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Like your normal mid or hi-fi setup, you can record through either digital or analog means. Whether your sound card has an electrical (SP/DIF), optical (TOSLINK) or no digital out port will obviously influence your chances of recording digitally. Digital recording has the advantages of higher sound quality (perceived and/or otherwise) and auto track marking - a real time saver.
All the consumer MD portable recorders I have seen have an optical/TOSLINK style digital input. Therefore, if you want low fuss digital recording of MP3’s, you better have an optical out sound card. There are not many optical out sound cards - many sound cards proclaiming "digital out" are usually electrical SP/DIF digital ports. Unless you want to bother with adaptors or DIY soldering jobs, it’s highly recommended to get an optical out card. The most popular at the moment seems to be the Xitel. Platinum Storm which also makes a nice Windows PCI sound card with Aureal 3D acceleration.. but I digress. MiniDisc.org also has a nice list of digital out sound cards.
So then, with all the parts needed, digitally recording MP3’s is easy. Connect your optical cable (which you of course bought knowing the port size of both your MD recorder and sound card - usually both 3.5mm) to your sound card. The other end of the cable should now be glowing - a good sign. If there is no glow, try playing an MP3 - some sound boards may only transfer optical data when a sound stream is playing (like most CD players). Connect the other cable end to the MD - go into record mode plus sync record mode. Now start playing your MP3’s with WinAMP - if there are no auto track marks, source the plugin which gives 2 second gaps between each track so the recorder lays down track marks (thanks to |mpeg| from EFnet #MiniDisc). Download it now! Easy eh? Just fire up a 74 minute playlist in WinAMP/XMMS and 74 minutes later, a nice new MiniDisc with all your latest MP3 downloads.Analog recording is similar but more fiddly and technically gives lower sound quality... but that’s for the individual to decide. It would be safe to say however the difference between digital and analog recording is apparent but slight. PC sound cards usually have crappy quality PCB’s and analog ports compared to mid or hi-fi’s - noise and static may be introduced if you have a cheapo board.
However, here’s something interesting. I find even my oldish Sharp 722 recorder has some noise cancellation whereby the noise from the line out port of my old Sound Blaster 16 is completely filtered out - excellent. Probably the same thing on Sony’s and other models. Still, a higher quality sound card eg. SB Live! will probably give higher quality analog recordings. After connecting the analog cable from your board’s line out port (NOT the speaker out port unless you want a) distorted recordings and/or b) pre amplified sound which ultimately sounds crap) to the line in of the MD, go start sync recording.
The main thing here is that you will have to adjust the incoming volume levels so the sound meter is between -3dB and 0dB. Consult your manual because every model differs. Jack up the volume on your sound card with the Windows volume control/mixer (wave first THEN master) BEFORE jacking up the MD recording volume. Most important if you are recording with batteries because high MD volume levels sap battery life quicker. Making sure there are no "overruns" (characterised by "clicks" in sound), either record what you want and edit later or manually start/stop each track.
That's it. Recording MP3's to MD - not very hard but a few tips
here and there I hope you will find useful.
Dustin
[ Version II ]
It's been 6 months since the first revision of this document so now's a good time for an update. It's not hard - just a few tips here and there plus some general prerequisites before you start.
Firstly, you can either record through digital or analogue means. Whether your soundcard has an electrical (SP/DIF), optical (TOSLINK) or no digital out port will obviously influence your chances of recording digitally. Digital recording has the advantages of higher sound quality, auto track marking and auto volume setting. One thing to note about the volume setting - if you have even a reasonable MP3 "collection", you'll know some tracks are louder/softer than others. Well if you record through analogue means, you'll have to change the recording volume for every single track to hit the "-3dB to 0dB" sweetspot (more later) - too soft and you won't hear anything, too loud and you'll get VERY annoying clicks/distortion during playback. Recording digitally leaves everything normalized and sounding pretty.
All the consumer MD portable recorders I've seen have an optical/TOSLINK style digital input. Therefore, if you want low fuss digital recording of MP3’s, you better have an optical out sound card. There are not many true optical out sound cards - many sound cards proclaiming "digital out" are usually electrical SP/DIF digital ports. There are others who proclaim "SP/DIF" but are really TOSLINK.. confusing no? Unless you want to bother with adapters or DIY soldering jobs, it’s highly recommended to get an optical out card. Some notable cards include --
Xitel Storm Platinum - I personally run this card and not only does it do optical out, but nice Windows 2D/3D audio acceleration as well. It seems Xitel have stopped producing/marketing them (check their site) since Aureal (company who makes the chipset) went bankrupt recently.
Vortex2 SuperQuad Digital PCI - an Aureal OEM card that was referred to me and is for all intents and purposes the same as the Xitel. Word is they're being sold pretty cheap as well (check PriceWatch).
Guillemot Fortissimo (thanks Stefan Smith) - this suave card also has optical digital out.
Sound Blaster Live! (thanks Tom Fowle) - the SB Live! Platinum comes with an expansion piece called the Live! Drive which in the US is "version 1" and in the Europe/UK is "version 2". Version 1 has SP/DIF output (no good) and version 2 has TOSLINK input/output (very good). If you have a version 1 drive or a non Platinum Live, there is an optical digital I/O expansion board to give your card the necessary digital output (also check the SB Live guide here on T-Station).
With all the parts in place, digitally recording MP3’s is easy. Connect your optical cable (mine is a "3.5mm plug TOSLINK optical fibre cable") to your soundcard - the square connections are easy to see. It'll also be the port that's glowing red - if there's no glow, try playing an MP3 - some sound boards may only transfer optical data when a sound stream is playing (like most CD players). Also, grab the latest drivers for your card - in my case, the default WDM Aureal drivers in Windows 2000 don't enable digital out.
Connect the other cable end to the MD - go into record mode and then sync record mode. Now start playing your MP3’s with your preferred player. At this point, you just want to see if your MD is recording anything. If there are no auto track marks, source the famous "pause plugin" which gives a user definable gap between each track (2 seconds usually works fine) so the recorder lays down track marks. Easy eh?
Analogue recording is similar but more fiddly. After connecting the analogue cable ("3.5mm to 3.5mm stereo cable") from your board’s line out port (NOT the speaker out port unless you want a) distorted recordings and/or b) pre amplified sound which sounds distorted) to the line in of the MD, start sync recording. There's probably some funky stuff you can do with RCA jacks/cables to record analogue but for the purposes of being general, the 3.5mm cable will suffice.
The main issue here is to adjust the incoming volume levels on your MiniDisc recorder so the sound meter is between -3dB and 0dB. Consult your manual because every model differs. Increase the volume on your sound card with the Windows volume control/mixer (wave first THEN master) BEFORE increasing the MD recording volume. Most important if you are recording with batteries because high MD volume levels sap battery life quicker. Making sure there are no "overruns" (characterized by "clicks" in sound), either record all the tracks you want and edit track marks later or manually start/stop each track. Basically, a little experimentation doesn't hurt.
Digital recordings will never go above 0dB so it's safe to put master and wave volume controls at maximum all the time. High volume recordings will give you longer lasting batteries since lower volume playback saps less power (think GameBoy). When your recordings sound acceptable, fire up a 74 minute playlist with sync record on and wait for a nice new MiniDisc with all your latest MP3 downloads.
That’s it for the second "MP3 To MiniDisc" revision - big thanks to all those who've sent me information and assorted tips.
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