Minidisc 8-track

C

chozen

New member
I'm just curious if anyone has any recommendations on buting a multi track recorder? I've seen the MD-4/8 from Yamaha and fell in Love with it. I think my love is slightly one sided however because I have a thing for minidiscs... The purpose of the equipment needed: Space saving; durability; recording time, sound quality; to serve a dual function as co-director of mastering functions @ home
I'm fairly new to the equipment realm & would really appreciate the help.

Chozen
 
What are you comparing to the MD format? Are you interested in a PC-based system, a dedicated HD standalone, an ADAT or a Scully 1/2" tape deck? Each of these <can> sound better than MD, but MD is mighty convenient.
I'm coming from a PC-based environment; what makes the MD desirable for you, and what MD recorder have you worked with?
 
I know the ADAT is expensive and somewhat impractical for space & transportation. i've used it once before and was pleased with the sound. The performance was slightly annoying i.e-starting recording; Tape changes; but these things are all relative to setup and what you're willing to put up with..If I had two ADAT's in a chain it should make it much easier and so on and so forth. I'm not quite sure what a 1/2" tape deck is though? My minidisc recorder is normal-- a Sony. Another option could be a stand alone HD but again I'm not quite sure what avenues are available to me in this arena. Someone was telling me about a fostex digital console but what about hard drive space. 3 hrs recording time is standard. In the end, these are all factors I'm looking for to make a smart decision. My environment could be classified as PC based as I do most if not all of my projects on computer.
 
The 1/2" tape deck I mentioned is one <sweet> reel to reel taperecorder. It uses 1/2" tape instead of 1/4" tape (Cassettes use 1/8" tape) and moves much faster than a typical reel-to-reel. It's certainly not in the "space-saving" league with the MD units or the standalone HD workstations, but it compares quite favorably with the 2" 16 track Studer in this department.
Have you done S/PDIF transfers between the MD player and your PC? I noticed that a couple of SONY MD players offered S/PDIF I/O and was wondering how they did that when the raw data was stored compressed on the MD. I can imagine how, but my underlying question was, how many S/PDIF transfers can you do with this system before the signal is noticeably degraded. And is this feature offered on the multi-track MD units from SONY or Yamaha?
 
The 1/2" tape deck I mentioned is one <sweet> reel to reel taperecorder. It uses 1/2" tape instead of 1/4" tape (Cassettes use 1/8" tape) and moves much faster than a typical reel-to-reel. It's certainly not in the "space-saving" league with the MD units or the standalone HD workstations, but it compares quite favorably with the 2" 16 track Studer in this department.
Have you done S/PDIF transfers between the MD player and your PC? I noticed that a couple of SONY MD players offered S/PDIF I/O and was wondering how they did that when the raw data was stored compressed on the MD. I can imagine how, but my underlying question was, how many S/PDIF transfers can you do with this system before the signal is noticeably degraded. And is this feature offered on the multi-track MD units from SONY or Yamaha?
 
THe reel to reel souds interesting (make; model?). The only SPDIF transfers I've done are from a DAT machine. That signal was originally through the optical out on the MD. No noticable change in signal quality. I find that the MD's compression allows a bit more presence in my recordings. It seems the best of the analog and digital is captured here...I could be wrong.
 
By the way...I'm not sure if there are Spdif outs on the MD-8...This could be a limiting choice....What do you means by signal degradation...Is there degredation in digital signals after repeated use on all source units......
 
If so, why not? The $300 decks from SONY do.
And why doesn't the SONY 4-track? Or does it?
A true digital transfer shouldn't have <any> degradation because the format on either end
keeps all the data sent over in whatever format it accepts. For example: 44.1KHz Stereo 16 bit .wav files to the equivalent format on consumer CD disc. But when the audio data is compressed as is the MD, the signal must go through a CODEC in HW or SW to convert to optical digital out or coaxial digital out. Like doing multiple sequential transformations between .wav files and .mp3 files. There's no free lunch at this table.

[This message has been edited by drstawl (edited 09-05-1999).]
 
One thing to consider about minidiscs--I hope I am not stating an obvious fact here. The minidisc multitracks use the MD-Data format, which looks about the same as an normal MD disc but only allows half the disc to be used for music--the other half is used for storing data information pertaining to the editing of music. Each disk also cost about $17. MD data provides 37 minutes of 4-track time which transates to 18 minutes of eight track--not bad, but a bit of a limitation if you write long songs. The cost of the disks would concern me. Just my 2 cents worth.
 
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