Hi-MD Usage: How much do you really use?

[jay209]

i have 5 hi-md's and 10 regular md's and i find myself only using 2 hi-md's & 2 regular md's. and to my suprise, that covers all my everyday music.

how much do you guys use?

[brian10161]

i have 1 with all my favourite songs, and then 5 others with just random albums on them.

this christmas im getting 10 new MD's and to be honest, idk what ill be putting on them yet

[DATfan]

i have 5 hi-md's and 10 regular md's and i find myself only using 2 hi-md's & 2 regular md's. and to my suprise, that covers all my everyday music.

how much do you guys use?

Number of discs or amount of use?

Just went from 5 Hi-MDs to total of 15, now.

I record one per day, 8 hours of Hi-SP or Hi-LP, then grab about half the audio for listening at 200% speed, thanks to Sony's speed control on the NH900.

Then, I recycle the Hi-MD in the recording rotation. Five discs was just enough for Monday-Friday, but I wanted some extras.

[bobt]

I've got about 50 or 60 74/80 minute discs going back a few years, slowly recycling them to Hi-MD as well as 2 1 gigs, (really hard to find in Cayman, and hard to get here) Also a few blanks, as well as about 30 prerecorded discs. I usually take two or three depending what I want to listen to during the day

[King Ghidora]

I bought about 30 regular MD's a few years back and recorded about half of them with music I listened to. Then I bought a used HIMD with another 30 discs or so inc. 6 HIMD. I have filled one HIMD about 3/4 with stuff I recorded with just enough quality that it wouldn't be noticeably bad hooked up to the stereo in my car or truck. I use the other HIMD's for recording events for my video business and I use some of the regular MD's to record telephone conversations etc. that I want to keep a copy of. I still don't come anywhere near using all of the blanks that I have. Not by a long shot.

[ATELETRONICS]

i have 250 standard 80 min disks. i filled them all and just bought 60 more.

[jay209]

i have 250 standard 80 min disks. i filled them all and just bought 60 more.

oh my goodness... well. sad to say i don't fit the proper use of a MD then ;P

i've only opted to own a MD + an ipod because i like the sound. it sounds livelier for some reason.

[MikeyV80]

I have 1 1 Gb HiMD which carries the music from my most favorite musician, further I have 20 74/80 min MD's, from which I use 2 for recording my own music, I use he others for putting complete albums or compilaion, which I recycle from time to time. It depends on my mood how often I recycle my MD's.

[brian10161]

i just got 2 new md's im so happy! lol

$14 for two discs though

ah well. well worth imo

[an0nym0usmuse]

I have 3 HI-MDs filled with CDs that I have just bought... a couple of HI-MDs of concerts that I have recorded.

I have 4 regular MDs that I play in my MZ-S1 on a daily basis; mostly "Coast to Coast AM" radio shows that I download.

But I have many, many more regular MD archive recordings of vinyl albums that I have made over the past ten years. These are indispensable and irreplaceable. Minidisc was, and still is, the easiest and most affordable means of digitalizing vinyl records.

[brian10161]

cheers to that!

[rayzray]

over 800 Standard MD discs and about 20 Hi-MD discs; does this qualify me for a free coffee?

you can say i really use all of them if you concider my goal in life..

[bobt]

over 800 Standard MD discs and about 20 Hi-MD discs; does this qualify me for a free coffee?

you can say i really use all of them if you concider my goal in life..

Come on down to Little Cayman and you will have free coffee.

Take care

Bob

[rayzray]

Come on down to Little Cayman and you will have free coffee.

Take care

Bob

lol;; that's a deal;; do you think i can get thru customs with my 820 MD discs and two Hi-MD900's? *as i listen to my "Rayzray vs. Snoopy & the Red Baron" remix;; the only one in da world; oh,, i remixed the whold Snoopy vs the Red Baron CD with my MXD-D40 and my "Magical mystery MD";; it's amazing how you can "Divide" an MD OVER 100 tracks!

[jay209]

well, i'm glad this mechanical work of art is being used well

i think i like keeping my md player as a player first then a recorder if i ever have time

[rayzray]

u are sooooo right;; as a player first;; (from a PC download,, that is)..

it's not worth the "Hassle" of recording live anywheres;; all live vunues suck IMO;; probably the crowd mostly;; except at night to see if i "Really" snore..

[bobt]

lol;; that's a deal;; do you think i can get thru customs with my 820 MD discs and two Hi-MD900's? *as i listen to my "Rayzray vs. Snoopy & the Red Baron" remix;; the only one in da world; oh,, i remixed the whold Snoopy vs the Red Baron CD with my MXD-D40 and my "Magical mystery MD";; it's amazing how you can "Divide" an MD OVER 100 tracks!

You never know with Cayman Customs, they might think you're trying to set up retail pr something, would love to see the look on their faces.

BTW The Snoopy vs Red Baron sounds interesting, liked it the first time around.

Take care,

bob

[Sparda]

These posts are fun to read. Don't see how you need so many... hope you aren't recording in PCM for everything. I only have 4 80min MDs + 3 Hi-MDs... I fill them all up with songs I listen to the most. Maybe it's because I'm just a teen and don't have much cash to go around?

[brian10161]

same goes for me, im only 16 so i dont have much money going around to get many new mds. especially ay 7 bucks a piece for a single 80 minute md

ah well, this summer ill have a decent paying job (hopefully) then ill save up my money and buy some md's and maybe get a new laptop

[rayzray]

when yous are 64 yrs old like me;; maybe,, you will have over 800 MD's..

i will take these to a nursing home someday and "Party all Nite Long";; and that's how i will use them..

Edited December 14, 2006 by rayzray

[jay209]

well the 80min md's are cheap. i remember seeing them for a buck or 2 a piece. it's the hi-md's that're steep. i think the thing that keeps me from pouring too much is the ability to find a md player in 3-5 years. if the rh-1 will last, i can continually see myself using it for a long time. i love the way it sounds

[mdmania]

I'm not using md as much but they come in handy. MD or Hi-MD is mainly my recording gears and iPod is my playback of choice since I can listen to my 5500 songs shuffled, crossfaded and all songs are normalized from MP3 gain, that what is amount to for me. But the recording of choice is minidisc all the way for me. As of a matter of fact I had some SP legacy md that I transferred to iPod and now they are all mix in there and I can't really tell the difference whether is compressed at 128kbps, 160kbps etc. they are all there and as long they have been normalized for recording levels it's all good.

Edited December 14, 2006 by mdmania

[exe]

I did finally order a Sony MZ-RH1 about two hours ago... That will be my sixth recorder and I did even buy the first "portable" and the first ATRAC 2 deck 1995-01-09 which was a VERY rare and extremely delicious designed midsize Sony MDS-102 with jog dial...

I have 62 MD recorded to 75% with carefully selected and graded tracks, sorted with the finest first... So I don't record any track, just the few one that I grade as minimum 5 for interesting and without annoying aspects...

Then are they divided in 11 categories and they are (with higher and higher dynamic) Romantic classic, Great classic, Spain, Cool, Sexy, Reggae, Great, Disco, Action, Rock and Test... Most music get recorded in "collection" discs and 30 truly great artist with more than 6 fine tracks (so I put sometimes two to four artists on one disc) get recorded on separate discs, in the right category...

I do also a very careful equalization, before I record any track, to get as perfect and natural sound as possible, without any of the usual "boxy" effect and naturally optimized bass and treble... With help of a separate recording equalizer form Yamaha (ge-40) with +-15db adjustment range... This save many lovely songs, that is almost awful in their "original" state of misery ;-)

And because of the great result, divided in categories that is in harmony with my different moods, does I almost only listen to my MD collection or radio...

Many of this tracks (about 10%) are not possible to find on CD so I am incredible grateful that I finally can do a backup both to my Toshiba Notebook and a separate LaCie hard drive... Then will I move everything to 10 HiMD and anyhow get about 25% free space (from the not recorded part on the old discs) for new music ;-)

By the way, the rest of my grading scale - that make it possible to grade music before I buy CD and not spend too mush - is following... Grade the tracks, with 5 for interesting (or a delicious track, with some irritating aspect) 10 for just delicious 20 fantastic 30 heavenly (you can still see the heaven) 40 magic (that I only found four times) and then buy any CD that get minimum 40 points...

Edited December 20, 2006 by vantechmag

[rayzray]

i (rayzray) am preparing an MD for teaching tomorrow's piano lesson (keyboard to be exact)..

my student is having a tough time with this particular song;; but refused to practice parts of the song in loops..

so;; i played da song into my MD-Deck;; and "Devided" the song into parts;;

then i will Loop (Repeat-1) them at the lesson and have them play along..

the GREAT part is;; when i play them in my Hi-MD900,, i can slow the song down or speed it up without a pitch change;; that's sweet for a music teacher..

too bad it can't to "Rounds".. j/k

Edited December 20, 2006 by rayzray

[heathenmagic]

Everyday. A NH-800F hooked up to the hifi at work for eight hours a day, the RH1 for my recordings - both for my songwriting / gigs and recording music dvds / lps. Also for special listening as it sounds the best. And an MZ-DH10P for travelling in case I need a camera. lol. Yep, I use them a lot!!

[jay209]

figured how to bookmark, but how do i find the bookmark & change pitch on the RH-1>

[Huw]

Close to 150 now... all albums (11 of those are 1GB with 20 Cds on each) close to 400+ Albums over 8 years (since 2000 and an R70 )

[Sparda]

figured how to bookmark, but how do i find the bookmark & change pitch on the RH-1>

Hold down play mode on the remote and keep going left or right until you see bookmark. And why would you want to change pitch? The purpose of digital speed control is so that the pitch would not change as the speed changes. Perhaps you want to change the playback speed, to do that hold down display on the remote and look for SpeedCtrl.

[Artstar]

i have 5 hi-md's and 10 regular md's and i find myself only using 2 hi-md's & 2 regular md's. and to my suprise, that covers all my everyday music.

how much do you guys use?

1 HiMD disc per concert

Edited January 2, 2007 by Artstar

[philpem]

Let's see...

MDs: 27x. 25x 80-minute Sony 'Colour' discs. Bought a pack of five with my MZ-N710, then bought three packs of five from HMV when they were selling them off. 4x still shrink wrapped. Also 2x purple Sharp MD-R80 that a friend gave me.

HiMDs: 4x, all Sony HMD1GA. Blue with clear case. Two shrink-wrapped new, two used.

What I'm using:

1x HiMD for my 'music for the ride to work/university' collection (Hi-SP format). 123 tracks, 8h21m31s with 10m

1x HiMD for recording university lectures (Hi-LP format).

3x MDs for my recordings from the 'Kevin Bloody Wilson' DILLIGAF concert at St. George's Hall (Bradford) back in November '04. Wrecked due to the singing of the guy next to me throwing the AGC off, but I kept the recording anyway..

A bunch of MDs with music on them - one album per MD..

These days, if/when I do stealth recording, I take two HiMDs and a couple of MDs and record in Linear PCM - much better for archiving. What I really need is to make up a new stereo stealth microphone (or buy one), and finish building the Active Microphone...

[MDX-400]

I don't use Hi-MD at all, lol. I have DH10P that I bought not-too-long-ago and I transferred a couple things for fun/testing, took some pics for the hell of it, etc. but it's not really too useful for me, especially considering I'm not a big user of portables and nothing else I have can play Hi-MDs.

I must add to all this, however, that Hi-MD is super slowww. I was actually amazed at how slow it is, LOL. Benched it with HD-Tach and though I can't remember the numbers I was thinking "floppy drive" when I saw how long it took and how low the transfer numbers were. I mean I knew it wasn't fast but I didn't actually realise just how "not fast" that meant, lol.

I'm sure it's very useful for recording, with the 1GB capacity and all, it's just that I can't do that as I only have a DH10P (which is a downloader)...

[jaylen]

I have lots of Hi-MD gear, but I use Hi-MD about as much as MDX-400 does.

[raintheory]

My fiance and I have close to 15 years worth of recordings (mostly our own music and various jam sessions) in mainly SP format, some LP2. And plenty of Hi-MD material as well.

Probably a bit over 500 legacy discs in storage containers, close to 50 Hi-MD (which are recycled for recording and playback), and a handful of MD-DATA discs for our non-functioning multitrack recorders.

[Sparky191]

I've about 30 legacy disks mainly obtained when buying old MD players. Don't use them any more. Since I got a HiMD I only use 2xHiMD and nothing else.

Mind you I don't use it as a player only a recorder.

[Brfff]

More and more it seems. I've got an RH1 and an N600 (picked up new for $99 Aussie ... USD$77 here. Plus my original Sony MZ-R90 & Aiwa XR-MD85 (which I still use for copying tapes to MD).

(1) Use it to "tape" Internet radio streams: mainly the DI.FM streams -> play them via iTunes to my Airport Express basestation which is connected to my RH1 via optical cable. Get about 2.5 hours on an 80min MD. About eight hours on a 1GB MD, which is just awesome. Yeah, yeah I could just use a streamripper & save it to my iPod but that's no fun.

(2) Works well jogging with a pair of Sennheiser MX75s. Which is where point (1) comes in.

(3) "Tape" soundtracks from DVD (i.e. concerts) - make a backup of the DVD via MTR/Popcorn, which then allows me to record the audio digitally to my RH1. An 80min MD in Hi-MD mode has more than enough room.

(4) Backing up data on my Windows & Mac computers - like to see someone try to steal that data (security through obscurity idea I guess).

Plus I have 54 pre-recorded MDs. A bit silly know, but I prefer to have my music physical. Besides, I've copied them all to my iTunes library via my RH1 or via a CD recorder anyway. I'd much rather pay a few dollars extra for the CD with booklet rather than an iTunes download at lower quality and DRM. My wife and I have six iPods (and four Macs) between us, but am just a little bored with them. Meh.

Overall, I like my little RH1. Firmware update to allow shuffle play without the remote is badly needed! But am seriously considering a second RH1 to connect to my hi-fi and possibly replace my Sony MD deck. Also wish there was my Mac software so I could just drag & drop tunes from my iTunes library onto my RH1. Anyway.

Would be nice to have more 1GB disks available (but I am not paying $12 Aussie for a disk!), however the 80min ones are plentiful and can store quite a bit compared to the old days.

[mdmania]

More and more it seems. I've got an RH1 and an N600 (picked up new for $99 Aussie ... USD$77 here. Plus my original Sony MZ-R90 & Aiwa XR-MD85 (which I still use for copying tapes to MD).

(1) Use it to "tape" Internet radio streams: mainly the DI.FM streams -> play them via iTunes to my Airport Express basestation which is connected to my RH1 via optical cable. Get about 2.5 hours on an 80min MD. About eight hours on a 1GB MD, which is just awesome. Yeah, yeah I could just use a streamripper & save it to my iPod but that's no fun.

(2) Works well jogging with a pair of Sennheiser MX75s. Which is where point (1) comes in.

(3) "Tape" soundtracks from DVD (i.e. concerts) - make a backup of the DVD via MTR/Popcorn, which then allows me to record the audio digitally to my RH1. An 80min MD in Hi-MD mode has more than enough room.

(4) Backing up data on my Windows & Mac computers - like to see someone try to steal that data (security through obscurity idea I guess).

Plus I have 54 pre-recorded MDs. A bit silly know, but I prefer to have my music physical. Besides, I've copied them all to my iTunes library via my RH1 or via a CD recorder anyway. I'd much rather pay a few dollars extra for the CD with booklet rather than an iTunes download at lower quality and DRM. My wife and I have six iPods (and four Macs) between us, but am just a little bored with them. Meh.

Overall, I like my little RH1. Firmware update to allow shuffle play without the remote is badly needed! But am seriously considering a second RH1 to connect to my hi-fi and possibly replace my Sony MD deck. Also wish there was my Mac software so I could just drag & drop tunes from my iTunes library onto my RH1. Anyway.

Would be nice to have more 1GB disks available (but I am not paying $12 Aussie for a disk!), however the 80min ones are plentiful and can store quite a bit compared to the old days.

Well said...I think there is something about having a music physically in your hand, perhaps you are as old school as I am.

Most youngster who didn't mix from tapes or recorded music from radio wouldn't know what I'm talking about. But anyhow,

I still much prefer recording manually from my MX-D40 and pick a song from each CD's rather than just computer do it for me.

I find more appreciation to my mixes that way than just picking songs using playlist on my iPod. I couldn't agree more about having shuffle mode on the RH1 too. Firmware Sony, if you are listening or reading this...thnx!

[Sparky191]

Well said...I think there is something about having a music physically in your hand, perhaps you are as old school as I am.

Most youngster who didn't mix from tapes or recorded music from radio wouldn't know what I'm talking about. But anyhow,

I still much prefer recording manually from my MX-D40 and pick a song from each CD's rather than just computer do it for me.

I find more appreciation to my mixes that way than just picking songs using playlist on my iPod. I couldn't agree more about having shuffle mode on the RH1 too. Firmware Sony, if you are listening or reading this...thnx!

I still have a large collection of mix cassettes and home recordings on cassette of all sorts of stuff. In fact I'm in the middle of the slow process of recording it onto MP3 and CD via my HiMD. A lot of it is so old its actually deteroriating, which prompted me to digitise it. I still like to listen to cassettes on a good deck though, its still enjoyable. But I never liked carrying around bunches of cassettes and MD's around, though I did it for years. My main problem these days is that I don't have the time to manage my music out on to cassettes and MD disc like I used to. its just so time consuming. I work with computers all the time so I like being able to manage my music via computer. I can appreciate that some people won't. Each to their own and all that. But even for me, theres still an attraction occasionally in not using a computer, and just physically handling the media. Never really liked CD's but theres something about MiniDisc and the hardware that I've just found so dang cool. Must be the gadgetphile in me. Which is probably why I recently bought another cassette deck and will probably pick up a MD deck to add to the HiFi when I see a good deal on a good one.

Edited January 8, 2007 by Sparky191

[deadwing]

A bit embarrasing really...I have just two Hi-MD's...and that is plenty!! I only use the unit for live recording-record it to disc, transfer to PC, wipe it clean and start all over again!!

How many record/wipe/record cycles do these things last??

[rayzray]

A bit embarrasing really...I have just two Hi-MD's...and that is plenty!! I only use the unit for live recording-record it to disc, transfer to PC, wipe it clean and start all over again!!

How many record/wipe/record cycles do these things last??

they boasted 1,000,000 recordings on one standard disk when it started;; i must be getting close to that by now..

HiMD must be about the same;; right??

Edited January 11, 2007 by rayzray

[the_artist]

A bit embarrasing really...I have just two Hi-MD's...and that is plenty!! I only use the unit for live recording-record it to disc, transfer to PC, wipe it clean and start all over again!!

That's a good theory till you go to big day out and there's 8 bands you want to take home. Which is why I have 10 HiMDs and 6 batteries. got to get me more batteries. nothing worse than the machine stopping before the music. apart from dropping your unit on the driveway. that sucks. wives are surprisingly unsympathetic sometimes.