I will be building a new computer in the new year. I will also be getting a Sony minidisc player around Christmastime. Ah, the wonders of a steady paycheck.
Anyway, I read in the MD literature that the DPC connector lets you download digital music information to the player, but that an upload from the player to the computer is only achieved in analog. (Please enlighten me if I’m wrong.) I would like to be able to get digital uploads from the recorder, such as live sessions.
This being the case, I am wondering if there is a MD equivalent of a data card reader that can be installed in a computer, like a floppy disk drive or a compact flash reader. Any idea if such an item exists?
–Beth
[ This Message was edited by: avanutria on 2001-10-19 14:14 ]
I found that it is not available in the U.S. However, minidisc is more popular overseas. Sony has an external (USB or serial or parallel port, I don’t know?) device that has the exact opposite limitations as a MDR; that is, It can read from a minidisc but not record. I found it on some on-line catalog for overseas customers. I do not have the source at this time.
MD’s and Computers don’t mix at this time and space…
The minidisc was designed with an “Audio/Data Firewall” built in that prevents the ATRAC audio data from MiniDiscs to be accessed directly by the computer. This was initially done with the Music Piracy problem in mind. However, we all know that these laws are stable and never change
There is a company in the UK called Electronic Design Labratory has a piece of software that’ll allow ATRAC transfers between PC and MD, but you’re looking at about a $4500 price tag for it.
The only way to transfer music from PC to MD at this time (without spending $$$) is realtime. Play that MP3 on your machine and have the Sony MD record convert it to ATRAC as it goes… sucks doesn’t it?
Me? I went for the DVD-Burner. Audio’s cool, but movies rule.
On 2001-10-19 14:13, avanutria wrote:
Well, actually I want to be able to transfer recordings that I make on the MD (ie sessions) onto the PC.
Or is the quality of the analog line-out transfer sufficient?
Unfortunately, the transfer would have to be real-time both ways. There’s bound to be some degradation since you’re transferring from Digital to Analog and then back to Digital, but if you’re using quality equipment, I would think it would be minimal.
Using the analog line-out from your minidisc (make sure that you pick one that has a line-out, such as the Sony MZ-R900 … many MD recorders only have headphone-out) to the line-in of your PC soundcard you will get VERY good quality. I do exactly that with my MD, and the sound quality is excellent.
Don’t forget you will also need a reasonlably good microphone.
[ This Message was edited by: Champ on 2001-10-22 00:40 ]
