Yamaha MiniDisc to PC digitally: possible?

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bhweb

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Hello. I have a Yamaha MD4S that I used for a number of recordings years ago. I still have a stock of discs for its MiniDisc drive, and have searched for a way to read these discs directly into a PC. What I have found in the marketplace is a variety of devices that can play the discs, but that does not do what I have in mind. The MD4S (obviously) can play the disks, then someone could take its audio line-out into a PC via the sound card or audio interface. (That is how I exported the MD4S tracks to a PC before.) I would like to find a device that can read the discs and generate a data stream that can be transmitted digitally to a PC. Rather like a "sneakernet data transfer" approach.

Comment is invited.
 
I'm pretty sure the ability to transfer MD audio digitally was specifically blocked as part of the format with the intent to prevent pirating of perfect digital copies.
 
I have an MD4 and know of no way to do that.
I see no way of bypassing the analog circuits and just getting the raw info. And even if it was possible, would a daw recognize what it was getting?

Anyway, it’s a mute point as any outputs are after the Digital to Analog converters.
 
The MD4 (and MD8) use MD data discs rather than the standard minidisc used for music.
I can’t remember the last time I saw a computer that had a data disc port.
Maybe you could find one on eBay and install it in your computer?

But even with that there’d need to be some conversion

I’m just guessing at this point , but I think the overall answer is no.

However, the good news is the sound quality would be the same as if you plugged the outputs of a CD player into your interface.
 
bouldersoundguy said:
I'm pretty sure the ability to transfer MD audio digitally was specifically blocked as part of the format with the intent to prevent pirating of perfect digital copies.
Click to expand...
I was wondering about that. Rather like a copy-protection scheme via proprietary format? Looks as though I will have to retain the former methods. They actually worked rather well; mixing and mastering in-the-box, then sending the stereo mixdown tracks to a PC as an export for use "in the outside world". Thanks for the comment.
 
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RFR said:
I have an MD4 and know of no way to do that.
I see no way of bypassing the analog circuits and just getting the raw info. And even if it was possible, would a daw recognize what it was getting?

Anyway, it’s a mute point as any outputs are after the Digital to Analog converters.
Click to expand...
Yeah; I was mainly hoping for a way to insert the disc into an external device, connected to a PC via USB, and then do a raw bit-to-bit copy for archiving the files.
 
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RFR said:
The MD4 (and MD8) use MD data discs rather than the standard minidisc used for music.
I can’t remember the last time I saw a computer that had a data disc port.
Maybe you could find one on eBay and install it in your computer?

But even with that there’d need to be some conversion

I’m just guessing at this point , but I think the overall answer is no.

However, the good news is the sound quality would be the same as if you plugged the outputs of a CD player into your interface.
Click to expand...
Yes; I suppose that in case I want to do a mixdown on an external unit or a DAW, I could connect the Track Direct Out channels 1-4 to an audio interface, then to the destination device. Thanks for the comments.
 
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The minidisc recorded data in a proprietary format. Even if you could transfer the raw data, you would need something to decode it.

Since they stopped making the machines about 10 years ago, the chance of any of that happening is very slim.
 
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My comment referred to consumer stereo MD, but I vaguely recall that the home studio version were similar in that way (which I think others have covered above).
 
bhweb said:
Yes; I suppose that in case I want to do a mixdown on an external unit or a DAW, I could connect the Track Direct Out channels 1-4 to an audio interface, then to the destination device. Thanks for the comments.
Click to expand...
Yes. It will turn out as good as doing the exact same thing with a CD deck.
 
Plenty of md stereo recorders had digital interfaces but I’ve never seen a 4 track data version lately to check. Stereo consumer units had scms to prevent copying of commercial music from cd but your own recordings allowed digital transfer. The pro units didn’t have scms turned on unless you wanted it
 
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