SileEeles Posted October 8, 2013 Report Share Posted October 8, 2013 Hi all If you've read my last thread (or my very first one at least) you know know that I have amassed quite a lot of MiniDisc equipment. I say a lot ... is probably quite a small collection compared to what some of you own Anyway, I've changed quite a lot in terms of how I record, what I use and how I do it, etc. I now record mostly via optical cable to my deck, MDS-JE440. Intially, I was optical recording to my MD-MT80 Portable, but MDietrich mentioned that "owning a stationary Type-R deck... consider yourself lucky, for you have the best possible ATRAC quality" so I figured I might as well just used that. Before that I was using NetMD, and just recording discs via that. What stopped me is the fact that I tend to use MiniDiscs to house an artists personal best of, if that makes sense. My favorite songs covering many albums. A few of these albums have places where gapless is required and NetMD (or at least SonicStage) doesn't do this. The other thing was, when I was compiling for a disc (a band called The Birthday Massacre), I noticed that a lot of the songs have an atmospheric noise coming off of the end of the song, going into the next one. When I initially burned the disc via NetMD, it sounded like a mess and just ended up irritating me somewhat, so I placed all of the songs into a DAW I use, Mixcraft, and blended them together that way so it was gapless, and really quite good, I was very pleased with myself. I burned it as a whole track (over and hour long or so) via optical, and then separated them later. It is a process I've since used on a few discs, I quite enjoy doing it this way. The only thing I use NetMD for at the moment is titling tracks. Sod doing that letter by letter. I imagine the process I use will change again in future, it always does. I'm forever changing things. I use the optical out on my PC, which is set to 24bit/48kHz. I know that MiniDiscs will just bring it down to 44.1kHz but I can't change it. The control panel only gives me two options, 48kHz and 96kHz and either one of those can be set to 16 or 24bit, ultimatley I'm not fussed about it. I am curious what version of ATRAC the MD-MT80 has. My deck states ATRAC DSP Type-R/ATRAC3 and both NetMD units state Type-S but from what little I can gather Type-S improves ... something to do with LP2/4. Oh, I forgot. I also print my own labels now. Nothing fancy, just labels for the cases that give track listing, label for the face of this disc and the spine/bottom/whatever you want to call it. Part of the reason I would buy sealed discs so often was the labels they came with, but I was constantly changing discs and wasting them. And then my brain went "I wonder if they sell A4 sticker paper?" Turns out they do You can get just about anything in this day and age. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PhilippeC Posted October 8, 2013 Report Share Posted October 8, 2013 What is this strange LG thing you have on your deck ? A ventilator or a DJ unit (explaining how you get your DAW )... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SileEeles Posted October 8, 2013 Author Report Share Posted October 8, 2013 It is my Hi-Fi I'm poor enough that expensive amplifiers are out of my budget but that a decent CD-System is still quite expensive but affordable. It has an Aux-In which is all that mattered at the time, which lets me plug my various phono components into it. I have a 3-way selector thing which is hidden out of view so I can switch between the PC, MiniDisc and ... I think the other one is empty. I can imagine a Hi-Fi like that is an audiophiles nightmare but I am not an audiophile, I mean to a certain extent I like my music to sound good, and to my ears it does It has the added benefit of a USB port on it, so its a convenient phone charger in my case but it allows you to record from pretty much any source to USB, and also supports playback from most USB sources. It has a 5 Channel Mixer sat next to it which I used to record guitar input / condenser mic input and it plugs into my PC via USB (to my DAW ), I just couldnt find anywhere else to put it, so it sits on my MD Deck. It does mention "Auto DJ" on one of the buttons, which is (according to the manual) a feature that "fades tracks together" but its not a feature I will ever use. It is a step down from my previous system, that was an Aiwa NSX-999MkII, but ... It was old, nothing worked, generated quite a lot of heat and ... it was just time to replace it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
punkrockaddict Posted October 8, 2013 Report Share Posted October 8, 2013 I use the optical out on my PC, which is set to 24bit/48kHz. I know that MiniDiscs will just bring it down to 44.1kHz but I can't change it. The control panel only gives me two options, 48kHz and 96kHz and either one of those can be set to 16 or 24bit, ultimatley I'm not fussed about it. I am curious what version of ATRAC the MD-MT80 has. My deck states ATRAC DSP Type-R/ATRAC3 and both NetMD units state Type-S but from what little I can gather Type-S improves ... something to do with LP2/4. Afaik every Soundcard works internally in 48khz. So downsampling it to 44,1khz to match something is afaik not always the best if it can´t be changed it don´t matter that much, does it ? Type-S should improve Playback on LP tracks.Nothing more.Otherwise its the same as Type-r Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SileEeles Posted October 8, 2013 Author Report Share Posted October 8, 2013 Afaik every Soundcard works internally in 48khz. So downsampling it to 44,1khz to match something is afaik not always the best if it can´t be changed it don´t matter that much, does it ? Type-S should improve Playback on LP tracks.Nothing more.Otherwise its the same as Type-r No, and this is what I was saying, im not fussed by it, it works so. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sfbp Posted October 8, 2013 Report Share Posted October 8, 2013 Afaik every Soundcard works internally in 48khz. Not true. I have at least two sound cards with 44.1 selectable. It's possible u r right but the improvement when I switch it it to the matching Fs would suggest otherwise. When playing compressed ATRAC, at least. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SileEeles Posted October 8, 2013 Author Report Share Posted October 8, 2013 Oddly enough I've just discovered I can change it to 44.1kHz, but I need to do so via the Windows control panel as oposed to the software one that was provided for my particular sound card, and which I was previously using. "Via HD Audio Deck" only provides me with 48/96kHz where as Windows lets me pick from 44.1 to 96kHz in either 16 or 24bit Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sfbp Posted October 9, 2013 Report Share Posted October 9, 2013 Great. So you can do your own experiments to see if that makes a playback difference. Have fun! Stephen Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SileEeles Posted January 20, 2014 Author Report Share Posted January 20, 2014 rather than post a new topic for something quite small and trivial I figured I'd add it to one I already have. This amused me breifly. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Sony-MDSJE440-Mini-Disc-Playerrecorder-tested-and-working-/261379175524 At first I thought the top of the unit was dented, but it just appears that the camera has a dull/black spot on it. The other thing I noticed was the description said "good clean condition" ... yeah ... ok then. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Azureal Posted January 21, 2014 Report Share Posted January 21, 2014 That is funny, it looks like a huge dent in the top! You can see from the the other pictures that as you say the camera obviously has a problem. I still would not consider it to be in "good clean condition" either! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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