Live audio recording

[arson_nick]

I'm looking for a relatively cheap way to record live audio. I'd settle for an mp3 player that supports up to a 512MB card. Does anyone know about the quality of these or would it really come down the the mic used?

edit: minidisk is out because of quality, and under $200 would be nice.

 

[Goatman]

What do you mean because of quality?? MiniDisc is a far superior format to MP3....

Infact many Radio/TV stations use MiniDisc for on air recordings....

In it's standard uncompressed (not LP2 or LP4 but SP, or MONO) MiniDisc is CD Quality

 

[SPeedY_B]

I'm with Goatman.
Minidisc is perfect quality, the event I play at, we usually use MD to record all the sets, the only problem we run into is the fact that the Mini Disc deck is actually crap but newer ones would be fine.

 

[Goatman]

Not to mention the actual disks are cheap and plentiful

 

[SPeedY_B]

Definately, and highly portable, you could probably carry about 10 or so in your pockets. Plus the fact you can carry multiple disks is great for recording live acts, with an mp3 player, if it runs out.. your stuffed, with Md you can just bung in a new disk and your set for another 80 mins (or 160 with mono)

 

[arson_nick]

I need to record up to 4+ hours at a time. How much can you fit uncompressed onto a MiniDisc?

 

[arson_nick]

Actually, I should rephrase that. Is there any way to record at a higher quality than the 80 minute stereo mode?

 

[SPeedY_B]

You can't get higher quality than it is. It's a perfect digital recording.

 

[arson_nick]

Okay, one last question then. Do the new USB MiniDiscs let you download the audio to your computer or do you still have to record it through the sound card?

 

[indyjones]

I am afraid your not quite right minidisks by their very nature USE COMPRESSION. This obviously means that there is loss, but the discussion that always raves on is whither or not it is more destructive than mp3. So for ultimate quality you would need something like a creative jukebox and record in wave format otherwise you will lose sound on the compression. What you need to consider is what you wish to record, personally I hate minidisks but I cannot fault them for being a quick and simple recording media.

 

[seeme]

i love my mini disc, and its a musicians best friend.

the compression used to record with a mini disc is far less destructive to the original audio signal than the mp3 format.

for the average user its more than enough.


the new USB mini discs (i think your talking about sony's netMD) are great in that you can transfer music to them VERY quickly (up to 64 x playing speed) however:

1 you cant send music from the mini disc to the computer via USB, you have to record it in real time.

2 u have to use their propriety format..and you do get noticable losses when moving mp3's to the mini disc this way.

if you are that keen on quality sound recording for that period of time either get yourself a DAT recorder, or get one of those new hard drive recording device's things...dont know much about them, but they sound cool


hope this helps.

Jeremy

 

[Goatman]

MiniDisc is your best bet... in fact I work in my school auditorium (it's the best one in town) and Blue Rodio played here 4 years ago... the band members were using MiniDisc to record their gigs....

 

[arson_nick]

I've heard some bad things about the Archos jukeboxes, and those are really the only ones in my price range. I've been looking at the DAT recorders too, but it's simply amazing how much they cost! Twenty year old ones go for $200+ on ebay, and that's not even the shelf systems. Sony makes a brand new one still, $900. That's a bit much for now. I found a MiniDisc and condenser mic for $200, so I'll probably just pick that up in a week or so. Thanks for the help.