Field recordings

mkilly · Post by **mkilly** » Fri Apr 15, 2005 2:23 pm

My buddy Adam Parrish does these field recordings with his MiniDisc recorder. They're uh... pretty bitchin' ambient things.[/url]

roymond · Post by **roymond** » Fri Apr 15, 2005 2:33 pm

Those are cool. Nice that he puts them out there.

What model minidisc does he use? I bought one of the new Marantz 600s, which use flash memory and provides two powered XLRs. It's really great for spontaneous capture but I am not happy with it for high quality recording (haven't really read the manual to see if I'm messing it).

mkilly · Post by **mkilly** » Fri Apr 15, 2005 5:46 pm

"It's a Sony "Recording MD Walkman MZ-R700." I use a Sony "ECM-D870P" microphone for recording. I think the mic was originally intended for like board room meetings or something, but I've become accustomed to the way it sounds."

boltoph · Post by **boltoph** » Sat Apr 16, 2005 6:42 pm

I have a Sony Walkman minidisc and that small cylinder condenser that takes a AA battery and I can say this: it's great for spontaneous recording, because the mic automatically levels, so no matter how loud the sound source is, I never have to do anything except press record and theres never any clipping. That's always been my favorite thing about it. I play in a "jam" band and every single one of our recordings were done with that minidisc and mic: http://www.thepincushions.com/atp
I have to say there were times when i thought the quality was pretty good, and I also like the compression/limiting that's all built in.

I even take my minidisc and mic around town and on the subway to capture sound clips to put in songs and stuff. And I even used it for one songfight tune when I had no gear setup.

I'd definitely recommend 'em for "field" type recordings. Roy it sounds like you have a pretty good one, I'm surprised that the quality hasn't been to your liking.

tonetripper · Post by **tonetripper** » Tue Apr 19, 2005 4:33 pm

roymond wrote:Those are cool. Nice that he puts them out there.

What model minidisc does he use? I bought one of the new Marantz 600s, which use flash memory and provides two powered XLRs. It's really great for spontaneous capture but I am not happy with it for high quality recording (haven't really read the manual to see if I'm messing it).

Wow... dude!!! I've been looking for a recorder like that to use for work. Sweet. Is it the 670 model?

That should be pretty pro sounding recorder if I've ever seen one. No moving parts, which means basically no noise. The flash memory recorder is something I've been after for a while. I'm still wondering when they are gonna create something like this with Time Code, but as far as the: (hit more information under 670) - specs go it says it does even broadcast wave audio. Does this mean that it has timecode or is this simply something that you can put on a different digital track that would hold some timecode info fed from a master source? I couldn't find that.

You should be able to get great recordings, period, from what I read in the specs. I think the thing that may foil you with it is a) what microphone you use with it and b) if you are recording it at mp3 quality. Somehow switch it to .wav and you are recording at max 16 bit 48. 16/48 is what all location recordists are doing these days on film sets. I don't know man, good stereo mic is all you need with that bad boy. I might have to spend my rent money to buy one of those..... crap another month behind....... again.....

Shit you could sit in a park, theoretically, with your guitar and two condensers and play a live tune with the sound of whatever in the background....... /boner

BTW, I believe minidiscs are 8bit inherently. The audio is compressed to fit on that disc and there seems to be some loss when they compress and de-compress it. Compared to Dat or CD most people couldn't tell the difference with music per se, but did hear a diffence with a straight tone recorded. I've done many recordings with my Sharp MD for years now, which I'll post here once I get my lazy ass upstairs to d/l them onto a disc and ship em into my server. Great for ambient recordings and jam recordings, but not good for anything pro like (questionable - but isn't it all). Just archival, writing or for field background ambience. For that mini-discs are great, but that 670 should kick them all to hell and back....

Nothing beats the size of MD recorders though.....

And the discs are kinda cute....... /nerdout

blue · Post by **blue** » Tue Apr 19, 2005 6:31 pm

minidisc ~= mp3. it's compressed/mangled, not low-bitrate.

mkilly · Post by **mkilly** » Tue Apr 19, 2005 7:11 pm

minidiscs use ATRAC

tonetripper · Post by **tonetripper** » Tue Apr 19, 2005 7:28 pm

Thanks...... I've been told by colleagues of mine that mini-disc recording is always 8 bit and still compressed, but they may have been wrong. I was under the impression that because it was similar to a 3.5 inch floppy , but when it comes to recording 'bit' info of any recorder, I have to look it up like the rest of the waking world. I can't seem to find any solid info on that side of the recorder. To be honest with you I got the mini-disc player and never really read the manual. I just started recording with it and got results. I should think about reading manuals..... I'm just so freakin' lazy about it....... well that and other things......

So is it in fact recording at 16 and then doing the ATRAC compression to it? Anyone really know?

blue · Post by **blue** » Wed Apr 20, 2005 6:10 pm

i guess it doesn't matter if it's recording at 12, 16, 20, or 24 bits.. i'm sure there are some that do each.

it's all getting compressed. that's the important part of the sound degradation.