Rack mounted MD recorder for home studio archives

[nrand]

I am not entirely new to MD's but its been a while since my last purchase in 2000.

I was reading some claims by HHB that their Professional disc is good for archiving up to 50 years. This claim plus the impression I have that good MD recorders with coax inputs can take 48Khz straight off my desk has led me, with help from one of your members to this forum.

If I have to revert to real time audio to reload this material at some later stage, this time factor is not a major issue in the overall scheme of things but true sound quality is. I plan to store a mixed version of each of my songs plus each individual track copied seperately.

I am wary of computer hard drives and the claims for CD's and DVD's as far as I know come nowhere near the 50 near mark.

Are there any opinions out there about such a plan? Is there a decent rackmounted recorder out there that would suit my needs? Coax digital input is a must to work with the rest of my gear. The Tascam MD350 only has optical, and the Pioneer MJ D7 has coax but it is not rack mounted.

I am using a MAC G5 with Logic Pro and an AudioPhile M Audio midi interface/audio converter.

Thanks in advance

Edited April 14, 2008 by nrand

[kino170878]

I may be wrong, but I think that the digital output from all MD decks is fixed at 44.1khz, not 48.

[Strungup]

44.1 khz

MacbookProC2D ,

[nrand]

44.1 khz

MacbookProC2D ,

It is the MD digital input I am most concerned with: I am under the impression that most MD recorders will convert either 32Khz or 48Khz to 44.1. The key link is that the only digital out on my MAudio, post Logic is Coax, thus my need for "Coax In" on the MD recorder. So long as I am recording on Logic at 48Khz everything should work as long as the MAudio will talk to the MD recorder. Optical does not help.

Denon used to make a broadcast unit DENON DN-1100R that had coax in but I cannot find any other pro rackmount examples.

[raintheory]

Sony's MDS-E12 has coax input, as well as XLR: http://www.minidisc.org/part_Sony_MDS-E12.html

The MDS-E11 does as well it seems: http://www.minidisc.org/part_Sony_MDS-E11.html

I have the MDS-E12, so I can certainly test out the sample rate conversion when I get home from work if that would be helpful at all.

[nrand]

Sony's MDS-E12 has coax input, as well as XLR: http://www.minidisc.org/part_Sony_MDS-E12.html

The MDS-E11 does as well it seems: http://www.minidisc.org/part_Sony_MDS-E11.html

I have the MDS-E12, so I can certainly test out the sample rate conversion when I get home from work if that would be helpful at all.

Thanks for this - I am still fact finding at this stage and a little behind with what's available. I look forward to hearing from you. The next step would be to find one given they do not seem to be available retail.

Edited April 15, 2008 by nrand

[raintheory]

Keep in mind that all of the professional decks are MDLP, there are no Hi-MD pro decks.

In other words, the highest quality you will get from a recording is ~292kbps Atrac3... A lossy format.

If you want to record LinearPCM uncompressed for the best quality, you will need to look into a Hi-MD recorder. Unfortunately I know of none that have coax, but they do all have optical input. I've never used any kind of adapter, but I would assume there is a coax>optical adapter out there.

[nrand]

Keep in mind that all of the professional decks are MDLP, there are no Hi-MD pro decks.

In other words, the highest quality you will get from a recording is ~292kbps Atrac3... A lossy format.

If you want to record LinearPCM uncompressed for the best quality, you will need to look into a Hi-MD recorder. Unfortunately I know of none that have coax, but they do all have optical input. I've never used any kind of adapter, but I would assume there is a coax>optical adapter out there.

Thanks

I noticed in the MDS E12 manual that it operates in Stereo as well as LP2 LP4 etc. I thought stereo equated to a non-compressed rate but from what you say it is not. Perhaps I should look at the Hi-MDs as alternative or even a flash media unit, bearing in mind the long term archival qualities of these about which I know nothing.

Your comments have been helpful.

Edited April 15, 2008 by nrand

[raintheory]

Thanks

I noticed in the MDS E12 manual that it operates in Stereo as well as LP2 LP4 etc. I thought stereo equated to a non-compressed rate but from what you say it is not. Perhaps I should look at the Hi-MDs as alternative or even a flash media unit, bearing in mind the long term archival qualities of these about which I know nothing.

Your comments have been helpful.

Correct, all MiniDisc units prior to Hi-MD use lossy compression. The maximum quality being SP mode, which is ~292kbps Atrac3.

As I had mentioned, the newer Hi-MD units can record in uncompressed LinearPCM @ 16bit / 44.1kHz, though you are somewhat limited to how much you can fit on a disc using this format (~94min on a 1GB Hi-MD disc, or ~28min on a standard disc formatted as Hi-MD).

We have quite a few discs from back when my wife first got the MZ-1 (back in '93) and they still play fine. The media itself is rock-solid, and chances are the discs themselves will outlive the units. I have no doubts about the longevity of the discs, but I do have doubts as to how much longer units will be available to play them back. I have already begun the (quite painstaking) process of uploading our collection of ~400 MiniDiscs and archiving them onto other media (currently spare hard drives and DVDs).

Unfortunately I can't help with the flash-based recorders, as I haven't researched them too much. I know that others members of the forum here are tried a few out so maybe they can chime in or point you in the righ direction for reviews/info.

Oh, and by the way... The MDS-E12 does convert 48kHz > 44.1kHz while recording via coax.

[nrand]

Correct, all MiniDisc units prior to Hi-MD use lossy compression. The maximum quality being SP mode, which is ~292kbps Atrac3.

As I had mentioned, the newer Hi-MD units can record in uncompressed LinearPCM @ 16bit / 44.1kHz, though you are somewhat limited to how much you can fit on a disc using this format (~94min on a 1GB Hi-MD disc, or ~28min on a standard disc formatted as Hi-MD).

We have quite a few discs from back when my wife first got the MZ-1 (back in '93) and they still play fine. The media itself is rock-solid, and chances are the discs themselves will outlive the units. I have no doubts about the longevity of the discs, but I do have doubts as to how much longer units will be available to play them back. I have already begun the (quite painstaking) process of uploading our collection of ~400 MiniDiscs and archiving them onto other media (currently spare hard drives and DVDs).

Unfortunately I can't help with the flash-based recorders, as I haven't researched them too much. I know that others members of the forum here are tried a few out so maybe they can chime in or point you in the righ direction for reviews/info.

Oh, and by the way... The MDS-E12 does convert 48kHz > 44.1kHz while recording via coax.

Thanks

I noticed in the MDS E12 manual that it operates in Stereo as well as LP2 LP4 etc. I thought stereo equated to a non-compressed rate but from what you say it is not. Perhaps I should look at the Hi-MDs as alternative or even a flash media unit, bearing in mind the long term archival qualities of these about which I know nothing.

Your comments have been helpful.

I have found that the rack mounted Tascam MD301MKii does have Coax input, a feature interestingly dropped on the MD350.

Edited April 16, 2008 by nrand