zachg Posted January 7, 2006 Report Share Posted January 7, 2006 Hello all. I am wondering if there is any device that can transfer minidisc audio to my computer with lossless quality. I use field recordings in some sound compositions, but recording it through a mixer causes quality loss. I recently found a sony product that attaches to a computer through USB but it provided no information as to whether or not it could transfer minidisc audio recordings <i>to</i> the computer. I am aware of sony's new hi-md's that can transfer hi-md recordings to a computer, but I prefer taking field recordings with my dr-7 as it provides for real-time level adjustment. And, I use a Mac primarily, but I do have a desktop PC as well, so I would prefer something that is Mac compatible. Any help is much appreciated. Thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
greenmachine Posted January 7, 2006 Report Share Posted January 7, 2006 MZ-M10/0 are mac compatible, allow USB upload and can adjust levels on the fly. If you don't necessarily need mac compatibility, there's a larger variety. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Low Volta Posted January 7, 2006 Report Share Posted January 7, 2006 - only HiMD allows uploading (MD->PC) of recordings, NetMD does connect with USB, but it's one way (PC->MD) only- HiMD needs to be put into manual rec mode through the menus, but once you've done that, you can adjust levels on the fly- if you want to upload to mac, there's the M-Models (MZ-M10/MZ-M100) which allow (only) PCM (=wav) recordings to be transferred digitally to mac...no other options for mac except for realtime analogue uploading- pre-HiMD recordings (so anything not recorded in HiLP/HiSP or PCM) will NOT upload through USB... not even in a HiMD-machine- all the above is true, but if you have got an MD-deck with digital/optical out and a PC/mac with optical in, you could always make purely digital realtime recordings on computer of the recorded material...even with pre-HiMD recordings Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KrazyIvan Posted January 7, 2006 Report Share Posted January 7, 2006 You always have the option of realtime recording NetMD or legacy recordings to the PC via the soundcard line-in. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dex Otaku Posted January 8, 2006 Report Share Posted January 8, 2006 See here:http://forums.minidisc.org/index.php?showtopic=7070Basically, there is no way to losslessly transfer from MD / MDLP discs. All methods [excepting those used with specialised and very expensive MD computer drives] that exist involve decoding the atrac/3 data to PCM at some point, whether you're using the analogue route [which also means D/A and A/D conversion] or the digital-optical route with a deck [which doesn't involve D/A or A/D conversion].The simplest method with a mac is simply to plug the recorder's line-out or headphone-out in to your computer's line-in as per the thread linked above.Despite involving decoding to PCM and subsequent D/A and A/D conversion, the quality of this method exceeds the needs of the vast majority of users, and even broadcasters [such as the CBC] use this method on a regular basis. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
greenmachine Posted January 8, 2006 Report Share Posted January 8, 2006 I wouldn't consider decoding itself a lossy process. Every compressed audio file has to be decompressed at one point or the other before you can use / listen to it. In this case it's just a rather uneffective way of transferring / storing. It's the lossy encoding (and / or analog transfer) where you loose quality. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dex Otaku Posted January 8, 2006 Report Share Posted January 8, 2006 I wouldn't consider decoding itself a lossy process. Every compressed audio file has to be decompressed at one point or the other before you can use / listen to it. In this case it's just a rather uneffective way of transferring / storing. It's the lossy encoding (and / or analog transfer) where you loose quality.It's a semantic thing. Decoding [of lossy formats] implies that it's been encoded [lossily]. If it's been encoded [lossily], there's been a generation of loss. "Lossless" copying of lossy data means keeping the data exactly as-is, which means no decoding takes place so no further generations of loss are incurred as long as the initial [lossy] encoded track is the only thing transported from one medium to another. At this point, there is no way to move MD or MDLP tracks to another medium without decoding them, completing at least one generation of loss [which in many if not most cases will be re-encoded lossily once again, adding a second generation of loss to the chain]. Hence my referring to decoding as a lossy process, not because it's inherently lossy, but because it completes a generation.There is one exception to this, those data drives that copy tracks directly, though in that case the resulting tracks can only be copied back to another MD; no other device or medium [including the computer the tracks are copied to] can accept or manipulate those tracks without also decoding/transcoding them in some way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
taper420 Posted January 17, 2006 Report Share Posted January 17, 2006 There is one exception to this, those data drives that copy tracks directly, though in that case the resulting tracks can only be copied back to another MD; no other device or medium [including the computer the tracks are copied to] can accept or manipulate those tracks without also decoding/transcoding them in some way.MD Studio will convert them to wav, the brochure states that it is completly lossless with know generation loss due to decoding and encoding...http://www.esdl.co.uk/body/mdte/mdte.htm Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dex Otaku Posted January 17, 2006 Report Share Posted January 17, 2006 MD Studio will convert them to wav, the brochure states that it is completly lossless with know generation loss due to decoding and encoding...http://www.esdl.co.uk/body/mdte/mdte.htmI stand corrected. Partially. Converting from any lossy format to an uncompressed one completes one generation of loss from the original source. It can be considered lossless compared to the [lossily] compressed format that it was stored in. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ARBEE Posted January 17, 2006 Report Share Posted January 17, 2006 MD Studio will convert them to wav, the brochure states that it is completly lossless with know generation loss due to decoding and encoding...http://www.esdl.co.uk/body/mdte/mdte.htmDon't believe this, it is a scam. I have been waiting for over a year for these people to fix a "software glitch" . In the meantime, they recommend that you do an analog recording. Of course, you can do an analog recording withuot the large pricetag that esdl quotes you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1kyle Posted March 9, 2006 Report Share Posted March 9, 2006 Don't believe this, it is a scam. I have been waiting for over a year for these people to fix a "software glitch" . In the meantime, they recommend that you do an analog recording. Of course, you can do an analog recording withuot the large pricetag that esdl quotes you.May well be --however we are talking here of PRO / Studio / Broadcasting stuff which sometimes does need to get recovered so I'm sure there are these sort of facilities available at the Professional level which never come into the "Consumer" domain.Cheers-K Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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