MD equipment query

[Paul B. Garrett]

Alex Enkerli has brought my attention to (among other things) the
website www.minidisc.org, which provides much of the information
that I needed; the FAQ pages are quite detailed and helpful, much
more so than FAQs usually are.  (I recall now that this site has
been mentioned on linganth before, but I had forgotten about it.)

So--this site takes care of a lot of my questions, and I'm no longer
a total ignoramus about the ABCs of MD.  I'm still interested in
knowing what specific hardware and software people are using,
however, and what successes and problems they've encountered.

Thanks also to Kerim Friedman for reminding that microphones need to
be chosen carefully (and in some respects are more important than
the medium you're recording onto).

Paul


"Paul B. Garrett" wrote:

> Hi All,
>
> I'm in the early stages of setting up a linguistic anthropology
> laboratory, and am shopping for recording equipment.  For
> audio-only recording, I want to go with MD (MiniDisc) technology,
> about which I've heard and read many good things (some of it here
> on linganth).  I've never actually used it before, however--hence
> this query.
>
> I'm trying to determine exactly what hardware and/or software one
> needs (besides the MD recorder itself) to do the kind of work
> that linguistic anthropologists do.  The technical specifications
> invariably go on and on about how wonderful MD recorders are for
> downloading sound from the Internet and other digital sources,
> but nothing at all is said about going in the other direction,
> i.e. uploading one's recordings (made in the non-digital, a.k.a.
> "real," world) *from* the MD *into* a computer (for analysis,
> editing, etc.).  The lab will be Mac-based, by the way.
>
> Can anyone offer advice?  I recognize that detailed technical
> discussions are not necessarily appreciated by those who don't
> use the technology in question (or who have already mastered it),
> so please contact me off-list at pgarrett at temple.edu.  (Anyone
> who *is* interested is of course welcome to contact me as well
> for a summary of responses.)
>
> Thanks,
> Paul
>
> Paul B. Garrett
> Assistant Professor
> Department of Anthropology
> Temple University
> Philadelphia, PA  19122
>
> pgarrett at temple.edu