Re: MD: is MDLP worth the wait?

[Eric Woudenberg, Minidisc.org Editor]

payvand <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:

> if you had an MDLP home deck. and 2 non-MDLP players. and were in
> the market for a used portable recorder.  would you wait until MDLP
> portable recorders became more widespread and buy a MDLP recorder,
> or would you just buy a used non-MDLP recorder now? I do use the
> MDLP feature on my home deck, but mainly only to record the audio
> from movies.
> 
> [...]
> 
> so would you buy non-MDLP now, or wait a while for a good, used
> portable MDLP?

I would buy, or wait for, an MDLP machine. 

I recently got an MZ-R900 and have started playing with MDLP
recording. The ability to record continuously for 5 1/3 hours without
having to check batteries, levels, or media is unique. There is no
other portable format that can do this. (Is there?)

I used it to record a family get together one Saturday. After a few
hours the fact that I was recording seemed to have faded from
everyone's mind. It was really an "environment recorder" at that
point. In fact, one of my favorite sections is a period of about 45
minutes when no one was around. During that period you can hear some
birds on the porch, occasional conversations in another room, a person
passing through, etc. With a media cost of around 25 cents an hour you
can do things like this.

I think LP4 quality is okay, certainly fine for speech (though you can
still hear ATRAC3/LP4 artifacts in speech recordings if you know what
to listen for). Every non-cognoscenti who gave it a listen though
thought it sounded great.

Like it or not, MDLP will soon be on every Minidisc unit being made
(if not already). If you're an MD fan and want to stay on top of the
format, it doesn't really make sense to keep getting incompatible
gear.

Rick

p.s. the "ambient" recordings I made probably aren't worth much more
than $0.25/hr today, but they're going straight into my time capsule
(read: old shoe box). We'll listen to them next in another 5 or 10 years.
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