Thoroughly confused, new to MD, somebody please help me!!!!

[ozzy]

Howdo everybody!

I have decided that a portable MD recorder is the best solution for recording live and sometimes impromptu acoustic/electric sessions with my own band.

I have spent the last few weeks trudging around the net, very slowly (dial-up, yes, I know - stop laughing!, we are due to get Broadband here in SW Scotland sometime after July 2005!!) trying to figure out which would be the best portable MD recorder to buy and have just ended up going around in circles, confused as to which machine will do the job better than another!!

All I want to do is to record a session, take the MD home and connect it to my standalone CDR/CDRW machine which has analogue, digital and optical in to transfer the session onto CD. I'm sure plenty of you good people are players too and have managed to preserve many fine sessions in this way.

Can someone please give me a few model options on the better quality portable MD recorders out there with good mic recording ability. I presume there is no problem in transferring to CD/CDR/CDRW from the MD in analogue at least?

I would be very grateful for any help. I never knew there was so much in it!

Thanks for reading this!

Ozzy.

[Kaotic]

hmmm, these units comes to mind, Sharp MDs (md-dr77, md-dr580/dr80, md-dr7) and top unit of Sony Hi-MD unit (mz-nh1). why I include sony's nh1 in the list? well, it's new Hi-MD format, which means you have less discs to exchange during your recording session, plus there's vu meter on the remote itself.

regards of sharp units, I am sure some one can explain better. since I don't own sharp units.

[Mat]

Off topic:

Its hard for me to believe that there are parts in western europe without broadband :ohmy:

Even in hot melting israel we have broadband almost nation-wide if im not mistaken.

Back to topic:

If your intentions are to connect the unit to the stand-alone CDRW player via REAL TIME connection for recording MD2CD, than make sure it has a LINE OUT. (nh1/nh900 for example.)

You cant connect it via SPDIF or TOSlink optical, so a analogue LINE OUT is crucial!

[ozzy]

Howdo again,

My thanks to you guys for responding to my plea for help.

I like the descriptions I have found for the Sharp DR77 (thanks Kaotic), it sounds just like what I'm looking for and is equipped with line-out (thanks also, Mat). Unfortunately, no-one seems to sell it in the UK (not that I can find, anyway).

There are plenty of Sharp recorders available, lower-priced ones like the Sharp IM-DR420 are available but I'm not sure of the implications of the auto-recording levels on it??

Are there any other Sharps which would do the trick for me? As long as they have the high/low mic settings and are able to adjust the recording levels whilst recording...these traits would be essential for me.

....I like the sound of the VU meter on the remote of the Sony NH1 as well but as long as there is some indication of how strongly the sound is being picked up/peak warning on the actual unit itself...that will do for me.

I'd quite like to pick something up soon so any further help would be appreciated.

Thanks again.

ozzy.

P.S. A few towns in SW Scotland are broadband-ready now but I am only about 7 miles away and have to wait over a year to be able to make my internet connection any better than painful! That IS painful! Ouch!

[sanaka]

Hey Ozzy -

Unless you know you want HiMD, I'd go for a Sharp. I use my DR480 for just what you describe, recording my acoustic band in the living room or wherever, and it is awesome. Yes it has a little LCD level meter on the unit which also indicates clipping. Analog line out is simply the headphone jack at full volume (this gives 1.5 volts IIRC, within acceptable 'line' level range). Record level is adjustable on the fly, Sony's don't allow that. Sharp is also known for better mic input stage than Sony.

I don't keep up on all the current models, but I think probably the current version if this unit is the DR580.

In my mind, the main advantage of HiMD would be recording sraight to WAV. If then doing digital transfer to/editing on computer, you're lossless all the way. One minor point to realize though is that HiMD does not make this possible at faster than real time (i.e. as a straight file transfer) - you'd be doing it at real time (later, whenSony releases their 'WAV converter', you'll sort of be able to do it, but with hassles, see my post here if you want). Not a big deal in my mind, that's how I do it now. In the case of analog, like you describe going to your standalone CD deck, real time is all you've got either way anyhow.

I wouldn't mind getting up to Scotland sometime. My ancestry is there. My given name is Robert Bruce Thompson. Distant descendant of a despotic, brutal king!

Peace,

Sanaka

[Markr041]

The Hi-MD Sonys do allow changing recording levels "on the fly" - once you are in manual mode, then while recording you can turn the dial to change the level (and the eradout changes to show you by number what you are doing (e.g., 20/30 or 14/30), without pausing or stopping.