Podcast
Features
CommentsI have a Mac G5, which has optical in and out ports. I record using a Sharp MDR, which has an optical line-in port. For one-on-one interviews, I use two binaural Viper lapel mics, and the end of those I plug, of course, into the mic-in port on the MDR. To play back into my Mac for editing, I record my MDR’s contents into Peak, using the headset (remote) port on the MDR, and the analog cable that plugs into that port.
Works fine, but what I really want to do is take advantage of my digital capablities, and use those optical ports! My MDR came with a cable that seems to do me no good. One end is 1/8″ to fit into the MDR, and the other is optical. I tried plugging the optical end into my optical out port on my Mac, and then playing back some sound from my MDR, into Peak, like I usually do — BTW, I had the 1/8″ end of the cable plugged into the headset port, which is how I normally record into my Mac.
Alas, NO sound at all! My uneducated guess is that I need a different cable. My MDR’s docmentation is really, really BAD and shows no optical hook up between the MDR and a computer, only a diagram for optical hook up between speakers and the MDR.
Any help is greatly appreciated!
Lisa
I have some sad news: that optical cable is for getting audio INTO your minidisc, not out of it.
And unfortunately, the inputs and outputs on minidiscs, and computers, and all other audio devices are one-way-streets, that is to say you can’t get audio out of an input, or into an output.
The other issue is that even though the cables sometimes share connector types, digital audio is a different animal from analog audio, and you can’t simply plug one to the other with a wire, no matter what kinds of adapters you have.
The headphone out of your minidisc recorder is analog, the optical in of your computer is digital.
That cable you have is for plugging into the digital OUT of a CD player or other such device, and into the digital IN of your minidisc, which depending on the model, might (confusingly) share a physical plug with the (analog) line-in, but is in fact, a digital input.
So, where does that leave you? With your current equipment, you can’t use the optical digital inputs of your G5 computer to load sound from your minidisc. If you get a minidisc player that has a digital output (not many do, mostly fairly expensive rack-mount studio models) you could connect the digital out of that mindisc player to the digital in of the computer, but otherwise, you’re out of luck.
You could get an external analog to digital converter, but those tend to be expensive, and you’re still starting with the analog output of the minidisc, you might as well get a USB or firewire audio interface. There’s nothing inherently better about the G5′s built-in optical jacks.
Sorry!
Thanks for the info, Jeff. My husband told me that he had read somewhere pretty much what you just told me, but that this "one-way" scenario is based on copyright protection so people can’t lift music or other people’s work. Regardless, I understand what you’re saying, and why I can’t do what I want.
What a drag! But tell me this — I can use my Transit USB as a booster for transferring sound, can’t I? I mean, wouldn’t that at least make the quality of the sound input better when I transfer it to my Mac? It’s not that the sound is bad now, not by any means, but I want to make the most of what I have, and I want to have the best results possible given my equipment.
Thanks again!
Lisa
You can indeed use that M-Audio Transit USB interface to improve the quality of your sound input. I don’t know if it will be a huge improvement, but it is a device specifically designed to do that, and will likely sound at least a little better than using the computer’s mic input.
The Transit isn’t so much a "booster" as a purpose-built audio interface. Plug the Transit into your computer’s USB input, then plug your minidisc’s line-out or headphone out into the line in of the interface, then select that interface as your audio input in the Mac’s sound control panel. (system preferences>>hardware>>input). You should be good to go, but if you aren’t getting sound, check Peak’s preferences and make sure it’s looking to the Transit as the audio input too.
That should work, and is about as good quality as you’re going to get without getting a recorder with a digital output, or one that can do direct file transfers, (again, few and far between, and expensive!)
Hey Jeff, got another question for you when you get a chance. I tried using the Transit USB to play files from my MDR to Peak, but I get no sound. I’ve checked and triple-checked to make sure that in both Peak and my Mac’s preferences, the Transit is my audio in device. Still no sound!
The Transit has 3 ports: line, optical, and line/optical. When I connect my MDR cable using line, I get no sound. Optical is no-go, of course. But when I connect using the line/optical port, I DO get sound, only this sound is incorrect in pitch. At first listen I thought the playback had slowed, but it hasn’t, according to my playback counter — it’s the pitch of the voices.
Meanwhile, I’ve been SoundSoaping the daylights out of my audio files to remove what sounds like tape hiss (although I’m using MDR!). This is working, but more laborious, of course.
Any ideas? Thanks in advance!
Lisa
Hi Lisa,
as you discovered, the input on the transit USB is that jack labeled "line/optical" which can take an analog in-in or an optical digital input. The "line" jack is an output that can be connected to a line input of a mixer or amp, or you can plug headphones into it. Same for the jack labeled "optical," that’s an output.
If you’re recording from the analog in, there’s no easy way to get the pitch messed-up. What could be happening is that the recording process is OK, but the playback is off-speed.
When you are done loading in, go to your recording software’s preferences and turn the audio inputs off, or switch them to some internal setting. It could be that Peak is looking to the Transit interface for an input clock, but if you don’t have anything plugged-in to the interface, it might output a weird signal that gives an incorrect clock signal.
And if your sound is hissy, you might not be recording loud enough onto the minidisc, there is some residual noise from microphones and the minidisc’s circuitry, not tape-hiss, but noise nonetheless. If you have to increase the gain of your soundfiles significantly, you’ll get hiss.
Also, try another cable, a new stereo mini-to-stereo mini, to connect your minidisc to your interface. If your cable is bad, you might get some sound, but not enough, and you end up amplifying what little sound you got, and along with it all kinds of normally low-level noise.
Does it sound clean when you listen to the minidisc directly on headphones?
This is making more sense now. I see what you mean about Peak looking to the Transit for an input clock. I’ll try what you suggested about turning the audio inputs off in Peak. Nothing else is plugged into the Transit, BTW.
And I think what’s happening regarding my hiss situation is that I’m probably not recording loud enough.
Regarding my most recent interview and the hiss I got from it, here’s where I think I made my mistake — at home, testing sound levels with the minidisc, 25 seems to be the optimum recording level (I believe 30 is the highest). When I got to this guy’s office, naturally the acoustics were different where we were recording, and after doing the sound check, I backed off to 15. It just sounded so loud in my headphones, and I felt like I should back it off. In retrospect, I didn’t take into consideration that he and I were in a pretty bare, small conference room, so the acoustics were a whole lot different than at home.
My husband says I should have left the recording level at 25, regardless of how loud it sounded in my headphones. I’m now inclined to agree…
What do you think about that? If the levels are good and the sound is very clean in one place, should you just leave the levels alone? Of course I don’t have a meter on the MDR, just a pulsing line that indicates the volume. I checked that when I was recording this last interview, and it stayed about mid-range.
What is a good rule of thumb for recording level, when you’re using a recorder that doesn’t have a meter? Or is there a rule of thumb?
Thanks!
That pulsing line is a meter, not a very helpful one, but a meter nonetheless. You may need to experiment a bit to see what that meter is really telling you. I wouldn’t just leave it at one setting, the circumstances will change, and you’ll be best setting it each time.
If you’re using the same microphone every time, you’re likely to want pretty close to the same levels, so your husband was onto something, but it’s still best to tweak it evey time.
One crucial thing that’s not as obvious as it should be: there are two volume controls, one for the record volume, one for the headphone (monitoring) volume. On a Sony minidisc, the record volume is sadly down a few pages in the edit menu. Check your model’s instructions, but usually one needs to go into record mode, then pause the machine, then hit "edit" then scroll through a couple of choices until one gets to "record volume" and switch that to "manual". Then use the up and down buttons to adjust that manual input level until you get a good healthy level on that pulsing line/meter, keeping the levels up near the top, but not so high that it will distort.
The volume up/down buttons on the top of the machine are for the headphone volume only, and do not affect the levels that are being recorded. So if things sound too loud in the heaphones, turn that volume down a bit so it’s comfortable to listen. But leave it loud enough so you can hear what’s coming in your mic, so you can listen for distortion, or P-Pops or other noise, and adjust your position accordingly.
You’ll likely need to make some test recordings and get used to where to set your record levels based on the coarse metering the minidiscs provide, that little line is not very accurate, so you can get bad levels even if you carefully watch that meter.
But again, if it’s too loud or quiet in the headphones, go ahead and adjust the volume on the top of the machine, but pause the recorder and go into the menu to adjust the record volume to get a good bounce on that meter, toward the top, not just mid-way, but not slamming the very top.
Give that a try!
I’ve got a Sharp minidisc (it’s a DR480H), and I’ve been thinking about what you said about cables and researching my options. Lo and behold, today my husband received this email from Outward Sound:
>>
Dear Sharp MD owners:
We’ve been searching for some time for a perfect output cable to take advantage of the high-quality "1-Bit" amp found on your Sharp MD. We couldn’t find one, so we had one made by our friends at Mic Madness. 6′ top quality cable, gold RCA plugs mated to the elusive 4-pole 1/8" stereo connector for the Sharp. A great way to improve sound quality for listening or transfers, just $24.95 and guaranteed for life.
http://www.outwardsound.com/product/cables/340/
>>
I couldn’t resist, so I ordered one and will pass on my findings once it comes and I do some experimenting!
Lisa