RE: [microsound] 160 kbps or minidisc

[Dave Cronin <Dave@xxxxxxxxxx>]

This is interesting, while I believe what you say is true, Joshua, most MD
recordings I have heard sound really poor in the low-end and seem to
overly-accentuate the upper mids (perhaps one of the things that helps punch
MD sounds into a mix). I had been told that this had something to do with
ATRAC. Is this not the case? Perhaps it is just poorly set recording levels
or these onboard compressors. (The last thing in the world I would want near
a recording is some cheap automatic compressor.) Any other reasons about why
MD's sound really thin?



> -----Original Message-----
> From: Joshua Maremont [mailto:thermal@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]
> Sent: Friday, June 08, 2001 10:42 AM
> To: microsound@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: Re: [microsound] 160 kbps or minidisc
> 
> 
> At 07:23 PM 6/8/01 +0200, Álvaro Castro wrote:
> >Now that you are talking about minidisc, I've visited
> >the address that somebody recommended (www.archos.com)
> >and I found a product very interesting. It offers 6 gB
> >of live recorgind at 160 kbps. The noise rate is 90db.
> >I think that it's better than a minidisc recorder. It
> >has an USB port.
> 
> It sounds like a nice one, but do note that ATRAC compression is much 
> further along at this point than MP3 (I assume that is the 
> format used by 
> Archos) for sonic transparency, as well as that even the most 
> basic of 
> consumer MD walkman recorders allow the editing of one's recordings, 
> including the moving of track IDs.  And it is this editing 
> ability which 
> makes the MD ideal for location recording:  one can trim 
> unwanted segments, 
> delete mis-takes, put track marks into a recording as it is made or 
> afterwards, entitle each track, and rearrange tracks, all with a few 
> buttons.  And I drooled over the HHB portable of an earlier 
> post:  it even 
> includes a lost time retrieval feature, allowing one to start 
> a recording 
> several seconds after the sound has begun.  Two other 
> advantages I have 
> found with MD:  when I record my own pieces to MD and play 
> them back in DJ 
> sets, the MD tracks punch through the rest of the mix, 
> seemingly helped by 
> some artifact of the compression; in addition, my MD walkmen 
> have been very 
> forgiving of mic input overloading and even with some harsh 
> transients have 
> never left the crunch of digital clipping on a recording.  A harddisk 
> recorder with a USB port is a great thing (and even better if 
> it allows for 
> uncompressed WAV and AIFF files - why compress on a 6GB 
> drive?), but the MD 
> walkman is a uniquely flexible, cheap, and robust device for the 
> unpredictabilities of the field.
> 
> np - Wah! "Nah Poo = The Art of Bluff"
> 
> Joshua Maremont / Thermal - mailto:thermal@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Boxman Studies Label - http://www.boxmanstudies.com/
> 
> 
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