Topic: Minidisc questions

[Ozpeter]

A couple of years ago I was driving home from a gig and heard a fine classical concert broadcast on the FM station I work with.  It really was a great sounding recording and I wondered how it was done.  At the end they said who had recorded it - and that guy I know always used a standard minidisc (pre HiMD) deck, using mics he hand built himself including the capsules themselves.  In the right hands you can get very good results with MD technology, and the RH-1 is indeed a remarkable device.  The quality of the mics connected to it (and their placement) will tend to be more significant in determining quality of the resulting recording than the device itself.

[Kindguy]

I'll sell you a sony MD (if your interested i'll get the mod #) with around 40 blank MD & 2 MD books for 35.00 shipped

[fmaderjr]

Yes, the RH1 is underrated.  And severely dissed here.  By folks who do not own one or have used one.  It is a shame as this is a very good machine.  Regardless, I am very pleased with my RH1.

The RH1 is a GREAT machine. Super inconspicuous, great pre-amps, and you can record 94 minutes of PCM before a disc change. If a disc change would be inconvenient, the HI-SP mode sounds wonderful (few would hear any difference) and would allow over 7 hours on 1 disc.

MD uses compression, so there's always a compromise in quality.  Nevertheless, you can get decent recordings from the format.  ALC would lose more quality - bringing up background noise when the music source is low and lopping the top off louder sections. 

HI-MD does not use compression when recording in PCM mode, plus the Hi-SP mode (over 7 hours) sounds so good I believe that in most cases the mic would be the limiting factor. I think a recording made in Hi-SP mode with a slightly better sounding mic would sound better than a PCM recording made with a slightly worse sounding mic.  I agree never to use ALC, but otherwise, MD recordings can sound tremendous-for the most part no compromise in quality that will be audible to most people even if recording in Hi-SP.

I don't recommend buying an old Sony (non Hi-MD) minidisc though. Sharps have much better pre-amps and record levels can be adjusted on the fly. But get a Sony Hi-MD if you can afford to. The MZ-RH1 is by far the most convenient to use but the earlier models probably sound just as good.

[nameloc01]

Additionally, the RH1 doesn't require several menus to be accessed in order to go to "manual level adjustment", it can be done on the fly. With my M100s it takes me-and I can do it very quickly, at least 10 or 15 seconds to set it up. Since I've gotten my second deck, I just get it set up for "manual", put it on hold and lock it. Then when I'm at the end of disc#1 in deck #1,I can just swap the input cable over to deck #2,unlock it and unpause it..with the same input level already set. That way I cut "disc swaps" down to about 4 or 5 seconds. Theoretically, I could continue to flop decks and run til the batteries died..not too bad.

[fmaderjr]

Since I've gotten my second deck, I just get it set up for "manual", put it on hold and lock it. Then when I'm at the end of disc#1 in deck #1,I can just swap the input cable over to deck #2,unlock it and unpause it..with the same input level already set. That way I cut "disc swaps" down to about 4 or 5 seconds.

That's how I recorded with 2 Sharp MT-877's except that I started the 2nd deck recording before I swapped the cable. Probably missed less than a second per swap doing it that way (and I almost always was able to swap during applause). Worked great.

[nameloc01]

^ I have to start the recording process with the signal coming in(line in) to get into the menus to activate "manual levels"..so once I do that, I just pause it,lock it and take the signal line over to deck #1. While deck#1 is running during the show,I just look to see what level the input is on (level 25..or 26,ect) and just preset the second deck with the same. So then its just swapping the cable,unpausing and that's it.
Works well.

[fmaderjr]

It's possible that it doesn't actually need a signal, just a plug inserted into one of the input jacks. If you ever need it to start faster, if you inserted a right angle adapter into the line in jack of the 2nd recorder it might activate the menus. If so, you could start deck 2 recording before you switch the input cable from recorder 1 to the right angle adapter in deck 2 and only miss a fraction of a second. Worth a try anyway. I'm guessing it would probably work.