Experiences with a minidisc recorder
By Ken Coles, Logansport, Indiana U.S.A.
August 2000
 Like many of you, the first time I saw and heard a minidisc recorder
(belonging to Ross Schlabach, in 1998), I wanted to get one myself. I
finally did two years later.
Why minidisc? With a decent external mike you get
almost-recording-studio quality, far above what you get with a walkman.
My walkman sounds tinny when played back, and sustained notes always have
that nasty flutter on them. Now, a walkman is perfectly adequate for
learning tunes. But I was always sad to hear how poor the world-class
teachers I was listening to sounded. A minidisc does them justice. It
is also easy to edit, divide, or combine tracks, and to cue one track
repeatedly. You just mark the start and end of the tune you're
practicing, loop it, and play along 50 times! Battery life is excellent
on my model. And the recorder is very tiny, even though it contains a
disc motor, a laser, a preamp, and a read/write head. Still, you have to
want all this enough to pay extra for it. My walkman was about $ 75
U.S., while the minidisc and mike together were about $ 250 U.S. Blank
tapes and minidiscs are comparable in cost. Isn't anything associated
with concertinas cheap?!?
Nevertheless, prices have dropped, and the combination of features varies
on every model. I checked all the electronics retailers within 80 miles
of my home, and all I found was the Sony 37 and the Sharp 15S models, and
no microphones at all. These are clearly being marketed (wink, wink) to
kids who "collect" mp3 files that they convert to minidiscs, or folks who
just copy CDs for personal listening. Those of us who want to do field
recording and/or use the recorder as a learning tool (things at which a
minidisc excels) must be a very small market segment. So I ordered from
amazon.com through Paul's concertina.net link [note from Paul: Thanks Ken!].
I wanted a jog dial, which makes entering names for the tracks and discs
much easier. That eliminated the available Sony models. I settled on
the Sharp 722, which had almost everything I could want. And the price
even went down $ 80, to $199, while I was making up my mind! The one
thing I miss is an ordinary analog output jack to connect to my home
stereo; this model only has a headphone jack. [Note added later: I found the headphone jack made a usable analog output. I just play the analog signal into my computer and convert it back to digital with a computer, and it still sounds fine to me. To get digital output from minidisc you'll need a professional quality minidisc deck.] I advise you to research the choices before you buy.
Start with this site:
http://www.minidisc.org/index.html
There I found advice, and sources for microphones. The reviews at
amazon.com have some information also. I got my simple stereo mike from
Sound Professionals and it has worked out fine.
Microphone Madness also sells good microphones for minidisc recorders and is a supporter of Concertina.net.
See Paul's NHICS video made using his microphone.
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