iMic, yea or nay?

[wattershed]

If you're looking to upgrade to a better recorder down the line, might as well plan ahead for that now and go with the m-audio revolution 2496. Don't worry about what the salesman has said...the sheer number of lineages I see that have that unit in them tells me they can't be that hard to get working.

Originally Posted by wattershed

Also, unless it's an incredibly pristine recording, there's a decent chance that you may not even be able to tell the difference between a recording transferred via 1/8" cable, and one transferred with optical cable.

I think that if you are using an Audigy soundcard to convert the headphone out of your minidisc to a digital signal then you are losing a lot of quality at that stage. The audigy cards discard a lot of stereo info and don't sound very good.

My advice is... patience.

1) Keep your master minidiscs safe and sound. Good job being there to record them.

2) Wait until the point in time (even a couple years) when you have the best gear possible to do justice to your recordings. Since you have the only copies, what you spread around is the best anybody will have. So do a job you can be proud of. I have tapes that have sat in a box for almost a decade until I had the time or equipment to take care of them.

well, i'm an iMic owner and user, and i think it's worth it for me. i don't have the money to spend to upgrade my stealth MD rig and probably won't for a long time (if ever), and i'm impatient and go to a lot of shows and like to share, especially with people who were also at the show. i've had pretty good results too. so for me, it's the best bang for my buck to be able to transfer shows quickly and easily. i've gotten some criticism for going digital > analog > digital... but really it's just about sharing the music, right? that's what i'm about, anyway. unless someone wants to fund me upgrading my rig...

Originally Posted by Gizby

*note to self - kill the person who recommended I get a minidisc recorder when I started this expensive addiction, then wipe his seed from the Earth*

Can't wait until I can afford the Neuros.

now, before i get flamed, i'll premise this post: i'm not anti-MD. sure, i prefer DAT (or a good preamp>JB3 feed) whenever possible. but i know a lot of people get what they can afford, and make do. and there's nothing wrong with that. having said that, MDs are a lot worse quality than you'd get from even a portable DAT line in. i know this because i've taped concerts side-by-side with MD tapers using the exact same mics. their recordings always sound A LOT more distant, less crisp, more muffled, etc. but like i said, make do with what you can afford currently, and upgrade to better recording equipment when you can.

if it were me, i probably wouldn't plunk down $40 for the iMic. i wouldn't say the iMic is a "waste of money," either. but if you're planning on upgrading later on, then i'd just save that $40 (literally put it in a piggy bank of some sort). there are people who have the "home MiniDisc" players with optical out, who you can get to transfer your recordings in the meantime.

i've read good things about the Neuros, and would LOVE to get one myself. but i'm a bit "chicken"... since it only has a Mic In, i'm not certain it can handle *really* loud inputs (as one would experience 5 feet from a stage stack, for instance). and, i do have two virtually brand new Sony PCM-M1s sitting here, so they have plenty of usage before they drop dead.

happy taping and transferring to everyone!

[wazoo2u]

Originally Posted by Five

I think for MD you need "optical" and a special cable that goes from 1/8" digital to one of those funny little square inputs.

Cable ?? Don't you need a processing device to convert the pulsed voltage into a modulated optical signal ???? How do you get from electronic signal to light (LED Optical) without it ?

[wazoo2u]

Originally Posted by Gizby

*note to self - kill the person who recommended I get a minidisc recorder when I started this expensive addiction, then wipe his seed from the Earth*

Can't wait until I can afford the Neuros.

While the Neuros is certainly the most advanced techy toy available for digital portable playback, It doesn't feature a digital input. It has an analog line level input, and a built in microphone. Digital inputs and the current lack of FLAC support (FLAC is in the works) are 2 features that are lacking, and stopping me from investing in the unit right now. Hopefully, either Neuros will get it all together, or another manufacturer will step up to the plate. My guess is that we'll see one of the portable video jukebox platforms evolve enough features to be used as a great lossless audio portable. The market needs more time to mature.

[oldbrokentapes]

Originally Posted by RainDawg

I think you guys are being a BIT harsh on the iMic here. It is certainly a lesser-quality unit than it would be to use a digital-out from the MD to the PC, but it's still a notch better than running analog out from the MD into analog in on the PC. Like it or not, PCs are noisy environments, and lots of extra junk can be added to the signal.

If you don't have a digital out on the MD, this $40 unit would be at least a moderate improvement to going directly to the soundcard analog input.

Bit late on this but, he's currently using an Audigy MP3+, which is a USB soundcard, so the iMic won't be less noisy.

However, I once bought an Audigy MP3+ for the use of its analogue ins, and prospectively it's optical in in the future, but the noise floor on that thing was so damn high that I took it back and kept using my cheap Genius on-board card!

[camster]

heya guys,

Thanks for all the info, this has been informative to read. I have a ton o'shows I've recorded on my MD in the past 6 years that I"m hoping to transfer sometime soon. I thought my MD has an optical/digital out, but I'll have to check. On the plus side, its not too hard to find some MD players with digi-outs CHEAP as they weren't a huge hit in the market. I am at the point where I want to upgrade my equipment (any advice pointers to links etc welcome) so I'd like to clear out what I have on MD.


I have an iMic that I use (with my G4 Mac) to record my vinyl to wav. I wanted to point out its also useful for that, as well as darn cheap.

cheers,
camster