MiniDisc upgrade to WAV?

[r_i_c]

hi,

have a Sharp MT877 MiniDisc recorder which i am very pleased with - i upgraded from analogue to MD several years ago. the MD is silent of course it also takes several minijack mics excellently. i mainly use it for recording ambient sound for home movie soundtracks

but i was wondering, if there was anything 'mini' out there now which recorded to WAV audio files that you could interface directly with a pc?

thanks

Ric

[A440]

but i was wondering, if there was anything 'mini' out there now which recorded to WAV audio files that you could interface directly with a pc?

Yes, there are. Many choices, in fact.

In the minidisc realm, Sony introduced and, after a few years, discontinued Hi-MD recorders: the MZ-NH700, which will record to .wav (PCM) and upload its own recordings to a PC (not older MD recordings), and the MZ-RH1 (or MZ-M200), which records to .wav and uploads its own recordings to PC and Mac, and will also be able to upload your OLD recordings to a PC or Mac.

Both upload via Sony's SonicStage software, which you should download immediately because the ATRAC format used by vintage MD has been pretty much abandoned by Sony. Get SonicStage 4.2 for XP, 4.3 for Vista, and Hi-MD Transfer for Mac.

However, there are now LOTS of recorders that simply record .wav (including higher quality 48/96 recording that Hi-MD can't do), have much more storage than the 1GB of a Hi-MD disc (about 90 minutes) and upload the files directly via USB, instead of via USB through decryption software. So unless you have a big library of older recordings you want to upload via the RH1, you might be better off with a new flash recorder.

This is a neat listing of them, and seems correct on the flash recorders I have tried myself. http://www.wingfieldaudio.com/portable-recorder-reviews.html , Also keep an eye out for the Sony D10 this fall, which looks very promising on paper.

Edited September 8, 2009 by A440

[Avrin]

A couple of clarifications:

1. Any Hi-MD recorder can record in PCM and then upolad it to a PC, where you can convert it to WAV.

2. SonicStage 4.3 "Ultimate" should be used for Windows 2000/XP/Vista. Get it here: http://forums.sonyinsider.com/index.php?showtopic=23851&view=findpost&p=163856 and forget about any previous versions.

[sfbp]

The one everyone is excited about (from Sony) is called PCM-D10. There's a more expensive PCM-D50 from about a year ago, but the PCM-D10 looks like it will sell in large numbers.

Google it, and you'll see.

And there's an introduction from one of our own here. I just had to fix the link by hand, if anyone is wondering, by going over to the old board which I still have access to, grabbing the link and fixing the post here.