I use the MZ-NH900 (street price around 300.00)—I usually record
compressed, but on occasion record wav.
I have similar complaints to Duncan—My
experience with Sony is very poor. I should mention that Sony has
finally come out with a utility to copy your own mic recordings into an
unencrypted format like WAV. I usually get around 4 hours of
recording on a disk, and the battery life is pretty good—in the same
ballpark. For my use, that is good enough. I think if I was making
the purchase today, I’d strongly consider the Marantz PMD 660 solid-state
recorder. But now we are getting away from cheap!
--Norm
From:
goddard.duncan@mtvne.com [mailto:goddard.duncan@mtvne.com]
Sent: Wednesday, February 09, 2005
5:48 AM
To:
Loopers-Delight@loopers-delight.com
Subject: RE:OT the best cheap
recording solution
>>
I'm intriged by the new Hi-MD format, which allows 1GB disc capacity as well as
linear PCM recording. There's even an entry-level model in your price range,
the MZ-NH600D at $200.<<
I have
the nh700. it's a bunch of crap, to coin a phrase.
here's a short list of stuff that
is wrong with this line of machines:
they have
some adjustment on the mic sensitivity & the agc behaviour, but still can't
be used in what I would call a normal live-band environment. you have to pad
the mic with tiny resistors, which messes up the plug-in power.
mine
skips on playback of it's own recordings.
they eat
batteries. sony recommends the use of the mains adaptor when recording
pcm-style.
still no
optical out.
I thought
there was a way to make standard md format recordings on it, but now I can't
find it.
it has it's own "normal"
mode which is somewhere between lp2 & lp4 on an older md-deck.
there's an extended play/record
mode that lets you record 10 hours on an 80' disc, & upto 50 hours on the
1Gb discs.
if you can find them. no UK stockist has
these blanks yet, so I've just got the one that came with the deck.
the pcm
recording mode puts about 28 minutes onto the 80 minute media, & about 90
on the 1Gb
BUT there's no way to get the audio
off of the machine except through the line-out, which is the headphone socket.
the supplied software lets you put
wavs or mp3s or w.h.y. onto the disc, but doesn't let you export back into y'r
computer.
that last sucks the most of all,
out of all the things that are wrong.
also (I
just remembered this one) any/all audio connections to the machine have to have
a ferrite clamp around their cabling, adjacent to the md deck. sony supply
these with it, like they knew there was an issue but had to fudge it at the
last minute.
it wasn't
even particularly cheap.
if you
are inclined to go down the md route, buy one that's a) not a sony & b)
that has (definitely for sure & have the salesman show you what happens
when you switch the unit off & back on again) a MANUAL record level mode
that stays put when the deck is off, i.e. doesn't reset to auto.
these are
getting harder to find, as are decent sales people who know w.t.f. the machine
is all about.
I have
recorded live material for cd release, by my own band & others, on a sharp
md-mt20. it's chunky, & only works in standard (80 minute max) mode, but
the results never fail to astonish me (see elsewhere for how atrac actually
helps live recordings, while it may not be everyone's cup of tea for absolute
fidelity).
I bought
the sony so I could retire the sharp, but that's not going to happen anytime
soon.
for post, I transfer the audio off
of a denon dmd-m31 hifi deck optically into the matching denon cd recorder.
hth-
duncan.
***************************************************************************
CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE
The contents of this e-mail are confidential to
the ordinary user
of the e-mail address to which it was addressed,
and may also
be privileged. If you are not the addressee of
this e-mail you may
not copy, forward, disclose or otherwise use it
or any part of it
in any form whatsoever.If you have received this
e-mail in error,
please e-mail the sender by replying to this
message.
It is your responsibility to carry out
appropriate virus and other
checks to ensure that this message and any
attachments do not
affect your systems / data. Any views or
opinions expressed in this
e-mail are solely those of the author and do not
necessarily
represent those of MTV Networks Europe unless
specifically stated,
nor does this message form any part of any
contract unless so stated.
MTV reserves the right to monitor e-mail
communications from
external/internal sources for the purposes of
ensuring correct
and appropriate use of MTV communication
equipment.
MTV Networks Europe
***************************************************************************
