Klarinet Archive - Posting 000380.txt from 2001/11

From: "Ian Black" <clarinet1@-----.uk>
Subj: RE: [kl] Random bits
Date: Fri, 9 Nov 2001 13:02:04 -0500

Hi.

Sony's latest portable MD recorders are much smaller than the older ones,
but have largely the same functionality. I can only speak for the older
MZ-R50 which I have - I'm not familiar with all the current offerings. Mine
(MZ-R50) has three 3.5mm jack sockets: Mic in, Line in (Optical) and Line
Out (NB the earphone socket is separate and can accommodate either a
standard 3.5mm, or the inline remote unit). The Line in (Optical) will take
both a conventional 3.5mm stereo jack or an optical lead - the unit switches
mode automatically depending on the type of lead you use. If your PC or CD
player has an optical out, you can use this for better quality (digital)
reproduction, but if not, it can record perfectly well from a traditional
line (as I've been doing from my digital piano over the past few days). It
may be an idea to ask the store for a look at the instruction manual, or
even to try to locate it on the web. I found the manual for my MZ-R50 at
http://www.csie.nctu.edu.tw/~hhchen/index2.html, someone (maybe Sony?) may
reproduce the manual for these models. Try searching on google for:
Sony minidisc user manual instruction <model number>
(inserting the correct model number in place of the < >)

Good luck.

Ian

-----Original Message-----
From: The Guy on the Couch [mailto:jnohe@-----.Edu]
Subject: [kl] Random bits

Okay, so I'm going to buy a minidisc recorder...(yes yes...I can hear it
now, "Check the archives!!!")...after hearing it in action several times
over the past few months (our department head has one), I've decided that
this really is a tool I can use for myself and my students.

So I went to Target today to get one...and the two models they have look
nothing like the model that my two profs have. I don't know the model
number, but I do know that what the docs have is a sony...it's silver, and
its about 1.5 times as wide as what I saw at Target. What I saw at Target
were two models that were barely larger than a minidisc, and barely
heavier. The models were letterslettersletters500 (it was metallic blue),
and letterslettersletters700 (metallic yellow). The difference between
the blue and yellow (other than about $70) was the yellow came with a
digital hookup for MP3 recording, while the blue came with a standard hook
up. What I was really looking for was a place to connect a microphone
(which, I'm well aware having read the conversations here before, that I
will probably spend more on than on the recorder itself), and while the
yellow one had a jack that was marked "MIC," the blue had a jack marked
"Line In (OPTICAL)". Now, maybe I'm retarded, but it seems to me that the
blue one (the cheaper one) is only designed to record directly from
MP3, in which case, boo for that. The fact is...I understand what "Line
In" means, but I don't understand why the "(OPTICAL)" tag was there, and
I'm wondering if this means that you DON'T hook a mic up there...you just
hook up the MP3 converter that comes with it. Anyone care to enlighten me
so I know whether I'm going to spend $180 or $250?

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