I'm selling my minidiscs -- does anybody need one?

Post by **faninor** » 5/24/2007, 3:01 pm

I have two minidisc recorders that can be used to tape concerts. I haven't yet decided exactly what I will be offering along with the recorders, but it will probably include a power supply for charging batteries, one battery, and some blank discs to get you started. Depending on what I offer along with the minidiscs, I will probably ask for something between $25 and $35 plus shipping for each recorder.

The first unit is a Sony MZ-R91. It's in pretty good condition. I have used it to record over 50 performances, and it has only given me problems once (at a very crowded hot show with a lot of shoving, it stopped recording without me knowing -- either I accidentally forgot to put hold on and bumped the off button, or maybe there was a problem with the battery, or maybe it shut off for some other unknown reason). This minidisc has a microphone jack so you can record with any microphone you'd like (though recordings of concerts turn out much better if you spend a couple hundred dollars to get a microphone with a battery box, designed for high sound pressure situations).

The second unit is a Sony MZ-S1. It's not in quite so good condition and has had a few more problems (Matt and Nikki borrowed this from me, and they both had to hit it a couple times in order to get it to turn on sometimes, but I've never had to do that myself). This one has shut off while I was recording twice, but I think it might be because I was using a rechargeable battery that doesn't seem to hold a charge very well anymore. This unit has a line-in only, no microphone input which means to record with it you MUST be using a microphone with its own battery box to supply power to the microphones (which isn't that much of a problem since that kind of microphone sounds a million times better than microphones that aren't powered by their own battery boxes). This minidisc has the nice feature of having a back-lit screen, so you can easily see what's happening as you press buttons in a dark venue.

I would really recommend the first one, the MZ-R91, to anyone who wants to start recording shows but doesn't want to spend a lot of money.

Also as an added bonus, I will be keeping my full-sized minidisc deck that I use to transfer recordings to CD without losing any quality (portable minidisc recorders have no way of doing this without losing a lot of quality). So if someone buys either of these, I'll offer to transfer anything they record to CD for free, all you have to do is mail me the minidiscs and then I'll mail them back to you along with either a copy on an audio CD or a copy on a data CD or DVD in the FLAC format (which is very commonly used online for sharing and trading live music on the Internet).

Lando · Post by **Lando** » 5/25/2007, 1:46 pm

why are you selling them?

Post by **faninor** » 5/25/2007, 2:50 pm

Lando wrote:why are you selling them?

I found a great deal on an M-Audio Microtrack and bought it... now I'll be able to record straight to 24 bit WAV with a 96kHz sample rate. I'm working on streamlining the entire recording process for myself so that editing and preparing my recordings for sharing or trading should take less than 1/4 the time it does right now, and quite possibly sound better. I just need to find someone who will be able to build a couple circuits for me to use as a mixer and I'll be all set.

crustine · Post by **crustine** » 5/25/2007, 8:35 pm

whew, I thought for a second that you were through with recording.
Any idea how much shipping would be to Ontario?

Post by **faninor** » 5/26/2007, 12:49 pm

crustine wrote:whew, I thought for a second that you were through with recording.
Any idea how much shipping would be to Ontario?

Hmm, I'm not sure, but after I track down everything I'm going to include with the recorders I'd be able to figure that out for you. It'll be a few weeks, most my stuff is in Oregon at the moment and I'm in California.

Dr. Hobo · Post by **Dr. Hobo** » 5/26/2007, 2:04 pm

all you need is the approx weight and dimensions of the package.. a rough estimate on my part would be about 8" x 6" x 6" or so to be safe.. maybe 10 x 8 x 6 to include a bid of bubble wrap/peanuts and what not for safety
but the biggest thing in this case would be customs tho it really depends on how much they charge you and if you want tracking/insurance as well
UPS ground used to be cheaper but fedex ground decided to up its game and actuallly *gasp* compete with them so i cant definitively tell you which would be cheaper (w/o updating the shipping software that i'd have to reinstall somehow and update but it nearly killed this comp so just use the online things (fedex ground has a separate site) and you'll get a fairly good rough guesstimate (if you have the weight that is but i wouldnt see the weight being greater than 3 lbs (boxes and packaging materials can be heavy yo)

Post by **faninor** » 5/27/2007, 2:33 am

Dr. Hobo wrote:all you need is the approx weight and dimensions of the package.. a rough estimate on my part would be about 8" x 6" x 6" or so to be safe.. maybe 10 x 8 x 6 to include a bid of bubble wrap/peanuts and what not for safety
but the biggest thing in this case would be customs tho it really depends on how much they charge you and if you want tracking/insurance as well
UPS ground used to be cheaper but fedex ground decided to up its game and actuallly *gasp* compete with them so i cant definitively tell you which would be cheaper (w/o updating the shipping software that i'd have to reinstall somehow and update but it nearly killed this comp so just use the online things (fedex ground has a separate site) and you'll get a fairly good rough guesstimate (if you have the weight that is but i wouldnt see the weight being greater than 3 lbs (boxes and packaging materials can be heavy yo)

Those estimates are probably accurate. It really depends on if I can find the power supplies that came with them. I usually use a universal one which is ridiculously huge and heavy, but I think they both had their own when I bought them which were much smaller (well, the MZ-S1 might not have, but it probably doesn't really need a power supply since it runs on an AA battery).

Johnny · Post by **Johnny** » 5/27/2007, 9:40 pm

give'em to ol'Johnny for free. :nod:

its a win-win situation!