[Sweet Spot]

Hello all.

Where to begin...Ok, I own a Sharp MD-MT 90, bought it a couple of years ago. Back then I was enthralled with it's sound quality, abilities and overall usefullness. These days, I've grown tired of a few of its attributes which is why I bought my Slim x iMP 350. Problem is, I miss its overall portability, sturdyness and great sound but I don't want to go back to what I don't like about it which is:

1)Real time recording times
2)recording methods/no playlist
2)Limited disk space/storage

Actually, those 2 things were the ONLY things I chose to switch becasue of. What I want to know now, is if at least one, perhaps 2 of these things have been improved upon ?

I detested having to sit in front of my pc, having to monitor the recording just to make sure that the line-level was properly adjusted for each song, and to make sure that the songs didn't bleed into another thereby making me have to scan and seperate them later on..I also hated having to wait the full 74 or 80 minutes till the recording process was done. This is a terrible waste of time and a momentum killer to boot. Think about this...if you're leaving your house to go on a trip and need to make some discs on the fly, you can't..Let's say you make one, and are planning on listening to the disk when you're on the road, well...you wouldn't really (i wouldn't anyway) want to listen to the same songs as you just did when you were recording them would you ?

How do you avid MD people deal with this ? How has Net Md changed this if at all ? Since I Live in NYC, it's really easy to go to China Town and get pretty much any MD unit want, and one day, I'd really love to get another one, but not with the same headaches.

Solution anyone ? Thanks, I'm really troubled over this..I loved my MD unit.

 

[guzzler]

NetMD is certainly faster. I think its fabulous: I got 3 albums onto a 74 minute disc, using LP2. Also, MD sounds sooo much better than MP3, IMO. Its really not a big deal not having that much music of disc: if I'm going a long way, I have a bag and can put loadsa discs in it. If i'm not going far, 2 discs are usually more than enough, especially with MDLP...

g

 

[gloco]

Well, for real time recordings, i went and purchased a MD/5 CD combo deck with a 4x hi speed dubbing feature. Took care of the issue of waiting around. Sometimes i make new dubs in the morning before going to work

 

[Watchdog]

NetMD does make the transfers go pretty quickly. I'd say faster than making mp3 CD's once you factor in rip, encode and then write to a CD-R all combined.

With NetMD it's just hook up and copy. Plus you get automatic titling of your songs which is great.

I love the portability of NetMD and I use LP2 quite a bit. Sound quality on LP2 is quite good and with 150 minutes on one disc I find this is pretty good. I like the 5 pack of Sony MD's since it comes with the neat little 5 pack carrying case. That easily fits in my pocket so you have 750 minutes of music in a very compact space.

If you loved your MD before I think you'll love NetMD. You'll get all the features you used to love AND you'll be able to record in faster than real time. MDLP modes allow you to store a lot of music in a small space.

 

[Sweet Spot]

Does using Net MD mean having to deal with LP modes ? I'm totally not into super compression...I mean, it's compressed already, why compress it even more with long play mode recording. I guess that the answer to my question is NO. Nothing has changed.

The idea of buying a 5 MD deck with 4x dubbing mode is a consideration...too bad it's limited to 4x. Gloco, where and how much for the unit ?

Guzzler, how long does it take you to get 3 albums on a disc and what do you use to transfer ? Aside from that, do you use something like a volume normalizer to ensure proper recordings ? And how about how you set up your song selections, what program do you use, or do you just use your media players playlist to stream it ? Sorry if I'm asking silly questions, it's just that I'd really, really, really like to go back to MD someday.

Thanks,

S.S.

 

[Superbaldguy]

Gloco must have bought the Sony MXD-D5C. It's a very sweet MD/CD deck. (just landed one about a month ago!)

I have zero interest in Net MD but I appreciate the efforts to make it better, despite Sony's unwillingness to allow USB uploads. Someday, maybe.

 

[Watchdog]

Rather than USB uploads, I'd love to have high speed NetMD SP transfers, that would be something I'd use more often than uploads.

 

[myself, aka me]

How I "deal" with it?

Digital from soundcard, to me MD deck. I'll just record and listen rather than listen then record. Simple, and better than NetMD

 

[Sweet Spot]

Wait, you're using your PC as a middle man ? I'm not sure I understand the logic in hooking up your sound card to your MD deck..Why not directly to your portable in that case ? Better conversion rate or what ? I can see the advantages of having a cd/md deck in that you can record straight from the cd to the Md with the 4x rate...but the other method, I'm not too sure of.

On another note, why do you suppose that a deck is better than Net Md if they both can do the transfers at the same speeds ? I'm not sure I see the advantages there..I mean, if a net md recorder has a usb interface and can transfer at 4x,(sp, not LP) then what's the beef ? Oh, that's my other question, can the deck do 4x transfers from IT to the PORTABLE..or is it just from the CD to the MD within the deck ? I' dunno...I'm tired and confused. Think I'll leave this till tomorrow night.

S.S.

 

[myself, aka me]

I think that consumer soundcards strip SCMS, but apart from that, it's the only optical signal I have, and i'm too cheap to buy a (cheap) CD player with optical out!

If I did, then my computer would be banished from performing any audio related tasks

I'm lousy at explaining things, terribly sorry. Let me clarify:

I use an MDS-PC1, non-netMD deck, transferring optically in SP mode. I get the 'better' from the fact that NetMD does LP2, max quality. SP is a lie, it's really LP2 files reconverted to make non-MDLP units happy

.

I guess the machine is near my computer in the first place as it titles via a serial port, which is half of netMDs advantage (for me) right there.

 

[guzzler]

i put three albums (Feeder - Comfort In Sound, Coldplay - Parachutes, Radiohead - The Bends) onto one 74 MD using LP2 straight from OpenMG, using CDDB to get track names automatically. Took about 30-40 minutes if memory serves, but thats with me pausing in between each for a break! You can use a group function on the MD, so I press the "Group" button on my MD, and it takes me to the next album! Pretty good stuff! You can just do normal (Stereo) recordings straight from OpenMG as well...

g

 

[gloco]

Quote:

Originally posted by Sweet Spot The idea of buying a 5 MD deck with 4x dubbing mode is a consideration...too bad it's limited to 4x. Gloco, where and how much for the unit ?

I paid $200 for it back in January 2002. The only bad thing is that the optical out doesn't work, otherwise it has been performing perfectly from the day i took it out of the box. I had this pos md deck before, i think it was a Sony 330 somethin'...it came in one of those bundles they sell. That was awful, phantom power, crunchy motor, etc etc. Totally ruined all my 74 min TDK's i had. The new deck has a very quiet MD loading motor. I picked it up from a sonystyle online store (www.sonystyle.com i think), not sure if they still sell it this cheap, if they do, i think its worth it just to make dubs that much more painless and they sound great.

Superbaldguy,

Where did u buy your deck from? Does the optical out work?

 

[Superbaldguy]

I got my MXD-D5C via a private sale on the T-Board. It wasn't brand-new, about three months old, but the original owner took excellent care of the deck. As far as I know, there are very few (if any) digital outs on MiniDisc decks. I see the new MDS-JE780 has one, however.

 

[Sweet Spot]

Ok, ok, I'm getting there !

I've just been pressured by exams so I can't think straight. No one answered this question for me :

Can the deck do 4x transfers from IT to a PORTABLE..or is it just from the CD on the deck to the blank md on the deck ?

Here's what I think is going to happen...By the time I have money, or am no longer broke/employed full time (take your pick) better MD decks and units will be around and it will be easier to create discs than it is now...or so I'm hoping. So till then, I'll just keep a watchful eye on the situation. Thanks for all your help everybody.

S.S.

 

[SBomm]

I read, in the minidisct forum , that you can add an optical out to the MDS-JE440 and MDS-JE470 deck.
Here is a link to the original article at minidisc.org
I'm looking for a MD deck myself and haven't found one for a great price yet. But I'll keep looking.