Sorry, Jim E.

Joe_Stax · Sorry, Jim E.

As a long time user and advocate of the mini disc, I'm sorry to break this to Jim:

http://www.retrothing.com/2007/08/the-demise-of-m.html#more

Looks like it's over for the mini disc.

Sad

Astrakhan

Having just read the article, let me the first to offer my condolences.

Some interesting points were made about the poor marketing (promoting md as a competitor to cd rather than a "digital cassette") and one of the comments also makes mention of how md could have competed with zip discs if Sony had gone in that direction.

A good format, but poorly served by Sony, I'm afraid.

I had a deck that was used as a replacement for my tape deck. I transferred cassettes to md and recorded vinyl as well. However, with blank media getting harder to find as time went on, and the rise of the recordable cd, my md fell by the wayside, replaced by burnt cds and my mp3 player.

I do note that Amazon still sells blank discs, and even has some players available, so there is still some hope for the md fancier.

JimENight

Ah, yes, my old friend the MD.
Served me pretty well for about 5 years. All of the early Lost Discs Shows were recorded live to mini-disc, then transfered in real time to CDR, then converted to mp3 & uploaded. Since I got some inexpensive archiving software on my computer in 2004, my mini-disc deck has been silent.

Joe_Stax

I tried md for a brief while. In those pre-burnable cd days, it seemed a better way to trade stuff with Jim E. than cassettes.

As it worked out, it didn't work out, I never really got a handle on it and ended up sending Jim some botched and blank discs.

In the end, I took my deck down to Record Exchange and traded it for store credit.

Ah, well. Still, it'd be cool to turn up some cheap tech at a thrift store!

Joe_Stax

If I could find an md multi-track recorder, now that'd be pretty cool to find used!

JimENight

Well, Joe don't be so sure. I had/have a Sony 4 track mini-disc deck that served me quite well for about 3 years. Then one day, it began to only read and record on 2 tracks, rendering it essentially useless. I have read product reviews with complaints of similar meltdowns on this product. If you would like to have my 2 track mini-disc deck you are welcome to it. But being a Mac user as I know you are, the Garageband program that comes standard on the current operating systems does much more in a much easier & streamlined fashion than that 4 track deck could ever dream of approaching. If you are hungry for doing some multi-track live recording, you've got more than you need with that software. What are you waiting for?
Need a few tips? Let's talk.
Cool

Joe_Stax

Thanks for the offer of the md recorder, Jim. Even when I owned a deck, it just kind of sat on top of the stereo. You know how I am--I just dig having lots of tech around.

Heck, that's why I still own a 110 camera (also a 126 and a disc), and a couple of super 8 cameras!

But I wouldn't mind some tips on Garage band, thanks!