minidisk to mp3, using Audacity

[Jambo]

Greetings, all.

I am an acoustic guitar player in Iowa, in the US. I am a frequent poster to an acoustic guitar forum, found here:
http://p067.ezboard.com/bacousticguitartalktalktalk
I am known there as Village Idiot, but I see that name has already been taken here.

I write songs, and fingerpick using metal Dunlap picks and, of course, a thumbpick. I've had a minidisk recorder for a few years, and have always been happy with the quality of the sound. On the other hand, I've always been frustrated by my inability to transfer anything from the minidisk to my computer. I just can't seem to do it.

I downloaded the free version of Audacity a couple weeks ago, and to my chagrin, can't seem to get that program to work with a minidisk either. I did a google search, and wound up downloading a pdf file "Downloading Recorded Audio from a Minidisc Player to a PC". It all looks good, except one step of the instructions says to restart the computer holding Control+Alt+Delete down, then log on with a given user name and password. This seems very odd to me, and doesn't work anyway. Here's the link: It's the first choice in the google search:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=minidisc+recorder+audacity

The recorder I have is a MZ-N707. Again, I love the sound that it can deliver, but disappointed by the difficulty of transfer, and am guessing that because of that the technology is doomed. And because it was expensive, I'm sure my wife won't say "sure, hon, buy an iriver or something".

I'm rambling. Thanks for any help, it would be sincerely appreciated.

 

[onlyfingers]

"Hidden" toggles in Windows

Hi.

I looked at the PDF that Google sent me to. The poster is from a school (.edu suffix),and I be the sign-in he is talking about is to log onto a specific school system. That step shouldn't be necessary for you, since you are going to make and store your MP3 on your own system.

I have never used Audacity for recording, but I have used the recording package from Windows. One thing you have to remember do is to is to let Windows know which jack to record from. Go to Control Panel---Sounds and Audio Devices (Win NT). Under the "Audio" tab, click "Volume," and a Recording Control window will open. Here, you get to specify which port to use, and what volume it will record at. Mine is set for "What U Hear." Another choice, per the instructions in the PDF, would be "Microphone."

Even if you want to use Audacity eventually, it might make sense to try the Windows recording utility first, to make sure that the connections are made right and the system is listening at the right place.

 

[bileshake]

I have used audacity for recording and I wasn't happy with the file type problems. I'm not sure what platform your using but if it's mac, try Peak (by Bias) or PC, try Cool Edit Pro. There should be lots of options for recording your material into your PC. The process should be the same as recording from any line level outside source. That should broaden your search a little.
Advance warning, the recording won't be everything you were expecting without an aftermarket soundcard.
I have an 8track MD recorder and I wish there was a drive I could connect and dump minidisc data onto my Mac but I'm not gonna bother holding my breath.

good luck

 

[Jambo]

Thanks

Thanks, folks, for the replies. Onlyfingers, I believe you are right, the pdf I downloaded was most likely for a specific class. I followed all the other steps, however, and now I'm recording. The sound was horrible on my steam-powered home pc (which someone says the soundcard is "integrated into the motherboard", whatever that means) but tried it on my work laptop and it works well. With just one voice and one guitar, I don't need more than what I can do now.

Except that now I'll have to download some sort of LAME mp3 encoder, whatever that is, to convert what I've done to mp3. Or at least I think I have to.

Thanks again for the replies.