Optical copy MD to PC

[BradLucky]

I have an MDS-S707 deck unit with optical output and a Creative Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS Platinum with optical input. I am looking to copy a hundred or so MDs to my PC while retaining the track separations (i.e. I don't want to copy entire discs out to one audio file and have to split up the tracks manually after copying). I thought I could do this via the TOSLINK optical connection (just as CD to MD does a fine job at that), but I haven't been able to find any way to accomplish this. Can anyone help?

I do not have a Net MD player, so I cannot run a copy via that method. All I have available are the optical and stereo in/out.

[Strungup]

The only way would be to use a peice of Software that has Track dividing functions after the entire file (Md) is recorded , "Select All" -- >Divide Sections /Split Tracks whatever the command will be

The CD To MD is a Given because that function is built in , but not so with a Computer .

On a Mac , Final Vinyl is a freebie , that will split tracks , also Audacity is Mac/PC LINUX compatible and I believe the latest edition has File Splitting . You will have to go to the website and see if it works for you

http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

Freebie

[Avrin]

A hundred or so MDs is probaly worth renting (or even buying) an RH1. It will save you a lot of time, transferring tracks at about 8x speed at their original quality, keeping all names and splits. Just don't forget to set SonicStage to import to PCM.

[sfbp]

Doesn't Audigy Pt come with some piece of software that does this for analog transfer? I had a friend with an MZ-N707 who accomplished this feat without using anything extra, and I always wondered how - this was back in the days before I owned anything except one MD deck.

It does seem a glaring omission. Perhaps the folks at the linux-minidisc project can point you in the direction of some software that will do that. However 1. you will have to wait until they succeed in uploading from NetMD (which may truthfully be NEVER) 2. you will need a NetMD machine. As Avrin says, renting an RH1 may be your best bet, for 100+ minidisks. None of the NetMD machines (except for RH1 which pretends to be one!) will do USB upload out of the box, Sony didn't want us to do that.

The SP codec will be (or is!) part of ffmpeg very shortly, which will presumably give you access to a bunch of nice Linux tools on the PC. However that still doesn't get it off the minidisk. Splitting from 80 minute files and retitling isn't as bad as all that - in fact it's exactly what I used to do.

[BradLucky]

Thanks for all the great info! You mention renting an RH1. Where would I be able to do that? I would absolutely prefer not to purchase a unit (as much as I would love to own one), as this is the only thing I will need it for. And how much does it cost to rent a MD player like that?

I found the info about splitting tracks after the fact and Audacity does split tracks based on an amount of silence detected, so I'll have to still go in on some discs and do some manual splitting where the sound doesn't stop between tracks (thankfully, this is few and far between).

My new question is whether or not there will be a noticeable difference in quality between optical and analog. I suspect there will be, but despite the fact that I can hear the audio from optical in via my speakers, I cannot seem to get it to record, and I may have to resort to RCA plugs.

Thanks again for all your help!

[sfbp]

Thanks for all the great info! You mention renting an RH1. Where would I be able to do that?

In Japan, for sure (check on Yahoo Japan for MZ-RH1 and you will see) However maybe some kind person here would help if it's not a huge amount of data.

My new question is whether or not there will be a noticeable difference in quality between optical and analog. I suspect there will be, but despite the fact that I can hear the audio from optical in via my speakers, I cannot seem to get it to record, and I may have to resort to RCA plugs.

It depends on the quality of the original source, and on the A->D of your sound card and whether or not there is pickup from the lead that goes to it. Lots of people get away with it, but I am pretty fussy about that stuff... the major reason I got into MD was to do digital recording and then opti-uploads to avoid introducing yet *further* artifacts to old recordings I was trying to save.

Not being able to capture the optical in will be some function of the software control panel for your Audigy. I sincerely hope it works. I had to take back my Turtle Beach Montego ($120) and substitute with a Terratec Aureon Fun 5.1 ($20) because of this. It might even be an SCMS issue for you.

[bluecrab]

I have an MDS-S707 deck unit with optical output and a Creative Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS Platinum with optical input. I am looking to copy a hundred or so MDs to my PC while retaining the track separations (i.e. I don't want to copy entire discs out to one audio file and have to split up the tracks manually after copying). I thought I could do this via the TOSLINK optical connection (just as CD to MD does a fine job at that), but I haven't been able to find any way to accomplish this. Can anyone help?

I do not have a Net MD player, so I cannot run a copy via that method. All I have available are the optical and stereo in/out.

It might be completely tedious, especially with that number of MDs, but if you are not in a hurry and are patient, what would happen if you were to copy on a per-track basis by programming the track to be recorded? Might be worth a try and won't cost anything. That would keep you all-digital, too. That IS a lot of MDs, though!

[bobt]

If I were me I would ask on the board if there is anyone in the ohio area close to me that would be willing to A: part with their unit, or B; come to your place and do the copying. Real time will take approximately 8000 minutes, uploadin, considerably less, I can assure you that you will not be able to tell the difference.

Other solution, got to minidisc canada, buy an RH1, do your duty, sell it on the board,

Good luck

Bob

[Strungup]

My new question is whether or not there will be a noticeable difference in quality between optical and analog. I suspect there will be, but despite the fact that I can hear the audio from optical in via my speakers, I cannot seem to get it to record, and I may have to resort to RCA plugs.

Thanks again for all your help!

In Audacity Preferences , you have to set the INPUT selection for the Recording , Audacity will record from many sources , but you have to set it in the Preferences I/O first

[BradLucky]

Thanks to everyone for the great advice. I managed to get my optical connection recording. I'm not 100% what change that I made worked, but in Creative Audio Console, I turned on Bit Accurate > Enable Bit Accurate Recording. I also made sure Sound Setting in Win Vista Control Panel had SPDIF as my default recording device.

I still don't get automatic file splits, but I found something even better: http://mp3splt.sourceforge.net/. mp3splt can query against CDDB, using their Cue files in order to split a file perfectly (assuming there's no added/removed space before/after tracks). Even better yet, it NAMES the files appropriately and sets up all the metadata for the new MP3s. It has scads of options, based on you preferences, so files can be named whatever you want, etc. A lifesaver for me, no doubt. I hope this helps someone else.

[Bwil]

I don't know about the S707, but my JB920 has an Auto Space function which will pause after every track for 3 seconds or so. Before I got my RH1, I would turn that on, record optically with Cool Edit Pro, and use an auto-marking function within that program to recreate the tracks. It sounds complicated, but it worked great and produced no gaps in the resulting file.

[sfbp]

I wonder if this (auto-marking) was a feature added in Cool Edit Pro (which I never got, unless I took the update and trashed it) over and above what was in CoolEdit96?

I looked for this a long time ago and could never find it. I wonder if there are any other programs that don't cost $300 (Adobe Audition last time I checked) that will do this?