Sony Mini Disc Recorder decks

[Tunes68]

I've been recording on digital multi-track recorders for about 7 or 8 years now, and when I'm done recording a song, I mix it down on a Sony mini disc recorder deck. I'm happy with the convenience of the Sony mini disc deck, but I was wondering if anyone else here has used one, and what do you think of the quality of sound it produces? I know there are so many different types of digital recorder decks on the market, such as recordable CD decks and MP3 decks. The Sony seems to work for me, but is there a better deck I should be looking into? I use my Sony deck to go out and do shows with, as it is easy to set up a song from one of the discs with it.
Also, I read one time in a review of the Sony mini disc deck that they are of poor quality in the sound they produce.
Any replies would be welcome.

Tunes68.

 

[Massive Master]

In short, I've heard worse. They're pretty heavily compressed (the data, that is) but it certainly beats a cassette. Some of the higher-end Sony decks have a pretty nice sound to them and decent conversion for what it's worth. I still use them for live-to-two-track pretty frequently with good results. Not my first choice, but it's what's there. If it's something that *really* counts, I'll bring in a Masterlink or a stand-alone deck of some sort.

 

[A Reel Person]

I have 3 functional Sony Minidisc decks, and 3 Walkman style portables,...

so I guess you'd say I like Mindisc pretty well.

I also "dual" my mixes to Minidisc and 16/44.1 Wav files on the 'puter, and I've been happy with the sound quality of Minidisc. In fact, just yesterday I was thinking to myself how great a Minidisc "master" of some of my work sounded, which is at least as good as the CDr "masters" I have of the same work.

Honestly, IMO you can't "hear" ATRAC, and the people who think they can are simply hearing their own preconcieved notions about Minidisc.

BTW, I'm very keen on Minidisc multitrackers, which use the more expensive Mindisc-Data discs. The extra cost is well worth it. One Minidisc-Data disc is roughly the same price as a 7" reel of 1/4" tape, with comparable sound quality and running time.

Sony MDS-JE510 [2]
Sony MDS-JE320
Sony MZ-E40 [3]
Tascam 564 [2]
Yamaha MD8

You could say I'm pro-Minidisc, and I'm quite happy with the sound and features of Minidisc.


/DA

 

[MichaelM]

I have an MZR-37 (ATRAC version 4) and I really like the sound, for both listening and mixing down to. I used to mix down all my 4 track recordings to it. I agree with Reel, atrac doesn't really damage the sound. Plus with the popularity of iPods, they are REALLY cheap on ebay now.

 

[alwayslearnin]

I have one of the new Hi-MD units which you can record with no compression at all. The recordings I have made so far have been great. I have always been very fond of minidisc but with Hi-MD I will continue with this format over many others.