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Help me select a mini disc recorder

secretdonkey

secretdonkey

Oct 9, 2002
2,534
56
Austin, TX
#1
Okay, my sole knowledge of mini disc recorders comes from reviewing a few old threads, so all comments are welcome.

I'm thinking of going Sony... my searches came up with praise for the Sony ECM-907 stereo mic, so I figure I'll go with a Sony recorder, as well.

I am going to assume that the various models and their various prices differ mainly in convenience features and options for recording time. Unless someone disabuses me of the notion, I'll assume that the sound I capture out of a cheap one won't be significantly different from a pricer one.

I could find very little on Sony's website regarding computer compatibility. The ONLY info I could find was at a third-party retailer site, and it suggested windows-only compatibility. I'm a Mac guy, however, and will want to be able to dump recorded music to my Mac. Yay? Nay?

My use will be mainly to record rock band rehearsals and performances (including loud gig settings) for my own reference.

Thanks for any input...

:)
 
#2
SMASH has done a lot of work with minidiscs and is fount of all knowledge about these things round here. He might be able to help you out directly...

http://www.talkbass.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=47461&highlight=minidisc

You might also want to check out www.minidisc.org who have a lot of info about all different makes and stuff.

I have a Sony RZ909 which is great, but doesn't have the ability to transfer music from PC to MD via USB (the NetMD thing). It does very nicely as a notepad for recording rehearsals, lessons, conferences etc.
 
#3
Having a mic input as well as a line input is good for getting a suitable quality of sound on live recordings - that's not available on most of the cheaper units.

I've got one of the NetMD units and have found the transfer to MD gives fairly poor results. However, I mainly use the device for recording rehearsals etc, so that doesn't bother me too much. It is very convenient for labelling tracks (although it would be better if you could use the computer software to position the track marks as well) and I've also found some freeware software called Win-NMD that makes recording tracks from the MD to PC relatively easy (audio transfer rather than digital but you can select which tracks you want and leave it to get on with things).

So, in my experience, the PC connectivity is useful enough to make it worth considering although I feel Sony has still fallen far short of what it could have achieved with the concept.

Wulf
 

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