Opinions/Advice Please

[High Fidelity 0]

A local DJ has just given me a couple of flightcases that he has had lying in his shed for a few years for free. The free bit includes whatever is inside them.

 

One of them has a Radio Shack PSM 8080 mixer, a CD/MP3 player and a minidisc player.

 

I'm thinking of giving it a bit of TLC to be both a standby rig & also for my son to use for his own gigs.

 

Has anybody ever used the Radio Shack PSM 8080 mixer and is it any good. I've not even tried powering it up yet as I'm laid up with a bad back at the moment, but the guy assures me it was all working when it was packed away. It looks quite a comprehensive mixer.

 

Also, can someone educate me on minidiscs.

 

I know there small, but can I burn them with my normal CD writer, do they use a special format, and how much can you get on one?

 

Thanks in advance.

[mikeee 0]

Mini disc is a wonderful invention, think of them as a digital cassette, you can record, and record again, and again. No you can't "burn" them. Check the MD to see if it records as well, if so, it should have a line in, if yes, take a feed from your record out on the mixer.

 

I don't know the 8080, but don't knock Radio Shack, I know several professional DJ's that swear by the SM2200. I have a 5050 which I use for recording thing with.

[DJ Marky Marc 0]

I agree , mini disc is great, and ARTRC audio compresion is far better than MP3

[Tonsk 0]

I used to use minidisc all the time - fantastic.

 

If you set it to mono record it records over 140 minutes..... And no one notices its in mono.. At dinner dances, set one going at the start, leave (as it is digital it shouldnt skip) and come back 2 hours later!!

 

Like Mikee said, as its an old one, you will have to record the tracks onto it like a tape. Play on CD and record/play on minidisc. But you can name the track so you know whats there and once recorded, you can change which track it is as well. ie if you know track 1 is Kylie but you think it's a bit too dancy for the very start, you can change it to be track 10, without having to re-record it.

 

Also you can do a-b edit and cut down a track and loads more - fantastic piece of machinery!

[sputnick007 0]

Just trawling through old threads and came across the one about mini-discs.

I always have a full size Kenwood with me as a back up and for music during dinner etc.

Find it really usefull. Just wish it was easier to input the track info on them.

Also I`ve recorded mp3 track in bulk with no problem.

[fester 0]

A hotel I work at regularly host fortnightly "event" evenings which are usually a meal, cabaret then me DJ'ing for the last few hours.

You would be amazed just how many singers and tribute artists still use mini-disc, in fact I think you'd struggle to find many that don't!

Just goes to show what a great format and technology it was, that it is still widely used today.

[djmick 0]

I used to use a yamaha md4 multi-track recorder as both my mixer and recording device, was really funny too see some guys face who had just killed a karaoke song then play it back to him as soon as he was going back to his seat,,

[HiFi-Tower 0]

Mini-discs are such a fun format - it's a shame they never really took off commercially. If I remember correctly, Sony hastened the downfall when they added lots of pesky rights management blocks when transferring files.

 

There are still a few Mini-disc players and recorders still kicking around these days. Many musicians still use them, especially for live recording. The format is very portable and easy to reuse again and again.

[qcdiscodynamic 0]

A hotel I work at regularly host fortnightly "event" evenings which are usually a meal, cabaret then me DJ'ing for the last few hours.

You would be amazed just how many singers and tribute artists still use mini-disc, in fact I think you'd struggle to find many that don't!

Just goes to show what a great format and technology it was, that it is still widely used today.

 

I used to do gigs like that a lot. They were always a laugh but I did see some pretty awful acts too!

 

I've yet to meet an individual singer/tribute act that doesn't use Minidisc. Having just written that, the last one I worked with was using a laptop.

 

Re HiFi-Tower's point about Sony adding pesky rights management blocks when transferring files, I think you're right about it hastening the downfall. Gosh it was annoying! With my last MD player, you had to use the software provided to transfer stuff from the PC to a Minidisc. That was ok to a point. However, you couldn't transfer files to your PC from the Minidisc in some cases, which was a pig if you wanted to make a back-up of a mix you'd done.