Do I want a Minidisc or something else?

[Guest Anonymous]

All I want to be able to do is record live shows, mostly in smaller venues, and copy them on CDR for trading purposes. And good sound quality is important. I've never used a MD, and don't know anything about them. But I've been doing some reading, and some people say you can't transfer music from a MD to CDR? So I guess my question is: What should I use if I want to record live shows in small venues and be able to trade CDR's of the shows? I'm sure the question has been asked before, but haven't found the answer so far. Thanks!

[KJ_Palmer]

But you can transfer from MD to CD-R (or any other format), I do it all the time.

What you can't do is faster than real-time uploading onto a PC.

Furthermore, if you don't have a deck with optical out you're stuck with analogue 'transfer' from MD, but that still yields very good results.

I'd say MD would be very useful for your purposes, if you can live with the initial real-time transfer.

[Guest Anonymous]

Minidisc is great for recording concerts and you can get minidisc recordings to cd. All you need to record concerts with minidisc is a minidisc recorder(obviously) and a good set of mics I use stealth Audio premium Binaurals www.stealthaudio.net Theyre great and their prices are the best around.

cheers

Chris

P.S small venues are usually really bassy i would reccomend getting bass roll off

[Guest Anonymous]

But you can transfer from MD to CD-R (or any other format), I do it all the time. 

What you can't do is faster than real-time uploading onto a PC. 

Furthermore, if you don't have a deck with optical out you're stuck with analogue 'transfer' from MD, but that still yields very good results. 

I'd say MD would be very useful for your purposes, if you can live with the initial real-time transfer.

By real-time uploading, do you mean that a 1-hour concert would take 1 hour to upload to my pc? And then it would be saved as a wav file on my pc, and I could burn that to cd? Are you sure that won't cause much loss of sound quality?

So what all equipment do I need to buy then? Just a MD recorder and a microphone? Or do I need to buy a deck? What recorder/mic would be best to buy?

7 questions in one post, sorry

[Guest Anonymous]

[Guest Anonymous]

By real-time uploading, do you mean that a 1-hour concert would take 1 hour to upload to my pc?  And then it would be saved as a wav file on my pc, and I could burn that to cd?  Are you sure that won't cause much loss of sound quality? 

So what all equipment do I need to buy then?  Just a MD recorder and a microphone?  Or do I need to buy a deck? What recorder/mic would be best to buy? 

7 questions in one post, sorry

You've got it right. If what you want to record is loud, you probably also want to purchase a battery box. Sound is pretty good, but you'll get a hiss from having an analog signal near all the electronics of a computer. You'll probably want to use a recording program that can dampen the hiss, and adjust bass levels of the recording.

Get stereo omnidirectional mic for recording. Preferably where the two buds can clip onto clothes, and be separated by half a foot.

You might consider using an Archos Recorder with battery box. Price is about the same as MD and it seems much more convenient to use in conjuction with a PC - but I don't have any experience with it, myself.

[Guest Anonymous]

I thought the Archos would supplant MD, too. It won't. Battery times are less and harder to swap, plus the analog input requires line level signals: you need a preamp for most mics. Lastly, I never liked their user interface. It's a bit buggy.

MD, on the other hand, may be slow to upload to the PC, but it's overall a bit easier to use during the recording. Also, most portables are smaller than anything Archos sells, so if stealth is an issue their easier to conceal.

Rod