Posted by Rick Denney on May 03, 2001 at 18:26:08:
In Reply to: Minidisc or DAT? posted by Mark Wiseman on May 03, 2001 at 17:29:40:
There's a lot out there on the subject. Start with the articles at minidisc.org.
The sound quality of audio minidisc is exceptionally good--right up there with CD. It is, however, a compressed format, though not nearly as compressed as, say, MP3. But the compression algorithms are excellent and most critical listeners can't tell the difference.
DAT uses 48 KHz sampling, and minidisc uses 44.1 KHz, both at 16 bits per sample (higher sampling rates are available in DAT, but you'll have to downsample it to make it playable on any playback device). The faster sampling rate theoretically extends the upper frequency response, but you'll have to resample it for the CD in any case, which is at 44.1 KHz. Minidisc recordings don't have to be resampled when they are mastered onto CD. This is a small point.
Typical performance specifications include signal/noise ratios of around 85-90 dB, which is just a hair less good than than the 16-bit theoretical maximum (96 dB). DAT, of course, is not lossy and can achieve the theoretical maximum. I'm assuming that the mic preamps are similar, which is a good assumption, except that DAT recorder are usually attached to mixer boards with balanced inputs, which minimizes even-order harmonic distortion. The mike input on a minidisc recorder is unbalanced, and the even-order harmonics might be a hair higher, though odd-order harmonics (which have a bigger sonic impact) are still well controlled.
I know more than one professional broadcast engineer who uses minidisc for field recording rather than DAT, because of the convenience, without any detectable loss in quality. They usually just hang it off their mixer board. If they need multitrack capability, then that's different, of course.
If you are recording in a studio, where ambient noise levels are really well-controlled, then you might get some advantage from DAT. In the real world, though, the differences are not apparent.
I like the idea of walking into a band concert, setting up a microphone stand in front of the band, putting a good stereo mike on it, and hanging the recording device (a portable MD recorder) in a bag on the side of the stand. I listen for one big note to set the levels, punch the record button, and take my place in the group. I might have to change the disk at intermission. No extension cords, no finding an outlet, only one cable, and no cables providing a tripping hazard on the floor. The whole thing fits in a small bag, including a tripod mike stand.
If you also buy a home or rack-mounted deck for back home, then you can digitally upload the file to your computer, edit it in Cool Edit 2000 ($69, which, by the way, is what many of the pros use, though they may spring for the pro version which adds a 64-channel multitrack recording capability), and burn it on a CD without resampling. If you use the portable (which, unfortunately, has no digital output--only input), then you can record it into the computer using a good audiophile-quality sound card (I'm using the $79 Turtle Beach Santa Cruz, which is the best sound card for this sort of thing that's available for under several hundred bucks), and then edit and burn to CD.
All told, the DAT option is a lot more expensive and a lot more cumbersome, and gets you another 8 or 10 dB tacked onto your signal/noise ratio if your recording technique is flawless. This gives you a hair more headroom so that setting levels isn't as critical, that's all. The sonic differences will be undetectable.
Here's what I ended up with:
Audio-Technika AT-822 stereo microphone
Sony PRZ700DPC portable minidisc recorder
Voyetra Turtle Beach Santa Cruz sound card
Cool Edit 2000 sound editor
I got the mike off ebay, but the total cost new would be a little over $600.
By the way, the Cool Edit software includes a fast Fourier Transform spectral analysis tool, which means we can record our tuba sound and analyze all the harmonics. I can think of some forthcoming additions to my York vs. Miraphone web page article based on that little feature.
Relevant web sites:
http://www.minidisc.org/
http://www.syntrillium.com/cooledit/
http://www.pcavtech.com/soundcards/
Rick "all this stuff is much better than even the best speakers and listening rooms" Denney