That actually makes a lot of sense in terms of the branding. You don't want to make a poor impression on people who didn't get to choose which brand of product they're going to be using professionally because then at home that would make them less likely to want to buy a Sony product for themselves. Additionally, I think it may just be a part of Japanese mentality. Used to work at a factory which made panels for trains and other public transport vehicles and in finishing the workers always distinguish between the side that's going to be seen and the one that's going to be hidden. Basically the hidden side does not need much attention in finishing. We've had a customer from Japan who wanted both sides of their panels to look nice so that the workers assembling the train didn't have to see the ugly side. They wanted even the workers to think it's a nice train.

@@CanIHasThisName That's a good point, I didn't think of it like that. That train story is really fascinating too!

As a kid I used to send video data to my vhs vcr Ona 16 bit computer to encode pseudo digital data on analog tape it was pretty bad never made it beyond terrible low yield error correction

DEVO had one.

@@yourt00bz I made a one-way radio so I could record the sound coming off my black and white TV that was in the basement. I wasn't allowed to bring the tape deck downstairs to plug it in and directly record video game music so I came up with a one way transmitter ... quality sucked but it was awesome because I could finally repeat my favorite video game music songs without having to play the game over again.

@@orangejjay amazing

That's the great thing about it being on the auction block now, YOU CAN

NOC list

The Eraser where the entire plot revolved around running a minidisk which also apparently has some mystical GPS tracking on it too (but hey MI did that too on a floppy disk too)

Oh yeah! Classic nineties plot. 👍😆 Strange Days, Johnny Mnemonic, The Matrix, (coincidentally those three featured Keanu Reeves), Eraser, and Last Action Hero. I'm sure there are other examples but I just happen to own each of the above on the LARGEST optical disc ever made for consumers, the Laserdisc. Still got my MZ-R70 and a bunch of Minidiscs too, so I guess I'm well and truly stuck in the nineties! 😆😆

The Art of War!

@@subliminalvibes The Matrix has a minidisc in it

My thoughts exactly.

Absolutely right!

It is uncontrolled environment, microphones might not be located perfectly, people might be positioned close or far, or speak loud or silent, you do not want a person to baby sit this thing non stop. Instead you just fire it, and it should do its job. A person responsible can then do other things, and only switch this when needed. I would not be surprised if there is some audio cue or signal in the monitoring output that reminds to swap the disc to very long recordings.

@@movax20h ,, AAAs to come to the

A corrupt judge in my country went to jail because she believed an input was muted.

I agree. I wish someone would develop the technology further. Mini Blu-Ray's would be interesting, and inside a case like that would protect them. I realize flash drives are smaller, faster and hold *way* more data, but inserting a disc into a slot is just way more fun then plugging in.

ATRAC is a lossy codec, so you do lossy conversions? For f..n what?

@@deaddycruel that was my first thought ...

Found the guy who's NOT an audiophile! I'm sure they're convenient for pretending they're ... different but PC is easily going to have better recording functionality and able to take advantage of lossless recording. Ngl, I'd love to play with one of these or any other MD deck for that matter ...but I wouldn't use it to record my music. Optical also has some frustrating limits on its transmission.

Some yt comments are always fascinating. Answer to the fascinating pros who seem to know exactly what I do since 1999: have you ever heard the term wip? Is that allowed to record wip’s or collect ideas and after that turning the studio systems on, to make the best recording for the tracks? Answer to people without these problems plus some facts and thoughts about the theme: - 99% I work with an E-MU 1212m DSP System. The ADC is an AK5394A, the same used in Pro-Tools HD 192 I/O of that time around 2006. That’s mastering grade, but... not audiophile for some (you can bet, how many ramters have ever used such a system or... ever compared things like ATRAC vs. no ATRAC). - Headphones are at least beyerdynamic DT-770 and comparisons with others are normal when this model is in use (due to the weakness in its mids). Not audiophile for… - MD takes 16/44.1 at coax in with an inserted MD. Without, it’s called direct monitoring. When an E-MU A2K sends exactly 16/44.1, it fits together like you want to do a session and there are exactly no problems. 10 Seconds and you can play. Oh I forgot: the „bad“ ATRAC… - ATRAC Type-R is not the same as prior versions. ATRACs data compression is not the same as data reduction of other formats. If there is any loss, I can’t hear it (I’m not an audiophile…). But for wip, sessions and ideas, it doesn’t matter at all. It’s better than needed in 100% of those cases because after that, you can select the best ideas and go to the PC with the recording system. - S/P-DIF (coax or optical) generally transfers up to 24/96 digital, lossless audio and with a system like the 1212m, it has a complete stereo channelstrip with all DSP slots and the same functions like the analogue channelstrip (with the m-grade converters) or wave (the strip for everything internal in the PC) or ASIO (strips from DAW sended Audio). - An optical S/P-DIF input connector is the same as ADAT and switchable with a button in 1 second (if ADAT optical is in use, the system switches S/P-DIF to coax, so the 1212m allows both formats simultaneous). In the E-MU system, i’s called Patch Mix DSP and can be read up on the 1212m PDF in the internet. - Optical and coax are always without any limitations. MD to MD or CD with copy protection bits are a problem of the 90s and maybe consumer use, not with studio use if you make own tracks. My first Soundcard was a Terratec EWX 24/96 in 2001 with optical Ins/outs. That was the last time I saw a "limitation". The experience with such a sound card system is far more than reading about it. The same with MD ATRAC Type-R. Or making wips and sessions. So enjoy your MD experience who knows what it means, even when this is frustrating for some people.

@@CurritmoRx again, for what you write and convert something lossless to some lossy and outdated device when any modern Chinese hi-res player can easily play lossless at outstanding sound quality level. You don't need any sessions with player or send something, you can just copy lossless files on micro-SD card. Some of these hi res players have optical out and is cheap like $50-100. For example with IC ESS Sabre ES9218P

Nearly. LP4 is joint-stereo encoding, LP2 isn't, like SP.

Indeed, many years ago. I bought a huge lot of MDs from a seller. They had been using them for a sonogram photo machine. Which the device stored the photos, and enabled them to later be printed.

Yup and if anyone thought this deck was pricy: imagine a piece of tech as niche but also requiring FDA (or any similiar) certification.

If it were out when I was still DJing I would have used it, as that relay playback and mxing on the fly would be a dream for back then.

Didn’t Denon make a DJ unit like your referring???

@@Netm8kr Probably, but more to the market would have been nice.

by high-passing at 50hz and low-passing at 10khz, is probably how it additionally cuts down data size ! and manages those runtime at 44.1 (in adition to compression)

I love Techmoan (and especially his MD videos), but I think Colin has done the best job here.

sometimes those clocks just display the current time instead of the elapsed recording time, as a recording indicator.

also, there was likely an accompanying Windows program for adjusting the gain, compression, and channel mixing over the RS232 serial port, given some similar devices I've interacted with.

Actually, that would’ve given it a longer lifespan. 🤷🏾‍♂️👍🏾👍🏾👍🏾

"The bureaucracy is expanding to meet the needs of the expanding bureaucracy."

I need a Mandela effect to make that happen.

Yeah, it's frustrating when KZfaq does that, but either way, welcome back!

I think it's just the devices serial number. Look at the label that's on the side of this machine right at the beginning of the video.

These multi-track recorders did use a proprietary format. The vendor gave you software that could play them back. With that software you could listen to any number of combination of channels as well as see the index markers in the recording.