The End of an Era (no more MiniDisc)

Today marked the end of my minidisc era. I was trying to get some tunes ready for the long flight to Botswana on my minidisc (the battery life was always miles above most electronics, especially for listening only) when I found my only remaining device would no longer record. So, I guess I have to take my iPhone and/or iPod to Africa this year.

My first MD was a Sharp DR7, November 2003. This was my main recorder for many LIVE shows. All of my learning curves were straighten out on this device. I also had a Sony deck to transfer the recordings to my old Philips CDR deck. Talk about old school! It was optical out of the Sony MD deck to optical input on the CDR deck. I then took the CDR and transferred to my PC to split the tracks and make edits. This was not a fast process. I also recorded in dual channel mono back then to give me 160 minutes of recording without changing the disc, as it was limited to 80 minutes of stereo. Since most concerts are mono mixed, it wasn't a big deal most of the time.

In late 2004, I then upgraded to my first Sony Hi-MD, the NH900, replaced that with the RH10 then the RH1. These Hi-MD could hold up to 1 Gb of music with variable bitrates (compression) or no compression (PCM-WAV). While the NH900 had some serious battery life challenges and was seriously crippled by Sony software, it was a big step forward for the format. I made some good recordings with that device; but, by far, my greatest MD was the RH10. The display on that device was something to see in dark settings and made a big difference for my level checks when recording live. Plus, it was not mostly plastic and thin "metal" like the NH900. What was Sony thinking??? The RH1 in 2005 had great promise but the form factor was dying and being replaced by flash recorders by this point and Sony has stopped any further development on MD. The best thing about the RH1 was you could adjust the recording level on the fly. Believe it or not, Sony crippled their MDs with a menu setting that always defaulted to automatic recording level adjustments... you always had to stand on one foot with your left eye closed to get it just right (well, you get the picture). That didn't go so well with many first timers... I actually sold the RH1 not long after buying it (missed the RH10 display and hated the proprietary battery form) and bought another RH10 on eBay. I would actually record with 2 Hi-MDs with one in the ready once I got close to the 94 min and would hot-swap to the waiting deck.

The Hi-MDs also allowed you to upload to the PC via USB. See the above description of the chain I had to use before Hi-MD. Before Hi-MD, I did upgrade my deck to the Sony MXD-D400 which was an awesome mp3 CD player and MD player/recorder. I sold that to a Ohio radio station via eBay back in 2004. Hope it still serves them well. That was a great deck and Sony could have done so much if that had pushed MD and Hi-MD without the stupid DRM software that really crippled the format from the onset. I also had a cool Sony S1 that I got on clearance at Best Buy that was my main walking tunes device for several years. That is the device that just went in the trash with all my old MDs. Miles used it as his tunes device until he got his iPod nano. It was a rugged device made for sports and was water resistant and would run over 30 hrs on 1 AA battery. But, it has gone on to the other side of the electronics trash heap. Luckily, I was able to sell all of the others on eBay or to other tapers to keep the "upgrades" going. That's why you always, always, always keep the box and manual around ;-). I actually kept the 2nd RH10 around as a stealth recording device along with my new flash recorder. I just sold it this spring to a taper who was just getting started with taping...

While I enjoyed learning the methods of recording and digital transfers and edits on MD, my PCM-D50 device is MILES above the MDs in terms of memory (4Gb + expandable card slot), user interface, speed of transfers and it has internal mics just in case! So, I enjoyed the MD era and it served me well; but, I won't miss it! Glad I could help be a beta tester! MDs got me into concert recording and I can honestly say I truly enjoy this hobby and would not be where I am today for recording techniques if it had not been for MDs. The entry price point for these devices was reasonable compared to DAT recorders and made it easy and relatively cheap to get started. You had a lot to learn but you could make it happen. Glad I stuck it out.

So, if you see a minidisc out there one day, you can truly say "wow, dude. That's like OLD SCHOOL!!!" See ya!