Digitally transferring from MD to pc?

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Posted by shikatar on Jul-18-2001 20:05:

Digitally transferring from MD to pc?

In a short while, I'll be transferring some minidiscs to my pc to burn on CD. They are trance-classics on tape mixed by a local DJ and feature some wonderful classics.

I would like to transfer them digitally to get the best quality possible, but I don't know if that's possible, perhaps someone here has some experience with it?

Line-in on my SB Live! seems to be the other option, perhaps there's not as much noise on it as I fear at the moment.

Any response is appreciated

Posted by Tranzmit on Jul-19-2001 01:16:

Re: Digitally transferring from MD to pc?

quote:
Originally posted by shikatar
In a short while, I'll be transferring some minidiscs to my pc to burn on CD. They are trance-classics on tape mixed by a local DJ and feature some wonderful classics.

I would like to transfer them digitally to get the best quality possible, but I don't know if that's possible, perhaps someone here has some experience with it?

Line-in on my SB Live! seems to be the other option, perhaps there's not as much noise on it as I fear at the moment.

Any response is appreciated

If it's been copied digitally to your MD then no you can't recopy it digitally because of the protection system built into them. If it wasn't then you'll need an MD recorder or player with Optical output which most portables don't have. Then you'll need a full sound blaster live with optical input as well or similar

Posted by Fraggle on Jul-19-2001 05:06:

yeah, unless u wanna spend big $$$...u're stuck with audio cables

ie. line-out/headphone() from md player to line-in/mic. on sound card. the cable is a double-ended mini-stereo jack (i think )...maybe 3 or 3.5mm i can't remember. for most it should be alright but it won't be perfect (or as close as digital).

if u want digital transfer & you have a md player with digital out & sound card with digital in...most portables are digital in only...you'll need some SCMS stripping hardware to transfer digitally...they are available and is basically a cord with circuitry to remove the copyright data in the signal so u can repeatedly copy digitally (normally u are only allowed one digital copy ie. cd-digital-md, end, no more...or md master-digital-md copy, end, no more).

but these things are well over US$100 i think...

Posted by tu_face on Jul-19-2001 11:03:

u got an sb live, so the quality loss should be minimal anyway.. it just takes longer

peace

Posted by NZWaverider on Jul-19-2001 11:52:

Ifyou have to do it the analog way, my only advice is USE GOOD CABLES!!!!!!! it makes a huge difference, I custom make all my RCA to earphone Leads or earphone to earphone leads, good cable and gold plated plugs, its quite easy i can tell you how if you like.
The high frequencies travel on the outer area of cable, so generally good quality cable comprises of lots of strands of thin wire. just try different cables and you will hear a difference.

Posted by shikatar on Jul-19-2001 19:09:

I want to thank everyone for their responses. From what I understand it would be the best solution (since I'll only be doing this once for about 20 MD's) is to just get a good cable and take the quality-loss as it is. Since it was transferred from tape to MD in the first place, I guess there's some static anyway, at least the tapes I've listened to didn't provide perfect quality.

Once I've transferred them, I'll post my experiences here so maybe someone else can benefit from my experiences

Thanks again ppl..

Posted by NZWaverider on Jul-20-2001 01:21:

quote:
I want to thank everyone for their responses. From what I understand it would be the best solution (since I'll only be doing this once for about 20 MD's) is to just get a good cable and take the quality-loss as it is. Since it was transferred from tape to MD in the first place, I guess there's some static anyway, at least the tapes I've listened to didn't provide perfect quality.

If this is what u r going to do make sure you record it as wav file so then you can use cooledit to clean up the static, i record stuff onto my laptop from radio, vinyl, tape, and cooledit is great for enhancing recordings, you can equalise the recording to boost low levels, use the noise/hiss reduction to reduce background hiss and lots more, but bear in mind that a 60 min long wav file will be about 600Mb, my 2hr sets are usually 1.2Gig, and require another 1.2 Gig temp space for editing. but you can save the settings so once you have it susssed it will just take a wee bit of time then you can either encode it or burn it to cd.
Or you could just use Music match to record it straight to MP3, but it doesnt produce as good results.(usually low input levels, i could never get good volume levels from using this proggie.
sounds scary but the recordings clean up nicely in Cooledit Give us a hollar if you need assistance or proggies