (crashed downloads, crashed installs, etc etc) And though im happy now i can finally get a WAV of my field-recordings without jumping through too many hoops, the software is 'all in all' counter-intuiutive, kludgey, and still does unpleasant things ( like unexpectedly deleting source MP3s from my hard drive when all i wanted it to do is nuke the Atrac "library" copy!)

A nice, (professionally coded) SIMPLE app for us "recordists" (stripped of all the Jukebox features) would be a welcome addition...

Edited October 10, 2005 by rockandroller

[StevieP1234]

model- MZ-NH600D

Discs- 2 Himd discs.... one for music one for data

uses- mostly music

reason for purchase- saw it at a sony store and really wanted it

i had a cheap net md player with no extra features, only had a headphone jack (not even remote compatible)

Alternative- i would have to use a cd player, mp3 players are too expensive for a good one with a large compacity

Requests- release more models in the US. I only had one choice. also get better software. it would be nice to have the choice to download the bulky ss or to get a scaled down, drag and drop ss.

[nanatsusaya]

My Unit: MZ-R70, MZ-NH1, about 20+ recorded MDs, and some premastered MDs...

Daily use: Listening to music, recording lecture, ocassionally done live recording

Alternative: none

Best things about MD format: can be recorded many times over, more flexible than CDs, more reliable than tape, less prone to data loss/corruption

Request: Don't abandon the MD format...

[AMPlitude]

current- nh1 used daily for the commute into and out of the city

[WaywardTraveller]

Unit(s): Sharp IM-MT880(899) NetMD, RH10 Hi-MD (soon to have 1st-gen MZ-NH900 Bundle ), Sound Professionals TFB-2 in-ear binaural mics, SOny ECM-DS70P microphone; about 50 Hi-MDs and umpteen million normal minidiscs

Daily use: Personal ALienation Device (blocking out the chatter of this insane world); listening to music while lying in bed, walking around Singapore, my home of Toronto, wherever, whenever!

Favourite Use: Recording ambient travel sounds, i.e. mosque prayers, market sounds in North Africa/Middle East or wherever it is I'm travelling. I picked up a Hi-MD unit to A) halve the no. of MDs I need to carry for essential music, and to record at high-quality PCM level (or occasionally 256kbps). Having written my MA thesis in part on punk music, I also use MDs to archive a rather large music collection (mainstream and highly collectible stuff).

Reason for buying MD: PORTABILITY, quality and - most of all - the ability to collect a library of music/sound that can be mailed home/archived - unlike iPods where, if it gets broken/lost/stolen, everything you have is gone! Charging my batteries with a world travel charger is also much easier than dealing with the iPod battery woes I keep hearing about (I know nothing about iPods personally, though).

Alternatives: none. CD players? WAY too bulky and the media way too heavy and fragile; A DAT recorder would be too expensive (and I don't need to deal with tape media in the desert, thank you very much!); an iPod completely inadequate...I mean, in terms of music, who REALLY - I mean *REALLY* needs 20GB of music with them every day? Maybe some people do...but I do enough other things that I can survive with a plastic storage case of 5-6 of my faves for the day shoved into my day pack

Requests: Sony, PLEASE DON'T ABANDON MINIDISC - I am convinced that if you advertise it right - even now - that you will at the very least broaden whatever niche market exists. OS Warp beat the hell out of MS Windows, but it lost out due to bad marketing...let's not make the same mistake if we can avoid it!

Oh, yeah - drop the Hi-MD camera/photo stuff - too little, too late IMHO - and concentrate on the data-storage/audio aspect, in which you have something with great potential!

Oh, yeah #2 - make those Hi-MDs a bit cheaper and I will buy many more .

peace

WaywardTraveller

Edited November 3, 2005 by WaywardTraveller