The MiniDisc deck you hoped to never see

[@scottjohnson5415]

There were normally four channels: one for the judge, one for the plaintiff attorney, one for the defendant attorney, and one for the witness stand. When I worked for the Federal Court of Appeals, we had one courtroom that was called an en banc courtroom. Normally appeals cases are empaneled for three judges. Some cases were heard by all the judges. The en banc courtroom had thirteen microphones, so we had to go with a custom audio company for a solution.

[@ericcarabetta1161]

I love discovering niche professional grade electronics and computer systems, it's not something most people get to see everyday but they are some of the most well engineered products made and usually have pretty specific use-cases which makes them quite fascinating.

[@doggoli]

I love how even though it's made for a very corporate/government setting, it looks absolutely marvellous. Sony is one of those companies that really knows it's design IMO

[@CanIHasThisName]

That actually makes a lot of sense in terms of the branding. You don't want to make a poor impression on people who didn't get to choose which brand of product they're going to be using professionally because then at home that would make them less likely to want to buy a Sony product for themselves. Additionally, I think it may just be a part of Japanese mentality. Used to work at a factory which made panels for trains and other public transport vehicles and in finishing the workers always distinguish between the side that's going to be seen and the one that's going to be hidden. Basically the hidden side does not need much attention in finishing. We've had a customer from Japan who wanted both sides of their panels to look nice so that the workers assembling the train didn't have to see the ugly side. They wanted even the workers to think it's a nice train.

[@doggoli]

@@CanIHasThisName That's a good point, I didn't think of it like that. That train story is really fascinating too!

[@Bobby_Snoof]

I have the impression that there is no "minidisc" logo on this device, which is rather consistent with the explanations and the incompatibilities between minidsc players and this device. Always happy to see a video about my favourite media !! 😄

[@CurritmoRx]

In 2022, I’m still working with MD decks, almost daily. That’s versatile, sometimes for normal HiFi use (enjoying the MDs ;) and often with the implemented S/P-DIF (coax or optical) even for studio-use, for example Synth Modules-recording and transfer to soundcards / recording systems. MD was the best choice I’ve ever made. Especially Sony’s MDS-JE530 is at 100% - after 22 years! MD4ever? I can’t believe it, it IS still present, usable MD with all its functions. I look all of your videos but with this special theme, it´s always nice to know you’re appreciating this technology, too :)

[@deaddycruel]

ATRAC is a lossy codec, so you do lossy conversions? For f..n what?

[@orangejjay]

@@deaddycruel that was my first thought ...

[@orangejjay]

Found the guy who's NOT an audiophile! I'm sure they're convenient for pretending they're ... different but PC is easily going to have better recording functionality and able to take advantage of lossless recording. Ngl, I'd love to play with one of these or any other MD deck for that matter ...but I wouldn't use it to record my music. Optical also has some frustrating limits on its transmission.

[@CurritmoRx]

Some yt comments are always fascinating. Answer to the fascinating pros who seem to know exactly what I do since 1999: have you ever heard the term wip? Is that allowed to record wip’s or collect ideas and after that turning the studio systems on, to make the best recording for the tracks? Answer to people without these problems plus some facts and thoughts about the theme: - 99% I work with an E-MU 1212m DSP System. The ADC is an AK5394A, the same used in Pro-Tools HD 192 I/O of that time around 2006. That’s mastering grade, but... not audiophile for some (you can bet, how many ramters have ever used such a system or... ever compared things like ATRAC vs. no ATRAC). - Headphones are at least beyerdynamic DT-770 and comparisons with others are normal when this model is in use (due to the weakness in its mids). Not audiophile for… - MD takes 16/44.1 at coax in with an inserted MD. Without, it’s called direct monitoring. When an E-MU A2K sends exactly 16/44.1, it fits together like you want to do a session and there are exactly no problems. 10 Seconds and you can play. Oh I forgot: the „bad“ ATRAC… - ATRAC Type-R is not the same as prior versions. ATRACs data compression is not the same as data reduction of other formats. If there is any loss, I can’t hear it (I’m not an audiophile…). But for wip, sessions and ideas, it doesn’t matter at all. It’s better than needed in 100% of those cases because after that, you can select the best ideas and go to the PC with the recording system. - S/P-DIF (coax or optical) generally transfers up to 24/96 digital, lossless audio and with a system like the 1212m, it has a complete stereo channelstrip with all DSP slots and the same functions like the analogue channelstrip (with the m-grade converters) or wave (the strip for everything internal in the PC) or ASIO (strips from DAW sended Audio). - An optical S/P-DIF input connector is the same as ADAT and switchable with a button in 1 second (if ADAT optical is in use, the system switches S/P-DIF to coax, so the 1212m allows both formats simultaneous). In the E-MU system, i’s called Patch Mix DSP and can be read up on the 1212m PDF in the internet. - Optical and coax are always without any limitations. MD to MD or CD with copy protection bits are a problem of the 90s and maybe consumer use, not with studio use if you make own tracks. My first Soundcard was a Terratec EWX 24/96 in 2001 with optical Ins/outs. That was the last time I saw a "limitation". The experience with such a sound card system is far more than reading about it. The same with MD ATRAC Type-R. Or making wips and sessions. So enjoy your MD experience who knows what it means, even when this is frustrating for some people.

[@deaddycruel]

@@CurritmoRx again, for what you write and convert something lossless to some lossy and outdated device when any modern Chinese hi-res player can easily play lossless at outstanding sound quality level. You don't need any sessions with player or send something, you can just copy lossless files on micro-SD card. Some of these hi res players have optical out and is cheap like $50-100. For example with IC ESS Sabre ES9218P

[@JeffCD77]

There is something so cool about the disc itself, and the media in general of this time period. I loved new blank cassettes and their packaging, etc. There was just something about it. Seeing that TDK data disc brought back that feeling for me. You don't get that anymore, unfortunately, and I miss that.

[@anon_y_mousse]

I agree. I wish someone would develop the technology further. Mini Blu-Ray's would be interesting, and inside a case like that would protect them. I realize flash drives are smaller, faster and hold *way* more data, but inserting a disc into a slot is just way more fun then plugging in.

[@Cyba_IT]

This machine is made to be in a classic 90's spy/action movie where the whole plot revolves around the good guy getting the MiniDisc with classified info on it off the bad guy. Pretty sure every 90's spy/action movie revolved around variations of that premise, so for that reason MiniDisc will forever be some of the coolest tech ever. It would be a very cool piece to have but is a shame that the disks aren't compatible with consumer machines. Also, the physical key is kind of pointless unless it also locks all the button functionality when you pull it out lol.

[@andrewbevan4662]

NOC list

[@AsbestosMuffins]

The Eraser where the entire plot revolved around running a minidisk which also apparently has some mystical GPS tracking on it too (but hey MI did that too on a floppy disk too)

[@riversweet]

The Art of War!

[@iaincowell9747]

@@sub-vibes The Matrix has a minidisc in it

[@anon_y_mousse]

@@sub-vibes Do you have Last Action Hero because you think it's a great movie or am I alone in that?

[@HeadsetGuy]

I can only imagine the kind of nerdy stuff I would have done with something like this back in the day, had it been made for consumers/audiophiles/enthusiasts.

[@kissthesky40]

DEVO had one.

[@orangejjay]

@viewz I made a one-way radio so I could record the sound coming off my black and white TV that was in the basement. I wasn't allowed to bring the tape deck downstairs to plug it in and directly record video game music so I came up with a one way transmitter ... quality sucked but it was awesome because I could finally repeat my favorite video game music songs without having to play the game over again.

[@WSNO]

That's the great thing about it being on the auction block now, YOU CAN

[@appliedengineering4001]

@@orangejjay That reminds me of a old trick that I did with RF modulators back in the day. If you opened up the shield can on it and take a long piece of wire and poke around the traces. You will find a trace with a strong enough signal to make it transmit it's signal up to 100ft. I did this to the RF modulator inside our VCR in the living room so we could bring the portable TV to the BBQ pit outside and watch movies on it without having to bring the VCR outside or run wires.

[@SuperVirus1978]

There maybe another good reason for Auto Gain Control in this type of device: It prevents you from accidently or intentionally muting an input.

[@tookitogo]

My thoughts exactly.

[@danieldavis2055]

Absolutely right!

[@movax20h]

It is uncontrolled environment, microphones might not be located perfectly, people might be positioned close or far, or speak loud or silent, you do not want a person to baby sit this thing non stop. Instead you just fire it, and it should do its job. A person responsible can then do other things, and only switch this when needed. I would not be surprised if there is some audio cue or signal in the monitoring output that reminds to swap the disc to very long recordings.

[@dalek82]

@@movax20h ,, AAAs to come to the

[@dan_mer]

A corrupt judge in my country went to jail because she believed an input was muted.

[@shadowmixx]

Wow! I'm a huge fan of Minidisc recorders too. Especially for music and mixing use. This is a really incredible unit.

[@theoldone22]

I remember seeing one of those in storage when I worked IT for the city. They said it used to be used to record City Council meetings before they moved to a system to record video as well. May even have been the same unit.

[@SkyCharger001]

I was thinking: the use of a custom encoding on the disc forces anyone trying to play it back to use a heavily monitored piece of court equipment. As Court proceedings (in most countries) aren't considered public (only the end result and what the involved parties decide to release as such are public), this is actually a good thing as it reduces the chance of the proceedings being leaked through the disks.

[@Agri458]

Wow, I never knew minidiscs were used for transcription. Great video as always!

[@GrumpyWolfTech]

I loved minidisc, had one in the late 90s in high school. Playing music without it skipping on the go, being able to rip music to it, it was truly an awesome format that never caught on like it should have.

[@scottjohnson5415]

When used in a courtroom the index function came in very handy. Suppose you have a motions docket with a Judge. The Courtroom Deputy would keep a print out of the docket, and write down a number as each case is called. When that case was over hit the index button to indicate the hearing of the next case. During trial, the index button would be used when the court would go into recess. Also used to indicate the beginning and conclusion of a multi-day trial.

[@jdatlas4668]

I assume this is going in the same direction as Techmoan's cassette deck you never want to see, in which case I'm honestly quite surprised MiniDisc made it into that area, though I can imagine some of the advantages.

[@MrPGT]

The Remote socket looks like the standard motor switch type from cassette recorders. You would get a microphone with a swith on it which would simply stop and start the cassette motor when switched. 2.5mm standard audio Tip-Ring jack, IIRC. The function was also used on some old home microcomputers to auto control the data cassette. The 2.5mm Rem jack and the 3.5mm Mic jack are a standard spacing from each other so the microphones could come with a moulded plug with both jacks on it.

[@mikeselectricstuff]

unusual to have a serial number on the front - maybe for traceability. I wonder if it writes this to the disk

[@elijahmodnar1]

ATRAC3 is different to Atrac ver3.0, the latter is an slightly updated recording codec that squeezes down to the Original discreet channel 292kbps bit rate. i think they got up to ver4.5. the former is, ATRAC3, is a new codec that uses a "joint stereo" MDLP codec, of half the data rate or even quarter data rate of the 292kbps bitrate.

[@kevinallen9106]

Nearly. LP4 is joint-stereo encoding, LP2 isn't, like SP.

[@rossknowles5608]

did some projects at uni using a 4 track minidisc system... the data disc exclusive aspect and the limited recording time (think i had to record across 3 for length) were a pain compared to crappy but handy cassette tapes... but i was pretty impressed with what it allowed you to do at the time. i guess this was 2002-ish and i used hired machine... but still... as a transitional period between analog and the shiny new digital world of DAWS running on decent PCs... it was great to get my hands on. of course... it was well out of my price range at that time but im not sure i ever met anyone else who'd used one to that extent... or at all beyond standard stereo portables. it goes without saying now though that i have the data discs but no machine that can actually play them

[@brantisonfire]

I’m a purchasing agent for a state agency and I can tell you anything that is sold specifically for government use is always expensive and costs a bunch to fix. When the supplier or vendor knows they are working with a government agency, especially when you have a state term contract with the vendor, the agency will pay whatever it costs. We have certain vendors for office supplies, printers, etc. that HAVE to be ordered from by contract. Even if it’s cheaper to use funds to buy from Amazon or office max, we are beholden to pay the cost that the contracted vendor charges.

[@JessicaFEREM]

I assume there's no manual gain so someone can't mess it up accidentally, but also intentionally, as long as you are recording, you are getting a usable recording more than likely, and with the on off switch being a lock, means no criminal can just flip it off easily, or turn it on and format the minidiscs (passwords also included) essentially to tamper with this recording, you'd mist likely need to own another one of these that doesn't have a password pre-applied, or you get the hammer out, but a hammer would be harder to get into a court room than another one of these. also you don't have the exact same MD because either you replace it or steal it.

[@edwardfletcher7790]

This is awesome ! I can't believe you're finding these machines !

[@AndersEngerJensen]

Neat! Love the run through. This would have been great in Techmoan’s hands, but now you have covered it so that’s moot. 😁 It’s obviously just compressing a lot from the audio example. Not sure that’s actually 44.1 though… can’t make the math go up with 2.5 hours on a 74 minute disc, so there’s a lot of compromises going on in there indeed.

[@FinalBaton]

by high-passing at 50hz and low-passing at 10khz, is probably how it additionally cuts down data size ! and manages those runtime at 44.1 (in adition to compression)

[@kevinallen9106]

I love Techmoan (and especially his MD videos), but I think Colin has done the best job here.

[@supernoob17]

that jamiroquai album on a personally recorded minidisc is the height of swag

[@DGC64]

REAL

[@FrostMonolith]

I really thought "hoped to never see" meant something wrong with the hardware but it turns out it's just about where the hardware was used on. That gave me a good smile.

[@bobfromsoireegames4309]

This is incredible. Love this device.

[@stevio54]

So, I work as a technical consultant for another California Department. If the asset tag says DGS then that is the department that used the device. All departments have procurement but DGS handles Facilities Management and construction of government buildings in a way. However they have their own office and so they used this device in their own office.

[@derek20la]

"The bureaucracy is expanding to meet the needs of the expanding bureaucracy."

[@techtinkerin]

Double gutted this wasn't a DJ deck for minidisk that would have really kicked ass. Minidisk is one of the absolute best pre memory card formats apart from compact cassettes! 😎❤️👍

[@crunchyfrog555]

If it were out when I was still DJing I would have used it, as that relay playback and mxing on the fly would be a dream for back then.

[@Netm8kr]

Didn’t Denon make a DJ unit like your referring???

[@crunchyfrog555]

@@Netm8kr Probably, but more to the market would have been nice.

[@JRthepyroguy]

That machine is very unique. Thanks for the video.

[@loveisall5520]

This is so cool! I had no idea that, outside of court reporting, there was a record. Thanks so much!

[@SuperNicktendo]

Love weird gadgets like this. The medical field has a lot of oddities as well

[@Netm8kr]

Indeed, many years ago. I bought a huge lot of MDs from a seller. They had been using them for a sonogram photo machine. Which the device stored the photos, and enabled them to later be printed.

[@LordMegatherium]

Yup and if anyone thought this deck was pricy: imagine a piece of tech as niche but also requiring FDA (or any similiar) certification.

[@SuperAgentman007]

That Particular unit probably was used in the OJ Simpson trial. You got a piece of history there.

[@domramsey]

What a cool device. Really appreciate the research you put into figuring this all out.

[@monchiabbad]

The used the 44KHz band to fit in 4 channels of 10KHz each and 4KHz went towards adding marks for each channel.

[@markaz2kk]

These were used in small bands also. Saw a few in and around clubs and bars.

[@BrianBoniMakes]

Very nostalgic seeing the Sony plug on the foot pedal. I'm betting the display looked like a meter bridge and has some kind of large record level meter to show at a distance it's recording. Unique features for big legal rooms, not just courts and little features like cable retention. The Sony broadcast division always hand made all kinds of gear. You see lots of it for sale on ebay. It was expensive in dollars but not compared to what it replaced and there were usually competitors who were much more expensive. If Sony could sell a few thousand of these it would have been worth tens of millions dollars. I think it's beautiful

[@typhoontim125]

Techmoan would love one of those!

[@bradyrogers123]

Heyy! Glad you're still alive man! Stay safe out there!

[@WSNO]

This is cool! As an obscure gear collector for artistic purposes i am typically interested in video/imagery, musical instruments and older audio equipment, and as someone who gleefully burns money on these things on a whim, thank you for finally giving me a beige whale.

[@xboxist]

Your videos have not popped up on my feed in several, several months. I'm so sorry that I never hit the bell! Glad to see you again.

[@ThisDoesNotCompute]

Yeah, it's frustrating when KZbin does that, but either way, welcome back!

[@francistheodorecatte]

the 'Display' was likely a serial-controlled LED counter clock, to let people in the room know it's been recording, and for how long.

[@francistheodorecatte]

sometimes those clocks just display the current time instead of the elapsed recording time, as a recording indicator.

[@francistheodorecatte]

also, there was likely an accompanying Windows program for adjusting the gain, compression, and channel mixing over the RS232 serial port, given some similar devices I've interacted with.

[@Netm8kr]

Wow, as I mentioned when you posted the previous video which had a glimpse of it. I had a chance to get one of these cheap. I let it get away by hesitation, and lack of information about it. I can say that likely you’ve already given it more focused use then I might’ve. But you never know 🤷🏾‍♂️. I was drawn to all the features you’ve showcased. But mostly the use of standard MDs for recording. Also it’s rarity… I actually still have the pictures from that auction on my desktop in a folder. As a reminder of one that got away. Good research and video. Keep em coming. 👍🏾✌🏾✊🏾

[@HearGear]

This one is not for making music at all, but absolutely perfect for record meetings and court things .. or things like that.. :D

[@ahujeffrey]

Very cool. Great concept of design for a very niche market. Thanks for sharing!

[@stevendutton3958]

so cool great find

[@movax20h]

Sony engineering and design is always top notch, especially for professional environments. They are usually the leader in many fields. The only problem is use of proprietary formats and crazy prices for the media. This is why I never use them. I am sure years later things switched to CD-R, and later to just hard drives. As of mini disc I always wanted one, but I could not afford it.

[@nickg1307]

Before you said court, I was like yo this is totally for a surveillance van. Just some agents sitting in a van loading disks after planting a bug in some mafia bosses home.

[@Netm8kr]

Actually, that would’ve given it a longer lifespan. 🤷🏾‍♂️👍🏾👍🏾👍🏾

[@houstonhelicoptertours1006]

Love the design.

[@compmanio36]

You focus a lot on the cost of discs but for the intended target, it's no object. Having worked in city IT, you underestimate the amount of money police departments and courts will spend on nothing at all, much less important recording devices. 30 bucks a disc is nothing to city budgets.

[@BilisNegra]

Guess you're right. Still, he's talking about how expensive discs COULD have been if Sony had gone for the MD-DATA format like in the audio mixer featured some time ago. But they didn't, this machine uses regular MiniDiscs.

[@jmssun]

I guess some smarty pants would just substitute data disks with audio disks and make a fortune out of that

[@frazzleface753]

Can attest. When it comes to spending public money, local government departments (especially large ones) don't even look at price tags. The wastage is insane. But you know, they need more tax dollars 😂

[@scottjohnson5415]

I worked for the Federal Court system for many years in IT. The Federal government had purchasing contracts where vendors would compete for the lowest bid. That combined with ordering in bulk greatly reduced the cost.

[@artysanmobile]

AGC can be done very well. A reasonable amount of intelligence in the algorithm mitigates all the drawbacks. We’re not used to that kind of sophistication in non-pro devices. Radio communication gave us a lot of progress in the technique.

[@candidmoe8741]

LPL can open that lock with a wet spaghetti

[@gham638]

I used to be a bedroom DJ and I had a Sony separates system all ES and I had a ES mini disk deck so I could record the mix on mini disk and play it back to all my friends

[@DAVIDGREGORYKERR]

is the Display port like a Ethernet connection.

[@nikdog419]

In my earlier Pro Audio days, I once saw a group of performers from somewhere in the Middle East at a Muslim Unity Day event in Santa Clara, use that deck as their play back unit. Some guy just sat in the back conner of the stage with that on his lap and had some XLR running out of it to one of our stage boxes.

[@BilisNegra]

I kind of guess there's an intended Techmoan reference naming this video. "The tape recorder that no one wanted to see".

[@mooseblaster]

This may have gotten more work than you thought if the automatic disc title of '47650' is anything to go by, unless it means something else?

[@DaXande135]

I think it's just the devices serial number. Look at the label that's on the side of this machine right at the beginning of the video.

[@jgfjfgjfhjf]

I'd love to hear a multi-mic drum recording made with this thig

[@aerodigital]

Funny how the lock power button is defeated by the machine having a stop button.

[@felipecel]

Colin, can you tell me the name of the music in your intro?

[@naruciakk]

A very specific device for a specific niche after all

[@brandon2965]

how did you find one

[@MegaManNeo]

There's some alternate universe in which MD is the dominate format up to this day.

[@Netm8kr]

I need a Mandela effect to make that happen.

[@klontjespap]

lol you got the exact same color and model minidisc have lying in the drawer of my nightstand the spdif and record function was pretty neat it was basically a poor man's single track tascam lol as i understood, the MDCC-2000 was used a lot in court rooms, , because they could hold up to 5 hours of testimony a tape, and the swappable media was a lot easier to duplicate and archive than the hard drives in a tascam, but so were the pedestrian little recording MDs you showed first, but the were also a cheap alternative to reel-to-reel or even worse.. 24-track tape for archiving radio,, they often didn't need the multi-track, as the mixing (and compression) was already done before it went out through the airwaves, there was no need to have seperate stems, a single track suffices for archiving purposes, 2 for stereo lol and at 12-bit compression connected striaght to the horse's mouth, it was still way better than any peasant that listened it over FM where it needed to be OVERCOMPRESSED LIKE FUK it's funny how EDM music started using sidechains to the point of overemphasizing the pumping effect, bitch please... FM radio already did a century ago because they had to compress the shit out of all the hard transients in the bass department because they take up so much power.

[@middle_pickup]

Did Sony ever make a version of this for recording music? Edit: Oh wow. You already found one. Thanks for adding that overview. Interesting stuff. It's pretty weird finding old things like this. I had no idea it was a thing.

[@UserUser-ww2nj]

The unit itself was a little expensive but the saving made on the disc's is huge especially when you take into account that those discs would most likely have to be stored for a certain amount of time , years in some cases where there is appeal after appeal .Compared to those data discs you would soon make back that purchase price. Mini disc is my favorite recording medium , Sony should have brought them out sooner if possible but i did have one of the first models , can't remember the number past MZ

[@F_L_U_X]

1:06 Very "diffent." Very "diffent" indeed.

[@robfriedrich2822]

1:40 I wonder, if this machine may need special MD Data as known from the Tascam and Yamaha 4 tracks

[@slowneutron6163]

I never not hoped to see that. That's a good sentence.

[@darklinggolem]

13:45 My dog stepped on a bee *crinkling noises unwrapping a minidisc*

[@robinsonsoto8471]

Nice unit.

[@brookerobertson2951]

reminds me of the Neal Interview Recorder 7224P. you had a bad day if you got to see one. UK police station interview room recorder.. lol

[@MedievalFolkDance]

The buttons. So many buttons!! Must touch it...

[@kasuraga]

I think the reason why they don't allow simultaneous recording, is because someone could use that mode, and the recording session exceeds the length of the MD, then it would cause a break in recording. I think potentially running out of time is a bigger problem than making more than one copy.

[@iceowl]

cassette tapes were all individually wrapped too. given the need for quiet in the court room so that testimony can be heard, no one in their right mind is going to leave the wrappers on and take that into the court room. no sensible production involves leaving the tools of production in their package until the exact moment of need, except in a hospital setting.

[@freightdawg6762]

Had a JVC MD player recorder back in the 90's

[@gordonshumway7465]

Very cool, I didn't know this unit existed.

[@britishagent]

Fascinating

[@curtispazarjr4985]

great review!!!!!

[@motomike71]

Does it have phantom power on those XLR channels? Might've make for a nice audio interface if it had USB.

[@ThisDoesNotCompute]

It does not offer phantom power, which is an interesting omission.

[@jeruffleupagus]

@@ThisDoesNotCompute I was really wondering how it would sound if you fed audio to those xlr inputs. Guessing not great given its setup for voice-recording.. maybe an acapella group? Lol While it seems to be usable in theory to record a live band performance, it couldn't be used as a 4-track since you can't go back and record on other unused channels, right?

[@expgretaillegacy]

13:59 I've never heard Colin laugh like that before

[@trulyirrelevant17]

How come this was put as unlisted?

[@ThisDoesNotCompute]

Because it’s available early for Patreon supporters.

[@trulyirrelevant17]

ah ok, thanks

[@TheDuumiMuumi]

Sony truly made some really interesting devices. I don't remember the model but I once saw a Sony video mixer with Windows XP running on it! It was very stripped down version of it, though.

[@andresbravo2003]

This looks quite amazing that what I really wanted.

[@sondrayork6317]

when you hear about AGC, you usually think about it being used in radio and not usually in audio production lol

[@BlueNeon81]

$6000 is pretty accetable price for unit, which was meant to be use as a propietary device and not to be sold in local electronics shop. Same goes to 24Hrs VHS VCRs used for CCTV cameras. They can record 24 hour footage of 4 CCTV cameras on one 240 min. VHS cassette and you can also choose to play back all cameras, or each individually. And yes, also those VHS cassettes were basically incompatible to be played on regular VCR and vice versa. Too bad Sony didn't made "portastudio", which would use regular MDs and I wouldn't mind to have just 40 minutes of 4ch, or 20 minutes of 8ch recordings, incompatible on regular MD decks.

[@hypercube33]

Sony's auto gain control is out of this world. I prefer their cameras for recording concerts and it nails the sound every time. No other recorders can do this in my testing.

[@r4zi3lgintoro65]

so it's lp4 66kbit atrac3?

[@DaRula888]

I know it´s an old video, but: 21:40 ... isn´t this just because the protection slide of the disc is on?

[@ahayesm]

I think the proprietary nature was one of the selling points. Sure, it uses generic media, but with consumer units unable to read or write the specific variation of the format that this unit uses means it would much more difficult to tamper with recordings.

[@rollingtroll]

22:58 I don't think it's just compression, I think it's actual recording speed. I got an MDS-JE510 in some time ago. It had a knob modded on the front that gave it pitch control. Both on recording, AND playback. So yes, you can actually record with the pitch lower and yes, more will fit on the disc, just like with analog tape. Apparently the chip that does the conversion allows that stuff. I have no idea how it works, technically, but it does work.

[@kaitlyn__L]

Continuously variable sample rate would be my guess. Sample rate is directly analogous to tape speed.

[@nickwallette6201]

Yeah, there are probably some equivalent to sub-channels on the MD disc itself, since this uses audio discs. Those contain the time stamps of each frame (assuming MD uses frames like CD), and that’s what drives the time display. The actual content of the data channel is probably similar to, but not quite compatible, with the normal MD ATRAC decoder such that the decoder is seeing audio frames, but the content is invalid, and being discarded (muted) instead of played back as garbled noise.

[@artysanmobile]

14MB per track-hour is some serious compression, like 25:1 ref CD. I remember when Mag and then Optical discs were standard use for broadcast cues. Capacity was a big issue at first, then was more than satisfactory with Optical, which was quickly and thoroughly replaced by SD cards, USB sticks.

[@arinzefranklin5541]

how can i get this MD system now i need it if can get the fairly used of it am ok

[@MurrrrrrrrrrrCat]

starting to watch a video: oh cute little thing :) seeing 8 xlr's at the back: HOLY FUCKING SHIT, THIS THING OWNS

[@smwsmwsmw]

Not really surprising that discs recorded on this machine are incompatible with standard MD players. Since it records 4 channels, it's already obviously a different format. Add to that the limited frequency response and extended playing time, and it's pretty obvious that the only thing it has in common with MD is the disk itself.

[@scottjohnson5415]

These multi-track recorders did use a proprietary format. The vendor gave you software that could play them back. With that software you could listen to any number of combination of channels as well as see the index markers in the recording.

[@razorsz195]

It's The 90s PC Dual Burner/Recorder combo, MiniDisc edition!

[@minihuime]

Maybe try Web MiniDisc Pro to see the TOC info and dump the track

[@F_L_U_X]

Did he say where he procured this from?

[@irtbmtind89]

I'm not an expert on audio compression by any means, but I believe the 44.1k sample rate for Atrac3 is hardcoded into the spec. The five hour record time is probably using the lowest Atrac3 bitrate which is something like 66k. Filtering out everything over 10k should improve coding performance by a lot at the super low bitrates this thing uses simply because the encoder doesn't have to deal with as much information.

[@salteveline]

CLASSIC 😍