minidiscs?

[pitchfork]

i saw this guy last week performing at a local club and his only equipment was a behringer eurorack and a minidisc. the sounds that were coming from the PA were amazing. i was just wondering if anyone had info on how to do this or if they've even heard of this.

[Anderton]

A lot of bands use Minidisc for backing tracks or other purposes. For example, I used it to store samples that were too long to fit into memory, and would "fly" them into performances.

To my ears MD sounds better than MP3 for an equivalent amount of memory.

[Jotown]

I have been using Minidiscs for about 13 years as a one man band. I record my backing tracks at home in my studio and I put them on minidiscs for my gigs. They work great. I have some disks that I have been using for the entire 13 years. I have had to replace my Minidisc player every couple of years or so.

Before CD burners came into being the MD was the only way to make a digital recording at home that you could then take to a gig. (good dat machines being way to expensive and not random access anyway)

[blue2blue]

I had a friend who was for a short time in the early 90s a fairly successful hard breaks producer (a form of techno dance music)... after being on a couple of big comps, he had some local promoters approach him to perform live.

His act was built around an old 12 bit Akai sampler and a stinkload of analog synths, all MIDI'd together and controlled from an old-fashioned standalone sequencer.

Being old-school, and a veteran of a popular show band (in a previous lifetime), his first impulse was to just do it.

So, he did a proof-of-concept dry run. Even though he gave himself two hours to set up, he was 2/12 hours late getting rolling.

So that was a no go. He figured, even if he could get his setup time down, there was still way, way too much chance of something going wrong with that many variables.


Happily, he had a portable DAT machine. He put all his mixes on the DAT and hid it in his synth rack.

When he gigged, he still hauled all the gear, plugged it all in, and hooked up key gear (the stuff with blinking lights and meters) and hit the trigger on the sequencer -- along with the DAT machine.

But, of course, all the sound came off the DAT, save a live MC throwing grunts, shouts, and various ad libs.

Anyhow, the key to the whole show was a pair of very creamy go go dancers in skimpy outfits.


Which is the point of my story... you gotta have go go dancers.

;)


_____________


PS... I can't say I've ever warmed up to the MD ATRAC format, at least as exemplified by my Sharp MD recorder. Certainly far, far superior to the cassette and it's kind of a shame that Sony prevented the format from catching on by stubbornly resisting any sort of realistic licensing policy in the critical early days of the format. That said, it certainly made a world more sense than Phillips' utterly bozo 'digital compact cassette.'

[Anderton]

<<I can't say I've ever warmed up to the MD ATRAC format, at least as exemplified by my Sharp MD recorder.>>

That depends a lot on how old it is. The original ATRAC format was very shrill, but as new versions came out, they tweaked it pretty good. The latest MDs sound altogether different from the first generation.

[BillRoberts]

A very useable format for what the performer used it for. Handy. That said, I saw my first MD machine at Full sail in 91. I was tempted many times to indulge in the format..but DDS tapes got so cheap..that I stayed with the DAT..then HD recording in 97 took on a whole new meaning. Very soon..we will have a great field recorder with 100G, 24/96K, no moving parts and a price below 500 dollars. This will be the format I have been waiting for.

I estimate by 2010 for the 100G/no moving parts. You think?