MiniDisc Recorders- What to buy & why!

P

Paris1900

Member
Hello everyone! Newbie here wondering which minidisc recorder to buy for backup audio in weddings & other events...
1.Looking for models that will do the trick for under $300! 2.Would this recorder need a mic input for a wired lav?
3.Which lav should I use?
4.How would I port this audio into an Apple G5?
Thanks a million for any info & suggestions!!!
 
altrustic response. . .

altrustic response. . .

1.Looking for models that will do the trick for under $300!
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I sold my portable minidisc recorder on eBay a year ago for about forty bucks. Most all of them (Sony's) are well under three hundred bucks.
2.Would this recorder need a mic input for a wired lav?
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Not necessarily. For economy, the simple answer is yes. It's not that you need a mic input, what you need is a mic preamp. Find a minidisc machine with xlr preamps and I doubt they would be very good, unless it is super expensive and made by HHB. You could use a mixer along with a A/D converter like a Swissonic to convert the mixer output for an optical input for the minidisc recorder, but again this is serious cash and hardly necessary.
3.Which lav should I use?
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Here's one I can try to answer. There are a lot of options. How "professional" do you want to get? The lavs I own and use cost over three hundred bucks each, and they only work with wireless.. to connect them directly to a recorder requires an additional hundred dollar adapter. On the other side of the fence, there are lav mics at Radio Shack for probably twenty bucks with a mini-plug (headphones-type) connector on 'em. In the middle or the road is anything made by Audio Technica or Azden, two companies who make budget microphones that are well-liked by event videographers..
4.How would I port this audio into an Apple G5?
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Geez. You've got a G5? You're lucky, that computer packs some serious punch. Here's the deal, minidisc is a compressed audio format that uses a proprietary sony-only compression format. Not only is it lower in quality than the MiniDV spec, there isn't any kind of, "firewire-type" digital transfer to a computer that I know of. Of course you could use the optical output of the deck to go into the optical input on the back of your computer, but I don't know for sure that kind of software you need on the other end to interpret it. I think it converts the ATRAC3 compressed audio to uncompressed 16/44.1 on output, but I'm not certain.

Thanks a million for any info & suggestions!!!
Click to expand...
Sure thing! You're welcome.

In summary:
minidisc is compressed in a proprietary audio format
good lav mic's ARE expensive
no idea how to advise you on editing workflow

brian wells
 
Brian gave you some good advice, and I will add one thing...AT makes a decent wired lav that runs about $30 and you can get it at Best Buy. You can try it out and decide if you like it...Best Buy has great return policies. (BTW, I kept mine. ;-)
 
The MD recorder I use is no longer produced, but any of the top Sony recorders are good, and should be under 3 bills. Yes the format is compressed, but if you are using it for location audio, it is fine, especially if you are doing weddings. I would not master music to it.
Getting audio into and out of the MD is a little tricky. Thisiswells is right, for a good mic you need a good pre-amp. A portable mixer would be best but as an alternative, I recommend getting a Beechtek adapter or equivalent. They take XLR audio in and give you mini-plug in, which you plug into the line-in on the recorder.
I also use a Radio Shack XLR to Phono plug adapter (about $20) adapt the Phono plug to a mono-stereo mini-plug adapter and go into the mic input on the MD recorder. With this I use a powered shot-gun mic. I use this rig mostly for sound FX recording and have not recorded dialog with it. But seems to work fine.
Getting into a G-5 is a little tricky also. Most protable MD recorders do not have digital optical (SPDIF) out, only in. Getting SPDIF out for under $300 ain't gonna happen, especially in a portable deck. (Check E-bay, maybe). What I do is run line out from the MD recorder into a USB audio interface (the iMic) and record it like regular audio in my audio recording/editing software (I use Bias Peak). From there I save the audio as an AIFF file and use it anyway I need. It works fine.

Good luck.
 
Thanks alot everyone!
This is a frustrating subject for me cause I've been told (& read) that for 'backup' audio in weddings, MD recorders are the way to go. They are to be slipped into the grooms pocket in case of wireless failure. I've been trying to find the right recorder but it seems that the models suggested are either not being made anymore or are super-expensive.
But I do appreciate the advice! Keep it coming!!
 
For what you're doing you'd probably be fine with the $30 Audio Technica lav from Best Buy paired
with any Sony MiniDisc portable. Get a stereo mini-plug to stereo rca cable from rat shack, plug
it into your camera in VTR mode, enable analog-in, and record into your mac over firewire. That's
what I would do anyways. I think the iMic solution is pretty good (heck, I recorded a band with
one of those a couple years ago) but probably running through the cameras line-in and direct out
through firewire would be simpler since you could go direct into editing software you're accustomed
to and not think about setting levels besides the output volume on your MD... which hopefully
you wouldn't have to mess with either if its equipped with a "line-out" Most of them are.

Does this help?
Let us know how it works out. Thanks.
 
Thisiswells is right on the money for simplicity. The line-in to camera, firewire to Mac way will get you to your NLE easiest (and you do not have to worry about sample rate conversion problems).

Check out the iMic though, the best $35 I spent in a long time.

One safety tip when using the Walk Man style MD recorders, always use fresh batteries and have spares. They eat up AA bats very quickly.

Good luck.
 
you should look into an iRiver unit. search that. sorry no time to write tonight. i think minidsic sounds bettter, but the fast transfer of files to a mac is great wiht the iriver. not a high recommendation, as for me, I have been disappinted by the digital noise on these recorders. g'luck.
 
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