Good point, MacEachain.
The Sonys are a bitch to use, especially for live music. All those nested menus displayed on impossibly small screens! Motor noise! 15-second TOC updates! ROWRBAZZLE!!!
Sharps are much easier to use. However, Sharps have a dropability factor of 3, the Sonys 4. I invented this criterion because I’m always dropping (and kicking) mics, whistles, recorders, coffee cups, etc. at sessions. {On the dropability scale an $18 cassette deck is a 1 and a $3000 Nagra portable is a 10.}
Why not just go through the headphone / line out jack on the MD to the line in jack on the computer? May I assume that this is about recording musicians so as to learn tunes, songs and ornaments, and the like? May I also assume that you want to get the music into the computer so you can convert it to MP3 or CD and send it to someone?
By the way, Sony makes two home MD machines (the 440 for $180 and the 940 for $350) that will edit your discs to 1/84th of a second, let you type track labels and such with a PS/2 keyboard, do LOTS of other things with them, too, make it easy to record Irish shows off the radio, make cassette dubs, etc.
And also, let’s not forget how good a recording you can make with a decent mic into a decent portable cassette recorder. Cheap and reliable!
WHISTLE ON AND ON!