MD for Professional Use

[zahne]

Just out of curiosity, I'd be interested in hearing if people are currently using MDs for professional use in any capacity. HiMD or standard. While Sony is shutting down the assembly line, Tascam is still making MD decks and HHB is still making blanks.

Pro users: are you a musician, journalist, audio engineer, filmmaker etc?

I'll start this off.

I'm a filmmaker and I've amassed a lot of media over the years. I used an HHB MDP unit (the one w/phantom power for shotgun mics) for live sound for a feature film I worked on. My group has since switched over to the Zoom line of recorders for ease of transfers. But believe or not I still use MD. Not for production but for archiving. Might not sound practical but here's how I came to that conclusion.

I have a three level system for archiving.

While in production of a short film, feature film, web series all of the assets that make up that certain project sit on a single folder on a server of active projects. That folder is broken down into sub folders ie foley, raw footage, images etc etc.

Once the film is complete and needs to be set aside to make room for new active projects, it enters the archive system.

Primary Archive (Complete Project):

All assets are stored as the unified Master Folder of any given project on an external drive with RAID 0+1 protocol. This is an external containing two drives: the main drive and a live mirror clone. Whenever a change is made on the main drive it is automatically duplicated on the mirror.

This primary archive serves as the main access point for archived projects. This is the only backup that contains all the assets of a given project in a single place. It is very important that it only be used when absolutely necessary to consider the stability and lifespan of the drives.

Secondary Archive (The Master):

This is an Apple ProRes 4444 master copy of the film. It is burned as data onto a BluRay disc. This contains the highest bitrate, color space, resolution and audio samplerate/bitrate. If anything happens to the raw files and all other assets in the primary backup there will at least be a master copy that can be copied for web, DVD, Blu-Ray, screening etc.

The content is a master copy of the finished product. Not raw materials. Final edit of product and final mix of audio.

Tertiary Archive (Long Term Storage):

Audio and video live separate physical media that is designed for longevity. This raw or multitrack final edit material. These aren't accessed unless a project is being re-mastered, re-edited or the preview archives have been lost or damaged.

Each audio track as it appears in the final edit. Audio dialog as its own stereo track. Music as its own stereo track. Foley as its own stereo track. Whenever there is a need to go back to access a specific clean sound byte, these multi-tracks are available.

The video is another story. For the projects that were shot on motion picture film, the original negative is cleaned and spliced on reels to act as the tertiary backup. For projects that are digital from the start, I may consider Sony's forthcoming optical archive solution for raw footage.

One thing I've learned is that when all else fails, make sure you have a back up on a format that you can trust. I don't know if MDs will live the 50 years that HHB promises but I know I've had MDs since 1997 and have never had an issue.

It's lossless quality but it's durable, long lasting and cheap (Hi-MD not included in that statement). When everything fails, I'll be glad to pull tracks from the lossy MD over optical in to my MacPro. Especially when my alternative is to have the project lost.

I even did some digging and considered other last resort media options, here's what I came up with:

DAT and Digital Tape: I've DAT and MiniDV and they have both have faded over time. Scanning and managing tracks is more clumsy compared with MDs. When the heads fail, it's hard to find replacement parts or a replacement deck for cheap.

Analog Tape: I have 1/4" tapes that have shown definite signs of ware. Plus as far as discontinued/obscure formats go, it's still cheaper to get MD blanks than it is to get more reels.

BDs/CDs/DVDs: Taiyo Yuden is really great when it comes to longevity. They are really cheap and I can simply burn then when I want tracks put on and I can simply rip them when I want tracks taken off. That being said, they don't hold up to environmental challenges as well as MDs do. I've had the dye peel off on me even on official Taiyo Yuden CDs. I do my best to keep this stuff stored in a cool dry place but MDs are ready to adapt to changing circumstances. Not to mention the more the CDs get handled the more they get scratched.

Flash Storage: I really was sure that now that SSDs are $.80 to the gig, it would be my sure thing. You just mount the drive, drag and drop. The write speeds aside, I've still experienced issues with drives crashing. I had a Kingston drive as a startup disk. It was great for a while but then after a month or so it would take longer and longer for my computer to boot until one day it stopped booting. Then SD cards and USB flash drives were also considered. The issue here is that they are not meant for anymore than active use. The contacts on SD cards breakdown over time and the tiny components in USB drives break over time as well. Sometimes that can after heavy use or sometimes after moderate use.

Data Tapes/LTO: I'm not made of money! Besides I worked in a studio that used this, it was a nightmare. It always broke down, the heads require constant cleaning because all the gigs of data made it go into overtime.

If flash storage better develops a solution targeted toward archiving, that may eventually replace the MDs role here. Or perhaps Sony's optical drive solution once it comes out. Till then I don't see a last resort option that beats MD either because of size, durability, logevity or cost.

[Bwil]

I work for an international religious broadcaster, and we still do voiceovers on MD. This requires me, as a video editor, to have a minidisc deck in my suite for acquiring the VOs. This deck sometimes gets used, accidentally of course, to output a part of my personal audio collection via optical cable from Foobar2000. I have lobbied to have the MD discs given to me when/if we abandon the format.

Our radio division still uses them extensively for archiving, although I think they're beginning to move away from the format.

[zahne]

That's interesting I once filmed a gig at a church near me (CT) and the soundboard/PA system was hooked into a MiniDisc system. That was only 2 years ago. I should check to see if they still have it or have any plans to get rid of it.

It's what the used to record events and church services.

I guess for places that need something but don't need the best thing. Just something that will last, MD is a great choice. It's not lossless but the deck still works, it's better than tape and you can constantly reuse the same MDs over and over.

[Enzo Heavenly]

Hello there, I'm an aspiring musician (I assume that's the term xD), I've been working on my own songs by myself and now, with a friend. So I'm using my MZ-RH10 to do my 'Early demos' (mostly acoustic plus voice) so my partner can add the solo-work for my songs.

He owns a Zoom H2 we used to use for rehearsals (with a full band) but I was never impressed by the sound of it... But I really think I get better results with my RH10.

I will try to do a fast recording (on Saturday) playing chords and then -in another track- some lead guitar, and then mix it with Reaper on my PC, so you can have an idea what it'd be like to do demos manually.

[PhilippeC]

My son will start a 2 years professionnal training in sound next september. Minidisc will be use & test the much often I can with all the 16 & 32 numeric chanels he will handle (I hope).

[Russell Letson]

Since I started doing journalism in the 1980s, I've gone through cassette, DAT, and MD for field and phone interviews, winding up with a flash-based recorder (an Olympus LS model). For now. I've kept the original recordings in the archive right along, though I've anticipated inevitable technological obsolescence by migrating the most important material to CD or DVD. So far, the original media have proved to be less fragile than the associated playback devices--two Sony semi-pro portable DATs died, leaving me scrambling to find a compatible, reliable semi-pro rack-mount machine, with which I'm still migrating tapes to an Olympus to hard drive and eventually DVD. (Most of this is live music which is important to me but not to my writing projects.) I've had better luck with my MDs--mostly standard, with a relative few Hi-MDs. I have enough backup recorders, but crucial interviews for a book in progress are also being transferred to DVD. (And they've all been transcribed and printed out any way.)

As much as I loved my MD units (the B-100 was a terrific field interview machine--compact, simple, and reliable, and runs on a single AA cell), they are now part of the archive/backup system and left on the shelf. The LS-10/11 is just as reliable, more resilient (no moving parts), and holds much, much more data--and dumps quickly into the computer for editing and archiving.

[Azureal]

That's interesting history Russell, thank you for sharing.