You're not being very fair on Sony here. The portable MD units are aimed at the walkman market who would normally use tape walkman devices to take their music on the move. That market doesn't need a digital output. There are slightly higher-end units that have digital outs, although I'd suspect these'd be somewhat out of your price range. Prior to MD you wouldn't have been able to record bands digitally *at all*, so I can't see what you're complaining about.
The piracy issue can't be a serious reason for not having a digital out. If they were worried about piracy, they wouldn't include any digital ins. I suspect leaving the digital outs off is to do with selling the full size units and trying to keep the size (and price) of the portable units down.
Your problem can be rectified by purchasing a full size unit. This way you can still record digitally, then bring the recording home, stick it in your full size unit and feed it into your computer via the digital out on that. The full size units are relatively cheap these days.
Reality Check 1 : 24-bit a/d convertors are not yet available at these sampling frequencies (they will be available soon, I'm sure - but not yet). Just like back when CD came out, the best a/d convertors only went up to 14 bits. Hence one of the several reasons for the need for modern "digital remasters"
Reality Check 2: If you can find a source that produces a signal with a resolution that goes anywhere near the digital equivalent of 24 bits then you'll really have something. 30ips, two inch multitrack analogue tape on the best equipment available will give you a resolution equivalent to about what an 18-bit a/d convertor might give you.
I cannot understand why people are hitting us with this shite about interpolation errors and resolution when the analogue master tapes even at their very best barely exceed the (negligible) limitations imposed by CD.
First, the low pass filter at 22.1khz is applied as a standard part of the digital mastering process. You can't get away from it. That will be a problem for those of us who insist on having their inaubible sine waves reproduced (how much real music actually contains these types of signals at these frequencies in the first place?) this is a bit of a problem.
If you're someone who values 30khz signals and sees it as a shortcoming that everything above 22.05khz is cut, I find it interesting how you swear by good vinyl. Even if it could produce 30khz results (which I contend is completely impossible) the master tapes used to cut the master have much of the bass removed and everything above 15khz is cut. If that stuff wasn't removed you risk either damaging the home user's stylus or damaging your own master cutting lathe.
On top of that the analogue master tapes used to cut vinyl LPs are themselves incapable of reproducing 30khz signals.
Generally speaking I have very little time for "audiophiles". First they tell us they can perceive differences between different types of CDR (one has "better controlled bass" than the other, they say..) then they tell us that the crazy, unpredictable journey of a little diamond bouncing off moulded vinyl canyons is somehow superior to precise, digitally locked a/d - d/a convertors.
These "audiophiles" would do themselves some good to talk to an LP mastering engineer, or to the musicians who actually record the material in the first place. Ask them which - vinyl or CD - is closest to the master tape that they laid down in the studio. Then get back to us.
It is important to stress that SCMS only applies to recordings that have been laid down with the SCMS bit set in the data stream. This technology is also included in the consumer CDR machines, although thankfully it does not apply to computer CDRs or professional decks.
If you make a digital recording yourself (ie from a tape deck or record player, or in a live environment), or if you buy a box that can strip the SCMS bit from the digital stream, you can make as many copies as you like. Precisely why you'd want to make copies of copies of commercial CDs (other than for piracy reasons) is beyond me so therefore I don't really see how this can be a legitimate criticism of the MD format.
Agreed that pre-recorded MDs, like pre-recorded tapes, are rather moot.
Erm, full size Minidisc decks *do* have digital inputs *and* outputs. The portable ones don't - the reason being fairly obvious (why would you need a digital output for a walkman-type application ?). This is nothing to do with the question of software piracy.
You need to get a proper Minidisc deck that has a digital out to do the stuff you're describing.
Filled in a few details on the credit card form, but it gives a 404 not found when you attempt to submit it. High tech stuff indeed.
I have serious problems anyways with people writing stuff like "first, by making sure Microsoft is not the only file structure you can support on your computer" (apparently this is the big plus about their 'product')
or
"Flash Vos(TM) Super O/S is flash memory based so it does not use the Microsoft file structure, and does not need to be upgraded."
The thing I'm wondering is - who is behind this tripe ?
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The piracy issue can't be a serious reason for not having a digital out. If they were worried about piracy, they wouldn't include any digital ins. I suspect leaving the digital outs off is to do with selling the full size units and trying to keep the size (and price) of the portable units down.
Your problem can be rectified by purchasing a full size unit. This way you can still record digitally, then bring the recording home, stick it in your full size unit and feed it into your computer via the digital out on that. The full size units are relatively cheap these days.
Reality Check 1 : 24-bit a/d convertors are not yet available at these sampling frequencies (they will be available soon, I'm sure - but not yet). Just like back when CD came out, the best a/d convertors only went up to 14 bits. Hence one of the several reasons for the need for modern "digital remasters"
Reality Check 2: If you can find a source that produces a signal with a resolution that goes anywhere near the digital equivalent of 24 bits then you'll really have something. 30ips, two inch multitrack analogue tape on the best equipment available will give you a resolution equivalent to about what an 18-bit a/d convertor might give you.
I cannot understand why people are hitting us with this shite about interpolation errors and resolution when the analogue master tapes even at their very best barely exceed the (negligible) limitations imposed by CD.
First, the low pass filter at 22.1khz is applied as a standard part of the digital mastering process. You can't get away from it. That will be a problem for those of us who insist on having their inaubible sine waves reproduced (how much real music actually contains these types of signals at these frequencies in the first place?) this is a bit of a problem. If you're someone who values 30khz signals and sees it as a shortcoming that everything above 22.05khz is cut, I find it interesting how you swear by good vinyl. Even if it could produce 30khz results (which I contend is completely impossible) the master tapes used to cut the master have much of the bass removed and everything above 15khz is cut. If that stuff wasn't removed you risk either damaging the home user's stylus or damaging your own master cutting lathe. On top of that the analogue master tapes used to cut vinyl LPs are themselves incapable of reproducing 30khz signals. Generally speaking I have very little time for "audiophiles". First they tell us they can perceive differences between different types of CDR (one has "better controlled bass" than the other, they say..) then they tell us that the crazy, unpredictable journey of a little diamond bouncing off moulded vinyl canyons is somehow superior to precise, digitally locked a/d - d/a convertors. These "audiophiles" would do themselves some good to talk to an LP mastering engineer, or to the musicians who actually record the material in the first place. Ask them which - vinyl or CD - is closest to the master tape that they laid down in the studio. Then get back to us.
It is important to stress that SCMS only applies to recordings that have been laid down with the SCMS bit set in the data stream. This technology is also included in the consumer CDR machines, although thankfully it does not apply to computer CDRs or professional decks. If you make a digital recording yourself (ie from a tape deck or record player, or in a live environment), or if you buy a box that can strip the SCMS bit from the digital stream, you can make as many copies as you like. Precisely why you'd want to make copies of copies of commercial CDs (other than for piracy reasons) is beyond me so therefore I don't really see how this can be a legitimate criticism of the MD format. Agreed that pre-recorded MDs, like pre-recorded tapes, are rather moot.
Erm, full size Minidisc decks *do* have digital inputs *and* outputs. The portable ones don't - the reason being fairly obvious (why would you need a digital output for a walkman-type application ?). This is nothing to do with the question of software piracy. You need to get a proper Minidisc deck that has a digital out to do the stuff you're describing.
Filled in a few details on the credit card form, but it gives a 404 not found when you attempt to submit it. High tech stuff indeed. I have serious problems anyways with people writing stuff like "first, by making sure Microsoft is not the only file structure you can support on your computer" (apparently this is the big plus about their 'product') or "Flash Vos(TM) Super O/S is flash memory based so it does not use the Microsoft file structure, and does not need to be upgraded." The thing I'm wondering is - who is behind this tripe ?