old skool minidisc to mp3

lozza23_uk · 28 Feb 2006 at 07:16

ok, just reviewing some options fr a mate at work.

he is going on site, taking his laptop with him. and his minidisk player.
he figures that 6 on 2 off (weeks) is a perfect time for him to transfer all of his 100minidisk albums onto HD.

his minidisk player is one of the first, with digital out (fibreoptic? not sure)

anyways he needs something usb he can use to hook the two together and then use something like goldwave to copy all the songs.

so...
Q1. usb interface for digital input
Q2. any nice software that will take the data and maybe even split it and save it to mp3?

tom_nieto · 28 Feb 2006 at 09:03

You're limited to analogue output as far as I know for this sort of application. You certainly won't be able to transfer it over USB if it is a netMD.

I've used analogue to good effect. The sound quality isn't necessarily bad, in fact it is rather good when using a decent sound card and connector cable. I use audiograbber, but I'm sure there are lots of other, probably better programs out there. Splitting the tracks is difficult to do well, with either farr too many small tracks being present, or too few long tracks. If you can find a piece of software that allows you to split mp3s after you've recorded them that would be much better than doing it on the fly.

lozza23_uk · 28 Feb 2006 at 09:09

tom_nieto said:
You're limited to analogue output as far as I know for this sort of application. You certainly won't be able to transfer it over USB if it is a netMD.

I've used analogue to good effect. The sound quality isn't necessarily bad, in fact it is rather good when using a decent sound card and connector cable. I use audiograbber, but I'm sure there are lots of other, probably better programs out there. Splitting the tracks is difficult to do well, with either farr too many small tracks being present, or too few long tracks. If you can find a piece of software that allows you to split mp3s after you've recorded them that would be much better than doing it on the fly.

but surely the digital output on the MD player can be received by a digital input on a soundcard?
I understand it will have to still be done realtime though. and not through a file transfer.
just need to find something suitable for the application.

audiograbber, I will look into it.

Sparky191 · 28 Feb 2006 at 17:21

I think most sound cards with a digital in will do it. I use a Creative MP3+ USB sound card. I never record via the digital in (though that was the intention) but when recording from analog I use CDWAVE. Minaly because it easy to split big wav's into seperate tracks with that. You might try asking this over on Minidisc.org or Head-Fi.Org forums as you'll find people with the same MD machine over there. I think theres Creative software with my MP3+ USB that was designed to do to record from MD. But I never installed the creative software myself. The early MD had optical out. This was before NetMD. its probably one of these...

http://www.minidisc.org/part_Sony_MZ-1.html

tom_nieto · 28 Feb 2006 at 17:59

The digital output can be recorded from, but I think sony had some funny copyright protection built into MDs. If they're all ripped from CD digitally, you might have trouble recording from the digital output, likewise if they're original MD albums. The only real way to tell is to try!

Sparky191 · 28 Feb 2006 at 19:39

What Sony did was remove the digital out. If it has a digital out at all, I don't think theres any restrictions. Anyone with lots of music on MD or NetMD using an optical out on a deck or a really old portable is the best way to get your music off MD. As the newer HiMD won't upload the old MD formats. Only the new HiMD ones. NetMD and older doesn't upload at all.