Mini disk for mastering?

J

Jason001

New member
I am looking for the cheapest digital mastering possible.
Is Mini disk what I'm looking for? Would it be better to spend a little extra on a DAT?
All this money on mics and I'm stilling mixing to cassette, ai !

J
 
IT will not be better than DAT or CD-R - but you can still get good results... certainly far better than cassette will give you!

Bruce
 
Before you go out and spend the money, you might want to check with whomever is going to print the CD's for you first. There are several CD production houses that do not accept minidisk masters.
 
I'd say you'd be better off with a stand alone CD recorder. They are about the same price, but CD's are a little cheaper and much more practical! The sound quality is better too.
 
I don't agree with rtzstudios about CD's being more practical than MD's, i'd say it's the opposite. But when it comes to mixing down to stereo for professional mastering at a mastering studio, MD can't compete with CD-R or DAT in terms of soundquality and common format.

micmac
 
Offcourse it is... It's possible to mix down to anything that allows recording audio...

I would go for the CD-writer too. Better quality than a MD, and you can try them on any stereo... I don't know that many people that have a MD or DAT in their living-room, but they all have a CD-player.

Think about the price of the media too... CDR's are not rewritable, but my guess is that you don't want to loose your mixes anyway, right? No need for re-writability... And a cdr is cheaper than a MD. (I think...)
 
"To Md or not to Md"

I use a Cd writer in my studio, and it's a tascam stand alone... about $1000 Canadian. You can get Cd Writers these days for about $399 or a bit more.. of course it wont be a tascam, but it would be a technics or pioneer, and I don't think you would hear a difference.. Comparable in price to a sony minidisc recorder and still gonna be better sound qualtiy that a md writer.. For the side of MD's, it's nice you can re-format and re-record on them....
 
Jason001 said:
Is it possible to mix down to a stand alone CD burner?
Click to expand...

A CD Recorder (the ones that look like a regular CD-deck) yes, no problem. If you want to use the CD burner you've got hooked up to your computer, most likely you'll be better off mixing down through your soundcard into your computer and from there burn a CD. Correct me if i'm wrong, but most stand alone CD burners (as opposed to CD-recorders) need to be controlled from a device such as a computer or a DAW. You need drivers and software to make it work.

If you guys were talking about CD-recorders in the first place, just forget this post. :)

micmac
 
Hunka-BURNIN'-Love

Cd-r's and Cd-burners are the same thing.... Stand alone units, do look similar to a single deck cd player, and no they don't need to be controled by a computer... unless you get a computer / outboard unit, which is in essence a computer burner, although it is not in your tower, rather hooked up along side, and yes you would need a computer to control this, but "stand-alone" units, work exactly in the same way as a tape deck would, and without any computer or DAW.....
 
Voxvendor,

Are you confirming what i said or are you correcting me or do i need more coffee, maybe... No offense, but i kept reading that sentence with like a zillion commas in it...awww..i just need sleep i guess...

:)

micmac
 
I have no fucking Idea what I meant and that was only an hour ago ..... been a long day for me, i think I need the coffee... yeah I love commas.
 
Why would MD's be more practical micmac? The only reason I could see them being more practical is because you can record on them so many times. But I was thinking in terms of being able to burn a CD and hand it out to friends...or listen in your car. Not everyone has an MD player, but most people have CD players.
 
Thanks guys!

The Cd burner sounds better to me.
A friend just gave me a disk with Acid Pro and Sound Forge on it.
A whole new can of worms has been opened!

J
 
rtzstudios said:
Why would MD's be more practical micmac? The only reason I could see them being more practical is because you can record on them so many times. But I was thinking in terms of being able to burn a CD and hand it out to friends...or listen in your car. Not everyone has an MD player, but most people have CD players.
Click to expand...

rtzstudios,

You're completely right. I'm sorry for not making myself clearer. I read practical in your post from a perspective of what's easier and that MD has a few more feautures like track naming, track editing and stuff. I need stronger coffee... Sidenote: I'm currently based in Japan, where MD caught on early and is as common as CD players if you're talking home stereo. When it comes to portable players, MD's have surpassed CD's in sales by far. MD's have become so popular that it's actually getting harder to find cassette tapes in stores. You have to go to the supermarket for the widest selection of tapes...

Jason001,

I'd also go for CD, in which ever way. But i can't see the can of worms.

Voxvendor: Blue Mountain or a triple espresso, how do you take it?

micmac
 
I see what you mean about track editing,etc....

Portable MD's are catching on over here a little bit, but probably not like they are in Japan! I definitely get a lot of use out of my MD recorders (yes I have two...a portable one and a "rack mounted" one). But I just think a CD recorder would be better for most purposes.
 
Maybe I missed something here, but why haven't you considered a CDR within a computer? For the $600 dollars that you will pay for a stand-alone burner, you could get an internal CD burner for your computer. Throw in Sound Forge, Wavelab or any 2-track editor (which are reasonably priced) and a reasonable sound card and you've got a system that can edit your material on a large, easily seen screen (your computer monitor). Plus you can always back up data from your hard drive to this same medium. Have you given any thought to a CD recorder for your computer?

Another thing about minidiscs. While they are better in sound quality than cassettes, minidiscs use a data compression algorithm to get data on the minidisc. So your sound is compromised in a way when you record to this medium. In my opinion, you would do better with a medium that recorded a MINIMUM of 16-bit 44.1 kHz UNCOMPRESSED (CD, DAT, hard disc). It would be even better if you had a medium that could record at 20 or 24 bits (hard disc with the right program, Alesis masterlink - pricey, etc).

E
 
The Masterlink is my wet dream, but alas, I haven't the cash. I'm thinking about buying a burner for my computer ( after pricing stand alone units ).
That way seems like a lot more work?
How do I get the music from the Adat to my PC without breaking the bank? I've seen the Adat PCR package, but 600.00 for a 16 bit burner, and 300.00 for the Adat PCR is more than I have to spend.
It was better in the old days. You could trade a couple chickens for a CD burner!

J
 
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