Guest Anonymous Posted January 17, 2003 Report Share Posted January 17, 2003 Hi: I'm looking into buying my first MD Recorder and am admittedly not very knowledgable on what the best options are for me. My main purpose for buying one is to replace my crappy cassette recorder that I use to record practices and song ideas (I'm a guitar player). Are there "preferred" models for this type of situation? I would like to record my ideas and transfer them into my PC that has the following gear: Echo Audio Layla 24 soundcard (24-bit/96kHz) Cubase VST 32/5.1 etc. A friend of mine has the Sharp 702 and another one has the 722. These are older models and I'm wondering if the technology has advanced enough for me to take advantage of what my digital audio system has to offer (24-bit, etc.). The Sharp DR7 looks really nice but I'm not sure if this is ideal for my situation. Any help would be appreciated. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Anonymous Posted January 22, 2003 Report Share Posted January 22, 2003 Bueller? Anyone? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leland Posted January 22, 2003 Report Share Posted January 22, 2003 Do you play acoustic or electric? If the input is loud, it is more difficult to record without some sensitivity settings. No portable recorders today have a digital output, so they would be roughly equivalent there, assuming they have a line out. You would have to record with an analog connection to your sound card to get it to your PC. If you had a deck, rather than a portable, you could get optical out, so if your sound card has optical inputs, you could make a digital recording. Problem is most decks lack a mic input. Otherwise, it is up to your preference of Sony vs. Sharp and how much you are willing to spend. I like Sony. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Anonymous Posted January 23, 2003 Report Share Posted January 23, 2003 I originally bought a Sony MZ-N707 for purposes similar to this. However, when I got home and started playing with it I was a little bit disappointed. NETMD does not = digital transfer from deck to computer. The recording level meter is not designed to easily show you how strong your mic input signal is. The remote control is practically useless for anything besides pressing play or stop and changing the volume. Fast forwarding/rewinding is difficult to do without accidentally skipping to the next song due to the slop in the controls. On the other hand, you can actually buy these models in an actual store in the US. I ended up purchasing a Sharp DR-7, (which I got today) and boy am I happy that I did. The controls on the deck are much tighter than the 707, which makes fast forwarding through tracks much easier. The level meter is clear and easy to read. The display itself is much sharper as well. The headphone amp is louder. It's just a much better product. Unfortunately, the only way to get one is to buy an import. I think it's worth it though. I would rather spend a little more money and chance having to send it back to Japan to get a good quality machine. I highly recommend looking into a Sharp if you're a musician and you want to record live music. -d Hi: I'm looking into buying my first MD Recorder and am admittedly not very knowledgable on what the best options are for me. My main purpose for buying one is to replace my crappy cassette recorder that I use to record practices and song ideas (I'm a guitar player). Are there "preferred" models for this type of situation? I would like to record my ideas and transfer them into my PC that has the following gear: Echo Audio Layla 24 soundcard (24-bit/96kHz) Cubase VST 32/5.1 etc. A friend of mine has the Sharp 702 and another one has the 722. These are older models and I'm wondering if the technology has advanced enough for me to take advantage of what my digital audio system has to offer (24-bit, etc.). The Sharp DR7 looks really nice but I'm not sure if this is ideal for my situation. Any help would be appreciated. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Anonymous Posted January 24, 2003 Report Share Posted January 24, 2003 Yeah, I was looking into the DR-7s. A friend of mine has the 722 and loves it. My DAW setup/soundcard (Echo Audio Layla24) has 24 bit optical and coaxial S/PDIF digital I/O: http://www.echoaudio.com/Products/Layla24/index.php I'd like to record my rehearsals, song ideas, etc., then import them into Cubase VST 32/5.1 and burn a CD for my vocalist to listen to. Is this realistic? This would be my main use for it...essentially an upgrade to my crappy sounding cassette recorder. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Anonymous Posted January 24, 2003 Report Share Posted January 24, 2003 Unless you buy a deck with an optical out (and those are all the rack mount/hi-fi compenent kind) there is no way to get an exact digital copy of the recording onto your computer. However, you can still record from the headphone out jack on your portable and the recording doesn't seem to lose too much quality. Whether the recording was good in the first place (good mic, good mic placement, etc) will have a much greater effect on how it sounds when you transfer it to your computer. I never played around with a cassette recorder, so I can't tell you if getting an MD will ugrade your sound quality at all, but I can tell you that there are a lot of other benefits to MD. No degradation in sound quality after multiple rewrites on the same disc. Immediate access to whatever track you want. Size! For sitting around and writing music, switch to LP2 mode (cuz it doesn't really matter how great it sounds, you just want to remember what ideas you came up with) and you can record for 2 and 1/2 hours. Hope this was helpful. -d Yeah, I was looking into the DR-7s. A friend of mine has the 722 and loves it. My DAW setup/soundcard (Echo Audio Layla24) has 24 bit optical and coaxial S/PDIF digital I/O: http://www.echoaudio.com/Products/Layla24/index.php I'd like to record my rehearsals, song ideas, etc., then import them into Cubase VST 32/5.1 and burn a CD for my vocalist to listen to. Is this realistic? This would be my main use for it...essentially an upgrade to my crappy sounding cassette recorder. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Anonymous Posted January 24, 2003 Report Share Posted January 24, 2003 Oops... one more thing. I noticed you mentioned the 24 bit capability of your setup. No MD player will be able to take advantage of this. If you really want to record without degrading sound quality, direct to CD-R or hard drive is the best option. MD is able to store so much info on a disk because it compresses the data it is storing (there is a lot written on this in the FAQ section of minidisc.org). So it will never sound as good as something recorded on a more professional setup. However, as a low cost alternative to a portable DAT machine, and a definite step up from a cassette deck, it's the way to go. -d Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Anonymous Posted January 30, 2003 Report Share Posted January 30, 2003 Thanks for the info... Based on my set up and needs, would it make sense for me to purchase something like the DR-7? Or, would I be OK with an older unit like the 722? I don't want to spend extra $$$ for unneeded bells and whistles that the DR-7 might have. I'm also seeing people mention something called NETMD vs. some other format and what its capable of (or not capable of in some cases.) Could you briefly explain the differences for a MD newbie? Thx Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tbdoah Posted January 30, 2003 Report Share Posted January 30, 2003 NetMD allows up to 32x reocrding speeds (64x on the newer Sonys). Unless an mp3 type device is what you're looking for (which you're not), a non-netmd device seems right for you. But, if you want the addition of editing functions from your computer, a NetMD model may be good for you. If you opt for NetMD, I'd suggest a Sharp IM-MT880/899H, merely because the main purpose will be live recording, and Sharps have always been better for that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Anonymous Posted January 31, 2003 Report Share Posted January 31, 2003 Cool...thanks. I'll probably end up getting the DR7. Is the consensus here that Japan Direct is the place to get it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Anonymous Posted January 31, 2003 Report Share Posted January 31, 2003 Cool...thanks. I'll probably end up getting the DR7. Is the consensus here that Japan Direct is the place to get it?I'd check HyperJack, MiniDisco, or AudioCubes first... http://www.t-station.net/md_products.html http://www.minidisco.com/ http://www.audiocubes.com/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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