Soundbox Posted March 30, 2010 Report Share Posted March 30, 2010 It is the times where MD feels so right that make it a great format I think. I don't know of any other format that I have used that has given me so much recording fun and my modest collection of location recordings is something I treasure. I will tell you a couple of my past recordings that stand out - perhaps you care to share yours? Please also give some technical background if possible. 1. In 1998 my DJ friend invited me to a local venue in a small club. He took his Drum and Bass 12" collection and was going to be part of a team spinning up their disks. On the offchance that it would be good I grabbed my MZ-R30 and ECM-909a microphone. Well, it turned out to be one of the best sets I have heard with some of the darkest tracks of the time ('Metropolis', 'The Arsonist' and 'The Chopper' being three). When I played that disk back the next day I knew I had a winner and I made a master cassette which I gave to my friend and he made loads of copies from that. 2. On new years eve 1999 I recorded the sounds of the streets as we went over to 2000 (same setup as above). When I play that back 10 years later it sounds just as fresh and clear as the day I made it and it is a treasured posession. The fireworks and revelry sound as if they are happening live when played back through my JVC headphones and it is a real shock to people that a recording can be so clear. So, do you have any to share? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PhilippeC Posted March 30, 2010 Report Share Posted March 30, 2010 Apart some live recording like you, my best experience is very recent. It was my first listening of the MDS-B5 deck connected to my Cyrus amplifier. I was used to the sound of portable MDs like the MZ-RH1 / MZ-NH900 / MZ-N510 but they do not have this huge sound when they are connected to a HiFi system. So, when I discovered the Pierre's MD decks(see my posts), I was very excited to introduce those decks to SonyInsiders MD fans. That was because he promised me to get the Sony JA555ES for free if I help him to sell his decks on the web. So I am very patient till I can listen to this astounding deck y next trip in France. My other good experience is not a real MD experience but I discovered that the quality of my recordings on MDs from my PC with Winamp or WMP would be much better if I used the DFX Audio Enhancer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Soundbox Posted March 30, 2010 Author Report Share Posted March 30, 2010 Yes, I agree decks have a bigger sound than the portables (mainly for the reason that there is more power behind the line outputs than the little portables can manage). That is why I purchaced the JE510 - despite similar specs to the MZ-R30 on paper, you can hear the difference when plugged into an amplifier. Glad MD is working well for you! I looked at the classifieds you mention - some nice gear there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bwil Posted March 30, 2010 Report Share Posted March 30, 2010 Probably my favorite experience was the first night I brought home my JB920. It was my first minidisc anything, back in 1999. I had a 10 pack of pale green Maxell discs, which was the only kind Circuit City sold at the time. I stayed up very late that night, backing up cassette tapes I had that I couldn't replace, recording LPs, and absolutely grooving on the way I could edit these recordings so precisely. As someone who had always enjoyed the process of recording, the quality and ease of use of minidisc just seemed magical. I also titled every track, using the nice, wide remote that came with that deck. Before long, I was using md to make mixtapes for my new girlfriend, who would later become my wife. I was deeply in love, and fortunately, my wife understands. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bluecrab Posted March 30, 2010 Report Share Posted March 30, 2010 ... Before long, I was using md to make mixtapes for my new girlfriend, who would later become my wife. I was deeply in love, and fortunately, my wife understands. LOL! About the same here. "The most clutter I have ever had to live with" - Mrs. Bluecrab Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bluecrab Posted March 31, 2010 Report Share Posted March 31, 2010 I have so many great experiences with MD that I wouldn't even know where to begin, so I'll just go with the one from last night. I was reading a review of a CD player I own. It was a very favorable review and the writer said he could listen to this player for a long time with out any listening fatigue. I was listening to some jazz while reading and it had been playing for a while. I found myself thinking, "Oh yeah, he is right, I am definitely not getting fatigued listening to this! It really is a great CD player. Why was I even considering replacing it?" Then I realized I was not listening to CD - it was MD playing on the JA333ES I got recently. It simply sounded enough like CD that I had connected the dots incorrectly :-) Not only wasn't it CD, it was LP2! And not only LP2, but plain old LP2 without Type S. Go figure. On a related topic: Least favorite MD experience: I never quite recovered from the ugly way my MDS-JE510 expired, a victim of the feared and almost-inevitable "self-turn-on" problem those units often had. All in all, though, way, way more "favorite" experiences with MD than bad ones. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Soundbox Posted March 31, 2010 Author Report Share Posted March 31, 2010 Some good thoughts - I have another one from last night to report. Years ago I recorded XTC's 'Nonsuch' album (vinyl) onto MD using my MDS-JE510. I lost that disk for years and found it just recently in my rented garage, where it had fallen down behind some books. It was clean inside its case so I played it back on my MZ-R30 using my JVC headphones. The wonderful sound and whimsical lyrics came across so clearly that they are still playing in my head today. The soundstage from MD really is first rate. PS. My JE510 is still working fine, but I do unplug it whan it is not being used and never leave a disk in there. I also make sure that I never record for more than 15 minutes in any 24 hours (thus allowing a near 1% duty cycle). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
philippeb Posted March 31, 2010 Report Share Posted March 31, 2010 I bought my first MD deck in 2000, in Durban, South Africa, thanks to a dear Zimbabwean-born friend who converted me: a Sony MDS-SD1, that my wife adopted immediately. We used it mostly to record French-speaking radio broadcasts from our Sanyo WorldSpace receiver. Despite the low bandwidth of most of the channels [iMHO digital radio is in practice a sad regression from FM radio] we have been more than happy with rare live recordings of RFI (Radio France International), RSI (Radio S Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
md user Posted March 31, 2010 Report Share Posted March 31, 2010 I bought my first MD deck in 2000, .... , and I would not have sent her my precious and unique MD love letters, without having duplicated them before. Now that's what I call priorities - sending your love letters of MDs to your wife! And to keep copies in case they got lost ... OK, I know what you mean really ... mdmad. (But not THAT mad.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
md user Posted March 31, 2010 Report Share Posted March 31, 2010 My best experience? Well, as you may know, I'm very new to MDs - but I can say that MDs really do provide an opportunity to audiophile-like quality and versatility to modern media. I find them to be a good cross between the new (mp3, freeview, iTunes ...) and the old (LP, FM), and also live recordings, microphone dictations etc. Yes, they are now redundant technically to the retail market, but being cheap second-hand they still offer (me) a GREAT way to FUN. Best experience? My first listen to Funk downloads, with Technics headphones, bass and environment tweaked - for a 128kbit/s [- a bit crazy after all the criticism MD received?] download it really DID seem like I was in the recording studio! (Ignored artefacts). Better than a (cheap) CD portable that I had been using for years! mdmad. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paperclip Posted April 3, 2010 Report Share Posted April 3, 2010 .. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Soundbox Posted April 3, 2010 Author Report Share Posted April 3, 2010 Great story, Paperclip. Thanks for sharing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scarrabri Posted April 3, 2010 Report Share Posted April 3, 2010 Hi paperclip what a brilliant story that is ,made me shiver lol, just to add a little note about minidisc,i went to the supermarket this morning,and the guy working there was selling cassette players to plug into usb,he asked me if i was interested in one, i replyed no thanks i have a minidisc ,well can you believe,that started him off ,he had grown up with minidisc,and loved everything about them lol and is as keen today as ever ,lol 1 hour latter he was still going on about them,as i politely headed for home lol but i can understand why ,Brian Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paperclip Posted April 5, 2010 Report Share Posted April 5, 2010 Thanks guys. Share a story if you have one, I like to read them. BTW, if anyone wants that Costello album on MD let me know and I get it to 'ya... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Gray Rider Posted April 5, 2010 Report Share Posted April 5, 2010 I remember my favourite MD experience being back around september 2006. I had made a few HiMD's with the new MZ-RH1 model. I wasn't taking my anti-psychotic medication and my brain had developed more dopamine in it which gave a magnified sense of art I think. I made MD ideas such as 'Darkboy Tracks' which actually represented a teenage boy God which I crazily pretended to be because I liked the idea of owning cool things/not dying by myself etc. It had music such as 'Sharp' by Etnica, Money (orbital club mix) by the Orb, stuff that seemed to fit with the idea - like in 'Funkadelia' by Etnica how Bill Pullman says 'and now there is much we can learn from each other if we can negotiate a truce, we can find a way to co-exist, can there be a peace between us?' stuff like that. And the music seemed magical thanks to the dopamine. That was my favourite experience. Since then I have continued to make cool Himd compilations which have continued to impress me with such things as 'Fun Tracks'. I haven't been listening to it recently because of the sony X series walkman which I like because it can support WAV sound. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Gray Rider Posted April 5, 2010 Report Share Posted April 5, 2010 I was already aware of the LinearPCM Recording inscription but find it to be a meaningless one since you can only put 8 or so tracks on a HiMd disc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arr-Nine-Hundred Posted April 10, 2010 Report Share Posted April 10, 2010 This is a great thread, I enjoyed reading your stories. Lets keep it going! In 2001 I travelled to Japan for 3 weeks [2], I arrived in Tokyo with my R900 and a selection of favorite discs. Halfway through I decided to travel via the high-tech Shinkansen [3] "bullet train" from Tokyo to Kyoto. I knew it would be an unforgettable ride so I put on one of my favorite discs, a self-made [1] recording of the Ace Combat 3: Electrosphere soundtrack. The soundtrack is superb electro-ambient with track names like "The Protocol", "Miles Above", "Lithium", "Black Lotus" and "Transparent Blue" [5]. It perfectly matches the near-future scenario of the game. So there I was, in bright sunlight, relaxing back against the plush seat and the soundtrack kicked into my favourite tracks as the train accelerated to high speed. It was an amazingly smooth journey, truly futuristic and matched the music perfectly. I felt like I was flying Concorde at supersonic speeds. A few years after, I sold all of my MD gear except that disc, I could not bear to part with it. Now I'm back to MD and I am so glad I kept it with all the memories linked to it. [4] [1] Self-made in the sense that I extracted the tracks from the Playstation1 disc myself and recorded those via analogue to MD. I also remember using MAME to convert those wav's to mp3. I remember an oddity in that the wav's were 38Khz instead of 44.1Khz like I would expect from a CD audio track. [2] I bought a bunch of retro and new videogame stuff on my trip but was not sufficiently into MD to think about buying some lovely Japan-only MD gear. I regret that now! If I went now I'd be hunting down "designer" MD discs like TDK Bitclub etc. [3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shinkansen and http://members.shaw.ca/deanchamberland/Victoria/shinkansen.jpg [4] Here is the original disc photo I took just now, a white Sony ES (maybe I can get theblueraja to whip up a snazzy disc label for me): http://opticalgarbage.com/minidisc/img/ac3md.jpg [5] Soundtrack selection: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paperclip Posted April 10, 2010 Report Share Posted April 10, 2010 Bullet train! How cool is that?! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.