This is not a question, nor is it an answer. Why is it up here then? Just to give a shout to drstawl---A couple weeks back, we had a discussion regarding the actual and percieved advantages of mini-disc (the compression process involvolved in mini-disc formats, undeniably results in a loss of fidelity/ signal degredation). Since that time, I've been searching for an answer...here is an update...
. I'm not saying that there is'nt a loss in quality, just hat what I hear from these machines now, sound great. Short of studying the laws of physics and acoustic relationships, I've done some research. I believe it will be possible (if not yet) for these machines to provide a digital recording standard that most of us have come to know and Love. A minidisc is a digital format & although it is not based upon the same principles of most linear recording mediums (DAT/PCM), It does record digitally. Being such it must operate in terms of 0's and 1's. Again, I might be oversimplifying, but I'm sure that handicaps caused by compression are just a matter of 'formulating' the ones and zeros so that they accurately compenste. There might be a slight loss of signal at present but this is largely because the DSP functions of the minidisc are unable to keep up with the conversion process; the signal degredation is percieved. My belief is that minidisc, by way of whatever (encoding) functions they perform, actually enhance certain types of recording. I percieve an increased dynamic range when I record to minidic. e.g- if the equipment is @ your disposal try recording to a dat machine while simultaeneously recording the same material to an MD. during playback, you can tell the difference!!!. It's sort of like the joy I hear some of you talk about when recording to tape.....
One thing is for sure though, my MD recorder is not up to par. Since our discussion I've worked with several home-based units and realized that after quite a few hours of recording my machine has generated a weird sound (what I have called blurbs). Somewhere in your precious recording (possibly all in the high end) the sound is wrapped in the music. I've not yet pinpointed whether this is due to the re-recordable discs(as in the noise is generated after the disc is used several times), the machine itself, natural wear& tear or just in need of a scheduled adjustment......I don't even know if this happens to all the machines. I guess time will tell Either way, as computers and general processing functions continue to evolve at such an alarming rate, we might see the emergence of the new MD format right around the corner, capable at least of accurately compressing and digitally decompressing ...Drstawl, thanks for sending me on the search...When I have completed a thourough investigation ( whenever that will be) right or wrong you'll be the first to know..
. I'm not saying that there is'nt a loss in quality, just hat what I hear from these machines now, sound great. Short of studying the laws of physics and acoustic relationships, I've done some research. I believe it will be possible (if not yet) for these machines to provide a digital recording standard that most of us have come to know and Love. A minidisc is a digital format & although it is not based upon the same principles of most linear recording mediums (DAT/PCM), It does record digitally. Being such it must operate in terms of 0's and 1's. Again, I might be oversimplifying, but I'm sure that handicaps caused by compression are just a matter of 'formulating' the ones and zeros so that they accurately compenste. There might be a slight loss of signal at present but this is largely because the DSP functions of the minidisc are unable to keep up with the conversion process; the signal degredation is percieved. My belief is that minidisc, by way of whatever (encoding) functions they perform, actually enhance certain types of recording. I percieve an increased dynamic range when I record to minidic. e.g- if the equipment is @ your disposal try recording to a dat machine while simultaeneously recording the same material to an MD. during playback, you can tell the difference!!!. It's sort of like the joy I hear some of you talk about when recording to tape.....
One thing is for sure though, my MD recorder is not up to par. Since our discussion I've worked with several home-based units and realized that after quite a few hours of recording my machine has generated a weird sound (what I have called blurbs). Somewhere in your precious recording (possibly all in the high end) the sound is wrapped in the music. I've not yet pinpointed whether this is due to the re-recordable discs(as in the noise is generated after the disc is used several times), the machine itself, natural wear& tear or just in need of a scheduled adjustment......I don't even know if this happens to all the machines. I guess time will tell Either way, as computers and general processing functions continue to evolve at such an alarming rate, we might see the emergence of the new MD format right around the corner, capable at least of accurately compressing and digitally decompressing ...Drstawl, thanks for sending me on the search...When I have completed a thourough investigation ( whenever that will be) right or wrong you'll be the first to know..
