i need help choosing the right MD player (if any at all)

[pallarandersvisa]

I play guitar, and I always record myself, whether i'm practicing, warming up, or jamming with a band. I have been using a Tascam 4 track cassette recorder on 60 minute cassettes. the cassettes run at $1.90 each, and I can go through them pretty quick.

My question is, how much live audio can MD players record these days? Ive never even used one before. Ive heard about SP, LP2 and LP4, but im not sure what they mean as far as live recordings go.

How much do minidiscs usually run?

I dont really care about sound quality, since I'm usually just recording me practicing and noodling around, so what kind of MD player should I get?

also, do MD players have built in mic's so that you dont have to have an extra mic around all the time?

[KJ_Palmer]

Hi.

Assuming you use 80 minutes MD blanks here's what you can record:

You can record up to 3 hours 20 minutes on an MD, ie. 5 hours 20 mins.

SP = highest (near CD) quality: 80 minutes stereo.

Mono = same quality as SP, but monaural : 160 minutes mono.

LP2 = lower (but quite good) quality : 160 minutes stereo.

LP4 = lowest quality : 320 minutes (joint) stereo.

How long they record and playback is machine dependant, but for recent MD recorders expect something like 40 hours playback and 20 hours recording time and a single charge/battery. Also as they quality goes down, the recording/playback life goes up, ie. much more life with LP4 than SP.

Only the business recorders by Sony have built in mikes/speakers, ie. MZ-B10 and B100. I use the B10 for recording my own musical efforts and I'd say it's a worthy investment.

Kevin