Tech: Transferring MiniDisc to CD- How To?

09 Aug 05 - 01:59 PM (#1538629)
Subject: Tech: Transferring MD to CD- How To?
From: Ebbie

I like my Sony Minidisc recorder a lot. It is easy to navigate, simple to record and gives high quality sound.

However, I want to make CDs from various minidisc recordings. So far, everything I have tried indicates that what they expect you to do is make minidisc recordings FROM CDs rather than t'other way around.

I don't find explicit directons in the book. Can someone 'elp me?

Thanks muchly.

Ebbie

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09 Aug 05 - 02:04 PM (#1538635)
Subject: RE: Tech: Transferring MD to CD- How To?
From: Clinton Hammond

Short anwser... it ain't too easy...

You gotta first 'real time', 'analogue' record each track off the MD onto your hard drive... From the headphone jack OUT on the MD unit, to the Line In jack on your PCs sound-card... THis will require some kind of audio recording software like CoolEdit or some such... there are plenty of options

Then you take those recordings and using CD burning software you can burn them onto a CD, either in what ever format you recorded them in, or as CDA so they can be played on your other CD players...

The Hi-Density MD recorders are coming out with software that makes this a MUCH easier thing to do....

Good luck eh!

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09 Aug 05 - 02:04 PM (#1538636)
Subject: RE: Tech: Transferring MD to CD- How To?
From: Amos

Ebbie:

The MD's don't have a computer-compatible file format so you can't copy them over to the computer; you therefore have to stream them in from the MD and make computer files from the incoming stream by recording them in a recording application such as soundStudio. The files are then saved in AIFF format, tweaked as needed, and can then be burned to CD. It is an irritating bottleneck not to have them as files on the MD which you could just drag over, but the MD is not built as a computer volume the way a removable disk or flash-memory stick is.

A

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09 Aug 05 - 02:10 PM (#1538643)
Subject: RE: Tech: Transferring MD to CD- How To?
From: GUEST,Vince

Ebbie,

I'm assuming you are using Windows and have a CD burner (if not then more later)

You can simply run a cable from the headphone out or line-out of the MD player into the Sound-in on your soundcard and then you can record to a WAV file from your MD. There is various software out there that will handle the recording - at its most basic Windows Sound Recorder should do it, but if you can track down on of those "convert your old vinyl to CD" type packages (Steinberg Clean, Magix Deluxe Audio Cleaning Lab etc...) you will have more options for splitting tracks, and authoring your CDs. Other alternatives include Audacity (Free) and Cool Edit (which may or may not be free these days) Google will get 'em for you!

If on the other hand you have a Mac, the get a copy of Roxio's Toast which comes with CD Spin Doctor (and does much the same thing)

If your Sound card has a digital input (may be labelled SPDIF) the you should be able to do a digital copy, but I don't have any direct experience of that.

Hope this helps

Vince

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09 Aug 05 - 02:26 PM (#1538660)
Subject: RE: Tech: Transferring MD to CD- How To?
From: Ebbie

Well, I'll be jiggered. I just figured that I was the one at fault. It never occurred to me that they don't make it easy.

I have been experimenting with SonicStage and with the MD Simple Burner, as well as the normal CD burner and gotten nowhere.

Vince, I don't even find a 'Line Out' on my MD, only 'Line In' (opt) whatever that means. And I don't know where to find the 'Sound-in on your soundcard', I have a PC, incidentally.

I have a friend who is techology savvy- I'll see if I can rope her into this.


Thanks, guys. This is over my head.
Eb

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09 Aug 05 - 02:35 PM (#1538665)
Subject: RE: Tech: Transferring MD to CD- How To?
From: Ebbie

By the way, I'm not ignoring Clinton and Amos's information. I can ALMOST understand it.

Problem is that I've never even created WAV files or .jpg for that matter. I'm like the rich little girl who never learned to swim because "everything's always been done for me."

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09 Aug 05 - 02:47 PM (#1538676)
Subject: RE: Tech: Transferring MiniDisc to CD- How To?
From: Clinton Hammond

Well, this it's well PAST time for you to learn how to do it yourself!
:-P

There won't be a LINE out on your MD recorder...   What you want is the head-phone jack... that goes to the LINE IN on your PC (Proabably at the back which is a DUMB design)

Sonic Stage, Simple Burner are NOT the kind of software you want for this... (Unless you have an HD MD recorder... But the software to 'check in' live recordings isn't out yet, I don't think)

ALL the info you'll ever want/need is here
http://www.minidisc.org/

:-)

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09 Aug 05 - 02:58 PM (#1538689)
Subject: RE: Tech: Transferring MiniDisc to CD- How To?
From: Joe Offer

Another problem, Ebbie is that WAV files are big, like about 50 megabytes for a three-minute song. If you have software that will record it as an MP3, that would bring that three minutes down to about a megabyte.

Vince suggested using Windows Sound Recorder, which brings up a problem I've found - oftentimes, it doesn't seem to want to record more than about one minute. Can anybody explain why?

-Joe Offer-

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09 Aug 05 - 03:03 PM (#1538696)
Subject: RE: Tech: Transferring MiniDisc to CD- How To?
From: Ebbie

Hey, thanks, Clinton. There's a lot of good stuff on there, including the answer to my question.

I'm on my way to buy an 'analog 1/8" male to 1/8" male miniplug cable'. And it says that MusicMatch will do the job. I have MusicMatch.

What I'm after is making a copy for each performer participant in the folk club debut that we had last Saturday. I taped the whole thing but if I can't make it accessible on CD I can't give it to them.

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09 Aug 05 - 04:15 PM (#1538750)
Subject: RE: Tech: Transferring MiniDisc to CD- How To?
From: treewind

Windows sound recorder is designed only to record 1 minute. You can do some trick involving concatenating WAV files to make a bigger one and record over that, which allows recording for more than 1 min but it's a real mess and what you really need is a proper hard disk recording program: Audacity is as good as any and FREE!

Anahata

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10 Aug 05 - 03:40 PM (#1539653)
Subject: RE: Tech: Transferring MiniDisc to CD- How To?
From: Ebbie

Well, I'm stumped. It appears that in order to appease music piracy concerns Sony built a firewall between the Mini Disc and various software. However, there are indications that it is possible to get around it.

In the Mini Disc link that Clinton referred to it says this:

(In answer to whether Mini Disc files can be transferred to the computer)

" With the proper cables, yes. You would use the same analog cables listed above for recording to another audio device from MD, simply switch the inputs/outputs. For a computer, this would mean connecting an analog cable (usualy a 1/8" male to 1/8" male miniplug cable) betweent your MD aunit's line out to your sound card's
line in. If you're looking to transfer audio from MD to your comuter digitally, you need an MD unit that is capiable of digital out put (all current portable MD recorders lack this feature, but most home MD decks have it) plus the correct digital audio cable.

"A good piece of free software for Windows-based machines that will record an incoming audio signal is MusicMatch"

Sounds simple, right? However, since the Mini Disc is digital, what does this mean: "If you're looking to transfer audio from MD to your computer digitally, you need an MD unit that is capable of digital out put (all current portable MD recorders lack this feature, but most home MD decks have it)"

I, of course, have a portable unit, not a home deck.

When I bring up MusicMatch it shows only the play feature. Nothing whatever on how to utilize it to transfer audio.

I looked at Cool Edit- didn't see any applicability.

I'm willing to pay for whatever, but I need to know that it will work.

Any ideas?

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10 Aug 05 - 03:56 PM (#1539661)
Subject: RE: Tech: Transferring MiniDisc to CD- How To?
From: Tattie Bogle

I had the same problem and asked for tech support from Sony: they of course said the net MD wasn't designed to upload your own recordings to computer - which was really what I had bought it for!!
But this is what their man said, which I think agrees with above advice:
"Provided your computer has a LINE INPUT, this can be done in an analogue fashion, by connecting a cable between the headphone sockets on the MiniDisk and the LINE INPUT on your computer. The cable required is dependent on what is used on the computer, but generally it would be a mini-jack to mini-jack".
Haven't tried it yet: watch this space!
TB

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10 Aug 05 - 04:28 PM (#1539680)
Subject: RE: Tech: Transferring MiniDisc to CD- How To?
From: treewind

Correct, TB. Forget about it being digital. Audio in, audio out, just like a tape recorder.

Anahata

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10 Aug 05 - 04:38 PM (#1539689)
Subject: RE: Tech: Transferring MiniDisc to CD- How To?
From: Clinton Hammond

Yes.. you are RErecording the tracks one at a time off the MD to the PC... You're NOT 'uploading' them from the disk to the Hard Drive...

" When I bring up MusicMatch"
The one 15 min experience I had with Music Match left such a bad taste in my mouth I couldn't get it off my system fast enough...

" I looked at Cool Edit- didn't see any applicability."
Then you didn't look very close at all... Search for "Recording Line In"... but remember CoolEdit is not for the "Plug and Play" people... it is a virtual recording studio... You might have to *RTFM* to get a handle on it

:-)

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10 Aug 05 - 04:48 PM (#1539701)
Subject: RE: Tech: Transferring MiniDisc to CD- How To?
From: Ebbie

Sounds so simple. But. There is a jack receptacle (and my 1/8" line jack fits) on the back of my computer with a symbol that indicates sumpn' or other. It's not a headphone logo but shows a thing being inserted into some kind of receptacle. Nothing happens when I plug them together.

(Am I correct in thinking you are saying that the other line - the one that comes with the Mini Disc unit (the USB, I think) is the one that gets inserted into the jack?   That's the one I'm talking about here.)

The 1/8" line (which I just bought) inserts into the Mini Disc and has a corresponding ho' in the computer. When I plug it in, the computer beeps and says 'Found New Hardware' and then says 'Your new hardware is installed and ready to go."

And then what? (A case of virtual beer (your choice of brand) to the ones who lead me through this!)

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10 Aug 05 - 04:49 PM (#1539703)
Subject: RE: Tech: Transferring MiniDisc to CD- How To?
From: George Seto - [e-mail]

Ebbie, CoolEdit '97 and Goldwave are both progams I have used on a PC to record from my MD recorder. HAve Sony's R700 and it works like a charm. As they said above, Mini(1/8" or 3.5mm)Stereo plug on both ends of the cable, from the headphone jack of the MD to the Line-In of your computer (should be marked) and the software. Others are available to do the job, the two above are ones I've tried and found easy to use. CoolEdit '97 is hard to find these days.

Another thread on topic is:

MD->Computer->CD

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10 Aug 05 - 06:56 PM (#1539717)
Subject: RE: Tech: Transferring MiniDisc to CD- How To?
From: Clinton Hammond

"When I plug it in, the computer beeps and says 'Found New Hardware'"

Are you sure that's not the USB cable? I've never seen a PC that 'recognizes 1/8" Jack inputs like that before... For this process you don't NEED the USB cable at all...

1/8th" jack cable... male on both ends... one end goes into the Headphone jack on the MD recorder... the other end goes into the "Line In" on your PC soundcard (The one at the back...

"Nothing happens when I plug them together."
You may have to tweak your audio settings using the "speaker" icon in your system tray...

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10 Aug 05 - 08:13 PM (#1539763)
Subject: RE: Tech: Transferring MiniDisc to CD- How To?
From: Big Al Whittle

cool edit is fine for this job, and they will download you a program for free that you're supposed to only keep for 50 days but you can save to disc and keep it longer. Even if you want the system with advanced options and they are really worth having, it only costs a few dollars.

all the best

al

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11 Aug 05 - 04:15 PM (#1540360)
Subject: RE: Tech: Transferring MiniDisc to CD- How To?
From: 12string growler

Everybody seems to assume that you need to use a computer to do this job. An alternative way is to use a cd burner that is designed as part of your Hi-fi system, such a device is the excellent Pioneer PDR509, or the modern dvd burner that sits under your tv along with the satellite box and vhs recorder.
Both would still require you to do the copying "in the analogue" using the Line In on the recording device and the Line-out or Headphone socket on the mini-disc machine.
Ok, I accept that you don't get the chance to tweek things like you would on the pc, but once your music is on cd, it will go in your pc very easily via the pc's cd or dvd drive.

Chris

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11 Aug 05 - 05:06 PM (#1540414)
Subject: RE: Tech: Transferring MiniDisc to CD- How To?
From: Cluin

Like Clinton said, it is probably accessed at the rear of your computer. The sound card probably has 3 (or at least 2) 1/8" jacks, possibly a joystick jack too, as it is a removeable card which presents input/output jacks for use externally. Look for a lttle egraved picture of a note or tiny headphones or something that suggests sound or music. Any documentation come with your `puter, dealing with the sound card or setting it up. If you have speakers connected to your system, they will likely be plugged into the soundcard at the back. The input jack should be in line and probably right next to that jack.

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11 Aug 05 - 05:09 PM (#1540421)
Subject: RE: Tech: Transferring MiniDisc to CD- How To?
From: Clinton Hammond

"Everybody seems to assume that you need to use a computer to do this job"

No they don't... but that was the question that was asked... If someone askes you how to change a flat tire, do you tell them how to ride a motorcycle?

"Whisper: Clinton,"
What Cluin said....

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11 Aug 05 - 06:56 PM (#1540591)
Subject: RE: Tech: Transferring MiniDisc to CD- How To?
From: George Seto - [e-mail]

The other part of the equation is how expensive is the other machine and how likely someone is to HAVE such a machine. My boss has a stand-alone CD burner and it's not cheap.

MOST of us here already has a computer with the CD burner. So, why NOT use what we already have without having to shell out needed cash?

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