Rip from MD to hard disk - no USB connection, and very low line-out level

[LikeASong]

Hi everyone.

This is my first post over here, although I've been reading you all since a lot of months ago. My name is Sergio and I'm from Spain. Nice to meet you all

Don't have much time so I'll go to the point:

I recorded a live concert yesterday with my MZ R-500. The recording turned out pretty good, and I'd like to rip the audio.

I know my MD unit is the only (or one of the few) that doesn't have an USB connection, so extracting the tracks with Sonicsound is not an option.

And recording from the headphones output isn't an option either, since the volume of the recording is very very low (I used low sensitivity on the microphone to avoid distortion), and I've tried to record it in real time with Audacity and Nero WaveEditor, but I have to cranck the volume up so much that the hiss and hum is virtually unbereable.

Is there any way that I can extract the audio without doing a real time line-out (with the consecquent loss of sound quality)???

Thanks a lot in advance,

Sergio

[Azureal]

You could look in the MD setup on the recorder to see if there is an option to set the output to "Lineout" rather than "Headphone"many Sony units have this option in firmware settings. If the R500 has a lineout setting, it will produce a higher voltage and higher impedance output which will be more suited to drive the line in input of your sound card and should give you a better sound for re-recording.

Without purchasing additional hardware (i.e. RH1), there is no way for you to upload the recording, you will have to re-record it in real time from the R500 output on to computer.

EDIT:

I just checked the manual in the MD Browser here : R500 Manual and it looks like there is no mention of a line out setting, specifically on page 24 in the notes section it suggests increasing the volume to 27 in order to get the optimal output level for recording via the headphone output.

You may be able to record it to your hard disk using a wave recorder and then manipulate it there to increase the volume levels.

How did you make the recording with this device? It appears to have only an analog and digital line-in.

[LikeASong]

First of all, thanks for answering.

Yes, I checked the R500 manual and I've tried to record it at volume 27 (instead of the maximum 30) and it sounds very noisy too. After stopping the recording, I have to bump it +25dB (!!!!!!!!) in order to make it listenable at normal volume. The resulting noise and hiss are, obviously, very prominent.

I had my Realistic Radio Shack 33-1065 microphone on repair, so I recorded it with a pair of headphones. True story !!!

If you know some audio-physics, you'll know that the basis of microphones and earphones is the same; a microphone is basically the same than a headphone - just with a lot more of sensitivity. And viceversa. Theorically, any microphone could be used like a speaker, and any headphone can be used as microphone - and I've proved that. Moreover, the sensitivity of a headphone acting as microphone is so low that it won't ever virtually distort. The bad part of it is that the recording level is very low - that's what I've suffered.

Anyway, I have accepted that a real-time line-out recording is the very only way to extract the audio of my MD disk. Therefore, I'll do my best to edit the recording. In fact, I've tried to edit a 5 minute sample of the show, and it sounded pretty well. I've proccessed the stereo channels to remove most of the digital noise (which was much more prominent on the left channel), and applied a filter to remove the hi-freq hiss (mostly located between 8.500 and 11.000 Hz). The resulting recording was more than listenable (B- audience, even B+ if I'm able to improve the EQ a bit too)

Thanks a lot, and if someone has got any other advices or tips, just let me know!!