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Re: Minidisc preference?

Subject: Re: Minidisc preference?
From: Walter Knapp <>
Date: Sun, 23 Jan 2005 13:13:23 -0500
From: David Bradley <>

> 
> Thanks J, Jim and Aaron.  Do these recorders allow the
> monitoring of the recording whilst it is being made
> (similar to the third head on a tape recorder)?

Once you leave magnetic tape behind the need for such a thing drops to 
near nothing. Some DAT's, which are still tape did have this, but when 
you move into other digital recorders you will not have this. It's 
original reasons (dirty heads, media failure) has been rendered 
unnecessary by newer technology that does not touch the media. And media 
that's far more durable. Minidisc is good for about a million read/write 
cycles. And will hold the recording for more than 50 years without any loss.

What you monitor is the input stream. While writing and reading could 
both be done, this would involve a lot of mechanism movement, causing 
considerable unnecessary wear. And using more battery power.

In the 8 odd years I've been using minidisc, I've never had a write 
failure. If I press record, it get's a good recording, period. (of 
course I can still mess up in my record settings, in which case it will 
get a accurate recording of my errors) When I first started using 
minidisc I was used to third head recorders, and for a little while I 
was a bit nervous about it. With time that went away.

Failures to get a good recording are generally with the mic or pre or 
your gain setting. So, you do want to monitor what sort of input you 
have. Digital is far less forgiving of going over on your signal. 
Clipping, which is a fairly soft effect in analog tape becomes awful 
noises in digital. You don't want even one wavetop to clip. It is the 
one thing that having a monitor off the recording might help as it 
occurs in the digital conversion in the A/D, after where your headphone 
monitor comes off. The first thing you will have to learn is to always 
have a pad in your metering. I usually set for -15dB on the meter, 
though that varies depending on what I'm recording. With 16 bit digital 
you have far more dynamic range than you had with tape, so setting lower 
gain is not a problem. You should never, ever, see the metering hit the 
0dB mark. In fact since it's not showing every value it should not come 
close.

Walt






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