Minidiscs we’re game changers for making DJ mixes. Suddenly you could edit out any f**k ups. Love the dinky disc.
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That’s the unit I use
I had an MD player in daily use in 1998-2005 when I bought an iPod Nano. I loved Minidisc, somehow I regard it as fondly as my old Walkman and tapes from childhood. I’ve been looking at some cooler MD players on Ebay lately, but have yet to buy one. I simply have no use for it whatsoever and am not sure whether I want to pay a not insignificant sum of money just to own one.
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I recently recovered a tonne of blank and the occasional pre-recorded (Gescom!) MDs from storage and set up my recorder on the tape out from the mixer I use for modular as a quick way of recording things if the computer’s not switched on. I have used it a little, but it’s such a faff to get anything recorded on the MD onto the computer that I might as well use Reaper for the most part.
There are creative uses for cutting up recordings using track marks and shuffle, mind - maybe I’ll do that again some day.
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You’re not helping my GAS…
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I wonder if there were ever midi-controllable MD player / recorders…?
Hmm, that would be awesome but I doubt it. In the end it was always a bit of a luxury / niche format. I’m sure you could add midi functions to a player with remote control, though. Or I think, rather since I don’t actually know jack shit about modding MD players.
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I nothing about modding such things either, but I wonder (entirely speculatively with no idea if it would work) if a MD remote control could accept CV or gates in some manner. Probably not either!
I just listened to this podcast with an artist called Evischen. She’s a noise artist with strong emphasis on building instruments and a backround in visual arts. Fascinating stuff all around but what was really cool was that she built an Eurorack module out of a turntable. I mean fully incorporated into the Eurorack format! Same with Minidisc, with CV in would be REALLY cool!
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Pretty sure I remember richer sounds catalogue would feature a kind of MD DJ sampler thing. Expensive. Never saw/tried one - who knows maybe it had midi ports…
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Amazing, I mean this would be the height of format wankery.
edit: holy shit this thing is ugly AF
Here’s a pretty odd review: Review of the Sony MDS-DRE1 MiniDisc machine
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Omfg. I had a pretty ugly picture in mind/memory but …shiiit
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Couple questions.
Can anyone recommend a minidisc recorder that has pitch control?
Do people find that most minidisc recorders add some form of texture? Also how do they typically respond to recording stuff in hot. I noticed both the new chase bliss gen loss and the op-1 had minidisc modes and I’m curious how people feel about the originals as far as any compression or “sound” that it has.
Hmm, I do think that ATRAC has a specific sound to it. I mean it’s digital, but the algorithm is kinda wonky. It’s certainly not like lossless bu it doesn’t sound shitty at all, like a low bitrate MP3.
As far as players colouring the sound, that I can’t really say. I always had one in use at a time. I would think they didn’t colour the sound significally, at least not compared to what the compression does.
I find MD recordings pleasing but it’s not a distinct enough sound to be able to identify in a blind test. Recording in hot results would really depend on the model. Don’t recall anything particularly nice resulting. Some just sounded better if you’re hitting 0db now and then, others that would be a mistake…
The whole thing is different with the late Hi-MD format. They had different recording modes. You could get hours from a standard 70min MD if you set it to a low rate - that definitely had a sound.
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I’ve got one and it was great!
I’ll have to get it out the loft and see if it still works
I also have 2 decks that I got off an older DJ and roughly 500 minidiscs. Some bootleg shows, various mixes and a ton of wedding music 
.
And this sick rip of the blade soundtrack.
As far as speed control goes I’m not sure if any of them have continously variable control for that, it’s not like a tape where slowing a motor gets slower playback and instead is done in some other way, I think perhaps always in set increments.
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Hainbach has a few videos featuring some work with Minidiscs.
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http://www.minidisc.org/wagner.html
interestingly this guy seemed to install a variable rate control clock to some models at some point, so I suppose it is possible although 15% isn’t a lot if you are looking to F something up.
The MZ-RH1 has variable speed down to -50% and up to +100% it kind of has a sort of granular time stretch effect, it moves in increments of 5% until 30% and then starts to jump in 10%. If you run it through effects it smooths it out pretty well. Not sure what other players allowed for this.
welp, there goes No New Gear 2023…that thing calls my name. 