Posted by Joseph(long winded) on May 04, 2001 at 11:34:24:
In Reply to: Re: Minidisc or DAT? posted by Mark Wiseman on May 04, 2001 at 08:10:11:
I got a Sony MZ-R90 from Outpost.com for $300. The Sony is the best on the market ATM IMHO(check out minidisc.org) and MySimon.com and a few other search engines indicated that Outpost had the best price. This in combination with the cheaper Sony stereo mic does a very fine job in my opinion. I'm finally happy with the quality of my recordings. We'll see how long it lasts before I decided I need a change. ;b
Long winded story:
Originally, I thought I needed a big unit with lots of bells and whistles. I have a very very nice Sony home unit that is capable of a lot more than I know how to take advantage of(microtonal pitch shift on playback). I ordered the cheap sony mic at the same time and in my state of complete ignorance regarding recording was genuinely surprised when I discovered I needed a mic preamp. I used the record player input on my integrated amp for a while but this gave recordings a very 'covered' dead sound. I then went out and bought the cheapest dual preamp I could find, the Berhinger UltraGain Pro. Once that arrived I discovered that the unit uses XLR for the inputs and outputs. Sooo.. I then had to invest in lots of adapters and cables to go from a stereo mini-plug to XLR and then XLR to phono(The big MD recorder only has RCA jacks for analog input- lots of different digital I/O though). The end result was a pain to transport and set up and even with lots of gain required me to nearly shove the mic down the bell to get a good recording. Also, one side went out and effectively turned my dual preamp into a single preamp. I returned the preamp for another one(Tech God audio was very amiable with this) and was getting by the last few months but now this one has also turned into a single preamp. I have no clue why. Any suggestions?
This was the straw that broke the camels back. I just bought the MZ-R90 and have been very pleased.
What I've learned:
1) I don't need stereo recording capabilities for my purposes, mono is fine.
2) I don't need a big fancy unit with lots of wizbang features.
3) Portables sound just as good(although they need to be muffled and kept away from the mic because the motor is noisy), are much more convenient, and are cheaper once you realize that you don't need to buy a mic preamp to use them.
I no longer have to shove the mic down the bell.
I should have just bought the portable to start.
Anyone interested in buying a mic preamp?
Thanks for letting me ramble. Hopefully someone gets something from it.
joseph 'recording illiterate but learning' felton