wrote:
> Hi Walt,
>
> Thanks for your response. I feel Sony mislead potential customers by
not making it clear that the recording ability is next to useless.
Having used a walkman MD for a number of years as my primary recorder, I
can say it's very useful. During that time period I used analog transfer
and had no problem with it. Just like I would have done with earlier
recording mediums like cassette or reel to reel.
The Sony system is useful for a specific purpose, and there was plenty
of info as to that purpose. People assume other uses without reading the
info. NetMD and MD's bundled with a USB module to output from PC to MD
are focused on the music sales market. A far bigger market than nature
recording.
You will find that the transfer to computer is a fairly minor part of
all that you do in nature recording. Many make a big issue of doing this
fast, but it works fine to do it at 1X. I still do that transferring
digitally.
> What sound cards would you recommend? I have a Toshiba labtop but am
seriously thinking of going back to a Mac.
I have come to prefer a USB solution. These have the A/D outboard of the
computer, so less likely that all the electronic noise inside the
computer will interfere. They are also not tied to a specific computer.
I use a Roland UA-30, which is a older model, have not really researched
current choices that completely. The Roland can easily handle my audio
I/O needs, both digital and analog. In addition to using it's optical
digital input from my HHb Portadisc to bring in my nature recordings, I
use it's optical digital output to run to my Sony CD/MD deck for
recording mp3's and such like to MD, I use it's analog input to provide
a sound path into my G4 from that deck to use it as a CD or MD player, I
use it's analog output to run a set of powered speakers, and I do all
headphone monitoring of both inputs and outputs via it's headphone
connection with it's own separate volume control. The current version of
this is the Edirol UA-3D. As I noted there are probably other solutions
now that work equally well. I've used the Roland for several years.
Walt
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