minidisc to CD for rehearsals/live performances

[Guest Anonymous]

I routinely record rehearsals of my band on minidisc. This is a great tool for "listening sessions" with the band to tweak our sound. However, not all of us have MD players. :cry: I recently recorded a live gig we played, and I'd like to take the tracks and make a CD for the band (NOT distribution quality, but just for our use. I don't want a $5000 of equiment solution.) I have access to an MD player with digital out (optical/coax). What's the best way to get the sound onto a CD? I know I can "play" analog output into a sound card (thus repeating the D/A and A/D cycles another time), but in addition to the obvious recording degradation, there's computer hardware and software to be bought. I really only need to move a couple of track marks, etc, so I'd imagine a CD burner with just the most rudimentary "intelligence" should do. Is there such a setup? What do you suggest?

[Devilbunny]

I'm sure someone out there makes a cd burner with an optical in, but frankly for the money you'd be better off getting a computer and a soundcard with optical in. Then you can manipulate to your heart's delight and burn as many copies as you like.

I think optical I/O boards go for maybe $60 or so, which is not really very much at all when you think of the convenience. If you don't have a computer, make friends with someone who has an old one they'll give you (there are lots of slow-but-would-do-the-job computers out there). A Pentium 133 with Windows 98 could do this job.

[Guest Anonymous]

Well, that's a good idea, Devilbunny, but for the cost of the software and the fact that I have a laptop (means no third-party cards). If there were a straightforward digital in to Firewire out external box, I'd be totally set. I've got tons of processing power (brand new 1GHz G4), but not connection yet.

[Devilbunny]

Well, you could try something like the Edirol UA-1D for your input. That seems to be the cheapest choice (about $100), and it works with both PC and Mac. It's USB, not Firewire, so you should probably leave the machine alone while recording, but otherwise it should do what you want.

For software, try Audacity. It's free.

I still think you'd be better off with a free computer and a real digital I/O card, but if you don't want to muck with it I can certainly understand.

[Guest Anonymous]

The recording software that comes with most CD burners is all you need plus you can get free samples of most audio software that will give you recording and editing capabilities. The problem with the UA-1D is it resamples all input to 48 khz. If you got about $500 to spend this little dodad (http://www.digigram.com/products/getinfo.htm?prod_key=11500) will solve all you computer recording needs. In fact if you get this you can throw out your minidisc entirely.

[Guest Anonymous]

Very cool. However, I believe this would require sound processing software. So, the cost of that way-cool PCMCIA card + software would exceed the cost of a dedicated CDR audio burner, and I wouldn't have the latency problems. I will certainly keep a watch on this technology, though, as future versions will make this a very attractive alternative to the all-hardware solution.

Thanks for the tip!

[Devilbunny]

The software I pointed to will do everything you asked for - the ability to cut a large .wav up wherever you want.

That said, it looks like you've decided. Good luck!

[Guest Anonymous]

Okay, Devilbunny. From the tone of your reply, I got the impression I came across as dismissive toward your advice, and I apologize for that. In any case, the message got me to check in on Audacity, and it looks pretty interesting. Do you know if it will support audio beyond 16 bit digitization? I'm running on a Macintosh, and without the ASIO drivers (I *think*) I am limited to 16-bit digitization. That might make for a lousy sounding CD. If I could get decent digitization from the laptop sound card, this might be a really interesting route to go.

I think I'm going to download and check out Audacity. It might actually meet a different audio need I also have.

[Guest Anonymous]

CDs are 16 bit :?:

[Devilbunny]

No, I didn't think you were being dismissive at all. It really does sound like a CD recorder would do exactly what you want, though another idea did come to me - you could buy a Nomad Jukebox 3 for $250 (which, as far as I can tell, is about the same as a CD-R). It's portable, useful for other things, and will record directly to .wav from a digital input (unlike, say, the Archos).

I don't know much about the software beyond basic features; I don't use music editing software for any of its fancy features (the major project I've done was on Cool Edit, and it was splicing a track together at a precise point). I assume that you meant you wanted more-than-16-bit-depth for processing; I don't know if it will do that or not.

[Reni]

I just had a note about the Nomad Jukebox 3 -- the built-in preamp on this thing is pretty crappy. If you record straight into the Jukebox you're going to get a lot of distortion if your band is even moderately loud. My friend has one of these and has to use a battery box in order to get a decent recording.

--Matt

[Guest Anonymous]

I conduct school orchestras, and a couple of years ago I bought a Sony mini-disc player to record our concerts. It works great, but I have one problem: I can't figure out how to make a good copy on CD. My player has no digital out. I have an Imac computer with CD burner, so I'm hoping someone can suggest a piece of hardware that will enable me to transfer digitally to CD. Are there MD decks with digital outs? Will I need software too? I'm not too technically savvy, so please answer in plain English.

[KJ_Palmer]

Yes, there are decks with digital outs, this is the only way to transfer from MD digitally. Only Sony make MD decks nowadays. Try looking for the MDS-JE780 or JB980, or the slightly older JE770/JB940.

[Umberto Eklat]

Hi All:

Just read all your previous messages and I was thinking people in this thread could be of help. I have an MD, an iMac, and I plan to buy an iMic to transfer my music to the iMac. Here's the question: what is the best and cheapest software for the Mac (of course) that I can use with the iMic?

I've downloaded various kinds of Macintosh recording software including Coaster, which is free, Sound Studio, and Audacity. The last two didn't work on my iBook (have no access to the iMac as of this writing) because while Sound Studio looked for veclib on the iBook (which runs OS 9.0.4), Audacity enabled a bit erratically. More than five times, launching Audacity would crash my system. So what should I do?

Or should I use Edirol instead, in terms of hardware and look for other software to record with it?

Any input is appreciated.

Thanks.