Playing discs recorded on one deck in another

[Grego]

I am new to this forum and of course I have a question...

A friend recorded a live show to minidisc that I video taped with mini DV. I am trying to sync the two together.

He sent me the masters and I tried to play them back on a borrowed Sony MDS-JE510 ( I work in an electronics store).

All the track numbers are there but I can't hear anything (headphones). Also there are no levels on the display meters to indicate there is sound.

I remember hearing something in my audio travels about compatibility issues with different decks? Does anyone have any insight to this?

Thanks in advance for responding

Greg

[A440]

It may be recorded in a format the deck can't play. That's an old deck and it only plays SP. Later ones also play LP2 and LP4.

Do you have any portable MD units around the electronics store? Try any newer one--NetMD or Hi-MD will both work--and see what format it is on the display.

[Grego]

It may be recorded in a format the deck can't play. That's an old deck and it only plays SP. Later ones also play LP2 and LP4.

Do you have any portable MD units around the electronics store? Try any newer one--NetMD or Hi-MD will both work--and see what format it is on the display.

Thanks a lot for the info.

I will again try on a Sony ES peice. The show was recorded in LP (not sure why) and it does display "LP" for a second.

All this to try to get a digital recording. Is there a digital cable to extract the music from the MD recorder to a cd burner?

[mercury_in_flames]

if it flashes lp for a second then you need a deck or portable that can play that codec. If you get hold of a deck that has an optical out, and a sound card on your computer with an optical in, and a program to record it, then you can do it.

[Grego]

if it flashes lp for a second then you need a deck or portable that can play that codec. If you get hold of a deck that has an optical out, and a sound card on your computer with an optical in, and a program to record it, then you can do it.

I figured that. Do you recomend a sound card?

Is there a way (cable) to get the optical from the minidisc directly to the CPU? I tried the Sony ES deck with no luck.

Thanks!

[mercury_in_flames]

You could have a look at creative, they do internal and external sound cards;

they start from around 40 pounds or 80 US for one with an optical in/out.

http://uk.europe.creative.com/shop/product.asp?prod=510

I wouldnt go for something extremely expensive if you arent going to use it that often though.

If your ES deck wont play your disc because it is an SP only deck, then first and foremost you need to get an md deck with an optical out. If it were me however, i would just get a himd unit, with that you can upload anything you record to your computer in WAV format.

Edited November 10, 2005 by GregTheRotter

[Grego]

Thanks for the fast reply.

To give more info, My friend is the one who records many live concerts. He would like to go directly from his recorder to his CPU without having to purchase a stand alone deck. I was going to give him the Sony deck, but I wasn't aware he was recording in LP (I will advise him to use SP from now on for better quality masters)

I am just trying to get a digital recording to sync up my MiniDV to his audio. If it's digital it will be easy.

Thanks again for the helpful replies.

Greg

[A440]

With those old MD units the only way to get the music off the disc is by recording in realtime out of the headphone jack or, with the deck, from the optical out. There's no digital transfer.

It's detailed here:

http://forums.minidisc.org/index.php?showtopic=7070

For the best quality, you'll have to find a way to give your computer optical in, probably with an external soundcard. Otherwise you can run through line-in and get an analog recording, if your computer has line-in. Mic-in on a laptop probably won't sound so good since it's going through a meager preamp and soundcard.

But Greg is right: a far better way would be to spend that money on a Hi-MD recorder, which will not only give you PCM recording quality (90 mins on a 1GB disc) but also do digital uploading. Charming as the old units are, they're growing obsolete.

Edited November 11, 2005 by A440