Minidisc to mp3?! (1 Viewer)

[Mr Creosote]

Can anyone tell me how I'd go about converting songs from Minidisc to mp3? I have a P.A. recording, with 3 of our own songs, some Annapurna, and some 46 Long stuff too which I promised them I'd convert to mp3.
Any help gratefully received.

 

[discoslut]

i think you would just save the minidisc songs as .wav, then use a mp3 encoder to convert them to mp3.

but then again, i cud be wrong

 

[joe.]

in order to get the minidisk stuff into .wav format you need to take the line out/headphone socket into the line in on yer soundcard......
(a male/male headphone type cable can do that)
play the minidisk and have a media player recording this on the PC. save as .wav. this is as far as I got.... basically I couldn't be arsed downloading the software to convert .wav's to MP3's... but it does exist (try MP3.com).

 

[Vinnie]

Go to Http://www.sharewaremusicmachine.com for all the free software you could ever need.......

Grand so

 

[Mr Creosote]

Thanks for the help, I got a .wav recorder from a friend and used a CD ripper program to convert from .wav to .mp3.
Thanks again.

 

[Stephen]

As usual I'm a little late with the advice.

Anywho, a realjuke box will record striaght from your line-in into mp3(I think). you just have to look at the preferences menu(this works real easy for the old CDs but I've never done it with the line in, granted if it works it's alot less painful than recording them as wavs and then converting them to mp3s, unless you want to jigger them alittle in a music program which could be usefull too and you'll need them in the wav format)

I could go on but really I don't know enough.

 

[Mohammed Ben Avaram]

RealJukebox doesn't work with a line in. I think musicmatch does though. Anyway, the sound quality coming from the earphone jack to the line in of the pc won't be great. At least that's what I've experienced

 

[Osimono]

Most minidiscs have an digital/optical line out as well as an alanalog line out (headphone mini-jack). For about £30 you can get a Fostex optcial to digital converter, which if used in conjunction with a digital sound card (like the soundblaster live, v.cheap at about £125), will ensure total digital transfer. Then grab an mp3 encoder (of which there are hundreds) from www.hitsquad.com/smm (the real address for shareware music machine). The easiest one to use is musicmatch (v.efficient, and very few glitches in the end product), but this only comes on a 30 day demo I think. The reason for going about using the optical line is that when you record to minidisc, a lot of fcompression occurs, using a system called ATRAC, which iltimately attenuates frequencies which are apparently outside the audible range for most adults (0-20hz and above 17khz). Vinyl or tape does not do this. This affects the quality of the bass and hig end, and dont nelieve otherwise!! Fine for mid range pop, but terrible for electronic music and the like. Next, if you send it through an analog lead, a certain amount of noise is generated by the lead, even if the tips are gold plated. Then it goes into an analog connection (minijack, the noisiest of all analog connections) where you get more noise. So ultimately you are creating something which is about the same quality as an alright tape recording. So go digital!! That way, if you or the other bands want to do anything to the tracks like mixing, the original signal will be clear enough to extract solid frequency information out, which will help mixing no end.

 

[Mr Creosote]

Thanks for the advice on going digital, I wasn't aware of most of what you were saying!! However, having listened to a couple of the mp3's I made using analogue leads and jacks, I have to say I think the sound quality stayed pretty high. I used Soundforge to record the files as .wav. The bass drum was causing the recording level to go through the roof, but the overall quality still seemed pretty good to me. I did rush things a bit though, and when I have a bit more time I'm going to do it again using a digital line out - I presume I'll be inputting the signal to the PC through some port other than a minijack? I also want to (try) and do some work on the bass EQ's using Soundforge.