Minidiscs vs/ compact discs...

sntnsupermen131

okay i havent heard much on minidiscs and i have a few questions...
ive heard they can hold up to 5 hours of music
is that true?
how come bands dont put their music on minidiscs like regular cds?
are they as clear as cds?
are they more expensive than cds???
and how come they havent taken over cds yet?
-Cody

etrigan

I love md's

I have a Sony mds-je520 home deck, and a Sony mz-r50 portable
(I use either my Grado 80's or Sony v6's with it - sounds incredible!)

The most common variety is 74 minutes (in truth 74:59) - but I use
TDK Lucir 80 min. (again 80:59) in most cases - some artists release their work on pre recorded md's -
not many though, It is not as popular here in the U.S.A. as in Japan

md's are virtually indestructable - the way they can be edited is incredible - u can delete tracks/split them up into separate tracks/move them around to the order that u wish/erase 1 or all tracks-all w/a touch of a button - my next move is to get a deck for the car to replace the cd player - these things cannot get scratched or scuffed up - plus the amount of them that u can carry as opposed to cd's/casse. is amazing :cool:

What I do is take one of those small black nylon/fabric/padded cases that hold 10 cass. and put 2 rows of md's side by side - holds 30 md's :eek:

Sound quality is excellent imo - u would have a real hard time hearing differences btwn a cd and a md (but this issue is like a wire/cable kinda thing) wars could be started on sound quality,so I won't even go there!

They can also be recorded in mono mode (maybe for college lectures or the like) which would double their length.

hope this helps -also lots o info on the net - plenty of md devoted sites out there.

CHEERS! jefff

lax01

MD is a good format and it is too bad it never got started in the States. In Japan, MD is like VCD. Everyone has one. I personally have some Aiwa one that I never use because I got a MP3 CD player. I also have about a 100 blank MDiscs.

Systems

MD was originally intended to replace the cassette, & was not expected to provide the full dynamic range of a CD. It was meant I believe, to take over the portable, car, & minisystem market. If you see a boombox or tabletop stereo w/a CD player & cassette recorder, then you're looking at something that Sony hoped would have a CD player & MD recorder. I guess that CD burners, MP3, & other computer-related recording methods caught the public eye & kept MD from taking off in the U.S. The loss of dynamics is, to me, not that bad if you record in nl time on a home deck. LP2, which doubles the recording time, is, to me, also not too bad, but you can tell it's not as good as nl speed. I've heard that LP4, which quadruples the recording time, is only recommended for spoken word recording. The compression most noticeably throws out highs, so upping the treble during playback is usually necessary for me, esp if it's in LP2. I really like MD because you can do a lot of editing functions without a computer. If I did computer-based recording, I might choose another type of recording. I use Sony's current entry-level home deck, the JES470, usually in nl time recording, & I really like it. However, MD product availability is very ltd in the U.S. You can find out more at the Mindisc Community Portal, don't know the address, but enter those three words on Google & you should find it.