Anyone tried the Hi-MD for recording yet?

[Skrasms]

I U('d)TFSF, but nothing came up. Has anyone tried the any of the Sony Hi-MD recorders? The $200 MZ-NHF800 looks like it would meet my needs (just walking around with headphone mics recording outside). I've been hesitant to go with MD because of all the complaints about the ATRAC compression, but the Hi-MD stuff promises 1 gig of full uncompressed wav files. Any opinions?

[darjama]

Yeah, I got one a couple weeks ago. I'd been using a non- "Hi" minidisc before for recording shows and rehearsals for my band, and I think the sound quality is significantly better on the new one, most likely due to bypassing the atrac compression. I'm using a pair of sound professionals mini cardoid mics and a battery box. if you want to hear an mp3 sample, PM me.

One annoying thing: Sony's default for recording is Automatic Gain Control, which basically acts like a limiter, but it ends up smashing things. My last recorder was a Sharp, and it didn't do this. To set the Sony to manual gain, you have to go into their menu system each time you record.

When I first got into minidiscs, I did some walk-around recordings which were pretty cool, but wind noise was a real problem.

[bad_dude_69]

i've got an md-nh900 and i love it. i recorded for a while in pcm mode, at which it can record about 1.5 hours per disc. surprisingly, the hi-sp mode (atrac compression algorithm unique to hi-md units) sounds very very very close to pcm and can fit about twice as much on a disc. battery life is an issue, it'd be worth your while to upgrade to a 1450ma gumstick battery from the 950ma one they include in the package. until recently, hi-md discs have been hard to find but they can be found online for about $6 a pop.

here's a quick recording i made at practice last week with a NT4 going mic in, hi-md mode.

[Skrasms]

That recording sounds pretty good. I think I'll give one a try after I get some money together (and after Max/MSP, of course).