Barbara:
When you make a live recording to minidisc, rest assured that the minidisc will not be the weakest link in the chain!

If you're concerned to THAT level of audio finesse, you should definitely be going into a studio. For most people, minidisc is indistingushable from the original.

(another nice thing about MD in this context is that if you record in mono you can get 148 minutes non-stop onto one disc)

Anahata