How to edit a "live" recording?

[LowEnd]

Hello,

This subject has been touched on in a few threads but being a newbie in the digital world I’m still unclear on what the options are to edit a live recording. My past computer editing/EQ’ing experience is from analog cassette tape to line in on computer and record a .WAV file, then use the .WAV file in Creative Audio’s “Wave Studio” program to edit, EQ and create separate song .WAV files for burning to CD.

From what I’ve read, I need to get the HI-MD recording into a .WAV format (or possibly some other format but I’m used to .WAV) for editing and I have two options of doing this.

Let’s assume I have the MZ-NH1 model and record a live band, via PCM mode.

I can take that “live” recording and download that to my PC (Questions... is a PCM recording download speed any faster then real time or does PCM recording benefit from the fast USB download times they talk about? To take that question a step further... Do the recordings have to be in a compressed format to download at the increased speeds they claim? Does a lower compression recording (48kbs) transfer at a faster speed then a higher compression recording (say 256kbs)?)

Now I have my recording in Sonic Stage, PCM format. (What are my options for editing the recording, assuming I want to crop the recording to separate songs and EQ them etc. ?) From what I’ve read, I cannot use Sonic Stage to write the file to a .Wav format for editing, unless I burn from Sonic Stage to a CD then I can rip from the CD to a .Wav format… am I understanding this correctly? If so, can someone explain the “rip from CD” process and what is involved and/or what tools can be used for this?

The other option, to get the PCM recording to .WAV format, is to run a line out of the HI-MD recorder into my soundcard and simply record the signal into a .WAV format… correct? I guess there could be some sound quality loss this way.

Are there other ways to get a recording from the HI-MD unit to a .WAV file? Other/Better ways to edit this type of HI-MD PCM recording?

Thanks in advance for any replies or links to threads that clearly explain this.

[jazmaan]

Good questions.

The short answer is nobody knows. :wacky:

Uploading and editing .wav files made from mic or line-in, and how those files will be handled in or out of SonicStage is a question that nobody seems to know the answer to. Perhaps it will be better than we imagine. Or worse.

I won't be buying an NZ-1 until some definitive answers are known.

[LowEnd]

Thanks Jazmaan, for your reply!

I assumed that would be the answer I would get, but was hoping someone might know something more definate then what I've read in other threads.

I think I'll keep my MZ-NH1 on pre-order, in hopes it will work well for what I need. :cool:

[The_Stamp]

Someone recently posted that a SOny tech told him/her that you could export Hi-MD recorded material from sonicstage! (GOD i hope that IS TRUE)

[alieninhead]

As far as reduced/speed of transfer? If you're transfering anything digitally through USB (with the exception of MiniDV/MicroMV/tape-based camcorders), it's always going to take as long to transfer as the file is long. Kind of like burning a CD, right? You supposedly have 32x realtime download speed on NetMDs, and I think Hi-MDs are supposed to be faster than that so...it should be speedier.

Because PCM is still an audio codec like Atrac3, it's just a lossless one.

So yes, technically, a lower quality PCM recording would take less time to transfer only because a smaller amount of data was taken down to record the song. But PCM recordings take up a lot of space. There's a reason why you can only get 70 (800MB) mins of CD-Audio on a normal CD....

~a.i.h.

[PDOG58]

Someone recently posted that a SOny tech told him/her that you could export Hi-MD recorded material from sonicstage!  (GOD i hope that IS TRUE)

Where would that be? The option doesnt currently exist in the SonicStage 2.0 that I have. Either I am not seeing the export option (I dont have a Hi-MD device yet), or it is a function that is added when you get a Hi-MD device.

I have a vested interest in this because I want to record a lot of stuff of the radio and then go back and edit out the stuff I dont want. It is so much easier to edit when you can see the wav as opposed to using the divide function on MD.

[ekiekitabaang]

Exactly!

There is no way you can edit recorded stuff easier with Hi-MD than it has tarditionally been (realtime and through your soundcard... though there is minidisc recorders with digital out and soundcards with digital in.. so the quality could be better)

Why everybody says that one has to wait until these devices arrive to figure this export incapability out? In newest software the only way one can export one's own recordings is ATRAC audio CD and Redbook Audio CD. Isn't this clear?

If somebody can convince that these ATRAC CD's can be ripped and that the sound quality is as good as normal CD, I will still consider acquiring Hi-MD. Although it is irritating waste of time burning & ripping CD's too and the truth will remain: The live recording possibility is not a real thing to be utilised in the totality of Hi-MD's functionality, it is merely a decoration, a disconnected feature in the list of features.