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MiniDisc capabilities I was previously unaware of.

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Jimma

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Having used MiniDisc constantly since 1998 I really thought I knew the capabilities of the format. That was until recently when I purchased a Sony CHC-CL5MD bookshelf system from ebay in excellent condition for the bargin price of £30, including 36 used MDs.

As it has a cassette deck I set about copying some of my early DJ sets, mastered to tape before I started using MiniDisc, onto our favourite little discs. This was great as I was able to edit the two sides back together to remake the continuity of the original live performance. The only problem was that the tape recordings were, in some cases slightly longer than the capacity of the disc so the recording would come to a sudden and rather messy stop.

Upon reading the manual for the system I discovered that the MD deck could add a fade out at the end of the recording without having to re-record it. I tried this out and it worked fantastically!

I own several MiniDisc units, both hi-fi decks and MD/Hi-MD Walkmans and I have never come across this before. You can also add fade ins or outs to the begining or end of any disc or track that has already been recorded plus you can raise or lower the recorded audio level after the event.

All very clever stuff and it makes me wonder if there are any other features of MiniDisc of which I'm not aware. I do hope so. :imsohappy:

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Pitch control is definitely a function I was aware of. My NH1 has it, albeit not a particularly smooth sounding pitch control.

Being a DJ, I have always quite fancied getting a pair of MD Djing decks such as the Denon DN-M2300R or preferably a pair of Sony MDS-DRE1's, although they are expensive and quite difficult to get hold of. Obviously accurate pitch control is essential for beat matching in such equipment.

I would be interested to see people's reactions if I turned up to play at a club or rave and then played a banging set mixing from MiniDisc rather than my usual vinyl. I would think that would be a first for most people, including me.

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As far as I was aware, pitch control on all portables is a misnomer - it merely speeds up (or slows down) the playback whilst maintaining the pitch of the music. This is repeated in the B10 (and similar) as well as flash recorders (PCM-M10 and ICD-SX750 for example).

On decks you truly get pitch control (with concomitant speed variation).

Tell me I'm wrong, that the NH1 (I don't have one) is the honourable exception.

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You're not wrong. And how can a man with as much MD equipment as you NOT have an NH1? IMHO, one of the most beautiful portable MDs, and in my experience one of the more reliable.

Once or twice I almost bit. I'm a stickler for getting value - and I have mostly managed to get huge discounts on original list price. I had an NH1 in my sights a couple of times but here are the reasons I didn't get it:

1. Special USB connection required. All others (HiMD anyway) with USB are standard

2. 6V powersupply instead of the "standard Sony" 3V. I agree the batteries are the same as RH1. And the Sony supply is hemisphere- (well, AC voltage-) specific. So the ones I found in UK would have the same problem of the charger not working except on my 240V upconverter. The 3V units, at least I can use the more common Sony USA/Canada charger that are fairly easy to get over here.

3. It still requires RM-MC40ELK to use because no screen.

Also, I ended up getting one "bare" EH70 and eventually a second with all the trimmings (charge stand in particular which I can obviously use for both), and for player-only I am quite satisfied with these, as they are built like rocks***. The EH70 uses standard AA-battery sidecar, and works with RM-MC40ELK, too.

Just my $0.02.

*** there's a noticeable advantage to player-only HiMD's. With all the trouble I have seen with 1GB disks, the player only model is absolutely incapable of accidentally generating an uncompleteable write sequence (remember all HiMD is checksummed, encrypted up the wazoo) when it is in your pocket.

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