Online Shopping - Buyers Guide For Mini Discs

For many people the Compact Disc has replaced the vinyl record as the main source of music in the home. CD's offer better sound; they are more robust and have many convenient features. The same demand has now been made for portable and personal systems, which is where the Mini Disc comes in.

The Mini Disc is designed to bring better sound quality and greater convenience to music heard on the move. Although the cassette is still a convenient portable way of listening to music it cannot match that offered by CD. What is more, features such as fast track access, easy search and the ability to program tracks in any order are not possible on tape.

WHAT IS A MINI DISC?

Like the compact disc, the Mini Disc is a digital audio system, which stores music as computer code - a series of ones and noughts. A Mini Disc is just 64mm in diameter, or roughly half the size of a CD. A Mini Disc is also lighter than a CD or cassette making it ideal for portable audio.

Despite its size a Mini Disc can store up to 80 minutes of high quality digital sound, or double this when it is in mono audio mode - ideal for recording speech. A further advance in technology, Long Time Recording, extends recording time by up to four times.

Mini Disc offers more than just high quality sound. A Mini Disc has a range of features that make it even more flexible than the Compact Disc.

HOW DOES A MINI DISC WORK?

Mini Disc is an optical system like CD and uses a laser. But the two systems work differently and are not compatible although you can copy CD audio on to Mini Disc.

Although a Mini Disc is much smaller than a CD, a Mini Disc can store the same amount of music because it uses a smart digital compression system called ATRAC (Adaptive Transform Audio Coding). Mini Disc uses a magneto-optical recording and playback system. Mini Discs are coated with a special mixture of chemicals whose optical characteristics can be altered by high temperatures. During recording a laser heats the chemicals to well above the boiling point of water. This allows the laser to change the optical characteristics of the recording layer to store the music as computer code. During playback a lower powered laser reads the digitally recorded music.

MINI DISC VS TAPE

Mini Disc is a much more robust medium than the tape, which as we all know, can snarl, tangle and snap.
Mini Disc can also be used and reused millions of times and its recordings are robust too - unlike audio and videotapes.
Mini Disc recordings are not affected by magnetic sources like loudspeakers.
The Mini Disc recording does not deteriorate no matter how many times the Mini Disc is played.

MINI DISC VS RECORDABLE CD

Unlike the recordable CD (CD-R) Mini Discs offer text display and various editing and titling features not available on CD-R.
CD-R discs cannot be reused like the Mini Discs.
CD rewritable discs (CD/RW) can be used many times but are far more expensive than blank Mini Discs and are not compatible with many of today's CD players.
CD/RW is less flexible than the Mini Disc, as tracks cannot be selectively deleted or edited.

TYPES OF MINI DISC

There are two main types of Mini Disc, blank and pre-recorded.

Blank Mini Discs
Blank discs are used for making personal recordings and have a sliding tab, which can be used to stop any further recordings being made.

Pre-recorded Mini Discs
The number of pre-recorded Mini Discs is increasing all the time and there is now a fair selection of titles that can be purchased in the larger music stores.

USING MINI DISC

To Play a Mini Disc
This could not be simpler, you just pop the Mini Disc into a Mini Disc player and press the play button and you're off! Many Mini Disc players will also let you program the order of the tracks for playback.

Recording on Mini Disc
This is simple too. Recordings can be made from virtually any music source including CDs, FM radio and satellite, some Mini Disc systems may also allow you to download music from the internet. Whenever digital-digital recording is made the copied version is virtually the same as the original. Some Mini Disc models now offer high speed dubbing which greatly reduces the time taken to record a CD.

Editing Features

Move:- Imagine Tracks A, B, C and D have been recorded. With Mini Disc they can be shuffled around to say, A, D, C, B.
Erase:- A specific recording can be deleted, such as track B, or all tracks can be erased.
Combine:- Two tracks can be combined into a single one. For example A and B.
Divide:- An extra track can be inserted into the middle of two existing tracks, such as dropping track G between tracks A and B.
Tilting:- Many Mini Disc players include an LCD screen, which can be used to display a song or artist name or album title. Titles can be added to personal recordings by using the LCD and controls on the player.

TYPES OF MINI DISC PLAYER

Although Mini Disc is primarily a portable audio format, Mini Disc offers a wide range of players including personals, portables, standalone decks, audio systems and in-car units.

Personal Mini Discs
Many of the latest Mini Disc personals are incredibly small and light, and most Mini Disc personals run off rechargeable batteries, which give many hours of playing time. Mini Disc personals are ideal for listening to music on the move, as you walk or jog, because they include an anti-shock system.

Personal Playback Machines:- These play pre-recorded Mini Discs or tracks made by a home Mini Disc recorder.
Personal Mini Disc Players/Recorders:- These can be connected to an audio system or other music source for recording.

Mini Disc Portables
These are "boom boxes" which often include a CD player and tuner. Recordings can often be made from a CD and tuner on to a Mini Disc.

Mini Disc Decks
These are designed to fit into the home stereo system, Mini Disc decks are either mini - or full sized, and can be linked to a variety of audio sources. Many Mini Disc decks include CD synchronous recording, which means that a single button can be used to start the CD player and the Mini Disc together. Some Mini Disc decks are double Mini Disc decks for easy dubbing or convenient playback. Mini Disc decks may also feature a time/date recording system and large LCD screens.

Mini Disc System
Most Mini Disc systems are wither micro or mini in size. Mini Disc systems often include a CD player (or changer), Mini Disc recorder, tuner and cassette deck. Mini Disc systems are designed to make it easy to copy from various audio sources.

In-car Systems
The compact size of Mini Disc, high quality recording system, fast track access and anti-shock system make Mini Disc a good candidate for an in-car system.

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