7 ms·

I'm kind of sad that MD didn't get more broadly adopted. Had MD data been more of a thing and allow for more flexibility (no dedicated audio and data discs), MD

I'm kind of sad that MD didn't get more broadly adopted. Had MD data been more of a thing and allow for more flexibility (no dedicated audio and data discs), MD would probably have been everywhere.

aphroz 4y ago
Actually MD was everywhere, except in the US. There was a Vaio computer with integrated MD drive and you could store data and audio on it.
- dwringer 4y ago
  There was a small window between heyday of Tascam 4-track cassette recorders and the emergence of modern digital recorders/PC interfaces when Yamaha's 4- and 8-track Minidisc recording consoles were a great and relatively affordable home/amateur recording option, fairly popular in the US. Sadly there is no digital out(!) so when I recently transferred my old tracks to digital I had to send each channel with a separate unbalanced(!) analog line. It's also prohibitively expensive to track down new MD Data discs (the MD audio discs which were far more common would only support 2-track recording instead of the full 8).
  - gizajob 4y ago
    I thought those minidisc 4 tracks were great, but the compression on them could be a bit nasty
    - dwringer 4y ago
      That explains why, looking back, I never got a satisfactory distorted guitar tone, but those were also the days of listening to 128kbps MP3's so half the time we didn't know any better.
  - zoomablemind 4y ago
    > ...Sadly there is no digital out(!) so when I recently transferred my old tracks to digital I had to send each channel with a separate unbalanced(!) analog line. MD audio was compressed with proprietary ATRAC, so sending it out would only make sense if the other end supported it. On the other hand the analog audio would clearly be more compatible. However, those MD decks supported TOS link for input, but had some bits flipped to disallow CD digital recopy.
- awiesenhofer 4y ago
  Ah yes, the mysterious Sony Vaio PCV-MX2 - I still want one of these even though it would probably be completely useless nowadays. LGR has a nice video about it: https://youtu.be/UQSKWOw-sZc https://youtu.be/UQSKWOw-sZc There was also a Vaio laptop that had an MD drive, it didnt support data though: https://www.zdnet.com/product/sony-vaio-pcg-nv109m/ https://www.zdnet.com/product/sony-vaio-pcg-nv109m/
LeoPanthera 4y ago
As other comments have said, it was almost uniquely rejected in the USA, and enjoyed a healthy long lifespan in almost every other country. They are still, in fact, making blank MDs. Those in the USA can type "mdw80t" into eBay if they'd like some. MiniDisc is my favorite example of "History is written by the USA" - younger people in many countries believe it was a failure, even though it was successful in their own country, just because it failed in the USA, and it's mostly the USA who write blogs, make YouTube videos, post to social media.
- gizajob 4y ago
  I was listening to my minidisc player on a train in Italy in the early 2000s and got chatting to an American girl, and she had absolutely no idea what I had in my hand. I was like "see, there's these little discs, and you record your music onto them" and she couldn't even compute what I was showing her. I was pretty stunned too, because all my friends in the UK (I'm British) knew what they were and lots of us had them. It was like we were in two completely different worlds, somehow. Also, the main advantage not well discussed following the rise of the iPod and smartphones, was that virtually all minidisc players were RECORDERS. We really lost something, culturally and creatively, when audio devices lost their record-ins. I used to love plugging my headphones into the stereo-in on my minidisc, and walking around capturing the sounds around me. Later playing back through those same headphones would transport you directly to wherever you were at the time. Amazing for field recording and dumping mixes and tracks onto them. Technology progresses, but it seems like the past few decades it hasn't necessary improved a great deal as it does, and much gets lost.
  - tablespoon 4y ago
    > Also, the main advantage not well discussed following the rise of the iPod and smartphones, was that virtually all minidisc players were RECORDERS. I used to love plugging my headphones into the stereo-in on my minidisc, and walking around capturing the sounds around me. I agree that technological change as resulted in a regrettable loss of common-man recording capability (e.g. streaming and disc-players vs VCRs), but did that actually happen for your use case? Smartphones all have mics, and you can certainly download a recording app even if your phone doesn't ship with one. I know you can kind of abuse headphones into a microphone (I used to do it all the time as a kid), but would they actually work well with good quality? Did you have some special headphones for this use case? I knew a guy who said he had some special earbuds designed for recording concerts: they had a microphone pointing outward from each ear, and he'd plug them into his MiniDisc recorder.
jagermo 4y ago
direct mp3 to minidisc would have been a killer application. mostly for sony's music business which got pummeld back then by napster, audiogalaxy, etc

I'm kind of sad that MD didn't get more broadly adopted. Had MD data been more of a thing and allow for more flexibility (no dedicated audio and data discs), MD would probably have been everywhere.

aphroz 4y ago

Actually MD was everywhere, except in the US. There was a Vaio computer with integrated MD drive and you could store data and audio on it.

dwringer 4y ago
There was a small window between heyday of Tascam 4-track cassette recorders and the emergence of modern digital recorders/PC interfaces when Yamaha's 4- and 8-track Minidisc recording consoles were a great and relatively affordable home/amateur recording option, fairly popular in the US. Sadly there is no digital out(!) so when I recently transferred my old tracks to digital I had to send each channel with a separate unbalanced(!) analog line. It's also prohibitively expensive to track down new MD Data discs (the MD audio discs which were far more common would only support 2-track recording instead of the full 8).
- gizajob 4y ago
  I thought those minidisc 4 tracks were great, but the compression on them could be a bit nasty
  - dwringer 4y ago
    That explains why, looking back, I never got a satisfactory distorted guitar tone, but those were also the days of listening to 128kbps MP3's so half the time we didn't know any better.
- zoomablemind 4y ago
  > ...Sadly there is no digital out(!) so when I recently transferred my old tracks to digital I had to send each channel with a separate unbalanced(!) analog line. MD audio was compressed with proprietary ATRAC, so sending it out would only make sense if the other end supported it. On the other hand the analog audio would clearly be more compatible. However, those MD decks supported TOS link for input, but had some bits flipped to disallow CD digital recopy.
awiesenhofer 4y ago
Ah yes, the mysterious Sony Vaio PCV-MX2 - I still want one of these even though it would probably be completely useless nowadays. LGR has a nice video about it: https://youtu.be/UQSKWOw-sZc https://youtu.be/UQSKWOw-sZc There was also a Vaio laptop that had an MD drive, it didnt support data though: https://www.zdnet.com/product/sony-vaio-pcg-nv109m/ https://www.zdnet.com/product/sony-vaio-pcg-nv109m/

LeoPanthera 4y ago

As other comments have said, it was almost uniquely rejected in the USA, and enjoyed a healthy long lifespan in almost every other country. They are still, in fact, making blank MDs. Those in the USA can type "mdw80t" into eBay if they'd like some. MiniDisc is my favorite example of "History is written by the USA" - younger people in many countries believe it was a failure, even though it was successful in their own country, just because it failed in the USA, and it's mostly the USA who write blogs, make YouTube videos, post to social media.

gizajob 4y ago
I was listening to my minidisc player on a train in Italy in the early 2000s and got chatting to an American girl, and she had absolutely no idea what I had in my hand. I was like "see, there's these little discs, and you record your music onto them" and she couldn't even compute what I was showing her. I was pretty stunned too, because all my friends in the UK (I'm British) knew what they were and lots of us had them. It was like we were in two completely different worlds, somehow. Also, the main advantage not well discussed following the rise of the iPod and smartphones, was that virtually all minidisc players were RECORDERS. We really lost something, culturally and creatively, when audio devices lost their record-ins. I used to love plugging my headphones into the stereo-in on my minidisc, and walking around capturing the sounds around me. Later playing back through those same headphones would transport you directly to wherever you were at the time. Amazing for field recording and dumping mixes and tracks onto them. Technology progresses, but it seems like the past few decades it hasn't necessary improved a great deal as it does, and much gets lost.
- tablespoon 4y ago
  > Also, the main advantage not well discussed following the rise of the iPod and smartphones, was that virtually all minidisc players were RECORDERS. I used to love plugging my headphones into the stereo-in on my minidisc, and walking around capturing the sounds around me. I agree that technological change as resulted in a regrettable loss of common-man recording capability (e.g. streaming and disc-players vs VCRs), but did that actually happen for your use case? Smartphones all have mics, and you can certainly download a recording app even if your phone doesn't ship with one. I know you can kind of abuse headphones into a microphone (I used to do it all the time as a kid), but would they actually work well with good quality? Did you have some special headphones for this use case? I knew a guy who said he had some special earbuds designed for recording concerts: they had a microphone pointing outward from each ear, and he'd plug them into his MiniDisc recorder.

jagermo 4y ago

direct mp3 to minidisc would have been a killer application. mostly for sony's music business which got pummeld back then by napster, audiogalaxy, etc