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MD to PC: Analog vs Optical

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lefty

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I taped a bunch of shows with an old MD. Until now I've transfered the shows to my PC by using the analog out on the MD to my PC soundcard. Press play on the MD, and record on Sound Forge.

Anyway, now I'm thinking I want a device to play MD with optical out so that I can transfer to PC without the AD conversion. Anyone know if there is any "real" difference between analog vs digital capture to the PC since both are realtime, and the recording was via analog mics anyway?

If optical is worth it, any recommendations for a deck or portable MD player with optical out?

I wish I could browse the MD like a regular drive and just copy/paste shows to my PC.. but whatever. Someone chime in if this is now possible.

Edited by lefty
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If you want a portable with optical out then it would be the MZ-1. It is an SP only recorder though. You are also only going to find these used, unless someone is sitting on a stash of new ones somewhere.

Edited by KrazyIvan
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If you're wondering about the difference in sound quality of an optical out vs. line out when transferring to PC, it is going to be a VERY small difference. Most likely, the difference in sound quality will be barely noticeable, if at all. In the end this is a question of how important the quality of the recordings are to you, and whether or not you want to spend the money. You'd need a MD deck with an optical out (like others here have said) and a soundcard with an optical in to make it happen. Cheers.

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I record real-time from my MD deck/portables in analog all the time. I also have an external sound card to minimize on noise that could possibly be picked up by internal cards. I have always been happy with my recordings quality. I think you would notice very little to no difference. (I have used the optical out on the MZ-1 too.) I think you need to worry about the quality of your recordings while you are actually doing the first generation recording. If your original is clean then most likely your copy on the PC will be clean too.

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What's the difference in quality?

The difference is this...

Going digitally, an MD deck converts whichever lossily-compressed format your recording is in to PCM, and then whatever you're plugging into records that PCM stream [assuming it allows it, keeping in mind SCMS which not all sound cards respect or respect properly]. There's only one conversion done this way, and that's from ATRAC or ATRAC3 to PCM. There are no successive stages of D/A and A/D conversion, no relying on the cleanliness of every device's analogue stage, &c.

Going the analogue route, you're depending on first that conversion to PCM, then the performance of the headphone/line-out amp of the player, then the input of your sound card being clean, and then the quality of the sound card's A/D conversion. There are at least three stages of conversion here, from ATRAC to PCM, then digital to analogue, then analogue to digital again.

The weak points in this chain are:

* the output of your player, which if it's a portable is likely to be less than actual "standard" line-level and depending on underpowered output amps

* the input of your sound card, which may or may not be clean and quiet in its analogue stages

* the A/D converter on your sound card, which may or may not be, well, crap

The best route to go, quality-wise, is always the straight digital route.

That said, even inexpensive sound cards have clean enough inputs and sufficiently adequate A/D conversion that the vast majority of users would never be able to notice any loss of quality in going this route, unless something is -seriously- wrong with your equipment.

Please also keep in mind that copying from your old MDs means havign a copy that has already been through at least one generation of lossy compression. There is no such thing as a lossless copy of an MD when using SP/DIF.

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How about a slight twist on the above scenario. I primarily want to rip my MD's to 192k ogg vorbis. I have been trolling eBay and the Internet for a NetMD deck with optical out. So far, no joy. There have been two 980's from the UK, but both went a bit higher than I wanted to pay and one seller seemed a little flaky. I am really wondering whether it is worth $200 just for the digital/optical connection. I like the convenience of NetMD/WinNMD, so I really am not interested in having to do all of my own titling and tagging.

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How about a slight twist on the above scenario. I primarily want to rip my MD's to 192k ogg vorbis. I have been trolling eBay and the Internet for a NetMD deck with optical out. So far, no joy. There have been two 980's from the UK, but both went a bit higher than I wanted to pay and one seller seemed a little flaky. I am really wondering whether it is worth $200 just for the digital/optical connection. I like the convenience of NetMD/WinNMD, so I really am not interested in having to do all of my own titling and tagging.

Why not buy a HiMD unit, record from your old MD to it via analog, then upload the HIMD using USB. Once you've recorded all your existing MD's, switch completely to HiMD and sell the old MD unit.

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Why not buy a HiMD unit, record from your old MD to it via analog, then upload the HIMD using USB. Once you've recorded all your existing MD's, switch completely to HiMD and sell the old MD unit.

Or, why not skip a step and save a crapload of time, and just copy the MDs to your computer, back them up on whatever inexpensive media you prefer, and then dupe them on whatever portable format you prefer as an afterthought.

Every time someone mentions the "copy to your HiMD and upload" method, I cringe. It just seems like wasted time to me.

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But your right doing it direct to PC is quicker in terms of doing the recording.

Personally I don't have that great a sound card, and while I do use CD WAVE to reccord on to the PC I found HiMD did a better job or splitting the tracks than PC software. And that is a painful and time consuming process which you have to babysit. I find HiMD gets the track splits right 90% of the time. Uploading the HiMD I do when I'm busy with some other task.

I see no point in buying a deck though.

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Personally I don't have that great a sound card, and while I do use CD WAVE to reccord on to the PC I found HiMD did a better job or splitting the tracks than PC software. And that is a painful and time consuming process which you have to babysit. I find HiMD gets the track splits right 90% of the time. Uploading the HiMD I do when I'm busy with some other task.

Poor computer sound is a good rationale for doing it that way, yes.

As for splitting tracks, I'd just do what I always do - copy the whole thing in one go as one file, and add trackmarks later. Doing so with straight music albums or compilations usually takes a couple of minutes at most. It really depends on the content, though - speech is more difficult to split up, and music with a lot of segues can be more difficult as well. In any case, I'd choose that method over relying on my HiMD any day. I am a nitpicker, though.

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Or, why not skip a step and save a crapload of time, and just copy the MDs to your computer, back them up on whatever inexpensive media you prefer, and then dupe them on whatever portable format you prefer as an afterthought.

Every time someone mentions the "copy to your HiMD and upload" method, I cringe. It just seems like wasted time to me.

i have to second that. why complicate things further?

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Poor computer sound is a good rationale for doing it that way, yes.

As for splitting tracks, I'd just do what I always do - copy the whole thing in one go as one file, and add trackmarks later. Doing so with straight music albums or compilations usually takes a couple of minutes at most. It really depends on the content, though - speech is more difficult to split up, and music with a lot of segues can be more difficult as well. In any case, I'd choose that method over relying on my HiMD any day. I am a nitpicker, though.

I find spliting a pain. I'm generally recording compilations or live recordings, so the splits aren't obvious. I was using a Creative USB MP3+ but I thought my older PCI Sonic Fury was much better. Its also easier to get my HiMD beside my HiFi than my PC. Even my laptop is awkward. Also its easier to process smaller wav's than giant 60-90min wavs. Though CD WAVE is very good at it.

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for my situation i just want to get the MD to the PC, and then i'm abandoning MD altogether. i'm getting one of these for stealth recording:

MicroTrack 24/96

i'll keep my old MD in case something comes along that will enable easy digital transfer to PC, but MD and sony in particular are ... nevermind

Do some research on the microtrack before you buy.

Going by most current reviews, the MT24/96 is basically a product still in beta; the software [on the unit itself] is both unstable and unreliable as described by most.

The quality of its mic preamp and a/d conversion are also suspect. Though I have seen no actual technical comparisons, I have read that HiMD at 16/44.1 still outperforms the mt24/96.

You don't have to take my word on it, though. Google "microtrack 24/96 review".

Some interesting ones, both positive and negative in content:

http://www.sonicstudios.com/mt2496rv.htm

http://leblog.exuberance.com/2005/10/review_of_the_m.html

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=51631

which also refers to this one which appears to be among the best:

http://taperssection.com/index.php?topic=50364.0

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Reminds me of when I bought that neuros...what a nightmare.

Small time company, that to their credit did everything they could, and I had the "CEO" on my AIM buddylist, but just failed to make an effective product that didn't keep running into one product or anouther.

Funny, my Neuros is still running like a champ doing exactly what the company advertised it would do, plus! Sorry to hear that yours didn't work out.

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