bkw Posted May 24, 2004 Report Share Posted May 24, 2004 Newbie here. :smile: I have a few mini-discs that I want to duplicate. What is the best method of doing this? I have a portable player but can borrow a stand alone player that has an optical output (a Tascam 301). I propose to play the disc in the stand alone player, connect by optical cable to the portable player and record in real time. Does this sound okay? I have already copied these discs to pc by running a cable from my portable playerr to the pc through the soundcard. I then burnt them to CD. This seemed to work okay but I assume there was some sound quality loss. Does copying md to md provide a "lossless" copy? Also, if I borrow the stand alone player will I have to run it througgh an amplifier to the portable player or can I just do it directly? many thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KJ_Palmer Posted May 24, 2004 Report Share Posted May 24, 2004 Are your original MD's digital dubs (eg. from CDs)? If so, the MD optical out method will fail because of SCMS copyright restrictions (unless you have an SCMS killer). If they're orginal live recordings or analogue dubs you'd be fine with this method. The digital dubbing would require the fewest conversion steps and therefore give you the best quality dubs. You could use the analogue (line out) of the deck to do the dubbing, in fact this might prove to be the best way to do it. You don't need an amplifier - just use line out to line in of your recorder. Any MD recording will take a slight quality hit from the previous generation (ie. your originals), but with good recording practises you shouldn't be able to tell much (if any) difference. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bkw Posted May 24, 2004 Author Report Share Posted May 24, 2004 Thanks Kevin. They are original live recordings so that part should be okay. :smile: Are you saying that I am likely to get a better (or just as good) a result in just doing a straight analogue recording rather than using an optical connection? I take it that either way (line-out or optical out) I wont need to run it through an amplifier? (sorry if I'm a little repetitive but I'm new to this). Cheers Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KJ_Palmer Posted May 25, 2004 Report Share Posted May 25, 2004 Hi bkw. No, of course you're better off with digital recording if that's an option. You don't need an amplifier, which would in the case of analogue result in some degradation. You can just monitor the sound with the level meters and the sound from the headphone jack etc. Just use direct optical out to optical in or line out to line in on the MD deck and recorder. The fewer elements in the signal path (amps etc.) the better. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bkw Posted May 25, 2004 Author Report Share Posted May 25, 2004 Many thanks again Mr Palmer! :grin: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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