[Dixielandjazz] From Analog to Digital

[Andy.Ling at Quantel.Com]

> Robert Smith wrote:
> I get the following advantages with minidiscs.......
> 
and Kash responded :-
> The disadvantage will come, Robert, when they discontinue making both 
the
> disks & the machines.  I have two professional minidisk recorders on my
> rental list (& in my studio), one for studio & one portable (for film 
work),
> but neither has been used in over 2 yrs!
> 

Good point Jim. I've just been looking at minidisks again. I wanted
a small recorder that I can use with a mic away from home. I looked
at minidisks a while ago, but very few of the portable ones had
a digital output. So you lost quality when transferring to your computer.

The current range seem to now have USB ports and support lots more
audio formats like MP3. I guess Sony etc. are trying to compete
with I-Pods and all the MP3 players. So I'm looking again.

I did look at MP3 recorders, but can't find any that have better than
a low quality voice recording facility. I think part of the problem
is the processing power required to generate the MP3 data (it is
much easier to decode than encode).

My feeling is that you want a small recorder that writes to flash
memory (Compact flash, SD or whatever). That can then be transferred
easily to your computer for later processing. I guess I've just
got to wait a bit longer.

Andy Ling