MiniDiscs - 21 years of almostness

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I have a Pioneer minidisc recorder/player which I have had since the late 90's. The main reason I bought it is because it has a reasonably effective digital noise reduction system which can be used with analog recordings. I had a couple of thousand records damaged in a flood in 1998 and although a good proportion were condemned to the bin (sewage/soil etc), some were saved (still haven't got over the loss though).The water damage impaired the sound quality (and ruined labels) on many but with careful cleaning some are playable and have been enhanced somewhat when recorded on to minidisc (effectiveness dependant on extent of damage). I also bought a portable player which I used for a while but has been in a cupboard for the last few years. Recording quality overall is very good and it has served it's purpose well. Ah well, Timemarcheson.

Regards

Frank

I've got a portable minidisc player still in it's box up the loft - never been used - might be worth something one day maybe. I did have a minidisc hifi separate 15 years ago, used to do compilations on it and run it through the philips cd recorder to make cd's

when I was a sound & lighthing tec for FLC night clubs we used both DAT and MD! I still use MD to record the DJs who do a spot on the sunday soul afternoon I run in sheffield,

theres about ten DJs so as a thankyou I put their set on CD so they can have a listen!

Nigel&Elaine

long live vinyl

Every single show was recorded on Mini Disc when I was at Solar from 2000 to 2007 great format and I still use the recorder at home, very good sound quality.

Agree minidisc makes a great base source for recording CDs. Still use it on a regular basis.

Mini Disc tales………..plenty I can recall with affection…….

My Sony portable Mini Disc recorder was a great bit of kit for me late 90’s early 2k’s………

Most of the time I used to record shows off radio on it, editing them down to individual tracks (as you could), keeping tracks that were new to me until I picked them up etc…..

It was also good for recording your own mixes, as again you could edit into tracks but retain the continuity on playback if you wanted to.

I also used to use it to record my early Starpoint radio shows and then post them off to the studio. Much easier now though MP3/Yousentit etc. I also recall the pain I endured when it all went wrong, and remember spending hours “repairing” a recording before I could send it off……

I remember dropping a disc of a recorded show out of the little plastic case once, and I needed to get it in the post to the studio pronto. I thought it had gone in the fire so proceeded to dismantle the fire. I found it after a while and it hadn’t gone in the fire at all, but this all turned out to be a strange twist of fate, because I found a set of house keys in the fire that had been missing for a while and caused us to consider changing the locks at home! We reckon my 18 month old daughter had “posted“ them through the very slots in the fire that I thought the disc had sailed through!! LOL

Of course it was a good tool on holiday as it was convenient and the discs were robust (I’m thinking sand here!)

We also used MD’s at Prestatyn to record some of the artist interviews for posterity (come in John Smith!). Some of the Northern boys were disappointed to turn up with their C90’s to find an MD there instead. I tried to explain politely that it was the 21^st century……LOL

I had a long service award at work (£100) and chose a Sony MD player to go with my separates…….it’s still there and get used occasionally to play old recordings.

Of course the iPod and the like superseded it my portable MD, just as well as it stopped working (well, stopped recording, it plays). The portable one only gets used now as a source into my mixer for jingles on my radio shows.

Sorry to go on, but the thread was “any good stories…” or something like that, and as you can see I have plenty to tell. In summary, it’s had its place and I was quite fond of them!! I think it was the convenient size, the robustness (effectively a mini CD in a case) and the fact that it was re-recordable (CD-RW was not such a big thing back then….though CD-R was quite prevalent, but remember the discs would be more expensive back then, so re-recording appealed!).

As an aside, as a music lover (nutcase?), don’t you find it strange that folk limit themselves to their purchases based on media? This, of all sites, is a bad place to ask that I guess (tin hat time), but seriously? I’ve often said it on EMS as some on there are the opposite to folk on soul source and won’t by vinyl or CD and will only download.

I think the only thing I can’t play is reel-to-reel tape. I have all other options to call on even if they’re not ALL conveniently wired up and ready to fly.

I’m speaking from the point of view of a contemporary soul buyer/collector when I say this, but why the hell would I limit myself on format if I crave the music…….the music ALWAYS comes first, even though I have preferences about format.

The answer I usually get is “space…”, but I don’t accept that as this is what we do, and the little lady just has to put up with certain things in life! LOL

Cheers,

Mark R

Agreed, access to the music first even though vinyl is my main preference. Now have YouTube through a Sony television, looking for a soundbar to enhance the quality. Anyone done this? Any recommendations?

Grateful for input.

Frank

i still have a cracking denon minidisc player, bought about 1998 before i had a pc and the cdr facility, i always felt i jumped in too soon with this ( which is not like me at all, wouldnt know where to start with an i pod, having never downloaded a tune yet!) i took it as a replacement for tape at the time, with the added extra that there was no re winding, almost a tape with a c.d remote,which was a big improvement then, i am sure there were cdr players around but at that time the mini disc did seem to be an improvement on that, after all, cds had been around for a while then, whereas the minidisc did look newer, technology moved on ( without me i might add) and it ended up probably bieng superceeded by the turn of the century, at some point in the last five or six years i have turned my back on technological progress, at least in the field of recorded music and re embraced vinyl,this has become once again a deep passion, my only regret being that i let it go many years ago.

also, there was a kind of sexiness about a mini disc dont you think,? the shape and the way you unwrapped the celophane , a bit like a pack of condoms ?( maybe its me )

Coloured ones too!! LOL

No flavours though, but arguably some were ribbed!

Cheers,

Mark R

also, there was a kind of sexiness about a mini disc dont you think,? the shape and the way you unwrapped the celophane , a bit like a pack of condoms ?( maybe its me )

Coloured ones too!! LOL

No flavours though, but arguably some were ribbed!

I'm surprised you weren't 'ribbed' more for that comment!

ps Absolutely love minidiscs!

I couldn't live without my minidisc players/recorders. In my humble opinion the best format for recording vinyl onto bar none. I have never been able to get on with the Cd format, and the latest i-pads are soul less. Every record I ever get goes straight onto minidisc. I love 'em.

think i,ll start using mine more after reading quinvys comments , i used to feel there was a richer sound out of the minidisc, i know they used to fare badly for distortion etc against c.d players in the reviews i read at the time, however i have come to realize its the effect it has on the listener that is all important,and on that criterea, they were pretty good in my opinion

I got a mini-disc in the late 90's (I think) and when I got a mini hi-fi stack I made sure it had a mini-disc too.

I remember going to Cleethorpes one year with a small sales box and before going I recorded the whole lot on to mini disc. When people didn't know a tune I asked if they would like to hear it, most looked blank and cast around for a deck, some thought I was taking the mick. Quite a few looked in amazement when I pulled out the mini-disc and a set of headphones. I numbered all the records to match the track number so I could whizz straight to it.

Ahead of my time.

I haven't used it for a while but might start recording again, they are still making the discs, just not the players.

I got into Minidisc very early on. Early 90s. 1993 maybe.

I still have my first portable player the Sony MD1

Also have a MD recorder hifi.

I had a mini disc recorder a few years ago ,and found them great quality ,and superb for recording music off the internet ,and radio shows like Soul 24/7 ,Richard Searling ,Mark Bicknell etc .Recently bought another player for £1 !! off ebay so I can listen to the discs again .

I still have a Sony Minidisc Hi Fi separate and a Sony minidisc walkman, both still working well.

I agree with Eddie and Quinvy, great quality sound, easy to record and edit and IMHO much better sounding than CD's at the time, and lots of musicians used to use them for their backing tracks.

We also had minidisc players fitted to our Honda CRV (1997), Honda Accord Type R (1999) and a Merc SLK (2001) , dealers thought we were barmy.

Sometimes listen to the old R Searling shows from JFM i recorded, I still have a live 100 club recording I did there with the walkman and a lapel mic .

I can see 4 maxwell sealed discs on the rack as I type.

I bought my minidisc player in 2000 for £120. I remember it being a toss-up between MD and a 128 MByte MP3 player,both of which cost roughly the same money. In the end I opted for the Aiwa AMF-75 portable minidisc player simply because minidiscs were quite cheap. In retrospect I have no regrets about turning down the MP3 player. As most on here will testify, the sound quality of minidisc is second to none and I found it invaluable for recording & digitising my record collection. There was even a 'mono' mode for recording my collection of old 45's. In later years when I moved onto mp3 players I noticed a big drop in sound quality. I think that the minidisc simply had a better amplifier with a more dynamic range which worked well with the ATRAC compression system. I still have my MD player and quite a few minidiscs but moved with the times and last year bought a Tascam DR-2D digital recorder for archiving my record collection. However, if I ever want to listen to my music on the way to work, and hear it the way it's supposed to sound, I always pack my minidisc player. Happy days.

Dave

We used to do a radio show on PCRL which was only possible due to mini discs, and the keeping of a secret. I cant remember the name of the show, but the idea was that a bunch of us Soulies all met up to make this show, and we would take it in turns to play a record and then discuss it, kinda along the lines of the old Emperor Rosko's Round Table. It was supposed to sound like we were all there together, and to be fair, it did.

The truth was somewhat different. We would turn up to Mickey’s studio, usually in pairs, on different days to record "our bit", I would usually do my part with Dave Rimmer and the host of the show, Mickey Nold, would record us (and later edit it) in such a way as to make it sound legit.

What helped the overall effect was that you'd occasionally get visitors dropping in, usually the local lads, the likes of Ted Massey or Johnny Weston, Dave Allen, etc, (all or any of the others who were supposed to be there) and it made for a great show when we heard it back. I happily remember recording odd comments as though I’d just heard some tune John Weston played, and giving it a stellar reaction, fortunately I could rely on John’s taste ;-)

The show ran for quite a long time, and a heck of a lot of decent, and very rare tunes got played, that otherwise would never have been heard on the airwaves, both weekly and the occasional special show (Christmas & Niters )

My favourite experience was coming out of a Stafford Top Of The World Reunion Nite, sometime in the mid 90’s, think it was at the Garth Hotel just outside Stafford, and as we were leaving at the end and getting into the cars, somebody shouted that they’d got the "All-Niter" on the radio, and that I must be a time traveller because I was speaking live introducing records, and to cap it all the tunes I was playing were all Stafford tunes!

We took the longest way back so we could listen as we went along, eventually ending up at the legendary Greasy Lil’s cafe on the A5. We sat in the cars listening & sobering up until the show ended, before heading in for a full english.

I hadn’t the heart to admit to those in our company that it had been recorded on a wet wednesday the week before - it would have taken all the glamour out of it - all thanks to the mighty mini disc, and their master, Mr. Mickey Nold

Following on from John's story above, we did actually all turn up at the studio one December to record the Christmas show. I think nine of us in total.

As John said this was always recorded onto minidisc, so the Christmas show was recorded on a Tuesday evening, and as was the way, you could hear the cans being opened almost as soon as we arrived. It ws a three hour special, so as it went on, the comments and general back ground noise got more and more raucous. Mickey Mold was the total professional throughout, and we actually did manage to get a really good show recorded. Or so we thoiught !

What Mick had failed to actually mention was that the show was being broadcast live on Christmas morning at 8.00 am, and boy did we sound pissed by 11.00 am on Christmas morning. Mickey never did do another show where all nine of us were in the studio together !

The show was called the Basement Soul Show. Ive found a picture on the net of pretty much all of us Dave, but cannot copy it over here due to my ineptitude. Its on a Mickey Nold page with a video of one show with Ted - were we ever that young in the 90's ?

fair few vids on dailymotion Johm

heres a quick pass on

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/xobdmy_pcrl-basement-soul-show-guest-brian-goucher_creation#.USEczaXxpu4

I'll do a new thread in video forum

here are

got several of these shows on an mp3 disc last year , well worth listening to as ive heard some underplayed tunes that are new to me as well as some great classics

Apart from taking a lappy to a gig to record it, Minidisc is still the easiest and better sounding method. I have a Pioneer full size one that cost me an unbelievable £12 on eBay, it's so light and easy to transport, and sound is amazing. It is possible to get a full set on a disc and then easy to edit down to your liking.

I remember when Minidisc first showed it's face and it was the end of the DAT recorder which many used to record, and for backing track play at many gigs, DAT still sounds awesome, but Minidisc definitely has the edge.

I will still be keeping and using mine.

I just found mine, a SonyNet MD Walkman MZ-N510, recordable, it works superbly although the mains lead is missing and so is the software.  Can anyone point me to where I could download the software to enable me to get it to work with a pc (or mac).  If I plug the walkman into the pc, it installs the driver software but I can't see it anywhere.

p.s. the software is called SonicStage I think

Will Sony now allow/release access to their Atrac format so that mini-discs can be copied onto PC's along with

titles etc.

Its about bleeding time.

Kegsy

God, I remember when I used to record everything to minidisc and sit on endless methods of public transport getting across London to work, staying sane only by magic of the MD. I think some of Ian Wrights funk edits were done on a mini disc - that takes some skill and aptience! Still got tons of discs but the player seems to have given up

My player won't play most of my discs anymore....they clunk and whirl then come up with an error message half the time.....I've given up with it.

I've had a couple of minidisc recorders since the mid 1990s (I still have one) and they were handy - at the time - because of the track ID and editing features and the digital optical inputs (and sometimes outputs) so you could transfer from CD and DAT etc.

A lot of people looked down on minidiscs but I liked them because it saved me using more expensive pro DATs for recording from vinyl and tape etc and I was happy with the quality even though in theory the extreme ends of the frequency range were "lost".

I remember some machines had copy protection restrictions but you could get around that by recording in analogue rather than digital.

I have quite a lot of MDs full of tracks which I'll transfer to computer hard drive when I get time. That will probably be a real-time analogue transfer. My MD player hasn't been switched on for more than ten years so I hope it still works okay (I know DAT has different technology but if a DAT recorder isn't powered up for a long time the heads are usually damaged).

 

I think minidisc was taking over the domestic market (unlike DCC which couldn't compete and never caught on) until PCs suddenly became more powerful and affordable in the late 1990s and blank CDRs also started to drop in price soon after. And by then a lot more cars had CD players installed so it was obvious that minidiscs were unable to compete.

It was sad timing because minidiscs had potential, they even made varispeed twin-deck versions in the Denon DN series, similar to the CD players which were standard in clubs.

Did any radio stations ever use minidisc players?

 

ubs.

Did any radio stations ever use minidisc players?

 

For 'jingles'

I still have mine, but I haven't used it in years, but I would never part with it.  I just found the remote for it in a box downstairs and two boxes of minidiscs.  I bought one of the early Sony ones that has an optical in and out about the same time I bought a Marantz pro CD recorder.  Both still work well!

Mini discs.. What can I say? Totally hooked on the medium. So tactile. Great way to be able to transport and play things in excellent sound quality. Lots of ex bbc players on e-bay. The pro models.. Well worth seeking out.! A good way to get models that cost hundreds originally for a fraction of the price. Try one you will get hooked.. A dj of almost 35 years. This is one of my FAVOURITE formats. Marty.

 

I have a Full size Sony and 2 Portables, just been editing soul radio shows from 90s 2000s - might have to dig the Cassettes out 

 

Stin