Recording Equipment? DAT or Minidisc?

[Norman Saucier]

We recently performed a show and we had a new engineer. He was using a
minidisc system to record the show. I wanted to know if the minidisc was
just as quality of a recording as a DAT, and if Minidisc recorders are going
to be in the future of professional recording ie. do mixing studios have
Minidisc recorders to use in mixing? All we will be using is about 6 mics
for onstage recording during shows, is the minidisc player a device capable
of this?
Thank You, Jamie S.
ab...@unh.edu

--
***********Jamie Saucier**************
Sophomore Biology Major at UNH
Saxophonist in UNHMB, Pit Band Saxophonist
Tenor in Chamber Singers and Concert Choir
Jazz Choir, UNH Opera
Musical Director of Alabaster Blue
Hall Council Rep.
Contact info: AIM=TenorMANjs
ab...@unh.edu
jamie....@cisunix.unh.edu
nsau...@worldnet.att.net
Hunter 309
Mail: 10642 Granite Square Station
Durham, NH 03824

[Joel Foner]

Minidisc is not quite the same quality as DAT - there are some audible
differences with instrumental music... BUT I've never a/b compared them with
a-cappella so I'm not sure how much difference it makes for a-cappella work.
Minidiscs are cool and small, but they're not the full CD data standard,
whereas a professional DAT recorder can be set to record at the exact same
sampling rate as a CD. This means that from DAT to CD there are no
conversions - just copy the bits to tape and that's it. The minidisc
recorders I've tried have other issues, in that their analog to digital
converters don't sound very good, so it's hard for me to tell if the
minidisc format is the problem, or if it's the relatively inexpensive
electronics in the systems I've tried. In some ways it's really not fair to
compare a $3-500 minidisc recorder against a $1200+ studio DAT recorder...

Caveat - this is a recording studio perspective - there may be no difference
at all noticeable from many live board feeds, since other things may limit
what you get much more than the minidisc vs. dat issue in a live setting.
For live, vocal-only shows, recorded with typical Sure SM58-style mic's -
minidisc may be a fine choice, and you may never notice the difference.

Hope this helps,

Joel

"Norman Saucier" <nsau...@worldnet.att.net> wrote in message
news:wCqg5.12517$RG6.1...@bgtnsc05-news.ops.worldnet.att.net...

[Hyper8va]

I have been looking into a multi-track device for demos, etc..and a guy who I
recorded with(the engineer) turned me onto the Yamaha MD-8 mini disc, 8-track
recorder. In his opinion as a pro there is little or no difference in the
sound quality and mini-discs are random access so there's no physical tape
involved to rewind or fast-forward. No stretching of tapes or that sort of
"over time" deteriaration(sp?).

Check out Musician's Friend magazine(www.musiciansfriend.com) or
www.marsmusic.com..they have a ton of info on these players and recorders..

Best of luck to you!

Del

PS you can get the MD-8 for about $1099.00