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People might think I am a bit obsessive about Minidisc recorders.

The truth is I like them in theory, but get let down by the practice. I am also aware that people often need a good recorder which costs significantly less than £350-450, so I’m going to try and be nice to Minidiscs.

MD recorders can make an excellent recording and even now are still used every day by radio journalists for interviews. The latest Hi-MD system makes easy transfer of the recordings to a PC straightforward and quick, now including Macs too, and it’s almost possible to forget that it never used to be possible at all. All you now need to get going is a minidisc recorder with a mic(rophone) socket and an external microphone and you’re off.

Sony recently announced (Dec 2008) thousands of job losses as it concentrates on key product areas. In such turbulent times it’s hard to believe that it is worth developing new MD products, and I’d be very surprised to see any new MD recorders.

In general:

• Minidisc recorders are small and light, but can be fiddly to operate; most changes to settings are through menu trees.
• File uploads to PCs are now easy to do but only in SonicStage, the software included in the box. There are now no limits to the number of times you can upload one file.
• File conversions can be carried out in SonicStage, but it’s still best to record uncompressed.
• Because they are a consumer device they don’t always work well with professional microphones.

The Minidisc Forum keeps an eye on all things minidisc and is worth checking out.