Minidisc??????

[smurphius]

I'm by no means really knowledgeable on this topic, but I am to a certain extent. In light of the microphone, you have been told correctly. The better a microphone is, the wider range of frequency it is going to be able to pick up. Being that low brass instruments are rather low on the harmonic series, especially the trombone and tuba, the frequency of the sound waves produced are going to be much lower than that of say a trumpet. This also has a direct effect on what overtones the tuba is producing. A better microphone is going to pick up more of this and will give you a more natural sounding recording. It has been suggested to me before to buy a microphone with an XLR plug on it. Going into probably a 1/8" minidisc jack, you'd probably need a XLR to 1/4" and a 1/4" to 1/8" adapter, but this still will work.

As far as minidisc players, I am not so knowleadgeable. I've heard many other people high recommend them though.

Hope this helps!

[Alan Baer]

Okay, here is what you want to do. This is what I've used for quite some time and I've had many of my students buy this stuff as well.
Yes, E-bay is a good place to look, provided you know what you want. I like the Sharp Products. The reason for this is because you can adjust the recording level while you are recording. The Sony units that I've experienced you have to knock it out of record mode to readjust. Time is money, especially when your practicing....
The problem with the Sharp units now is that they are not sold in the US market. I was just in Tokyo last week and looked high and low for a new unit that was 110v. no luck. If you buy the Sharp unit you'll need a voltage converter.
So, having said that, I usually only us it with the batt. anyway, there are no plugs outdoors......
Anyway, Any recording mini disc will do fine. Take a look a minidicso.com. Lots of choices, good guys with answers.
Now, for a mic.
Giant squid audio. I found this guy on e-bay a few years ago. I think it's a 1 man operation, GREAT product and a GREAT price. Take a look at the tiny stereo mic set in wood. $25 I believe. I bought one just to try it, it was great! A student needed one so I sold it to her. I really like the powered stereo mic. EVERYONE who has heard this mic has bought one....
$90. I will warn you, there is a drawback to this mic. It runs on a 9v. batt. if it goes dead, your out of luck. Carry extra batteries. The non powered has the same great quality, you just have to turn up the level more, this CAN result in extra hiss.
Okay, you have the equipment, well almost. Don't for get an extension cord for the Mic. Go to Radio Shack and get the GREY ONE! Not the black one, unless you like hiss. Get one about 15 feet long.
Set the mini disc up next to you. Run the mic out and put it on a music stand or what ever. Headphones on your leg. Record,listen,fix, record,listen... repeat
it takes me 2 hours to record 1 hour of music.
This is the drill, it works if you use it.... good luck.
Alan Baer

[Dylan King]

If you can afford the price, and loss of convinience due to using tape, I have to recommend DAT over minidisc. It is a pure, non-compressed sound, and gives you way more ba-ba-boom out of the mic you use. I'm pretty picky about the sound in recordings, and to my ear there is a major difference in depth of sound between mini and DAT. Sony has a few nice portables. Audio-Technica has a stereo mic that is a fantastic value at less than $400. My buddies at www.sweetwater.com have all these goodies w/o tax and shipping.

If you do digital audio on your computer, the audio can be easily imported from either a minidisc or DAT and manipulated in any way imaginable. You need an audio interface and audio production software to do this, but well worth it! Dead and stuffy sounding practice room recordings can be changed to an old church or a famous Hollywood recording studio with a click of the mouse. It also makes it cheap and easy to store recordings for all time by putting them on a digital disc. I recommend Logic for MAC. It is the easiest to learn and the most powerful. PC's should not be used for music, but if you have to, Cubase seems to be the one people use.

I know that's going way beyond your question, but I just love ranting on tech stuff.

*Interesting fact*
I have the best samples available today in my virtual orchestra that I use to score my pictures with. The Vienna Symphonic Library is the most realistic one ever. The tuba samples on it suck, and so have all other tuba samples I have tried. I still add live tuba to all my arrangements that are recorded on the computer. My fellow film and TV composers have the same observation. The tuba isn't an easy instrument to record, especially any kind of "generic" sound. In my opinion the "personality" of sound tuba players produce is greater than any other wind instrument. We are the biggest and the best! And the toughest to record.

Play it low. Play it mellow.

MSM

[MaryAnn]

I had a Sharp MD that I lost in the divorce, along with the At-822 mike.
I replaced them with a Rode stereo mike, a Blue Tube pre-amp, and a CD writer. A little more space, a little more money. I liked it better, but I never got to try the Rode mike with the minidisk. It may have sounded just as good. In particular both horn and tuba recorded better than with the old setup. The reason for the Blue Tube was recording live at the back of the hall; it added presence and I didn't have to crank the input volume as high, lowering hiss. This is still not really "pro" quality though, and I may ending up buying a REALLY high end mike, along with some kind of multi-track hard drive recording device.

The MD is extremely portable, but I liked the instant playback ability of a CD right into my regular CD player. I"m not into messing with the audio tracks on my computer....I spend 40 hrs a week staring at one anyway, and want to do something else on the weekends.

MA

[Phil Dawson]

For mics you might try going to single channel mics instead of the stereo mic. This gives you many more options for mic placement and you can get many different sounds by moving the mics to different locations and moving them closer together or further apart. There are many good books out there and some even at your public library. I have used the Shure SM81 on horn (aprox 8 feet behind the bell (on axis - pointed towards the center of the bell) with good results. This is a good quality small diaphram condenser (needs phantom power) that goes for about $320 street price. Of course there are many other more expensive mics but there is a pont of diminishing retrurns as you spend more. I will be working with a pair of Neumann TM127 ($3200/pair) and a matched pair of AKG 414s ($1800/pair) and I will try to post my results. I will also be working with a pair of the SM81s and a pair of Earthworks omni mics. I will try to post my results but feel free to email me with any questions.
Phil
PS The direct to CD method makes more sense than DAT since the DAT will have to be bounced down to CD for ease of use and the MD gives an inferior compressed signal and isn't much smaller than some of the CD recorders out there. Marantz also has a recorder out there now that has 2 built in pre-amps and phantom power. It records to flash memory cards that can hold up to 8 gig. The unit is quite small and I have heard very good reviews from a user that isn't tring to sell them.

[vmi5198]

I have been looking into a MD player for a long time, and I have learned that Sony now has a new model out (MZ-NH1) http://www.sonystyle.com/is-bin/INTERSH ... iMDWalkman
that can digitally record back to your computer and convert it to wave format, allowing you to burn onto a regular audio CD for auditions etc.

Does anyone have any comments about this model in particular?

Also, many of my friends are saying that Ipod's are the way of the future, and that all MD's are on their way out. I would like to buy an MD player for the purposes of recording audition CD's, but is this possible with an Ipod as well?

I live in Osaka Japan, so I have access to more than enough equipment, I would just like to know what you think.

Thanks.

[Phil Dawson]

If it were my audition CD I would sure want to record it to a higher resolution format than MD. Why not go straight to CD or Dat to CD or even cassette tape to CD?
Phil

[Alex Reeder]

I very recently was doing a lot of research into recording myself and I agree with a previous poster that you should check out hard disk mp3 players like the ipod.

I found one model, an iriver h120, that I think would be perfect for this. It is a 20 gig hard drive with analog and digital line in jacks so that you can record onto it from a separate mic. You have the option to record in any number of formats, but for the highest quality you can record in uncompressed digital, like a DAT. It should be very easy to connect it to a computer and burn right to a CD, with everything digital for good sound quality. It also has an equalizer, a 16-hour battery life, and is just as small as an ipod.

I just bought one for about $280 on ebay, and I will update when it arrives and I have some time to test it out.

[vmi5198]

I looked up these players you mentioned, and I am very intrigued! Please let us know how it works for you. I am also now windering the differences between the HP 120, and the 300 series. Any ideas?

[Phil Dawson]

Doesn't anybody care about the sound qualityof their recording? MP3 is not a good format for finding out what you sound like and it is one of the worst formats for presenting your work to someone else. A MP3 CD will hold approx 10 full length CDs in MP3 format. That means that the MP3 format only has 10% of the information of a CD. Given that even the CD is not a perfect format the MP3 is only 1/10th as good. You need to listen to your recordings on good quality equipment and with a critical ear for both performance and recording quality.
Phil

[tubacdk]

the new Sony Hi-MD units have an uncompressed format (called PCM) with which you can record. And now with the new WAV converter Sony has released (props to Sony for getting their corporate head out of their corporate derriere) the results are great. Sony has also updated their SonicStage software to allow for CD burning on non-Sony computers, so you can get maximum quality there too.

I'm pleased. Finally.

-ck

[Alex Reeder]

Perhaps you did not understand my previous post correctly, so let me explain it better:

MP3 and similar formats are ways of compressing sound to save space. There are several options of how much compression you want. I believe the bit rate is a measure of this. The more compressed the recording is, the less space it takes up, but the worse the sound quality. This MP3 player (which does not record on an MP3 CD but a mini computer hard drive) has several compression options, including no compression at all, which gives you pure digital recording of the same quality as a DAT. This is higher quality sound than minidisc or CD.

PS: The only difference I can tell between the H100 series and the H300 series is that the 300 series has a color display that can show digital pictures and movie files. I didn't need that, so I stuck with the H120.