Need some technical help, minidisc

Ok, I’m usually not too bad with the technical stuff, but I’m stumped. I need some help with a Sony minidisc recorder.

I bought one on ebay because I heard the recording quality was pretty good and I thought it would be practical. Is it possible to upload stuff I’ve recorded from the minidisc to my computer???? If there is a way, please, someone help me. It doesn’t seem possible that there is no way. I am getting very, very, very frustrated. I hope someone has some advice for me. Please, please? Thanks, Anna

It depends on what kind you have. If it records only in standard MD format, you can’t upload the data; you can only record it to your computer in real time through the line out/headphone jack. If it records in Hi-MD, the data can be uploaded but only, I believe, using Sony’s proprietary software.

it’s a Sony MZ-R700

Do you know if that’s standard or Hi-MD?I assume it’s standard if I don’t see anything about Hi-MD. Trying via headphone output to cool-edit….Thanks for the qick reply and sorry for my stupidity, haha

Worked through the headphone ouput. I have a little hiss happening. I used a good mic for recording, any idea if the hiss is happening during the actual recording or the upload to cool edit?

That’s what I have to do with my mioni disc. Use the headphone out to my Mac recording program (Amadeus) in real time. It’s probably because the gain control was set manually too low and you are hearing the noise floor. Or not 🙂

That’s the main reason I want an mp3 recorder like th Ederol or m-audo units. Download is quicker and you might have better luck at recording.

you could have the other problem-everything saturates and its just LOUD!

Anna,
The hiss is probably on the original, however the quality of your soundcard will have an effect of the quality of the recording. If you can’t hear the hiss when listening through the headphones of the MD player and you *can* hear it using the same headphones on your computer, then it’s coming from the soundcard input.

The MZ-R700 is an older model that won’t upload to computer (the newer Hi-MD models have a mini USB socket to do this - though as mentioned you have to use Sony’s software which is only available for Windows - I think there may be versions of the very latest MDs that are spcially for Macs)

So the headphone/line out socket to sound card is the way to go. If there’s no his on the MD headphones, try playing with the volume levels at both ends, maybe the input level to the computer is a bit low and the soundcard hiss is showing.

Chris

wow, thanks for all the help. I always know where to turn. 🙂 I’ll try playing with the levels to get rid of the hiss. I suspect it’s because the input level was set to high on my laptop. There doesn’t seem to be much noise on the minidisc itself. Thanks again. Anna

On the newer MDs, the 100 or 10 it says you can download just once…. silly because you can burn endless CDs from that and reload them elsewhere ad nauseum as wav. files….. but…. question is, if you wanted to can you still, after downloading the MD once, download it again in real time via the headphone jack and into say, Audacity?

Guess I can get the cable and give it a try, but just wonder if anyone’s done that already before I go to Radio Shack for more endless black wires….. I swear I am starting to dream of the endless snarl of black mike and recording cables!!

irisnevins, with the latest version of sony’s software (which you can download from their website), the restriction of downloading only once is gone for material that you have recorded with a microphone. I have tested and verified this with my minidisc recored, which is mz-m100 model.

Thanks crazy! Not that I have need for it at this point, but you never know when someone would like a copy on their machine too, without going back and forth with CDs and computers.

Using Cool Edit you should be able to filter out significant hiss from your recording. Cool Edit has some of the best and most informative technical “help” I’ve come across in this area, and it will tell you how to do it. Use your ear as the best guide in doing this. If you over-do the filtering you’ll run the risk of taking too much off the higher frequencies.