Hello everyone, I'm a medium-term lurker, first time poster.
I actually have some sexsounds recorded on Minidisc from when I had a flat in London, and would be keen to share them with the community - except I'm not technically very astute and have no idea how to get minidisc files onto my computer. If anyone can help I'd be very grateful!
Sounds recorded on Minidisc
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pontifex13
- Kingpin
- Posts: 165
- Joined: 01 Jun 2012 00:48
- x 65
Re: Sounds recorded on Minidisc
Hello,
does this website help? http://www.minidisc.org/faq_index.html
It says some program is needed for file conversion, Sonicstage, I think you can still find and download it on the internet. Then use Audacity or something to transform the .wav into .mp3
Regards,
Pontifex13
does this website help? http://www.minidisc.org/faq_index.html
It says some program is needed for file conversion, Sonicstage, I think you can still find and download it on the internet. Then use Audacity or something to transform the .wav into .mp3
Regards,
Pontifex13
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georgehale
- Member
- Posts: 46
- Joined: 02 Oct 2012 01:13
- x 6
Re: Sounds recorded on Minidisc
Honestly, I'm not even sure how to connect my minidisc player to my computer!
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sc0tt-uk
- Knight
- Posts: 1228
- Joined: 20 Dec 2005 12:43
- x 26
Re: Sounds recorded on Minidisc
George,
Best thing about Minidisc - it sounded great at the time for a lossy compression, and still holds up pretty well nowadays.
Worst thing about Minidisc - Sony totally lost the plot, and in trying to defeat piracy, they made it a roayl pain in the arse to get content off of it into any other format.
In a nutshell, to do this any faster than recording it into your computer in real time (as in literally letting the recordings play through from beginning to end), you'd have to own a specific player, use a specific piece of prehistoric software that's actually quite hard to get running on most modern systems, and be both patient and lucky.
Assuming you're none of those things, your best bet is probably to buy a simple minijack to minijack cable, pop one end into the line out socket of your Minidisc player if it has one or the headphones socket if it doesn't, pop the other end into your computers soundcard (line in, not microphone in), and use a free recorder such as Audacity to get the content onto your PC. If your player has an optical out, there might be a higher fidelity cable depending on what soundcard you have, so feel free to give us a shout with which model player and soundcard you're using if you don't have any luck investigating that. Whichever way you choose, get the content into Audacity at a decent level (if you record extremely quietly you'll start to notice the soundcard adding a load of hiss, but too loud and you'll hear distortion), and save the files as a non-lossy format like wave or flac if you intend to do any editing on them.
Hopefully that helps get you started, but shout if not. Looking forward to hearing some new content captured in London.
Sc0tt-UK
Best thing about Minidisc - it sounded great at the time for a lossy compression, and still holds up pretty well nowadays.
Worst thing about Minidisc - Sony totally lost the plot, and in trying to defeat piracy, they made it a roayl pain in the arse to get content off of it into any other format.
In a nutshell, to do this any faster than recording it into your computer in real time (as in literally letting the recordings play through from beginning to end), you'd have to own a specific player, use a specific piece of prehistoric software that's actually quite hard to get running on most modern systems, and be both patient and lucky.
Assuming you're none of those things, your best bet is probably to buy a simple minijack to minijack cable, pop one end into the line out socket of your Minidisc player if it has one or the headphones socket if it doesn't, pop the other end into your computers soundcard (line in, not microphone in), and use a free recorder such as Audacity to get the content onto your PC. If your player has an optical out, there might be a higher fidelity cable depending on what soundcard you have, so feel free to give us a shout with which model player and soundcard you're using if you don't have any luck investigating that. Whichever way you choose, get the content into Audacity at a decent level (if you record extremely quietly you'll start to notice the soundcard adding a load of hiss, but too loud and you'll hear distortion), and save the files as a non-lossy format like wave or flac if you intend to do any editing on them.
Hopefully that helps get you started, but shout if not. Looking forward to hearing some new content captured in London.
Sc0tt-UK
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reggind
- Knight
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Re: Sounds recorded on Minidisc
I totally agree with Scott. While it is not impossible to get the recordings off a minidisk in lossless digital format, it does require a lot of technical knowledge, and some specialized equipment. The easy way is to just make an analog dub of it. If your player has line outputs buy a cable that goes from that to the 3.5mm stereo jack your computers sound card uses. If you only have a notebook and it only has a mic level input jack you will need a jack with an attenuator in it. That will lower the line or headphone level output down to a level suitable for the mic preamps input. You might try hitting your local audio store or even radio shack with both pieces. Just make up a story for what you wanna dub off the minidisk (snicker). I am sure they would be happy to help you string the right cable(s) together.
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georgehale
- Member
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- Joined: 02 Oct 2012 01:13
- x 6
Re: Sounds recorded on Minidisc
Hi again,
Right, I have audacity on my computer, I have a cable that will connect my minidisc player to my computer... but I can't seem to get the thing to record! Would anybody be able to talk me through it step by step please?
Right, I have audacity on my computer, I have a cable that will connect my minidisc player to my computer... but I can't seem to get the thing to record! Would anybody be able to talk me through it step by step please?
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reggind
- Knight
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- Joined: 23 Feb 2014 06:14
- x 346
Re: Sounds recorded on Minidisc
First plug in a working pair of headphones into your mini disk player and make sure the headphone output is working. If you play a disk you should hear the contents of the disk. Leave the volume about half way up.
On your computer look for the line level input jacks. The jack should be blue. If you only have a red and a green jack your computer may not have a line level input. You may need to send us some info on your sound hardware if it is a desktop or your computer model if it is a notebook.
Assuming you found the line level input jack, plug the audio cable into it. Leave the other end hanging for a minute.
Now assuming you are using Windows, dig into the control panel and bring up the sound control panel. Click on the recording tab. Select line in and click on levels and crank the level all the way down. Now plug in the mini disk player and start it playing. The level on the md player should be about half way up. Now slowly bring up the line in fader in the control panel and you should start to see some action.
Close the CP. Now you should be good to go with your audio recording software. You may need to tweak the levels on the recording software and/or the mini disk player. You want the wave so it is a nice size in the graph perhaps just the very loudest parts touching the top and bottom. If you record it too softly it will have a lot of hiss and if it is too loud it will be distorted in the loud parts. You will get the hang of it pretty quickly.
BTW, here is a web page I found that may also help you:
http://www.alpinesoft.co.uk/vinylstudio ... ing_up.htm
On your computer look for the line level input jacks. The jack should be blue. If you only have a red and a green jack your computer may not have a line level input. You may need to send us some info on your sound hardware if it is a desktop or your computer model if it is a notebook.
Assuming you found the line level input jack, plug the audio cable into it. Leave the other end hanging for a minute.
Now assuming you are using Windows, dig into the control panel and bring up the sound control panel. Click on the recording tab. Select line in and click on levels and crank the level all the way down. Now plug in the mini disk player and start it playing. The level on the md player should be about half way up. Now slowly bring up the line in fader in the control panel and you should start to see some action.
Close the CP. Now you should be good to go with your audio recording software. You may need to tweak the levels on the recording software and/or the mini disk player. You want the wave so it is a nice size in the graph perhaps just the very loudest parts touching the top and bottom. If you record it too softly it will have a lot of hiss and if it is too loud it will be distorted in the loud parts. You will get the hang of it pretty quickly.
BTW, here is a web page I found that may also help you:
http://www.alpinesoft.co.uk/vinylstudio ... ing_up.htm
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georgehale
- Member
- Posts: 46
- Joined: 02 Oct 2012 01:13
- x 6
Re: Sounds recorded on Minidisc
Hi reggind, thanks for the help. Is the "line level input jack" the same as the "headphone output/microphone input combo jack port? I'm using an ASUS notebook PC, model X551M...
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reggind
- Knight
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Re: Sounds recorded on Minidisc
Ouch, if this notebook has a combo headphone/microphone jack and no other this may get sticky.
If you have access to another computer that may be the easiest way to do this. Here is the deal if you have one combo jack..
The mic input most likely has a few issues.
The first one is it is probably mono. This is not a showstopper but something to keep in mind.
The next issue is that there is a big difference in levels you need. The microphone input deals with levels in the tens of milivolt range. The line input and output deals with levels in the hundreds of milivolt range. The good news here is that you have a bigger level coming out of the headphone jack than you need in the mic input jack so it can be reduced with simple and inexpensive electronics. This is not the best thing from a noise perspective but again it is not a show stopper. Here is a simple circuit that should be about right: http://i.stack.imgur.com/CZzHz.gif
And the last issue is that you need to know how the jack is wired. There might be a mention of this in the manual. Your jack may require a plug with two rings that looks like this: http://www.lindy.co.uk/images/audio-ada ... _image.jpg
I suspect if you can get the attenuator built and get the splitter to break out the mic input you should be good to go.
As I said before, you might be better off trying with a computer that has a line input on it. Things will be a lot simpler.
Feel free to ping me if you need more info..
If you have access to another computer that may be the easiest way to do this. Here is the deal if you have one combo jack..
The mic input most likely has a few issues.
The first one is it is probably mono. This is not a showstopper but something to keep in mind.
The next issue is that there is a big difference in levels you need. The microphone input deals with levels in the tens of milivolt range. The line input and output deals with levels in the hundreds of milivolt range. The good news here is that you have a bigger level coming out of the headphone jack than you need in the mic input jack so it can be reduced with simple and inexpensive electronics. This is not the best thing from a noise perspective but again it is not a show stopper. Here is a simple circuit that should be about right: http://i.stack.imgur.com/CZzHz.gif
And the last issue is that you need to know how the jack is wired. There might be a mention of this in the manual. Your jack may require a plug with two rings that looks like this: http://www.lindy.co.uk/images/audio-ada ... _image.jpg
I suspect if you can get the attenuator built and get the splitter to break out the mic input you should be good to go.
As I said before, you might be better off trying with a computer that has a line input on it. Things will be a lot simpler.
Feel free to ping me if you need more info..
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sc0tt-uk
- Knight
- Posts: 1228
- Joined: 20 Dec 2005 12:43
- x 26
Re: Sounds recorded on Minidisc
Eek, those combo jacks can be quite evil. There are plenty of inexpensive USB soundcards that have line in sockets... might be another simple solution.
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reggind
- Knight
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Re: Sounds recorded on Minidisc
Leave it to Scott to come up with a really elegant solution! And he is 100% right. You can pick up a USB sound device on deal extreme (dx.com) for under $4. Much easier than screwing around with one of those combo jacks. However, shop for one that has line level inputs or you will be stuck with still needing to built the attenuator to drop the line level down to a mic level.