Topic: HiMD info from SP

[Brian Skalinder]

Got a link to this SoundPros page in an email today.  FWIW, here's the text:

Important info about digital uploads and Hi-MD:

First the Bad news:
MiniDisc users have long desired a feature which would allow high speed digital uploads of microphone and analog line input recordings from MD to PC. While the new Hi-MD units will allow high speed digital uploads of these recordings, there is currently no way to export those recordings from Sony's Sonic Stage software to an open format. Simply put, you can upload your recordings, but only for playback on your PC or for the purposes of burning an ATRAC format CD (Sony's proprietary format, not a traditional audio CD).

Now the Good news:
Sony has announced plans to address this limitation by releasing a free application in the fall of 2004 called "Wave Converter". According to Sony, the promised application will allow users to export their recordings to WAV format and free them from any and all copyright restrictions. The bottom line is that with the new Hi-MD units, you can upload your recordings via USB, but it will be at least a few months before you'll be able to use them to burn audio CDs or create MP3s.

In the meantime:
There is now a freeware program available called "himdrenderer" that will allow you to upload your Hi-MD tracks and convert them to .WAV files.

Go here to read important detailed information about this software:

http://forums.minidisc.org/viewtopic.php?t=6087

and here:

HiMD renderer program website

Go here to download the latest version of the "himdrenderer" software:

http://www.marcnetsystem.co.uk/himdrenderer020.zip

[Roamer]

There was some discussion about it there : http://www.taperssection.com/yabbse/index.php?topic=22517 , although I wasn't probably clear enough in the first place. The guy programming this freeware seems to do regular updates and listens to users's feedback, so it could be worth have a look for those with an HiMD.

[1st set only]

yeah it be nice if they made this backwards compatible with older md units
bought a mz-n1 fer 300 bucks from minidisco used it bout 6 times and then the jb3 came out, nuff said

i miss using my md

anyone wanna buy it ?

[BobW]

Blech, transfers.
We deserve removable media recorders that mount (become a "disk drive") on our computer DAWs.

Now show me a HiMD USB2.0 Reader for a PC or MAC and I'll get excited, that's where the technology is at.
All else is just the pablum that Sony spoons to us.

They're over-protecting their commercial music rights at our expense.

[drewloo]

They're over-protecting their commercial music rights at our expense.

Exactamundo! +t

[Roamer]

The official tool from Sony is finally available for those interested :
http://sonyelectronics.sonystyle.com/walkmanmc/wav.html

[Brian Skalinder]

The official tool from Sony is finally available for those interested :
http://sonyelectronics.sonystyle.com/walkmanmc/wav.html

Thanks for the update, Roamer.  No surprise it doesn't support converting digital-input OMG files to WAV.     Those jackasses...

[Roamer]

From what I have read recently on MD forums, the unofficial HiMDRenderer is actually doing a better job, is more friendly and even better it apparently support digital-input OMG file (although the digital input is probably resampling, but I can't test that myself), which is what Sony is trying is best to prevent. And the programmer of the HiMDRenderer is planning support for output in FLAC and OGG files.