Sony recorders

[Whistle_along_Cassidy]

Hello all
I have been told that sony mini dics are great for recording in sessions, but i am not sure which model to get. I want one to play and record mp3s. Record sessions and play my mp3s in the car. Does this look like the right model. http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... egory=4786. Also what do you all think of these recorders.
thank you
andrew cassidy

[WhistlingGypsy]

I dont think that this unit has a mic input Andrew. I believe you have to go to the 70 or 90 series to get that feature.

[Whistle_along_Cassidy]

you mean that i could not record sessions with it. When i was in east duhram i saw tons of them and they had a variety of mics on them, does it have to be a certain model for this feature.

[WhistlingGypsy]

Correct - you can not record through a mic with this model.

As far as I know the models that start with a 7 or a 9 have this feature.

[beowulf573]

My Sony MD recorder just died after many years of faithful service and am thinking long and hard about replacing it.

MD is great for

1) compact size

2) good battery life

3) multi-hour recording with the new codecs

4) nice portable discs

MD is bad for

1) transfering files to your computer. Sony, in it's paranoid wisdom, does not allow digital transfers from the MD to the computer because they are afraid of music pirates. (Arrggh! Shiver me timbers) So, you have to hook the line out (if you have one) on the MD to your pc and record the tunes in real time.

Considering the whole point of my recording of sessions is to transfer them to the pc in order to lear new tunes and practice against, this really chafes my hide.

Right I'm flipping back and forth between getting a replacement MD recorder and one of <a href="http://www.neurosaudio.com/">these</a> with a powered mic. Folks seem to be fairly succesfull recording live music with a preamp.

Eddie

[lixnaw]

like eddy, all the sony reviews say the software for transfering to computer is very slow and complicated. i use this 20GB harddisk live recorder. the software with it can rip with ease. it's about as expensive as an MD recorder.

http://www.nomadworld.com/products/Jukebox3/

[MarkB]

Go here: From the Irish Traditional Music Form:

http://chiffboard.mati.ca/viewtopic.php?t=12320

Michael Eskin has written a good review of a Sony recorder.

MarkB

[eskin]

Please note that my article is about using a very high quality Sony stereo digital voice recorder for grabbing tunes in sessions, this isn't about a minidisc recorder...

Here's the article:
http://www.uptospeed.net/hoi/digitalrecorders.html

Cheers,

Michael

[beowulf573]

Great googly moogly, thanks Michael. That looks like a fantastic thing to try.

Eddie

[elliott]

#1) Sharp recorders are the ones you want to use. They are far more intuitive than Sony's bewildering menus.

#2) Why is everyone so dog-boned interested in getting minidisc tunes into their compooters?

Record the session in mono for 2:40 hours, keep what you want and erase the rest.

#3) Get one of those cheap no-micrphone models for $100 and copy from the mic MD to the other one, if you feel you must copy. Or feed it into a descent cassette deck for a practice tape. Or feed it into your pooter through the line-output. The sound is just fine!

#3a) Get a Sony home deck that takes a keyboard and label every tune on every MD.

#3b) Edit your session MD and copy it directly into a CD recorder.

#4) As with every portable recording device, the quality of the microphone is by far the most important thing. I make session tapes with a $30 portable cassette and a $100 mic.

[NicoMoreno]

The quality of the microphone isn't everything, and line in on a computer will not give you as good a sound.

The idea is that to keep the good quality, if the tune is initially recorded in digital, it wont be degraded by a transfer from analog to digital.

Most minidisks do not allow direct MD to CD copying. (In fact I know of none, I would assume that since they record in one digital format, and CDs in another, this is in fact impossible. A computer is therefore necessary.)

Tapes are a nuissance. They break way to easily...

[beowulf573]

#1) Sharp recorders are the ones you want to use. They are far more intuitive than Sony's bewildering menus.

#2) Why is everyone so dog-boned interested in getting minidisc tunes into their compooters?

Mainly because on the computer, I can load the mp3/wav file into a piece of software that easily lets me highly regions of the tune for looping, makes it easier to find the notes. Also, it can change the tempo of the tune without changing the pitch.

Eddie

[Hallatauer]

I've been using the Sony MZ-N1 MD with a Sony stereo mircophone. Simply put, the sound recording is great. This model will NOT let me transfer digitally however, so I do it analog and it still sounds great.

Having the recording on my computer lets me edit easily and I can make copies. At Irish Arts Week one fellow left his recorder home and a friend had to leave the class in the middle of the week. So now, I can now burn a couple of CD's and send them out to them. Also frees up my discs for reuse.

[lddulcimer]

I have been using a Sharp MD-SR60 MD for about a year now, with a $20 Radio Shack stereo lapel mic. Works great for recording sessions and the quality is excellent. Alhtough it has an optical input, it has only traditional analog out. Using analog out into my Soundblaster Live I am able to get very good quality recordings for editing and burning to CD.

When my Sharp unit wears out though I am seriously considering buying an MP3 player/recorder as many of them offer digital out, which the MD players just don't seem to offer. That would allow me to input to my computer for editing with no loss of quality. That, along with the ability to play MP3s are the only two things I miss on my MD player.

[Walden]

I didn't know about Sony, but Suzuki makes rec***ers.


Ducks and runs.