Hello Nevil,
I've recently started using Minidiscs for playback and have found the
method ENORMOUSLY convenient (I'm using a Sony MZ-R700). I have most of the
calls that I use for playback or have thought about using for playback on a
disc and I've hardly taken up any space on the mini disc at all. The 4LP is
definitely adequate for playback. You can easily find a particular call as
each call can be named. If you only want say a couple of particular calls
and they are well spread out on the disc you can just move them to the
front of the disc. You can go on to repeat for particular calls which is
convenient if you only have a short length of recording for a particular call.
One of the catches is that the MD players don't have speakers. So, you need
portable speakers to plug into the headphone jack of the player. This of
course raises the question of what you are using playback for. For
songbirds I think this is fine. For night-birds I don't think that little
speakers are adequate.
The other question is whether they are OK for recording. Others will
probably know more about this as I'm new to the recording caper. I believe
that the MD method compresses the sound, something like MP3. It cuts out
all the frequencies that humans can't hear thus enabling it to get more
sound into less space. This is great for music but may have problems for
natural history sounds. For example does a bird hear different frequencies
in a bird call than we do? At this stage I haven't found this to be a
problem so it may only be a problem in a minority of cases. And of course
if you want to analyse your calls visually then the cutting out of certain
frequencies might affect this.
Dave Stewart- do you have a stand on mini-discs for recording?
I have to admit I'm using a DAT recorder (Digital Audio Tape) for recording
and a MD recorder only for playback. One reason for this is that I can't
record sound at a high enough volume on the minidisc (partly because my
microphone and MD recorder don't match perfectly). Its also fiddly changing
the recording volume from automatic to manual. They aren't really made for
this sort of recording. Maybe there are models different to mine that are
simpler in their recording. I have heard of people using MD for recording
so I know that it can be done.
Anyway, for playback I give minidiscs the big thumbs up!
Cheers,
Mick Todd
Griffith, NSW
At 06:30 PM 19/09/01 +1000, wrote:
There was a thread a while back about bird calls as MP3 files for rapid
access,
and allowing most bird calls to be recorded and accessed quickly form a single
disk along with display of the species being played.. I have been exploring
this option and an alternative, putting the calls on minidisk, which would
seem
to be able to achieve the same and more. The new long play mini disk
allows ( as
a lower quality recording) up to 320 minutes i.e. over five hours on one disk.
The mini disk has the advantage of extreme portability and the ability to
record
as well as play back ( which the MP3 CD players cannot do) They are also
cheaper
( and likely to be better supported longer term) than the few reasonable
quality
MP3 CD players on the market. Does anyone have experience of use of mini-disk
for recording calls or just playback/field reference to recordings. If so was
the 4LP quality good enough for field playback? Is there a limit to the
number
of tracks which can be identified on a mini-disk?
I'd be grateful for any comments people may have
Nevil Amos
Birding-Aus is on the Web at
www.shc.melb.catholic.edu.au/home/birding/index.html
To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message
"unsubscribe birding-aus" (no quotes, no Subject line)
to
Birding-Aus is on the Web at
www.shc.melb.catholic.edu.au/home/birding/index.html
To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message
"unsubscribe birding-aus" (no quotes, no Subject line)
to
| 