Sony Minidisc recorder experiences

Wandering_Whistler · Post by **Wandering_Whistler** » Mon Sep 03, 2001 4:56 pm

Last week, I took a cheapo ($30ish) microcassette recorder to the local session to pick up a few tunes that I didn't know...the thing picked up the conversation at my table with great clarity, easily filtering out the background noise and music..Doh!

So, remembering that minidiscs got a fair amount of good press here recently I priced some at my local Target..the Sony MZ-R500 minidisc walkman recorder was on sale for about $150..cheaper than a top-end microcassette recorder! This is the one without the 'editing remote' (that one was $100 more) which I didn't need anyway. I was a bit reluctant, knowing nothing about them really, but then plunked down my money to get it, and 5 minidiscs. Total price, about $175. The high-end microcassetter recorders I priced were about $199-$250. The thing didn't have a powered mic port, so it required an amped mic in the line-in port, which I already had (for my webpage recordings), so I was already set.

This thing turned out to be great! I set it up with my mic at the end of the room, and taped 3 hours of session on one minidisc! The bar was noisy with patrons, but the music is still very distinct. The thing lets me drop in track marks after the fact, so as I'm listening to this gigantic 3 hour track, I can drop in track marks between each set of tunes. The recorder does LP-2 and LP-4 mode, meaning that I can record 2X and 4X the amount of music on one minidisc (normally 74 minutes...4 cd's worth in LP-4 mode). I can selectively erase tracks, move them around on the disc, and re-record the disc "over a million times" (according to the literature with the minidiscs), and will supposedly run for 7.5 hours on one AA battery.

I really don't know why these haven't gotten a lot more popular!

Greg

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Wandering_Whistler on 2001-09-03 18:58 ]</font>

Ailin · Post by **Ailin** » Mon Sep 03, 2001 6:47 pm

I have the MZ-R700. Talk about fantastic quality! With the right playback volume through the headphones, I can play along on the whistle and hear the session music and myself just as if I were right there live at the session that I recorded. The minidisc really makes for a great tool to learn the tunes as well as practicing to "play with others" before doing so live. At first I was very hesitant to buy the minidisc, but with all the capabilities it has, I am very glad now that I did!

Ailin

ErikT · Post by **ErikT** » Tue Sep 04, 2001 1:51 am

Greg,

Which amped mic are you using to record?

Erik

mike.r · Post by **mike.r** » Tue Sep 04, 2001 2:15 am

Wow!Thanks guys for the tip,think I'll be checking this out today.

Mike

Wandering_Whistler · Post by **Wandering_Whistler** » Tue Sep 04, 2001 4:40 am

On 2001-09-04 03:51, ErikT wrote:
Greg,

Which amped mic are you using to record?

Erik

Erik: I'm not using a great quality mic...a radio-shack computer mic powered with two AAA batteries (cat 33-3025). This provides barely enough amping to be audible, so it's fed into a radio shack mini-amplifier speaker (cat # 277-1008C). However, the combination serves for my purposes, until I can stomach throwing down some $$$ on some high-qualitiy mics I've glanced at recently

Greg

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Wandering_Whistler on 2001-09-04 06:48 ]</font>

ErikT · Post by **ErikT** » Tue Sep 04, 2001 4:48 am

Thanks Greg

totst · Post by **totst** » Tue Sep 04, 2001 6:07 am

Another great thing about minidisc technology is that you can take your live recordings , record them on computer and do some mastering. With the right tweaking you can get some real pro sounding tracks, without the hiss you get on regular cassette tape. Much cheaper than DAT or multitrack. It's live anyway so the extraneous sounds(audience, glasses and bottles clacking) give the recording added charm. We did our last CD with half of the tracks recorded live on minidisc. It was a breeze.

Tots

thesackrat · Post by **thesackrat** » Tue Sep 04, 2001 10:02 am

I,too, am all fired up to go minidisk. The mic that looks "real good" for the Sony 500 or 700 is the (Sony) ECM-MS907. There's a bunch of them listed on Ebay just now. They are listed as _new in box_. I missed out on one @ $75 last night but there are lots more to bid on. I don't want to get too commercial here but I've, also, found an online source for the basic 700 recorder @ $169. I hope it's a reliable company. E mail me if you want the URL.

CUL

Eldarion · Post by **Eldarion** » Tue Sep 04, 2001 7:32 pm

Dang... I wish I had a MiniDisc. Its definitely a very good recording tool. Anyway, I've a tip here that I learnt from my friend. You can actually use your Sony headphones (not earphones) as mics. Just plug the headphone in the recording jack and record away. Besides that being a really good impromptu mic, you can secretly record stuff without other people realising it since they don't see a mic(which is not that ethical though).

JMcCYoung · Post by **JMcCYoung** » Tue Sep 04, 2001 8:19 pm

Last month at Lark in the Morning Music Camp quite a few people had minidisc recorders. They were generally very pleased with them, although a couple mentioned that it was exceedingly easy to record over desired material on Sony models, which I also read in poking around at Minidisc.org:

http://minidisc.org/

after we got home.

I asked about microphones and got a tip from a man about making one's own for very little money. For a couple of sets of plans, see:

http://art.simon.tripod.com/stealth.html
http://www.tir.com/~liteways/Mandolin.html#Microphone

for instructions if you feel adventurous. The latter is the type my friend made for himself and thought remarkably good.

John

Wandering_Whistler · Post by **Wandering_Whistler** » Wed Sep 05, 2001 4:51 am

On 2001-09-04 22:19, JMcCYoung wrote:
although a couple mentioned that it was exceedingly easy to record over desired material on Sony models, which I also read in poking around at Minidisc.org:

John:
This is true...if you hit record and you're sitting on a track, you write right over it..however, according to the documentation I have, you can set the minidisc to NEVER overwrite, and always write to the end of the minidisc. This is on the next-to-cheapest model, so I can't help but assume all of them have it.

Greg