NetMD MiniDisc into 2022...and beyond

Рет қаралды 330,171

Жыл бұрын

In this video I test out modern day NetMD compatible MiniDisc alternatives to Sony's long abandoned Sonicstage and Simple Burner.
LINKS:
Web Minidisc Pro web.minidisc.wiki/
Platinum MD platinum-md.app
NetMD Wizard github.com/Jo2003/cd2netmd_gu...
MiniDisc Wiki www.minidisc.wiki/start
VERY VERY !!!!!!!!!!!!!!! IMPORTANT -- For WINDOWS Web Minidisc Pro you’ll need to use Zadig to allocate a new driver to your MD machine. Read the instructions linked to from Web Minidisc Pro’s webpage, but here’s a link for Zadig zadig.akeo.ie
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Пікірлер: 985

@mattrobinson973 Жыл бұрын

People that make software to keep old devices working are the real heroes in our digital society

@theeniwetoksymphonyorchest7580 Жыл бұрын

Absolutely heroic!

@jean-pierrem34 Жыл бұрын

100% agree!

@Bobby_Snoof Жыл бұрын

+1 : I use them every day !

@Spudcore Жыл бұрын

They are indeed, bless them!

@rosskwolfe Жыл бұрын

Especially since it's generally unpaid work. Pure passion.

@platpt78 Жыл бұрын

Awesome ! I’m the dev behind Platinum-MD - happy to assist with any questions, the app also does limited Hi-MD and reverse download with an RH1

@LacayoDe Жыл бұрын

Really !? Omggggg thanks a lot I use your software daily. I do have a question is there any setting to normalize the volume ? Or make or tracks sound as loud as possible !?

@platpt78 Жыл бұрын

@@LacayoDe not at the moment but can be easily added with FFMPEG - WebMinidisc does have it but it sometimes results in all tracks being a little quiet I’ve heard

@bobblum5973 Жыл бұрын

It sounds like Mat would be a good resource to have test updates and bug fixes, since he has multiple models of MD units to test with and he's knowledgeable.

@gutterg0d Жыл бұрын

@@bobblum5973 That's the dream for any dev, Mat might have other things to attend to though, like a KZfaq channel or something. ;)

@jb-hw9if Жыл бұрын

Is your software compatible with the original Atrac1 files?

@GeekDetour Жыл бұрын

I was extremely naive when I bought my NetMD: I saw the USB interface and I assumed "Wow! That's perfect! I'll pass my live recordings to the PC super fast, digitally, instead of re-recording as analog!"... I was SO FRUSTRATED when I discovered it was exactly the other way around: Sony's software just allowed to push audio from the PC to the MD... It is AWESOME that some people invested time to make it work the way it should - a bit to late for me... I don't even have my MDs anymore 🤷‍♂ For anyone that still needs it, THIS IS GOLD! Thanks for the awesome video!

@proudofyourroots9575 Жыл бұрын

Most people just passed it digitally over opctical. MD's were huge for garage bands.

@graealex Жыл бұрын

Sony at its finest. Give consumers freedom to do what they want? Heck no!

@HouseholdDog Жыл бұрын

Yeah it was pretty common to have ports on tech that never really worked the way you thought.

@rommee Жыл бұрын

Same. I still think that if Sony allowed for data to be burned direct then it would have been powerful and would have given the MiniDisc more longevity - Just in the way we'd seen in the movies: 'Matrix 1' and 'End of Days'.

@daveayerstdavies Жыл бұрын

Yes, I made the same mistake. Evidently Sony's policy was intended to prevent music piracy which was a hot topic in the 90's and early 2000's.

@BobBell808 Жыл бұрын

Unfortunately, I'm retired and on a fixed income, otherwise you would be one of the few channels I'd support on Patrion. I so look forward to my sleepy Saturday mornings in Ohio, USA, where I can watch your weekly sojourn into Retrotech. I've always been impressed with both how well you research your topics and the quality which you produce your videos. I know that's not the same as throwing a Bob your way... but I wanted you to know I appreciate your work.

@rnb250 Жыл бұрын

“Throwing a bob your way” 😅 I wonder how many Americans would know what that means? 🤙

@JCWise-sf9ww Жыл бұрын

I live in Pennsylvania, USA and I agree with the gentleman from Ohio on appreciating Techmoan' work.

@vanwiseman Жыл бұрын

Hello, fellow Ohioan. I'm in Columbus, a longtime subscriber of Techmoan, and a faithful MD user!

@toucan221 Жыл бұрын

@@vanwiseman You're a faithful MD user, Fantastic, that reminds me to get mine fixed. thanks

@Rhyminrichie Жыл бұрын

I am a normal heterosexual man, but I love you. Lol your love of this format is so incredible. I am also retired and my wife keeps bitching at me to get rid of old equipment ..I used to DJ and I had all of my music on minidiscs. I was going to throw them all out plus all the machines but you’ve made me change my mind I think. Now I just have to deal with the divorce that I’m going through lol.. that was a joke.(for now)

@drew24x7 Жыл бұрын

I was delighted to come across this video today, I have 80 minidiscs used to record interviews and talks back in the early 2002's that I was wondering how I was going to get transferred onto computer, now with an old Net MiniDisc NZ710 I've been able to download the recordings without having to realtime record with an audio interface... Awesome!

@nutsnproud6932 Жыл бұрын

Thanks Mat. I got my ancient NetMD player talking to my Linux computer. No more sticky labels on the box to know what the next track is.

@PaulRiismandel Жыл бұрын

I’ve been keeping an old Windows XP netbook just to run Sonic Stage for my RH1. It’s great to learn I can now use my Mac Mini and other modern computers now. Thanks, Mat!

@deusexaethera Жыл бұрын

Two words: Virtual machine.

@ek8710 Жыл бұрын

Sonic stage works perfectly on my PC running Windows 10

@keithlowe5871 Жыл бұрын

You can run it on windows 10/11. The drivers are the issue and the security signatures. A bit of googling will find you the solution but if this works for you then no need :)

@katbryce Жыл бұрын

@@keithlowe5871 If you can get 64 bit XP drivers, they will usually work, 32 bit drivers are less likely to work. I've not tried these specific ones, but generally in my experience, you have to run the installer, find where it puts the temporary files during installation, copy those to another location before exiting the installer, then locate the driver files, and install them manually.

@petersmits6951 Жыл бұрын

It runs fine on win 11

@Gadgetonomy Жыл бұрын

Absolutely thrilled to watch this video today! I gave up some time ago trying to connect my Minidisc player to my PC. You've given me everything to do this now with my vast collection of minidiscs, I can't thank you enough. Long live the Minidisc!

@mikolasstrajt3874 Жыл бұрын

I have no experience in Minidisc nor I want to fall into another rabbit hole of audio collecting thing, but I am impressed by practical use of WebUSB standard.

@FatNorthernBigot Жыл бұрын

Look at the blue LED loading mechanism!! There was never a more futuristic way of playing S Club 7.

@phillxor Жыл бұрын

After all, there ain't no party like an S-Club party!

@FatNorthernBigot Жыл бұрын

@@phillxor ...cos an S Club party ended in 2002. 👍

@jimsmith2919 Жыл бұрын

I think minidiscs are highly underrated. It's too bad they didn't catch on. It's so easy to delete and reorder tracks. It's also awesome how you can add track markers and you don't have to worry about scratches. I only had one NetMD compatible minidisc player/recorder but I also had another portable minidisc and a home unit.

@benji.B-side Жыл бұрын

Thank God for audio and computer nerds, doing stuff like this, credit and big respect to them. Great video Techmoan, I'm going to get my NetMD Minidiscs out and have a blast.

@jamespaddick244 Жыл бұрын

I have been using Platinum MD on my Mac for over a year now and it has been a total game changer. Brilliant piece of software

@jean-pierrem34 Жыл бұрын

100% agree with you! I also have been using Platinum MD for years now. Love this software. Thank you very much to all People involved in the development of that excellent software!

@platpt78 Жыл бұрын

Hey that’s me! Glad you’re enjoying it!

@jean-pierrem34 Жыл бұрын

@@platpt78 Thank you very much Man! Great job!!

@jmvirgfb Жыл бұрын

Thanks Mat. I dug out my old walkman (unused for 15+ years) and am now recording via this program straight onto newly cleaned mini discs, the text copying over (scanned from artwork then put through Google OCR) is such a gift. I don't understand why it's exciting, but it really is!!

@matthewrichards88 Жыл бұрын

To be able to copy from mini disc to pc is a game changer. Always wanted to be able to do this, and now it's possible!

@brianl4366 Жыл бұрын

I can hardly begin to describe how happy this made me, I have a number of portable MD player/recorders along with a lot of discs. I dug them up recently and found them along with about 20 still wrapped blanks. Now thanks to this video I can enjoy them again with new music as well as transfer some 'lost' music to the PC. Thanks again.

@Rust_in_Time Жыл бұрын

Wow and flutter - the feelings one experiences when a new Techmoan video is released....

@chilly6470 3 ай бұрын

It's great to see so many people still passionate about Minidisc. Apart from the fact that, the prices are rocketing because of the interest. I first encounterd the format around 98/99 while on hols in Gran Canaria. I bought my first MD Walkman there and it felt like the future had arrived. Then, I moved to Sony's NW-HD1 and was impressed yet again. I've recently returned to MD and I've become a bit obsessed again.... It's now my main format to listen to music on. That little LAM-1 you've got there is a thing of beauty.

@KingHanGan Жыл бұрын

The Web-Minidisc app also works on Android, so you can connect your NetMD to your phone or Android tablet

@johntammaro Жыл бұрын

I found that desktop Sony model for £10 brand new in box with 2 unopened mini discs. Thought that was pretty good. I used that NetMD web app. Works a treat

@robertjpayne Жыл бұрын

which one?

@johntammaro Жыл бұрын

@@robertjpayne the one without optical in. Still it was brand new and has allowed me to extract some old MDs I've had since the late 90s.

@LightTheUnicorn Жыл бұрын

I'm extremely thankful to the awesome devs that not only created this, but keep it updated and continually improve it too. MiniDisc never died.

@gentuxable Жыл бұрын

The issue with the USB port might be power. I remember in the early 2000s some manufacturers did go out of spec with power and it worked on many PCs but some did limit the current. The issue with the last device might be a software issue, maybe you can try a "sudo dmesg" inside the Terminal application to see if it says something.

@thinkbrowner Жыл бұрын

Unfortunately it's probably an invalid bInterval value being provided. A number of netmd devices set that incorrectly and different OSes have different ways of handling it

@NiGHTSaturn Жыл бұрын

I tend to bring my MD Walkman when I travel abroad. I got weird looks while using it in the trains in Tokyo. It might have been for another reason thougn 🤔😅 Thanks for sharing the great solutions that keep this technology alive!

@NiGHTSaturn Жыл бұрын

@@Spearca Publically not as much. I was the only one on my Walkman. Smartphones took over. Which is sad, Japan had amazing phone designs and music players, it’s all taken over by iPhones and Android Phones.

@am_pm.17 Жыл бұрын

@@NiGHTSaturn People do still buy Walkman players though right? At least more than in the west. Sony still update the ZX and A series of players!

@by-fate-but-by-choice Жыл бұрын

Glad to know it's been updated! Also good to hear that I might (finally) be able to pull some old recordings OFF my minidiscs that I no longer have in any other format. Many thanks, Mat!

@trevfindley5704 Жыл бұрын

If it's of any interest, I recently accomplished this with a ESI U24xl usb sound card (~£80 iirc) that has a toslink input (actually surprisingly uncommon to find). Theoretically I think this involves the MD player converting from 32khz back to 44.1khz as it outputs in toslink - but I found the recordings sounded totally ok when saved as MP3s...

@tookitogo Жыл бұрын

@@trevfindley5704 MiniDisc is, and always has been, 44.1KHz. There’s no 32KHz version.

@trevfindley5704 Жыл бұрын

@@tookitogo Wow. That's interesting to know. I don't know why, or where i got it from, but i have always been completely convinced that MD has a 32khz sample rate, and have never even really questioned this belief until i read your comment! Weird. p.s. Are you sure? lol.

@tookitogo Жыл бұрын

@@trevfindley5704 Yes, I’m quite certain. Most likely, you once read the specs of the very first MD recorder, whose underpowered encoder chip wasn’t really up to the task, so they put a 16KHz low pass filter on it. From that machine’s 20Hz-16KHz frequency response you probably deduced it was 32KHz. But in fact it was 44.1KHz, and every MD recorder after that offers the CD standard 20Hz-20KHz frequency range. The Type-R and Type-S encoders, when doing standard play recording, even use 24-bit ADCs (and allow 24-bit digital input), which allows better encoding. ATRAC is a sort of floating-point encoding, so the added bits somehow let it reallocate information better.

@trevfindley5704 Жыл бұрын

@@tookitogo Great, thanks for such a comprehensive explaination. Although i was a pretty enthusiastic MD user in the early 2000s - had i known this then (i.e. that standard play is not actually inferior to CD) I certainly would have used it much more heavily. Probably worked out for the best that I didn't - although i would have had a lot more awesome nostalgia hardware to play with today if i had!

@JasonRasmussen Жыл бұрын

WOW! Thank you for this! My MZ-N797 NetMD served me faithfully in the early 2000's on trips and was an essential college study buddy that got me through (listening to a lot of Underworld) and recording lectures but left it in the garage as I had no easy way to rip all my MiniDiscs and recorded audio. I didn't want to do it via analogue, and even forgot what software even did that. Now I can do it natively in Windows 10 with Chromium based (Brave) web browser! Amazing! I'm downloading now!

@zach.0 Жыл бұрын

I'm glad there are people like you who appreciate old technology and don't just declare it obsolete and throw it in the trash can of history to be forgotten.

@yukisaitou5004 Жыл бұрын

Newer versions of macOS are well known to have compatibility issues with USB 1.1 devices, sometimes connecting them to a powered USB 2.0 hub helps. It's possible the two newer devices are actually USB 2.0 which is why they work fine straight into the Mac Mini.

@DaveFlash Жыл бұрын

this is indeed the case, yeah/

@Unfinished80 Жыл бұрын

I never owned any minidisc equipment when it was popular so this has been really interesting seeing what I missed. Thanks for another great video!

@mtaylor8682 Жыл бұрын

Thanks Mat for another Minidisc video. I have been a lover of this format from the beginning. Just holding the player and the discs are a joy, that tactile feel is what makes it for me. Keep the MD light burning Mat.

@scoobylol1987 Жыл бұрын

I’ve been using my NetMDs and SonicStage on my Mac with a virtual box copy of XP. Works flawlessly. But this looks like a fantastic alternative to look at aswell!

@Sikkabrain Жыл бұрын

i love how you are constantly showing us your proper hip hop collection, Always something classic. This stuff is really fresh. . lol

@Raveheart Жыл бұрын

Thank you for the overview. Some years ago I was looking for a way to connect my old NetMD devices again and ran into all kinds of problems. It ended up working by using some old SonicStage version in a Windows XP virtual machine and passing the USB device over from the host to the VM. The Webapp is of course way more convenient.

@kirknelson156 Жыл бұрын

I'm running sonic stage on win 7, found a youtube video detailing how to get the drivers to install, don't know if the same method works on windows 10 or 11. I didn't even think about trying to do it with a XP vitrual machine, which is strange because thats how I still use my palm visor.

@Kevin_Carlson Жыл бұрын

Thanks so much Techmoan! I still have my Sony MZ S1 that I purchased in 2002. I can finally erase my old MiniDiscs that are track protected now that you've informed us about Web Minidisc Pro. I'm thrilled to be using my favorite portable music player. I remember people used to refer to this player as the "poor man's ipod".

@bens1343 Жыл бұрын

Thank you Stefano Brilli and co for rescuing minidisc from the pits of digital obsolescence! 💽

@rcajavus8141 Жыл бұрын

I truly think its a matter of months till someone makes a brand new MD format drive/player just by how much popular the format has became in last couple of years

@OlenkaJoerg2003 Жыл бұрын

Hi Mat! I'm the author of the NetMD wizard. I have to thank you for your great videos. Actually you are the reason why I'm still tinkering with NetMD. Even more you are also the reason why I'm now the owner of 3 tape decks and various MD devices ... still looking for a Reel to Reel. 😂

@Techmoan Жыл бұрын

Great to hear this - a welcome antidote to the ones who complain I'm increasing the price of MD devices by publicising work by people like yourself. My only aim was to show how this old tech lives on in the 21st century. I'd rather people use this stuff, than it ended up in landfill. Thanks for all your work.

@GameSack Жыл бұрын

Thanks for this video! Works great with my MZ-N505 on my Mac Studio and Edge Browser. USB is connected to a hub and I can't remember if that has a dongle or not, I have so much stuff connected to this machine. Man where was all of this back in the early 2000s? I would use the Sonic Stage ONLY for titling the disc as I did not trust it to deal with the audio well and I recall it having extreme limitations as well. If I can, I'm gonna rig up a computer and take it back in time and give it to myself in 1993.

@dwindeyer Жыл бұрын

I've been an active member of the minidisc reddit for some time, and it's been great seeing the progress of the community. 6 months ago asivery posted a tech demo running arbitrary code on a NetMD recorder using simple animated characters to now having full blown data extraction inside WebMinidisc. And I imagine more will be coming.

@WrenFJ Жыл бұрын

I remember that! It's so cool to see how quickly so much progress has been made.

@craigedgar2828 Жыл бұрын

Thank you for alerting me to the obvious fact that there is a minidisc subreddit

@Light-DelaBlue Жыл бұрын

i want the same for HI-MD but sonic stage is CRAP! and platinum md dont even work corectly with HI-MD

@CBitsTech Жыл бұрын

I've never used Reddit, but I'm quite into MD (hence my KZfaq channel). Do you have a link for the MD Reddit please to help me get directly there? Thanks.

@Greenhourglass Жыл бұрын

im really glad theres still people working on this stuff. i hope someday i can get the money to get a player, i was worried by the time i do everyone wouldve forgotten about them again and gave up on making them work lol

@windsnowandstatic9075 Жыл бұрын

The ever loving care hobbyists will do to keep the MD alive.

@DrumLaFlamme Жыл бұрын

When I did radio back in the mid 2000's we had 2 rack mounted MD players that had all our ads and station call signs on different MD's. Good times.

@jdatlas4668 Жыл бұрын

I've been irrationally interested in this ever since you mentioned NetMD in your original MiniDisc history video despite the one player I own not even supporting NetMD, so this seems like a great start into the weekend.

@colday74 Жыл бұрын

Morning Matt. I use my MZ-N707 to create minidiscs with the soundwaves of old 8 bit machine tape based software. This way I can still have a 'tape based' experience with my old CPC464 and others. Took a little mod of the CPC but works a treat. Same noises but now from a minidisc.

@only1ydk Жыл бұрын

6:14 "If you don't have the dock, then you're stuffed." Oh, lord, that threw me into a laughing fit.

@npr1300A8 Жыл бұрын

Your channel is the best around for honest reviews of everything tech, new and retro. I have purchased dash cams on the strength of your reviews. Thank you. 👍🏻

@matambale Жыл бұрын

On top of their efforts, you just added a very clear tutorial for the process. Nicely done.

@djimpulsion Жыл бұрын

Having recorded a bunch of live material over the years with this, it's given me hope of digitally transferring these to pc without analog interference. Since my NetMD unit had failed a few years back, i've actually purchased a functioning unit today from Ebay and am looking forward to hopefully now transferring my collection to pc! Thank you for this update!

@djimpulsion Жыл бұрын

@@Tipo-F120b Why does it bother you that much? Call it what you will, either way I still have a plethora of material ;)

@caddelworth Жыл бұрын

@@Tipo-F120b I believe "a bunch of …" is a colloquialism which periodically goes in and out of fashion/popularity with USA-dwellers. I've frequently heard them use the term for all sorts of items since at least the 1960s, if not earlier. It's definitely (?) an Americanism originally, though I have heard it used form time to time by people native to some areas of England.

@cfredrics Жыл бұрын

This is really helpful! After twenty five years of wanting one, I finally got a NetMD player a couple weeks ago and have been wondering how to get my MP3s onto it! Thank you!

@stuartleckie Жыл бұрын

Loved the mini Mat popups on this one. I’m part of the very fun, active MD group on Facebook. I’m always impressed with what folks can do with the discs, both in terms of putting music on them, and printing up some awesome art. A fun way to listen and enjoy music. Great video !

@alextirrellRI Жыл бұрын

I have a HiMD portable that I bought for my college choir concert tour of Italy. In 2006, it was definitely the best budget way to get a good recording at the time. I need to go through my discs as I used to use the data storage feature as well.

@flibblesan Жыл бұрын

This brought back a lot of memories. Back in the early 2000s I had an Aiwa AM-NX9 and it was really nice to use, making my own compilations for the weekly commutes to and from Manchester. I tried a lot of MP3 devices back then but nothing was as good to use as the Aiwa, plus with it using standard AA batteries it was way more convenient to use over something that had a built-in rechargeable battery.

@rockemsockemyall Жыл бұрын

Minidisc videos are the best. Techmoan is the only reason I've made uk minidisc purchases to get my collection going

@craigedgar2828 Жыл бұрын

My love of/with music cemented itself with MiniDisc = finally we have quality AND control

@lmoore3rd Жыл бұрын

This is good news as old Sony software from the 2005 era often contained "extras" that would be frowned upon today by security experts. I have a NetMD player I'd like to get working again this weekend. Sounds like a fun project for me.

@spacedandy7553 Жыл бұрын

I really appreciate the time and effort you put into your videos!

@stemid85 Жыл бұрын

Wow what a flashback, I actually remember using sonicstage sometime between 2001 and 2004.

@ianlariviere Жыл бұрын

Thank you! I've had some important personal recordings stuck on various minidiscs for close to 20 years! Basement guitar and drum recordings with my brother. The amps are sold and the drum set sits dusty since his heart attack; but the recordings are now safe.

@Madjed2024 Жыл бұрын

As usual you are an audio treasure hunter Matt Thank you so much for such an informative video I now can use my blank MDs

@am_pm.17 Жыл бұрын

Seems the only formats of note that Techmoan hasn't covered yet are UMD and CD-i.

@BanazirGalpsi1968 Жыл бұрын

Also one of the advantages of a dedicated music player vs a phone is the music doesn't have to act weird when you get app notifications etc. Also physical media is not subject to corporate deletion of things you paid money for. Digital purchase that are stored in the cloud can be deleted by someone other than you at any time and your just out of luck. MD, CD,Vynal records, compact cassettes etc, that is not the case. They are yours. (more or less. Obviously it's up to you to enforce copyright and between u and God and the law if not, but the copy on physical media is yours )

@Jxnxdoe Жыл бұрын

Proud to be part of the MD community 🎉

@moviebod Жыл бұрын

I watched your video twice. What an amazing piece of software. I can't wait to try it out. Thanks.

@CoolDudeClem Жыл бұрын

In my opinion, 2002's audio tech is still modern to me. I'm still a cassette and vinyl guy. Also anything that uses a subwoofer or resembles a "surround sound home theater" system is modern to me.

@wal Жыл бұрын

It’s great to know there are so many audio geeks out there…makes me feel more normal 😎

@tenchuu007 Жыл бұрын

This video makes me so happy. Glad this great medium isn't resigned to the bin.

@VOByRobbins Жыл бұрын

Great video and yes, those creators making this software are definitely keeping MD alive!!!!! Thank you Techmoan, love your videos and I love MD! have been using it ever since I saw its intro at the CES show back then--! Thanks!!

@tobiassaibot5417 Жыл бұрын

I love my MD Decks. Its good to have something physical in my hands. I create every year my own " Best of " Minidisc and make copys on Tape for my Carstereo Tape Deck. A lot of fun.

@halbmetallmensch Жыл бұрын

Every time you post a MD video I feel like it would be cool to get a MD player again because I loved it back then and I think it was a very cool format! But then I think that I probably wont use it at all in the end and it would just collect dust 😅Thanks for the great video!

@cromulence Жыл бұрын

The fact that you can connect to USB devices from a web browser without any real driver headaches is MIND BLOWING. Seriously. I don't think people realise how many headaches compatible drivers caused on Windows 95/98/ME/2000/XP/Vista. Being able to control such an archaic old device from a web browser is nuts. Seriously impressive stuff.

@Jason-Scott Жыл бұрын

An old chap gave me a new JB930 for free about 14 years ago and after a week or so I moved house and ended up just leaving it in the cupboard with a bag of discs. About 12 months ago I took it out the moth balls and it’s a super player and all the discs I did on my original deck in late 90’s early 2000’s still play perfectly.

@hermanmunster3358 Жыл бұрын

Fantastic! I have been looking for a way to rip content from old MS's to my PC. I have an MZ-N520, so hopefully, I can rediscover some of my old recordings, and transfer them on to other devices which are more convenient to use these days. Fingers crossed, I can get it all to work. Thanks Matt, much appreciated. 👍🤜🤛👏🥂

@matbarker9208 Жыл бұрын

Thanks Matt for this video. Fed up having to use a virtual machine to emulate Windows XP just to use Sonic Stage. Can confirm this works within Vivaldi browser on Windows 11 with my Sony MZ-N710

@gilbertg.8501 Жыл бұрын

Wow, my grandma and I found my aunts old minidisc player and some old disks. It’s the 707 machine like you showed. Unfortunately the only really audible disk was of her having an argument with her health insurance a short while before she passed away from cancer in 07. Hearing her voice was bitter sweet, she was my dads little sister

@stylesuxx Жыл бұрын

Oh man yearly MD fix coming in - love it!

@nate_river_ Жыл бұрын

Anything that empowers the archivists of this world is a good thing in my book. Who knows how many of those disks out there may have something of note on them? In particular, I've seen first-hand the joy and comfort that data retrieval can bring to those suffering the loss of a loved one.

@MegaTrolleybus Жыл бұрын

I've been using Platinum MD (windows/Linux) on my N707 and it works great.

@Charlie-tn7df Жыл бұрын

THANK YOU SO MUCH! I never thought I could use NetMD these days! And thanks for all the other videos. I get so much inspiration.

@devikwolf Жыл бұрын

I've been wanting to use my minidisc players more often recently, but not being easily able to create an MD album like I used to has made it into a project I just don't have time for right now. Really excited for this video!

@IanSlothieRolfe Жыл бұрын

I really miss my portable minidisc. I loved that you could get a load of music, with exchangeable media, and listen for hours with a single AA cell. It seemed so much nicer than the cheap MP3 players that came after it (I would never have justified a iPod or similar high end device) and yet was small enough to stick in a pocket or in one of those armband holders you used to get. I lost it in a house move and only have a mains adapter to remind me of it :)

@kirknelson156 Жыл бұрын

I still use my MD, usually when taking my dogs for a walk. I thought it was amazing how long the single battery last.

@Uzeless Жыл бұрын

There are loads still available to buy. The one Mat (and I for that matter) has is a 707 and is quite popular and relatively cheap to pick up. The best thing about it is it runs off one AA battery and it lasts AGES!!

@fsfs555 Жыл бұрын

MDs actually had Mac support in the early years (mostly with track renames and label printing) but they dropped it with NetMD, likely because of the iPod/iTunes. But they reintroduced Mac support with HiMD, though it was just a basic upload/download manager (no SonicStage or iTunes-esque music library system). I still use an old XP-based VAIO notebook with a NetMD Bay Module for managing MDs though I do most of the recording on hi-fi decks, primarily for manual control of gain between tracks but also for occasional analog source recordings. I may have to try Platinum-MD.

@Geoff920 Жыл бұрын

Thanks for this video. I inherited the Sony MZ-S1 a while back and I really wanted to put it to use. Your video told me exactly what to do.

@theslatepipebanjodraggers8980 Жыл бұрын

It's been great to use webminidisc to go through all my md's I've recorded on going right back to the late 90's and to tidy them all up. I've always loved the format and now more than ever. 😍

@rommee Жыл бұрын

IF ONLY they made MiniDiscs enabled for direct data burned onto them like in 'The Matrix 1' movie and 'End of Days' - it would have truly lived on longer.

@kevinh96 Жыл бұрын

They did. MD Data was such a format, designed for PC use but it never really took off. Later consumer HI-MD minidisc models could also act as a USB storage device but again it didn't gain widespread use as by then USB sticks where a thing and more convenient.

@rommee Жыл бұрын

@@kevinh96 I have the HiMD but was never able to do much with them 😒 You're absolutely right they didn't catch on and if Sony made it more of an open source format/ media or plug and play they could've probably done so much better with the MD format.

@video99couk Жыл бұрын

I like the idea of digital copying from MD. At the moment I do that with an optical output from MD to a digital audio recorder, but it's a bit of a faff. I also have a Mac Mini M1. It doesn't like me and the feeling is mutual. Yes Sonic Stage was awful. Just as bad as Movie Shaker from Sony which I got working again recently for copying from microMV tapes.

@caddelworth Жыл бұрын

It's always been fascinating to me to discover how much really terrible _software_ Sony have created down the years, given that they also manufacture very highly regarded professional broadcast-grade _hardware_ … !

@srtgrayfrance Жыл бұрын

This is really timely, I just found an MD that I wanted to transfer and was planning to do an audio recording, now I don’t have to. Thanks Techmoan!

@asotomayor 8 ай бұрын

You're a hero, and the developer of Web MiniDisc Pro. I used Zadig, it downloaded the correct driver for my MZ-N707 and voila! it connected immediately. I am now recording music on my MD unit :-)

@stuartburrows8747 Жыл бұрын

Apple breaking or not bothering to implement standards properly. Should be able to plug a usb device into a usb socket and have it work. Great video as usual, just another reminder when I'm tempted by a shiny Mac that I will stick to pc

@hirprimate941 Жыл бұрын

I loved minidisc I even bought a car stereo with one. There aren’t many old gadgets that I look back fondly on and would happily go back to using if the modern phones didn’t exist. I imported a Sharp player from Japan which was the last minidisc device I bought. It is still so tiny, sleek and cool I bust it out once and a while and play old mix MDs.

@kennyadvocat Жыл бұрын

Great video! I have a whole box of MD discs i had recorded of my live concerts back in the day. Glad we can finally download them directly. Yes i use to have to replay all the audio back to my computer then burn a cd. Most of them i just left on my MD disc tho.

@jonathanlau1221 Жыл бұрын

Thank you for making this video Mat! On a whim after watching, I dug up my old MZ-N710 NetMD portable and tried to get it to work with my Windows 11 PC. Surprisingly, all 3 NetMD programs worked and managed to talk to my device! I didn't get too far with the MD Wizard though, as it would keep skipping over some tracks I had selected for transfer and had some issues with importing other tracks. Platinum MD seemed to work best for me as the user interface is straightforward and seems to just work well. I'd have continued to keep my NetMD recorder stashed away had you not made this video and brought these programs to my attention. The last time I recorded a disc via NetMD was a couple years back, running SonicStage on my older Windows 10 PC that took me a while to get set up and functioning.

@theclovercross Жыл бұрын

This is gold content! I still use sonic stage on an old laptop that I need to boot up in a separate mode to get it to work. What I use minidisc for is mainly stuff that ain't up on Spotify.

@cosmicrain4345 Жыл бұрын

Thnx to this video my Net MD MZ-N707 is back to life after so many years...so many memory's...thanks a lot!

@GiovanniBurla Жыл бұрын

Recently I bought an MZ-N710 NetMD Walkman and in the beginning I've used the modified version of Sonic Stage but I dont' like to use old piece of software on modern Windows. Especially on Windows 11 old drivers prevent the core isolation protection to start. Web Minidisc is the perfect solution. In my case it worked perfectly with the generic USB driver and everything now runs flawlessly. Windows 11 is happy because no old unsigned drivers present, I'm happy because I can use a simple clean modern software and my MD's are happy because they can be easly managed. I'm glad you did a video about this software, I think it can be very useful and informative form may people. Thank you Mat!

@PeterStilwell Жыл бұрын

Amazing. Just got this working on my Old mz-n710, even managed to download a track. Well done to all involved and thanks for sharing this.

@jamesbarry6248 Жыл бұрын

always loved the MD format ,glad to someone else who did as well.

@PrincipalAudio Жыл бұрын

Oh no, minidiscs! I once had a temporary job at a Spanish radio station to edit a minidisc to remove short gaps and dead air. I told them I would prefer to use some software to record it onto so I could edit it offline. Unfortunately they didn't have any software, and I subsequently discovered there were only so many "edits" (track cuts) that could occur on the minidisc device before the file table became full of the edit points. Basically, the minidisc recorder could only handle so many edits to remove gaps and silence in between tracks, so once I reached that limit I couldn't make any new edits. The only solution would be to record everything onto a new minidisc (via analog recording) and then continue editing on the 2nd minidisc. The 2 hours worth of editing I did ended up with the tracks not being used on air because of the limitations of the minidisc file system. Thought I'd share this as it's something most people probably don't know about minidiscs and the track editing feature limitations when using minidisc players/recorders. :)