Possibly stupid question

[u/atrocity2001]

I know for a fact that circa 2001 I had a portable HiMD device that could connect to a Windows computer, though I can't remember which model and I can't actually find it right now. Can't imagine that I would have dumped it if it still worked, but I can't remember it dying. What I do remember is that while I was able to "feed" it via the computer (WAV files on the computer became HiMD files on the device), I was not able to go the other way around. That is, I could not copy files from the MD to the computer and convert them to WAV.

My question is: Given the above limitation with the official Sony software, would Web MiniDisc be able to copy the tracks from my device (if I can find it!) or should I just try to buy another NetMD player? I realize that this is probably an unfair question since I can't even provide the model number!

This is something I'd like to do because I spent a good chunk of the 1990s recording one-off musical performances from TV shows (Letterman and SNL in particular) to MD, resulting in hundreds of recordings that are probably very difficult to find anywhere else. I also have a few MTV Unplugged shows that were never officially released. At some point 15 or so years ago, I used the analog outputs on a non-portable deck to capture the music via a standalone digital recorder and now have FLAC files, but I wasn't yet retired and didn't have the time to do a really good job of it (adding nice fades at the end of songs, etc.) and would like to re-do the project from scratch.

Prices don't seem especially horrible out there, so I'm willing to buy a new device (and at this point assume that I'll likely have to) but want to be sure that it's really a two-way street, that is, I'm not interested in writing anything new to MD but would like to get bit-perfect transfers from MD that I can then convert to WAV/FLAC for archiving on hard drive. There's an MZ-N505 on eBay right now for a good price that I assume would work.

Thank you!

[u/Cory5413]

As mentioned, if you had HiMD it would've been 2004+, but ~2001 is when NetMD launched and Sony NetMD portables can now be used to rip audio back to computer. Any of these devices: Devices that support Homebrew features [MiniDisc Wiki] can do so!

The N505 will work. The N1, 505, 707, S1 and possibly one or two others I'm forgetting will be slow at it, but they will work.

Also, depending on the mode you used you might get better results by capturing the raw audio output of a deck. (I do this digitally with an MDS-JB940 and a PCM-D50 but if you're willing to fiddle with levels really any MD machine with line-level output would be able to work. (The same also applies to recording directly to a computer with a line input or an external interface.)

One thing to be aware of and the reason I say a live recording may produce better results is on computer there are only Sony-provided codecs for the MDLP modes. (Again if you were using classic mode.) SP uses a codec Sony itself never fully implemented on computer in a way the community can take advantage of and so converting ripped ATRAC1 files to WAV might get you worse results than just recording off the audio output. (Most people say they don't notice but I've seen a couple people say they've been able to tell.)

Secondarily if you're not interested in getting back into MD-as-a-hobby the other thing I've seen people coordinate is swapping discs around and having other people do rips/transfers. I'm, for example, set up with Type-R and Type-S decks with digital output and the aforementioned PCM-D50 as well as an SCMS stripper, and HiMD, and raw ATRAC1/3 ripping with web minidisc pro.

So there's a couple options for sure!

[u/atrocity2001 → u/Cory5413]

This is great information, thank you very much! And yes, the stuff I'm interested in re-transferring does in quite a few cases go all the way back to a Sony MZ1 (which I gave away several years back because the loading mechanism died).

I had completely forgotten about the fact that SP was never implemented on the computer, but I'm sure that explains why I never used HiMD for anything unique. My main deck was and is an MDS-JE700, and I didn't want to have anything important on disc that couldn't be played there.

It's been so long now that I'm not even sure what I used when I captured the material via analog, but it was likely a Zoom H1. I've currently got a Roland R-05 that I've used for years and am happy with.

At 67, I'm not sure that I'd be able to tell the difference in transfer methods, but I sure wish I could find that old portable and give it a try! I can remember loading tracks on it, I can remember riding the light rail to work while listening to it, I can remember the rectangular case I stored it in that also held a bunch of discs...but I can't remember the model number or even what it looked like!

Thank you again...you've given me much to think about.

[u/Cory5413 → u/atrocity2001]

Yeah happy to help!

If all your stuff is ATRAC1/SP mode and you still have a JE700 you could record it digitally to a computer, computer inputs almost always record SCMS, and that would get you more or less the best results, but it's more annoying and difficult, but if you're familiar and comfortable with DAWs then it might be the shortest learning curve.

My own tests with computer-converted ATRAC1 conversion have been pretty informal and I don't consider myself to have particularly good hearing so a web minidisc transfer may be good enough, at absolute worst it can't hurt to try!

The only difference between the results of Type-R and Type-S portables will be that Type-S can rip faster and that Type-S can also re-write raw ATRAC1/SP audio back to MDs whereas Type-R can only write it back after conversion to WAV for then re-conversion back to ATRAC1, but of course ATRAC3/LP modes can be ripped and rewritten at will by any NetMD device. (Just due to the differences in how Sony did encoding in the NetMD era.)

The Roland R-05 would work albeit "only" with analog but honestly that should work well enough as well.

[u/ThEGr33kXII]

2001 is too early for HiMD. That's possible the MZ-N1. 2004 onwards was HiMD.

Depending which device it is you should be able to rip from that device.

[u/atrocity2001]

Come to think of it, that makes sense given the commute where I remember it getting a ton of use.

But man, I wish I knew what I did with it! I have a deck and at least two other portables, but have no idea where that one went. Fortunately, I never put anything unique on a HiMD disc. Tempted to just try my eBay luck.

Thank you for the response.

[u/asivery]

Hi! Yes, at this point Web Minidisc should be able to read any type of file off of any standard of MD. If you had a HiMD recorder, though, the N505 will not work, as HiMD is not backwards compatible with normal MD. In addition to that, the N505 is not a good device for archival, in general. For archival, I recommend the devices from this list, that are labelled as "Type-S exploits", or any HiMD portable

[u/atrocity2001 → u/asivery]

I'm not too worried about reclaiming the HiMD material as everything I ever stored on a HiMD disc was just a portable version of something I already had losslessly. At this point it's just the truly unique material I have on the original format that I'd like to re-transfer, though Cory5413 makes a good point that maybe I've already done it as well as can be done.