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PC -> MZ-R90 recording?

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Brendan H

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Hello! I recently picked up a Sony MZ-R90 MD player/recorder from eBay, mostly as a nostalgia kick. I had one back when they were the new hotness and I just loved the thing. I was always sad that Minidisc faded away, but I'm happy to have found a good condition unit to get me back into it 🙂 I don't actually have it in-hand yet but should have it later this week.

 

I've been wondering about somehow recording to the MZ-R90 and could use some input. My current thought is to attempt to connect from SPDIF out on my Win 11 PC to the optical in on the MZ-R90. If I then play MP3s on the PC I should be able to record them to minidisc, right? I know it will be in real time but I'm ok with that for now at least. It might even be another nice trip down memory lane, lol. 

 

I would appreciate any thoughts or suggestions on how best to get up and running. I have access to Mac & PC in case that helps.

 

Thanks!

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Hi @Brendan H, welcome to the forum.

 

What you're suggesting should work fine. I've not got an MZ-R90 but have made digital recordings from PC to a Sony MiniDisc deck without any issues. You might encounter some issues with track markers if the music you're trying to record is gapless (i.e. no silence between tracks).  Recording from a PC doesn't seem to send over the track marker information in the same way as recording from a CD player does but you can always add these in manually if it is an issue for you.

 

Good luck and let us know how you get on 🙂

 

Oh, and you might need to silence mail notifications etc on your computer prior to starting to record as any other sounds your PC makes will end up on your recordings.

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Thanks again for the help on this. The unit arrived today in perfect condition and I got to work testing an album transfer to MD...

 

I was able to record over the SPDIF connection from iTunes on Windows 11. Thanks for the tips on isolating the playback to the optical out. I directed everything else to my usual speaker output. It worked like a charm. The only unfortunate thing was I had to manually enter all the track marks as it recorded my entire test album on a single track. Not a big deal, but I would like to figure out a way around that.

 

Very happy to have my hands on a minidisc player again!

 

 

IMG_1097.jpeg

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Just now, BearBoy said:

Did you use "Synchro Recording"? The manual states that:

 

 

Might be worth a try if you hadn't.

 

Yep - Synchro Recording was enabled. That was still useful as it started and stopped the recording automatically. I wonder if there just wasn't enough dead air between the tracks, although there certainly seemed to be between at least a few of them. Maybe other albums will be more co-operative. For reference, the one I recorded was the Daft Punk soundtrack to TRON: Legacy.

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I've just tried a quick test with iTunes and an MDS-JB980 and am getting similar results to you (four songs in and still on Track 1 on the MiniDisc). The album I'm trying it with does seem to have very short gaps between the songs though.

 

There's a possible solution here:

 

 

 

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1 hour ago, BearBoy said:

I've just tried a quick test with iTunes and an MDS-JB980 and am getting similar results to you (four songs in and still on Track 1 on the MiniDisc). The album I'm trying it with does seem to have very short gaps between the songs though.

 

There's a possible solution here:

 

 

 


Thanks for that! I’ll have to give that a try for sure. 

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