I continue to have trouble with my portable minidisc recorders. My 3rd one just quit working. I really like to record each night's performance, and do not want to go back to tape, but I'm tired of spending $150 bucks every few six months to replace the MD.
They seem to break about a week after the warranty is up, and it costs as much to get one serviced as to buy a new one.
Just wondering if anyone has suggestions as to a light-weight digital recorder or . . .??
Thanks,
DonM

Don, why not use DAT other media?

I've used Sony DATs for years, the ES series mains machine, and the TCD-D7 recording walkman. The quality is superb, the A/D converters very transparent, highly recommended. The walkman needs the adaptor for an evenings work, though 1800mAH AA nickle metal hydrides last a good 3 hours +. The quality is much better than minidisk, the only downside is rewind time, but dat is very much faster than cassette.

Also use an external usb soundcard with laptop - very good results too, but maybe not as practical on stage.

Zoom have a good value hard disk recorder with 20 gig - MRS 1044 - you can add usb to get your files over to the pc for editing, or pay more and get cd recording built in.

Then there is the latest mini hard disk recorders - Korg, Boss, Zoom - that use smart media flash memory cards and mp3 format to save space. These have drums, dsps, effects etc built in too. Ultimate quality may not be as good, but they sure are convenient.

Just for interest's sake which make of minidisk keeps failing?

I also had trouble with my portable Sony Minidisc. The repair costs are close to the price of a new one, so I decided not to
get it fixed (it plays discs but doesn't record).

The other solution I used is a laptop, which I use at home, but it's not as pratical on stage as the minidisc.

-- José.

Thanks for the info. I will check out some of these options. I am familiar with DAT, and would prefer to go another direction.
All my MD recorders have been Sony. In their defense, they are quite small, and, although I try to be careful, some knocking around is inevitable I suppose.
DonM

Don,
Korg makes a tiny little pocket recorder called the PX4 which records onto smart media cards. You can use a 128MB card which sells for $39.00 and in stereo you can record for hours (can't remember the exact amount). This little pocket unit also has a USB port and you can transfer your data easily onto a computer as an MP2 file and then burn CD's or send your tunes. The PX4 also has great effects built in such as reverb, echo, chorus, etc. and runs on batteries or A/C. The price is $349.00 for this product. Also, it is a 4 Track recorder so that if you want more than just a stereo recording, you can record 4 discrete tracks if you need a more "studio" type recording method.
George Kaye
Kaye's Music Scene

George, that sounds like what I need! I'll try to find one to check out.
Do you handle them?
DonM

that's the one - PXR4, boss and zoom do similar units. Just have to watch the amount of compression you use before you lose too much quality.

Zoom seems to be less expensive. I wonder if it is as good. The Korg seems to have everything I would need. USB is ideal.
Don

Recording to Smartmedia sounds quite nice; but lets not forget that using MP3 as a guideline in terms of quality and data rate stereo sound recording costs about 1 Megabyte per minute (very approximately!) although this is reducing as algorithms improve (isn't WMA format about twice as compact?)

So 128MB is two hours - can't be bad!

I've got a quite small Sharp MT 161 minidisc recorder, however I could not recommend this as the tiny screws that keep the outside metal bits attached to the body keep coming loose. I would also think it is basically too portable to cope with hard usage. Most older Sharp "MT" series recorders use a similar case (square, chunky); I think they stopped making this style over a year ago.

On the minidisc front the following address is very useful:
http://www.minidisc.org/