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I just re-discovered MD and bought that MZ-R90 (for $50 with a new batterie) because i would to make beats exclusively with a yamaha SU10 and my iphone (i know, poor system , but poortable ) so i found something for resample and record this is fabulous.

You can rec on , name your tracks, cut-paste them, edit them, all in a little portable format.

When i was a kid, i used tape and this was too expensive and rare, then mp3 players had emerged so i never really pay attention to this.

Some adepts here ?
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I used to use it all the time but the one I had only had an optical input so I had to put everything onto a playstation 2 first. If it has a direct input like a line or phono or whatever it would be really dope to use the MD again

The only piece of gear that was worth its price. Pirate with it like a tape recorder, enjoy like a CD. 16bit recording at 48khz. SPDIF. The SONY ones could loop from almost less than a second to minutes. I looped a jungle accelerated amen break. It made me proud at the time. Just create the sample you want to loop by creating t-marks at the desired debut and end. Then go to play mode. Select repeat 1 if I remember right. Go to your t-mark at the beginning of your sample and hit play... And it just loops perfectly. Yours seems from the first generation so maybe it will have a blank in between loopings. Looping seamlessly was made possible because they thought of it as more portable than the discman. So they made them with a bigger buffer memory. In case of shock, the little time it took to play again, it played what was preloaded in its buffer memory. SONY could have discontinued the tapes and kept on with MD it wouldn't have bothered me. It was the best of both worlds (special dedication to Yasiin Bey). The missing link between the tape and the CD which made it the vinyl's best friend. I just didn't understand the need for an IPod when you could create with it your own podcast. It was a one stereo track recorder. You could cut, move and merge but not duplicate those cuts. It was largely enough to edit interviews, podcasts and recordings in the box. With this only you can edit a whole beat tape. Sample from your phone or the MD. Create your beats on the SU10. Record on the MD. Name your tracks. Record intros and skit from your phone in the MD. Once you have all your material ready, cut, move and merge your edits. Don't forget that if you need fade in or out you will have to do it on the SU10 when you'll record on the MD. And don't forget to record with the highest quality (SP). What was better than MD at that time ? Another discontinued SONY format : DAT.

you know what? 2 months ago i begun to resarch those machines because i listened some works of Philip Jeck https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ryirulrJ_wM wich use MD to make interesting live music
PS
i have an su10 too...

@kiyani: Mine has b o t h phono and optic line in, i think a lot md players are like this

@ Gabanoise_Records : wow i m discovering all these fonctionalities with the t-mark so i'll try the loop for sure (that's a very good idea)
yea i would make entire beats on those machines because i would stay far from the computer and try new tech
DAT has a better sound but not portability tho

@ella: yep, buy it, you wouldn't regret
+all is separated / discs, player, batterie not like those stupid ipods
+quality near CD
+edit like you want
+these days, everything is in streaming, so sometimes it begins to be difficult to download songs (and it'll be harder in the futur i think because the streaming is growing), record them is a good alternative
+not very expensive because almost nobody cares about this format (in other hand you have HI-MD wich is the evolution of MD and can find players wich cost more than $1000: they stopped production in 2013)
+the disk is protected so it is well conservated and not altered with time (maybe the most "secure" format)

philip jeck produce interesting sound and the live approach is interesting, a bit too dark for me tho

Minidisc were awesome. I had a friend back in high school, that had the newer version of that black sony. It was silver. The sony stereo condenser mics that came with those sounded great. A lot of concerts were bootlegged with those back then.

i only just heard about this format because dibia$e was talking about it on twitter, i'm interested in buying some kind of minidisc recorder so i can backup my music files. are there a lot of different options? someone guide me. i'm looking to do this because my iMac's hard disk recently failed and i lost every single song i've ever made except what was left on soundcloud and bandcamp

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MiniDisc

The main point is do you want normal MDs or Hi-MDs wich allow you to have more memory and maybe a better sound (idk)(1GB) / some are still very expensive as sony mz-nh1

normal
looking for something cheap and good

Comparative of all Sony MD players
http://goo.gl/VuYUhd

It's in french but not difficult:
Go in Baladeurs (enregistreur) / bottom ---- Players (recorders)
modèle = model
fonctionnalités = fonctionnality
entrées/ sorties = in/out
référence = reference
optique = optic
ligne = line
casque = headphone

They are also good sharp or panasonic(+) players maybe others, i just like sony too much


http://www.minidisc.org/mdlpfaq.html#_q63

Still got mine (sony).... the stereo mic blew my mind back in the day

what does optical line in mean?

also what does it mean if it has a mic in (plug in power) and an optical line in

Yeah! That mic...

Optical just sends a digital signal, instead of analog. It uses a infrared light that sends pulses through a fiber optic cable where there is no loss in quality, because it's data and not a electric signal. You have to have other equipment that has optical outs to use it.

Powered mic in is for the little condenser mics. Just like 48v phantom power on mic preamps.

so i couldn't record from an sp404 out into the MD? not through the powered mic in?
i think i could i'm just wondering

I'm not sure man. It's been ages since I played with one. If the mic in has a switch to cut the preamp off it might work as a line in. It might depend on the model. I would wait for some of the other people that still own them to chime in.