Moving from MD to HD recorder

[1westkc3]

Years ago I began live recording on a lark having purchased a JVC KD-1636 Mark II portable cassette recorder (which I still own and works great).  I used some Shure mics borrowed from a friend who was in a band and those recordings sounded prettey good.   In 1999 I purchased a Sharp MD-MT15 mini disc with no intention of doing any live recording but just to preserve those tapes I'd made on a digital format and to use as a player in a Masarati TC I owned at the time as it only had a cassette player and I wanted to preserve the car in original condition so I used the mini disc with the cassette adapter and it worked like a champ.  Living in the bay area at the time I found myself attending a fair number of concerts and wishing I had a means to record them.  I did a bit a research and decided to try an inexpensive omni mic and wow, the results were incredidle considering the limited $ outlay.  I've been recording shows since with a variety of MD decks, mics and battery boxes.  I now am considering moving to a hard disc recorder iriver  H120,  MT or similar.  My dilema is what do I do with all these mini discs?  Idealy I'd like to find a way to upload them via USB to my PC and then just move to whichever HD recorder I settle on to listen to when I want.  I've looked into purchasing a net MD just for uploading but from what I've read, that's not doable with Sony software.  I looked at Switch software to first convert the ATRAC files and then upload but that's way more work than I care to do also. 

At this point I've almost resigned myself to keeping the MD stuff as is and begining a whole new era with the HD recorder.  Anybody out there know of a way  to quickly move ATRAC to PC? 

PS - I also own a Sony JE520 mini disc deck which has optical out which may facilitate the process I'm just not clear on the details of how to do it.

Thanks in advance for any assistance.

[willndmb]

with your stand alone you could do a couple of things
get a soundcard with optical in and record the mds into your comp
get a portable device such as a jb3 that has optical in and convert them over then upload to the comp
get a stand alond cd burner with optical in and burn to cd, then import to comp from disc
i am not sure what would be best but it can be done

you would do it prob the samwe way you converted the tapes to md
hook them togehter via the optical cable, play the md and record on the ____

[1westkc3]

Thanks for the input. I've looked at these options previously.  All involve significant, nay overwhelming time comittment.

I do have a stand alone CD burner but the thought of recording 260 plus mini discs to CD in real time just to get it to the PC, well, let's just say it's something I'd like to avoid if possible. In addition, to complicate matters, the 80 minute mini discs actually have 80min 59 sec of space so many of my mini disc recordings wouldn't fit and I would need to stand by during the process to find a place to edit cleanly (although I could do this easily with the mini disc prior to begining the recording but again, time time time).

As for using the optical out to PC method, I still would need to convert the files once on the PC in oreder to listen to them on the HD and the upload to PC would be real time also.

[RebelRebel]

I think there are a couple folks here that will do it for you, for a small fee.

post an ISO in the yard sale maybe?

[Brian Skalinder]

All involve significant, nay overwhelming time comittment.

Sometimes, there are no uber-quick and easy solutions.  Something else to consider:  how would you feel if 10% of your MD recordings didn't survive due to aging, damaged, or lost discs?  Migrating to HD (and/or subsequently archiving to DVD) will ensure you have redundant copies of your recordings:  a Good Thing, IMO.

[Karl]

I have been in your position.  I used to record to MD and then I bought a JB3.  I have I dunno, 100 minidisc's.  I bought a JE510 about a year ago just so I could make backup copies of the MD's.  Yes, it takes a lot of time, but it gives me peace of mind to know that I have those important recordings backed up.

What I do is take the optical out from the JE510 and go into the JB3.  Digitally record from MD.  Then transfer to computer.  Then I convert to FLAC, and when I get about 4 gigs worth of FLAC's, I burn to DVD.

I suppose the process might be a tad faster if I recorded directly to PC, but I don't have a proper soundcard.

There is no fast easy way for you to do it with the equipment you have unfortunately.

[1westkc3]

What are you using to convert the ATRAC to FLAC?

Last weekend I tried a pice of hardware called Instant Music.  You take the optical out from the MD feed it to the optical in of the device and record directly into the PC.  The Instant Music device converts the ATRAC to wav!  Very slick.  However the software was very unstable and I recorded the same disc five times (that's 400 minutes plus) and only got it to save the files succesfully once. Strange because the software is Nero.  Now recording 260 discs is enough time let alone have to do it over and over.  So I ditched that idea and returned the device.

I bit the bullet and purchased the iRiver H120.  I've decided I'll record the MDs from the optical out of my Sony JE-520 to the optical in of my TDK DA-5900.  Upload from the digital audio CDRW to the PC and convert to FLAC.  That I understand I can play on the H120 with the latest Rockbox.  Of the 260 discs I have about 75 are masters which I'm not going to bother with for now as I have edited versions of those shows which I'll move to FLAC.  At some point in the future I guess I'll FLAC the also but for now I've got my hands full.

Thanks to all who offered advise on this subject.

[poorlyconditioned]

What are you using to convert the ATRAC to FLAC?

Last weekend I tried a pice of hardware called Instant Music.  You take the optical out from the MD feed it to the optical in of the device and record directly into the PC.  The Instant Music device converts the ATRAC to wav!  Very slick.  However the software was very unstable and I recorded the same disc five times (that's 400 minutes plus) and only got it to save the files succesfully once. Strange because the software is Nero.  Now recording 260 discs is enough time let alone have to do it over and over.  So I ditched that idea and returned the device.

This device does *not* convert ATRAC to WAV.  That is done inside the MD deck.  All this does is capture the PCM (optical) stream and input to the computer.  Any USB interface with an optical input will do this.  Whether it is bit-accurate is another question.

I really like the other poster's suggestion of using the NJB3.  It is bit accurate, easy to use, and doesn't involve a computer (and associated software).  You only need a computer at the end to get the files off the NJB3, and we tapirs already know how to do this quickly and easily with the Firewire port.

Good luck.  It is still a big job.

I bit the bullet and purchased the iRiver H120.  I've decided I'll record the MDs from the optical out of my Sony JE-520 to the optical in of my TDK DA-5900.  Upload from the digital audio CDRW to the PC and convert to FLAC.  That I understand I can play on the H120 with the latest Rockbox.  Of the 260 discs I have about 75 are masters which I'm not going to bother with for now as I have edited versions of those shows which I'll move to FLAC.  At some point in the future I guess I'll FLAC the also but for now I've got my hands full.

Thanks to all who offered advise on this subject.

OK, it sounds like you've got it under control with the Iriver.  Same as the NJB3 for this function.

  Richard

[F.O.Bean]

We used to have an ATRAC in our 1976 Cadillac Coupe De Ville.   

Must be bed time...

thats 8-track not atrac

go to bed

[Karl]

What are you using to convert the ATRAC to FLAC?

I don't.  The Optical out of my MD deck is WAV format.  So ATRAC coversion to wave is done inside the deck (as said a couple posts above).  Then WAV to FLAC is done on the PC.

Yeah, ATRAC, 8-track, took me a second to get that one, but it made me laugh.  At least 8-track isn't lossless 

[1westkc3]

Thanks for the clairification all.  I guess I can skip the CD recorder and go straight from the MD to the H 120 via optical output then when I have time move it to the PC and convert to FLAC a save a little space  That's even better.  Thanks again.

[1westkc3]

Well I've been messing with this H120 for a few days now.  One thing I can't seem to get working is optical in.  I tried recording straight from the Sony JE-520 optical out to the H120 optical in and nothing.  It's like the device isn't getting a signal.  I checked the optical cable by plugging in to the CD recorder and it's fine.  I tried recording with analog out from MD to line in of the H120 and it's fine.  So what setting am I not aware of or what other issue may I need to address?

[Weazel]

rockbox does not support digital in yet. the original firmware does.

[Weazel]

i tried it on my cablebox opticaout to my iriver,selecting optical-inl in the settings menu. and in the recording screen with pressing a+b you can sellect the optical in also (in the latest firmware)

i don't know about 48khrz  i cannot test it my sellf.

[1westkc3]

Excellent news!!  The previous trouble I reported actually tunred out to be the imfamious ID10T variety.  After fixing the optical in in the recording settings, the opperation worked flawlessly.  I was thinking I'd udate FW at a minimum 7 days just to avoid buggieness in the device as I'm no engineer and could findmyself hopelessly lost.  Thanks much for the great Rockbox update.