Re: [HCDX] Question about Minidisc recorders
[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]
Re: [HCDX] Question about Minidisc recorders
Hello!
If you remember, at the beginning of December I asked if anybody in the
list knew of a Minidisc recorder unit with the following features:
1) Date/time stamp
2) Long time recording mode (LP4): about 320 minutes
3) Auto Time Stamp (automatic track marks every xx minutes)
4) On/off timer (capability to automatically switch the recorder on and
off at given times)
My interest was in unattended recording using a timer. Thanks to your
reactions, after some considerations I purchased a Sony MZ-B100. For
details about this unit see
http://minidisc.amulation.com/part_Sony_MZ-B100.html ; you can also
download the manual from there.
The B100 has automatic date and time stamp, that is you can read on its
display when the recording was done: very useful when you listen to the
disc at a later time. It has LP4 mode too. It hasn't the other two
features, but there is a solution.
Thanks to the VOR mode you can use your receiver's built-in timer, or an
external timer switching the receiver on and off. VOR means "Voice Operated
Recording": in VOR mode, the B100 records only when an audio input is
present. So the recorder pauses until the receiver switches on. The pause
can have any length: hours or even days.
There are some problems anyway. The first one is that VOR works only if you
use the built-in recorder's microphone, or an external microphone; it
doesn't work if you connect the receiver through the usual line-in jack.
Solution: you must connect the receiver to the external microphone jack.
Problem: this jack has two sensitivity levels, high and low; even at low
sensitivity, the signal coming from the REC jack of the receiver is way too
high, creating audio distortion. Solution: an attenuating resistor in the
patch cable coming from the receiver. With my JRC NRD-535, a 100 kiloohm
resistor gave a good audio level; a tiny 1/8 W or 1/4 W resistor will do.
Different receivers may require slightly different values.
Another problem: VOR doesn't keep note of pauses and therefore stamps wrong
dates and times. For example, let's say that you switch on the recorder at
2300 hours of 31 Dec. 2003, in VOR mode; the disc will be time stamped
"23:00 / 31d 12m 03y". Then the recorder pauses until 0300 of 1st Jan.
2004, when the timer switches the receiver on and activates recording. The
recorder will keep on stamping the disc as 23:00, 23:01, 23:02, etc. of 31d
12m 03y, although it actually is 0300, 0301, 0302 etc. of 01d 01m 04y.
Solution: you can't directly use the time you read on the display, but
knowing the switch-on time of the recorder and the switch-on time of the
receiver you can correct the difference. Of course you must keep a note
somewhere of the two switch-on times, if you are going to listen to the
disc at a later time. You could write these data on the disc itself, using
the label feature of the B100. By the way, you can select time in 24h or
12h (am/pm) format, as you prefer. And, of course, when not using VOR, date
and time stamp is perfect.
The B100 doesn't put automatic track marks on the disc every xx minutes.
These marks are of help when quickly checking the recording: you can leap
forward from mark to mark, listening to the disc at xx minutes intervals.
Actually this isn't a problem: the B100 has two "Easy Search" buttons that
send the disc back or forward at 1 minute intervals. If you push "+" 12
times, you'll leap 12 minutes forward (leaps can't be longer than 20
minutes): very handy. When you find an interesting point in the recording,
such as an ID, you can put a manual track mark on the disc (you can insert
up to 254 marks), to find it again in a moment. There are two different
types of mark you can use, normal and special, and they can be
independently searched.
LP4 mode has a recording length of 320 minutes in stereo, with excellent
audio fidelity. You could also record in mono, but with a 160 minutes
limit. Not a problem: just record in LP4 stereo mode but, in the audio
patch cable, short the Left and Right channel wires together, so that
you'll have mono sound in both your ears when listening with stereo
headphones. For what I know, all minidisc units have a stereo-only LP4 mode.
The B100 has a tiny built-in speaker, useful for quick checks; however its
audio is poor and you should use headphones for real listening.
Another useful feature is "Speed Control": with a knob you can adjust
playback speed, for instance to slow down a fast-paced identification
announcement for better intelligibility.
For other features, please refer to the manual.
Did the B100 satisfy my needs for minidisc unattended recording? Yes,
although it still isn't the perfect recorder. But, then, did you ever find
the perfect radio? A built-in timer would be welcome, or a VOR mode using
the line-in input and with correct time/date stamp.
I hope this information can be of some help. I wish to thank all fellow
DXers who replied to my request and, in particular, Martin Elbe for his
suggestion about "Music Synch" recording mode (equivalent to VOR) and Guy
Atkins for actually pointing me to the Sony MZ-B100.
73
Fabrizio
---------------------------------
Fabrizio Magrone, Forli, Italy (JRC NRD-535, ICOM IC-R71, 30m lw)
fabrizio.magrone@xxxxxx
fmagrone@xxxxxxxxxxxx
---[Start Commercial]---------------------
World Radio TV Handbook 2004 is coming out! Preorder yours now! Only $20.97 through us.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0823059685/hardcoredxcom
---[End Commercial]-----------------------
________________________________________
Hard-Core-DX mailing list
Hard-Core-DX@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://dallas.hard-core-dx.com/mailman/listinfo/hard-core-dx
http://www.hard-core-dx.com/
_______________________________________________
THE INFORMATION IN THIS ARTICLE IS FREE. It may be copied, distributed
and/or modified under the conditions set down in the Design Science License
published by Michael Stutz at http://dsl.org/copyleft/dsl.txt