After recording how do ya transfer to the PC?

[A440]

It's probably under Creative Audio--just click around. Another way to find it would be Start-->Find-->Recorder, and see what Creative folder it's in.

Or ignore Creative and download and install good old free Audacity. The mixer is about midway up, just above the numbers (-1.0, etc.), and it probably already has Line In selected and the volume controls up. Connect the MD, click the big red button and push Play on the MD.

You can also edit the recorded track in Audacity.

http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

[Linda]

A440, great news! I was able to record from the mini-disc to the computer!

Flight to Austin: $300

cab fare: 30

replacing cell phone left

in cab: 100

Hotels: 300

Tickets to SXSW concerts: 300

Sony mini-disc recorder 300

fancy microphone 100

new sound card 150

new cd burner 200

cable from Radio Shack 200

Your own cd of Willie Nelson

that you taped yourself: PRICELESS

But A440, I'm not done yet, it doesn't sound good! It's all crackly, and not very loud or good quality. Nothing like listening to the mini disc. But I can work on that, now that I know I can record, I will play around with it, and try to get the sound better.

I still don't see any way to edit the tape. (As a newbie recorder, there is too much of me on the recording. By the third night I learned not to sing along).

Thanks again for your quick response.

[Linda]

A440, I am going to try Audiocity.

Will all these softwares fight for control of the sound on my computer?

[A440]

The good thing is that you're connected now, so all that's left is tweaking.

Audacity is very well-behaved and is only a recorder/editor--it won't try to play back your CDs or mp3s.

The volume should be a matter of adjusting volume out of the MD and volume in on the Recorder. It's possible that if the incoming signal was extremely low that the static is just the recorder trying to compensate.

Otherwise crackly is a little harder to diagnose, but could just be a simple connector problem. Just to make sure everything's connected properly, have you tried playing a CD on your computer through the Extigy? (You may have to go into Settings--Control Panel--Sounds or Multimedia (depends on Windows version) and set playback through the Extigy, or it may already be set that way). If there's a problem with that, make sure the USB's fully plugged in and volume knob is turned up on the Extigy (it goes around and around forever, by the way, and doesn't stop at the maximum--that's how it's made, for some reason). There's always a slight possibility the Extigy itself is $%&@%$&, but you've got a warranty.

Assuming that CD playback sounds normal, try just playing the MD through the Extigy without the Recorder in between: headphone out to line in, and listen through the Extigy's headphone jack. That will tell you if the 1/8 to 1/8 cord is OK--sometimes Radio Shack has a lemon.

Conceivably the recording is good and it might just be a Windows playback adjustment. If you have a little speaker icon in your Windows system tray (bottom right), click on it and make sure Microphone and Auxiliary and MIDI are unchecked--all you want going through there are Wave Out, CD-Rom and maybe Line In. Or go to Start--Programs--Accessories--Entertainment--Volume Control and do the same thing.

It's also possible the Recorder is trying to record from more than one source at the same time, and getting static from other inputs. Make sure only line-in is checked.

If you switch to Audacity, it will only take one source at a time, so that would eliminate that possibility.

Try these and see if they work.

Meanwhile, you can use your mediocre recording to experiment with editing. With WaveStudio or Audacity, you should be able to open the file and see the waveform. You can just Select chunks of it (probably by holding down Shift) and delete them, put them in new files, etc.

Keep tweaking, you'll get there.

[Linda]

Thanks so much! Great advice :smile:

[Christopher]

I tried to make him a moderator but he wouldn't have it. :sleep: He is a true asset for this board and I hope that he continues to give great advice to those he can. :happy:

[Linda]

He has been so patient and helpful with my many questions, that's for sure.

This is complicated for us beginners, and I am grateful for the help.

[Linda]

Kirisu, you own all the systems listed on your post? What do you do with them all? or Why do you have so many?

Linda

[Christopher]

Well, the one I primarily use the most is the DS8 for playback-only purposes, as it's a player-only unit. :happy: It features incredible sound and I love it dearly. The second-most used unit is my Sharp SD-NX10 bookshelf, which resides in my room and handles a few of my recordings and when I want to listen to MD's in my room.

The MZ-E7W I merely purchased as a collector's item. When I saw it on eBay, the price was way low and I had the money to splurge. It's one of my favorite units of all time. I [rarely] use the MZ-S1 for NetMD.

I suppose I'm just eccentric and love my Minidisc equipment. :happy:

[MDX-400]

The MZ-E7W I merely purchased as a collector's item.  

I suppose I'm just eccentric and love my Minidisc equipment.  :happy:

Yep, agreed :grin: You're way to eccentric, Chris! You have too many units! Even enough to have collector's items! :rasp:

I guess some people just get addicted to buying MD units! Strange indeed! :grin: LOL hahaha...

[mAjEsTiC]

heh...i agree also though i'm somewhat of a collector myself so i can relate to the number of units that kurisu owns (or has owned...) Leland i think is also in the same boat... :happy:

[MDX-400]

heh...i agree also though i'm somewhat of a collector myself so i can relate to the number of units that kurisu owns (or has owned...) Leland i think is also in the same boat... :happy:

LOL, haha :laugh: Majestic, are you on the T-Board as well? My comments above were actually a joke--while I don't have a signature here (haven't made one yet), if you see my sig on the T-Board (if you haven't already) you'll see what I mean... :rasp:

[mAjEsTiC]

yup i c what u mean actually... :happy: but no i'm not on T-Boards..i visit T-Board every now and then to find if there's anything interesting to read...

[Linda]

Hey, A440, I have another question, if you aren't sick of me yet!

I told you that I have successfully uploaded my recording from the mini disk to the computer, via my extigy sound card. But when I play it back, it sounds crackly, dull and not loud.

When I play my mini disk through sound card, it sounds great, through the new speakers. Just like being at the concert! But when I copy it, or record it from the mini disc, real time, to the computer, it comes out sounding lousy.

When recording, I select the "line", and the "wav stereo". What megahertz, (Is that the word? I'm at work; don't know the terms). What number should I use? There are several options.

I am still tweaking, but no luck on getting the good sound to the computer.

Should I move the mini-disc recorder away from the machines, or play with the cords more, or put the sound card on the floor?

I suggestions on how to tweak.

Any help would, of course, be appreciated.

Linda

[A440]

Hey, you're turning into a real tweaker, and maybe you've found the problem

I think the number you're referring to is the sampling rate--how many times per second the computer samples the sound. The higher the number, the higher the fidelity. (Like a movie--the more frames per second, the more detail you capture.) You want it to be a high number--44,100 is the rate for CDs, so use that. If a low number was checked, I'd bet that was the problem.

If you're using Audacity to record, you can do it in Audacity's Preferences. Also make sure under Audio I/O that Record in Stereo is checked and the Extigy is Playback Device and Recording Device.

[Linda]

Thank A440.

I did not download the audicity software (yet). I have been using the program on extigy. Maybe will I take your good advice and download that and try it.

Thanks again.

I want to send you a copy of this cd, if I ever get it done right. You've earned it :smile:

Linda

[anont]

Thank A440.

I did not download the audicity software (yet).  I have been using the program on extigy.  Maybe will I take your good advice and download that and try it.

Keep at it, and definitely try recording with other programs, but be aware of the possibility that the Extigy just doesn't work, as that was my experience with the Extigy.

[A440]

Anont--

Couldn't agree more that if the card doesn't work, now's the time to find out while it's under warranty.

But if Linda is getting good sound out of the speakers via the card, I'd guess there's a good signal in there somewhere waiting for the right connection. How's it going, Linda?

[A440]

Linda--

Something else occurred to me. You mentioned speakers. Speakers have magnets in them that could conceivably affect the cords or the card. If you can move them away from the computer setup by the length of their cords, do that.

But I still think your sampling-rate question might be what's going on. I only have the Creative Playcenter in my other computer and haven't used it, so I don't know where to find the setting, but it sounds like you do. Before you switch to Audacity try resetting the sampling rate to 44,100. And if you have recording-level control settings and they look low, turn them up too, since you said there wasn't much volume on the recording.

Can you plug your headphones into the Extigy while recording and monitor what's coming through as you play with recording levels? And then see if what you hear as you record is the same as what comes through on playback. That might isolate where in the chain things are going astray.

[Linda]

Thanks for the tips re: speakers, and cords and magnets and using the headphones while I record.

Tonight is first chance I have had to play with this. Never enough time! This working full time really cuts into my hobbies...

I'll let you know what happens...

Thanks so much, everyone.

Linda

[Linda]

Hurray!

It worked! I tried all your ideas, moved the big woofer thing to the floor in the corner, spread out the little speakers, moved the sound card to a foot stool. I am taking up the whole room with all these cords.

And I took the sampling rate all the way up to 48,000. And i upped the levels on the recording place, the volume, and some other level indicator that I am not sure what it does.

And I just played back my recording and it sounds great!

Thank you so much, for your help A440, and everyone else. Now I am going to have to do a little editing on the recordings, take out some of the talking (..."hey, this thing won't stay lit!) and me singing along.

I am so excited. thanks a lot! I'll let you know how it goes from here on out.

Linda

[Linda]

Hey, A440;

You're not shut of me yet...

Where do I go, or how can I edit out the aforementioned talking? I can't figure out how to edit my recording on the computer.

Do I need the Audicity software for that?

Thanks again.

[A440]

Congratulations, Linda!

And very glad to help. (Especially since I missed Willie at SxSW.)

Now if you really want to tweak, you can move the card off the footstool and bring the speakers closer and see if it was the sampling rate all along or if it was some mysterious electromagnetic effect.

I don't know if 48,000 is necessary, since CDs are lower, but that's entirely up to you. Your CD burner will convert them to 41,500 anyway.

Editing: The Creative Playcenter includes a sound editor called WaveStudio, which probably has more features than Audacity. Again, I haven't used it, but it probably asks you to open a file--whatever you called the Willie recording--and then you can play it back while it displays the waveform. Applause will look different from songs, so you can probably find it pretty quickly. You'd go to the spot where you were talking, highlight it (probably by holding down the Shift key, like a word processor) and delete it (probably in an Edit menu or with the Delete key).

Another thing you can do is make each song a separate track. WaveStudio may allow you to make separate tracks--look in the Edit menu or Help file and see. If not, you'd highlight each song, open a new file (Willie-1-Whiskey-River.wav), and copy the song into the new file--just like cut-and-paste. Then you could have your CD burning program burn the songs you want in any order.

An alternative way (for your next recording, probably) would be to edit the MD itself before you record to the PC. You can place a track mark before and after whatever you want to remove, and then erase the track. I usually do that to cut out applause, etc., before recording to PC, since my hard disk is almost full and I want to save MB as well as recording time.

Happy recording, and you should be proud that you weren't daunted by all the tech details. Now that you've found good settings, I hope the next one is a breeze.

[Linda]

A440, I can't find anything on how to edit on thecomputer. None of the CREATIVE help links show anything like what you are talking about.

I will keep looking. You think it should have that kind of capability, huh?

....frustrated, again...

Linda

[A440]

Look through the Program-->Playcenter menu, and see if Wavestudio is in there. Or do a Find--Files and look for wavestudio.

But if the card didn't install Wavestudio anywhere in the whole Playcenter menu, then don't bother with it and get Audacity.

Here's the link again:

http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

It'll easily do the job and it won't mess anything up, and all the icons and settings are sensibly arranged.

[Linda]

Thanks, A440.

I am going to look again tonight when I get home. I appreciate your help.

Linda

[Linda]

Hey, A440.

Thanks for the tip about audicity. I downloaded it and am appreciating it's straitforwardness. I think I can do this!

Another glitch, though.. When I am listening to the recording that I uploaded from the mini disc to the computer, when I am listening to the playback from the computer, There are little burbs about every 20 seconds. Kind of like something is shorting out or something.

Any suggestions to what causes this? Is my question clear?

The burbs aren't in my original recording.

[A440]

That's pretty bizarre. The question is whether the recording you made has the noise or whether the playback is somehow adding it.

What are you playing it with? Windows Media Player, Creative Playcenter, something else? Open it with Audacity and play it back, watching the waveform to see if the noise is in there. Or try downloading winamp (www.winamp.com), perhaps the final version of Winamp 2 (2.92) rather than Winamp 5, and use Winamp to play it and see if the noise is stilll there.

If it's definitely in the recording, try recording it to the PC again (or just a minute or two to test) with Audacity rather than whatever you used before, and see if the problem goes away.

It's possible it could be the cord, though if I remember you already tested that.

It's also possible it could be a sound coming from one of your programs running in the background that's getting into the soundcard. Have you turned off program sounds? (Settings-->Control Panel-->Sounds, change most of them to (none) ).

Try some of these, and see if it disappears (I hope).

[Linda]

Thanks A440;

I will try your suggestions. When I plug in my mini disc player and push play the sound comes through the speakers great. There is no burps, cutouts when I play it. It's when I play it back through the computer. I will try your suggestions. I think the cords are okay, because the sound is okay.

One question: (one of many, so far, I know :smile: ):

When I didn't have enough of those USB plug in places, my nephew gave me one of his docking stations that has 6 holes, so I am using them, because I needed more -- laptop only had one. When I installed it, it said that something was slow, and things might not work as well as they should, or something. Nephew said try it and see if it works. Everything seems to be running smoothly, so far. Do you think the cut-outs could be because I don't have the USB2, or high speed USB (or is it USP; sorry I'm at work, can't remember right now). You know what I mean? Maybe I need to get a new docking station, a newer one? Shall I try that?

BTW, I sure like audicity! I am learning to edit, etc. I don't know how I am playing the songs. I think through creative software. I will try playing through the audicity.

Thanks again, from Linda, in Colorado...

[A440]

The Extigy takes some of your computer's processing power, and if the computer is trying to run other USB ports at the same time it might well be choking on the load, especially if you're running other USB devices at the same time.

How fast is your computer (Mhz or Ghz), and how much memory does it have (you can find memory--256KB or whatever-- in Settings-->Control Panel-->System-->Performance. ).

Does playing a regular CD in the computer give you the same problem? If so, definitely try taking the docking station out of the circuit and plugging the Extigy into your poor lonesome USB port and see if that resolves the problem.

You don't need to plug in the MD's USB cable at all while recording through the Extigy--just the headphone to line-in connection. So make the soundcard your sole USB device while recording. The crucial thing is to get a high-quality recording into the computer so you can burn it to CD, and once that's done you can try the docking station again and plug in all the printers and scanners you want.

But six USBs sounds like a lot of potential problems, especially if your computer complained when you installed it. And getting faster ones might take even more computer power, so don't do that yet. Especially if you have an older computer.

[Linda]

Well, A440, I am playing a cd now, as we speak, or as I type. And it is cutting out the same as when I play the concert music I uploaded to the computer. Good detective work! Now I am going to unplug all these devices, and try to upload with my lonely usb port. I have a Dell laptop. An inspiron 4100. About four years old, I think. I'll check on the memory. But now I am excited to try to copy the music from mini disc, and see if I get rid of that burp.

Thanks again!

I'll keep you informed....

Are you sick of me yet?

[Linda]

Thank you, A440!

I don't know how you do it!

Something worked! I have a good recording now in my computer, burbless, no cutting out. Hurrah! Thank you so much.

I used just the one USB port, and got rid of the 6-port docking station. I shut off the sound, and turned off all the proograms. And it worked!

I think yuo so much. Now I can play with editing. I really like the Audicity. I recorded and played back using it.

You have been so, so helpful!

Linda

[A440]

Phew--I was getting worried there. But this is another one you diagnosed yourself.

I guess the lesson for others reading this is to keep the recording and playback path as uncomplicated as possible--the fewer gizmos the signal passes through the better.

For that matter, keep junk out of your computer, too--run SpybotSD to make sure your computer's not wasting power on spyware/adware.

http://download.com.com/3000-2144-10194058...tml?tag=lst-0-1

Waxing philosophical:

Since computers keep getting faster, programmers and hardware makers keep taking more computing power for granted. That means they put more and more fancy graphics and elaborate features into programs and make the plug-in gizmos more power-hungry. If you have an older computer, it has to struggle to keep up. Like me, you probably have a processor that's running at under 1Ghz, when current computers are now 2 Ghz or even 3.

If you want to watch the struggle, you can always go to Settings-->Control Panel-->System-->Performance and look at System Resources. Plug your six-port USB back in and I'd guess that free system resources drop to a minimum, so your computer was hiccuping to try and handle it.

For myself, I'd rather have a less elaborate program that zooms along on any machine and gets the job done fast--look at all that Audacity can do with a couple of MB. Same with websites that take forever to download all the graphics you're going to click through in a second anyway. But try telling that to the techies. Different definitions of progress, I guess.

[Linda]

Too true, A440,

The final thing I turned off was AOL; I think I wanted to be able to be on-line and give you a blow-by-blow accounting of my problems. So that could have been part of the problems, too.

Thanks again.

Linda

[FIAF1]

Hello all,

I plan to record family stories and put the stories on the e-family tree. I won a NetMD player/recorder on ebay. So far I have, played songs, recorded my voice, loaded Audicity, uploaded (from NetMD to PC) a song and exported the song to a wav file. BTW this was all done using assistance from this post. Thanks A440, Linda, and others who contributed this post. Your clear questions, answers and kinder spirit has made the recording journey a pleasant one....

My question is.

When playing wav file (recorded and converted from the NetMD) on Audicity or Winamp it does not sound as good as playing the song directly from the NetMD. What should I do?

Restated in an attempt to add clarity.

Playing a song on my NetMD connected to my PC, sounds better than the same song uploaded, converted (using Audicity) to a wav file and played using Audicity or Winamp. The difference can really be heard during the vocals portion of the track/song. What should I do?

Thanks in advance

Package deal off of ebay:

NetMD NZ-N1

ECM-M907

50+ Mini Discs

15 blanks

Sound Card in my pc:

SoundMax Integrated Audio (Integrated with my motherboard)

[Christopher]

I can't answer your questions, but I know well enough that this post is so informative it should be made a sticky. Thank you for your contributions, guys..

[Linda]

FIA,

I am so new at this, please take my comments for what they are worth! If we are lucky, A440 will come on line and we can hear what he has to say on this subject!

I had many different problems when I was uploading, or recording from my MD to my computer. The sound was all over the place, with little hickups, to muffled, etc., etc. At A440's prompting, I played with the levels, and got the sound good. Also, I had to close all other programs running down.

What is your goal? Are you going to burn cds with your music? One thing that happened to me was, I wasn't happy the sound, but when I burned the cd, the sound sounded just as good as when I played it on my MD. Did you burn a cd and listen to the sound?

Good luck with your recording. Main thing: just hang in there!

Linda

[FIAF1]

Linda,

Thanks for the response.

You know my main goal is to record family members stories and place them on a family tree cd with other multimedia files. However, I am enjoying the music libary that came with this MD. I have started taking it to work and now I am using it as a player. I am lucky and have scored some great concert stuff (Dead, Phish, Matthews . . .) and some cd/album recordings. I wonder if you can trade recordings? Sorry ... whole other topic....

Let me ask you about the 'levels'. Are the levels on the MD or on Audacity?

Also, when you setup Audacity how'd ya figure out how to setup all the options in prefrences.

Would someone comment as to my Audacity options values, I would be interested to know how they compare to others.

Quality:

Default Sample rate = 44100Hz

Default Sampe Format = 32-bit float

Real-Time sample rate converter = High-quality Sinc Interpolation

Real-Time dither = none

High quality diter = Triangle

File formats:

Uncompressed Export FOrmat = WAV (microsoft 16 bit PCM)

OGG Qaulity = 5

Spectrograms:

FTT Size = 256

Thanks in advance.

Tony

[Syco54645]

in addition to audacity there is also ardour. it is still in alpha i think, but it is a nice program when it doesnt segfault. the site is ardour.org. i am not sure if it has a windows port (as i am strictly solaris and linux), but it is very nice. it uses jack for sound which bypasses the kernel and interfaces directly with the soundcard giving the best possible results. it is fun to look at if nothing else (it crashes alot) but very hard to use. it is like using sonar or cubase, but a little more complicated.

-Syco54645

[steve77]

I have loads of MD’s filled with stuff recorded live. For the purposes of CD production and backup creation, I need to get much of it onto computer (selected tracks). They were recorded via a JVC XM-R70 (standard MDR – non-Net, non-Hi). The editing has already taken place so I am really hoping to avoid having to lose that upon uploading (i.e. having 1 big file created on the PC and chopping it up again). So here are my questions:

1. It looks like there is no way I can digitally upload – even with a deck, right? And I see that Hi-MD does not help with recordings created non-Hi.

2. It looks like there is NetMD technology that will retain the tracks. This forum has info on the software requirements. Re hardware … do I need a NetMD player to do the upload?

3. If so, is the player only needed for the upload or did the recordings need to have been made with one? If so, I guess there is no solutiuon for me.

4. If I do need to get a new MDR I’m wondering whether I should get a Hi-MD unit. If I do, I believe I will be able to quickly and digitally upload future tracks. But does Hi-MD offer a superset of the NetMD features. That is, if NetMD allows me to retain track markings for “old” recordings (as stated above), does Hi-MD offer the same ability?

5. Are my needs at all facilitated by using a deck?

6. Any other suggestions?

Many thanks to anyone who can provide info !

Steve