I got started with MD to make compilations of LPs to play in my car. But
lately, in addition to music, I've been recording interviews with family
members for a genealogy project. One of my friends at work borrowed my
recorder and mics for a weekend to record some of his relatives and was
There's no techincal reason that 2x should not be possible, because 96 KHz
S/PDIF sound cards have been avaialble for some time. Also, most existing
MD transports are capable of up to 5x. It just hasn't been implemented by
any existing MD model. I'm sure that once people got a taste of 2x, 4x
I have a Sony MD MZ R 70, and today I have discovered my
remote control is not working anymore...
The remote is just a resistor ladder. If you've got an ohmmeter, connect it
to 2 of the pins on the "edge connector" at the end of the remote cable (I
forget which 2, but the other 2 are not
Lately, there has been some discussion and speculation on MD-L about analog
vs digital for computer to MD transfers. Below I've enumerated the
technical advantages and disadvantages.
The advantages of analog are:
1) it *always* works
2) easy level adjustments
The disadvantages of analog are:
I've been getting a lot of e-mails from people who don't understand why
they
can't simply copy the MP3s to MD faster than real time, so I've put
together
a rather lengthy explanation.
http://home.sprintmail.com/~dalegreer/Mac-MD/lawyers.html
An interesting account of the history of SCMS,
Does anyone know where I can get a service manual for the RM-X69RF? I'd
like to add an extra IR sensor as I plan to put the display module behind a
drop-down door.
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I have an MZ-EP11 (with LCD remote) and an MZ-R70 (remote with no LCD).
The EP11's LCD remote plug fits the R70 and the controls work, but the LCD
doesn't. On the 4-pin remote plug, 2 of the pins are for the controls and
2 for the LCD. My guess is that the LCD pins are not connected in the
If price were no object, I'd have Martin Logans!
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But there is no code or signal in S/PDIF that means "new track starts
now."
I don't know how the CD subcode information is translated for S/PDIF
transmission, but the subcode "P" channel on the disc is just that, a "new
track starts now" signal. It is the CD's version of the "wide spiral
But you have to factor in the shipping and service charge. That will
raise
the price somewhat.
I ordered 100 Hi-Space 74 MDs from Casette House a few months ago. I don't
remember the exact details, but I remember shipping and handling as being
quite reasonable. They weren't inflating their
Not wanting to get into a flame war with Rat, but I stand by my previous
explanation of CDDA. For those interested, there's some information online:
http://www.howstuffworks.com/cd1.htm
Also, Ken Pohlman's book, "Principles of Digital Audio" has in-depth
explanations of many formats,
OK, I finally found a page with a good technical expanantion of CD-DA
ripping and the problems involved:
http://www.cdpage.com/Audio_Compact_Disc/daextraction.html
Also some interesting general info on CD, CDROM, MD and DVD here:
http://www.sonydadc.com/pr_handbook.asp
I've got K Pohlman's
I assume they are being combined before going through the
MD's ADC
I beleive the ADC outputs a normal stereo signal. The channels are combined
in the digital domain *after* the ADC, at least on the JE520.
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Rather, the CDDA is stored with an RF
encoded carrier wave on the disc. In other words, it's stored in
analog. Different transports will come up with slightly
different sets of CDDA after reading it.
CDDA is *not* analog! It is as digital as CDROM, your computer hard drive,
etc. CDs use
When recording mono from analog, it appears that it would be best to mix to
mono before the signal reaches the MD, then connect only one input channel
of the MD, leaving the other unconnected. To get the level correct, the
digital record level would have to be set at +6 dB (higher is OK; lower
It's nice to hear when MD vs MP3 is treated objectively in the media.
pros:
cheaper media
longer recording time
higher quality recording
wider choice of players
more editing/mix capabilities
I definitely agree with the "pros". (I think higher recording quality is
based on the 128K MP3's that
I have had a DIO2448 for about 6 months. I'm writing this because DIO2448
information is currently on the Minidisc Community page. The DIO2448 has 6
connectors on the attached bracket: TOSlink in, TOSlink out, S/PDIF coax in,
S/PDIF coax out, and 2 RCA connectors for analog line level output.
I currently have an Sony MDS-PC2 MD recorder and a Sony CRX-120E USB CD
recorder. This wish list covers both MD and CDR, since one of the things I
would like to see is better software integration.
1) For the MD: USB - USB - USB for both audio and control! This would solve
a couple current
I bought some Recoton TOSlink cables at Best Buy a few months ago. They are
very flexable and work great. The only thing that might be a problem is
that the TOSlink connectors are rather large; they just barely fit the
side-by-side jacks on the DIO2448...
I will try to check my MDS-PC2 for the 1-sample-out-of-phase error,
providing I can figure out how to get Cool Edit to generate waveforms one
sample out-of-phase. (I'll have to use a frequncy, say 15 KHz, sufficiently
below the filter cutoff to be unaffected and rotate the two channels to some
L+R/2 is almost universally used. FM broadcast is trasmitted this way for
comptibility with monaural receivers. The "mono" switch on preamplifiers
does this. However, this simple, almost universally used transformation
does not provide a perfect mono version of a stereo source. The reason is
I understand that the RIAA has done some good in protecting artist's and
recording company's rights to profit from their creations, but I really have
gotten tired of hearing them complain about how much money they're losing.
Did they ever stop to compute how much the music consumer has lost?
MD shares many of the characteristics of a computer file system. It has a
freelist. It has a directory. One could even consider the track titles to
be sort of a "file name" although it doesn't mind duplicate titles, since
access is by track number. Data chunks can be stored out-of-order. MD
I have the hardware one would need hooked to my computer (Sony MDS-PC2 with
CAV50C, Maudio DIO 2448 (although 2496 is recomened) Sony Spressa CDX-120E
USB CDRW).
The problem is that no unified software exists. The MDS-PC2 is controlled
by the"Minidisc Editor 2" program, while the Spressa CD
Oh no, I _like_ the clamshell mechanism!
I have an 'R70 (clamshell) and an 'EP11 (slot-in). The slot-in mechanism
feels a *lot* more solid. I always feel as if I have to be super-gentle
with the R70. I wish Sony was offering portable recorders with slot-in.
Especially recorders, because the
I've found that mp3s of songs with vocals sometimes do not transfer over
to
MiniDisc well (analog), especially 128k files
...
at 128, some of the higher
stuff is muffled, or "combed" or really sharp.
I've noticed some minor problems with 128k MP3, sometimes sort of a "hard"
sounding high
I think that solid state memory media *is* the wave of the future. However,
I do see some drawbacks:
1) Right now, the cost of solid state is very high compared to MD: $100 vs
$2.50 for the same amount of storage.
2) Right now standalone MD recorders are a mature technology, which means
I just purchased a Sony CRX100E/X2 CD recorder, which has a USB interface.
I also have a MDS-PC2 MD drive connected to my computer. So far my wish
list includes two general items:
1) The CRX100E/X2's USB hardware interface is just great! I'd like to see
something like that when Sony gets
Anyone have any experience with Sony's ECM-MS907? It's a very reasonalbly
priced mid-side microphone. I'd be interested to know if they use a
specially manufactured figure-of-8 electret capsule to generate the "S"
signal; I'm not aware of general availability figure-of-8 electret
capsules...
there is an undocumented +12 volt trigger output on the RM-X69RF
controller
I am using this wire successfully in my installation. I have a classic 1965
Ford Fairlane in which has modern electronics in the original radio case.
Inside the radio, I have a 12VDC DPDT relay controlled by the
Thought I would add this to the discussion: The amps with digital I/O that
are available now are analog amplifiers with built-in D/A convertors. Some
of the high-end models use DSP for level, tone/equalization, reverb, etc,
but all eventually convert the signal to analog and pass it through an
1. On the VHS SP vs EP discussion: EP *always* results in inferior quality
compared to SP because the helical tracks *overlap* in EP mode (they do not
in SP), causing a reduced S/N ratio.
2. On the cellular discussion: Although normal cellular uses analog FM
audio transmission
It sounds like a radio and nothing like my cd's" this coming from a 15 =
year old female who IMO is not an audiophile at all
As one who spent many years as an engineer at an US FM radio station, I can
say that radio stations work hard to sound bad! FM radio inherently sounds
very much like a
I find that, even when transfering 128K MP3 to MD, it is best to use digital
I/O so further degradation does not occur. Analog sound cards often have a
much poorer S/N ratio than the original MP3 file, and they often have
frequency response or phase shift errors at low frequencies due to
The result you achieve will depend on how much effort you put into it. If
its a *really* important recording, you can use Cool Edit (or your favorite
audio editor program) to painstakingly find every annoying pop produced by
the clipping and delete the offending samples. You have to zoom *way*
The largest improvement, especially at low frequencies, come from low
resistance. Since the speaker itself is only a few ohms, series resistance
added by small gauge cable and normal connectors will quickly destroy the
high damping factor of modern solid-state amplifiers. The PA rig I built
It's a neat idea. The small size would be attractive for integration with
palm computing. But, if the Wired article is right, Dataplay is write-once.
Sounds like a problem to me. One of the things I like about minidisc is the
ability to re-write if I make a mistake. Although it sounds like
I am using a DIO2448 (well, sort of) optically connected to a Sony MDS-PC2.
If you have a motherboard sound system, you will have to use the control
panel to select the DIO2448 as the wave playback device. After that, the
problem I experienced is that the MDS-PC2 does not lock properly to
I think the purists prefer coax to toslink because the slight timing
ambiguity instroduced by the multi-mode fiber can't pass their pico-second
jitter specs. However, jitter is only important when driving a DAC, and
every "good" DAC has a sophisticated timing recovery circuit in the
receiver.
I just received an MZ-R70 from Minidisco. The plan is to use this portable
recorder to record interviews with family members for a genealogy project.
The unit is very small, compared to my MZ-EP11, and I find that its
clamshell mechanism feels a bit more delicate than the slot-in mechanism of
Hi,
I'm looking for a portable MD recorder for my sister to use for recording
interviews with my relatives for a family genealogy project. She's not
gadget-phobic, but I'd like to keep operation as simple as possible so she
can put her thought into the interview, not the recorder. I think the
do you have to digitally connect your cd-rom drive to your
soundcard to make
use of the digital out on the soundcard?
Here's my experience with a Samsung 40X CDROM and an M Audio DIO2448. The
Samsung does have an S/PDIF (TTL level) header, but the problem is that it
does not produce a valid
Hey, the display looks exactly like the one that comes with the RMX-69RF!
I've got 3 regular MDX-65s in the trunk (with a XA-C30 switcher) that are
controlled by an RMX-69RF. With this arrangement, I could expand up to 7
changers (any combination of MD or CD) by cascading up to 2 more XA-C30s.
I'm glad the MD - USB thread has proven to be a lively topic of
discussion! You'll get no argument from me that USB is not technically the
"best" interface. However, it might turn out to be the very popular for
these reasons:
1) USB is available on the motherboard of almost every new computer
The 5 hour mode that everyone has generated such interest is indeed a neat
feature, but the feature that is most inseresting to me is the ability to
change the level of already-recorded tracks. I'm guessing that this feature
uses an entry in the UTOC for each track that specifies how much the
http://www.video-direct.com/news/preview3-7/mdsjb940.html
Sony MegaStorage® CD Changer Control
CD Text and Custom FileT Transfer from CD Via Control A-1 II
Coaxial and Optical Digital Inputs and Outputs
Long Play Mode - Captures up to 5 hours, 20 minutes of stereo music on a
single 80-minute
Here's an interesting thought. If someone *does* buy the Sony USB adapter,
could they pry it open and let me know the numbers on the chips. Might be
that the codec chip has an S/PDIF output pin (fairly likely with modern
codecs). Its less likely to have and S/PDIF input pin. If Sony has used
Is S/PDIF hard to generate?
Computer audio chips tend to send/receive it right with pins on the main
sound chip and CD/MD equipment also tends to have it integrated at the chip
level (this is the most economical way to do it). So my guess is that it's
no big deal, if Sony has designed a
"Priciples of Digital Audio - 4th", considered by many to be the "bible" of
digital audio theory, is now available. My copy, which was pre-ordered at
BN.com, arrived yesterday. The latest edition is up to 736 pages, and
contains an entire chapter on MD, as well as chapters for CD, DAT, DVD, PC
There is your answer ... MD connected to a Palm Pilot
I have a Palm III and various MD equipment. At this point, the *only*
common connection is IR, specifically, the Palm with send/receive IR and my
JE520 and MDS-PC2 will receive it. The Palm will send/receive RS232 and,
with the addition of
could shock memory be replaced with the ability to eliminate silence and
have a good transition between songs? Like those CD changers that take 5 to
10 seconds to change disks, can you set them to record some in memory so by
the time the disk has to change, you could have gapless playing?
Sony
First, a quick thanks to all who have taken part so far in this thread.
Much of the discussion has centered aroung the obvious fact that an MD with
a USB port starts to look similar to an MP3 player to the user. This is
indeed true, but my original reason for proposing USB for MD was to
Wow! A $200 cassette! Do you want fries with that?
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I've received more than one suggestion that I run the CDROM's digital output
through my sound card and somehow the digital output from the sound card
will be valid when the CDROM is not playing. I have a DIO2448, which does
have a header for the CDROM's digital signal. Running it though the
I just thought of one more advantage if the MD had USB from transfering
digital audio the PC: flow control. The data flow on the USB can be
throttled by the sender or the receiver. S/PDIF, OTOH, *must* continue
uninterrupted. If you get a buffer overrun/underrun, too bad, it'll put a
skip or
With my new computer and MDS-PC2, I've been making compilations of MP3s on
MD for the past couple weeks. While the "playlist" method using winamp or
Real jukebox will produce satifactory results, I've been using Cool Edit
2000 to play back songs one-at-a-time. This has allowed me to catch and
Here's a problem I've noticed periodically with the MD Editor 2 program that
is bundled with the MDS-PC2. Sometimes when adding tracks to an MD that
already has a few tracks, some of the titles on the pre-existing tracks get
screwed up *on the MD edit window* but not on the UTOC. I think this
Video Direct is now selling the Sony MD Camera with the new 650MB MD drive.
Among other things, it will record 4.5 hours of audio!
http://www.video-direct.com/sony/mddiscam/mddiscam.html
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In my previous post (about the Sony commercial), I made the observation that
transfering between PC and MD is extremely problematic at this point (1X
transfer via S/PDIF or analog, titling via Slink, IR, etc). This response
seemed somewhat interesting:
better use a USB or FireWire
Adding a
I've seen the Sony MD commercial on MTV serveral time now selling MD as a
way to record music from the Internet. While I think it's great that we're
finally seeing MD ads, I wonder if this is really the right approach. I am
a big supporter of MD, specifically Sony (I have a JE520, an MZ-EP11,
Adding digital out *may* be as simple as adding a TOSlink transmitter *if*
the data decoder chip has an S/PDIF output pin. Most modern ones do. If
not, it will involve adding a digital audio transmitter chip, like the
CS8401, to take the serial data/bit clock/frame sync signals from the output
Just wondering if anyone knows of a program to display the contents of the
channel status and user bits from an S/PDIF data stream? I've got an M
Audio DIO2448 soundcard (CMI8738 chip). One alternative I may investigate
is connecting the "C" (channel status) and "U" (user bits) pins from a
Sony makes an RS232 - control-A1 convertor, the CAV-50C. Its a very small
box with an attached 1 foot cable terminated in a DE-9F, which plugs into
the serial port. It requires no external power; it is powered by DTR from
the serial port. It comes with the MDS-PC2. Maybe you could order it
This review is in two parts: (1) the MDS-PC2 deck and (2) the PC Interface.
Physically, the front panel of the MDS-PC2 is slightly larger than a
half-height 5.25 floppy drive. Along the left side is (from top to bottom)
the Power button (standby/operate), the IR sensor for the remote, a
A question and an observation...
Can anyone recomend (or point me to) which CDROMs have an S/PDIF output that
is stable during pause, seek, etc.
I think that stable S/PDIF is necessary regardless of whether the CDROM is
connected to an MD recorder or a sound card. The S/PDIF receiver chip
Well, I took time this evening to connect a TOSlink transmitter to the
S/PDIF output of the Samsung CDROM drive so I could try the drag-and-drop CD
to MD feature in the Sony MDS-PC2's PC software. The problem I encountered
is that the Samsung CDROM does not output S/PDIF unless the drive is
I've been thinking a bit more about the idea of having the CDROM drive play
the last few seconds of the preceding track to allow the MD recorder a
chance to lock up after a seek. The industry (especially video) name for
this is "pre-roll". Professional video tape editing equipment *always*
This is a more complex than it sounds... There are a couple factors that can
affect the bit accuracy when going, for example, from a WAV file to MD via
(or vice vesa) via SPDIF.
1) Dropped samples due to system activity. My experience is that a bunch
get dropped at the same time, causing a
Of course, this biggest reason, as has been mentioned, is that the ATRAC in
the MD prevents the MD from playing back a bit-accurate copy of what was
recorded. But I'm assuming that modern ATRAC algorithms are fairly good. I
don't think one can make that assumption on a wholesale basis, for
After a *long* evening of work, I accomplished my first *digital* transfer
from Cool Edit to the MDS-PC2. I have so far been unsuccessful at
transfering from the output of the DIO2448 to the MDS-PC2; I get
intermittent "DIN Unlock" when there's any audio. (It seems to lock to
silence OK, but
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I purchased an MDS-PC2 a couple months ago. Up until today, I have been =
using it in stand-alone mode (no PC), because its software would not run =
on my NT machine. It has
1. What is meant by "balanced" vs. "unbalanced"
The unbalanced RCA connector is S/PDIF digital. The center pin is "hot" and the
outside
of the connector is ground. The signal is connected between "hot" and ground.
The XLR connector is AES/EBU digital. The signal is between pin 2 and 3
Intertrack noise on CDs or MDs can be caused by
1) DC offset on the original *digitally transferred* recording.
This causes a "pop" regardless of where the edit point is placed.
The best way to fix this is to use the "Remove DC offset" checkbox
in the "normalize" function of Cool Edit.
I just found a distributor called "Doctor Audio"
http://www.doctoraudio.comselling Midiman
DIO 2448 for $119! Looks like it might be the
perfect way to hook MD to the computer.
Anyone have any experience with this card or
with Doctor Audio?
I received the Sony MDS-PC2 from Video Direct.
I'll have a detailed review after I use it a bit. This
information is for computer interface hackers...
Included with the MDS-PC2 is a Sony CAV-50C
RS232 - Control A1 interface. I opened the
interface to find the following major components:
NEC
For the past week I have been using a car system
with 3 MDX-65 changers and an XA-C30 source selector
box. The XA-C30 is mounted in the trunk along with the
changers. Previously, my single MDX-65 was powered
through the Unilink cable, but I had to run an unswitched
battery line back to the
There has been some discussion of digital clipping
and how the "over" indicator behaves. While this
depends on the actual implementation, here are
the important issues:
On record, the "over" indicator should indicate when
the maximum sample value has been exceeded.
Since it is impossible to
I just ordered an MDS-PC2 from Video Direct,
in Florida (800) 368-5020 for $289 + $15 shipping.
They inform me that they expect to receive a batch
of them from Sony in 10-15 days, so I should receive
it mid to late October.
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To
I've got a Sony MDX-65. It starts the disc change while
the end of the current track is playing so that there is no
pause in the audio. And at normal level...
I'll be installing a 3-unit Unilink switcher and 2 more MDX-65s
shortly, so I can let you know about the multi-changer shuffle
mode,
When digital dubbing, it's important not to record the signal any higher
than the "0" mark or you'll get clipping and distortion (when making a
digital recording--analog things like cassette decks let you go over the "0"
a tad before you start to hear distortion).
Whilst I agree with this
1. Could using a regular dynamic mic really damage my 702? Before
I saw the warning in the manual, I tried a regular mic and it seemed to
work OK (but occasionally there was a lot of static -- could the power
supplied by the 702 have built up somewhere and then discharged, causing
the
The discussion of electret microphones here is mostly correct
in that they are a type of condensor microphone and that they
require an excitation voltage, usually between 1.5 and 10 VDC.
All capacitor mirophone capsules are inherently very high
impedence devices, so high that they cannot drive
I have done more experimentation regarding the analog input
levels on the JE520. I have come to the conclusion that the
"over" indicators do not accurately report ADC clipping if
the input gain is set to less than 0.0. In fact, in most cases,
no amount of input signal will light the "over"
Perhaps I should have been more clear.
The underlying issue I was getting at is: what is the
resolution of the A/D converter on the JE520 and
how is that affected by adjusting the record level
*after* the signal has been converted to digital?
Let's say you increase it by 12 dB. I think that
Here are some questions and observations regarding analog
recording on the JE520. Does anyone know what tradeoffs
are involved in using the analog input level adjustment on the
setup menu?
I don't think there's any way on the JE520 to adjust the
input level to the A/D converter, so it would
How is the RM-X69RF controller supplied? Is it supplied with the RF block
(which feeds the FM car radio) built into the controller circuitry or as a
separate block, apart from the controller box, which just receives power
from the controller box and the signal from the changer?
It is in one
The RM-X69RF can indeed be used as "just a controller"
by connecting the RCA outputs of the MDX-65 to another
device. Here's the catch: due to the way the MDX-65 gets
its analog ground, you have to at least connect the shield of
one of the RCA's on the MDX-65 to the shield of the RX-X69RF
RCA
I'm having problems playing discs in an MDX-65 changer.
I have it connected to a RM-X69RF controller. Right now
its sitting on the workbench running from a 12VDC bench
supply. The audio output is connected to a powered speaker.
When it is running, the display indicates normal operation.
I can
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