by Jerry Vigil
The MiniDisc format has been around for several years, but it hasn't yet captured the consumer market as planned. Call your local music store and you might find it difficult to even locate prerecorded MDs, let alone blanks. It's the analog cassette that continues to thrive as the consumer's recording medium of choice. It's cheaper, and the quality is better than ever. On the other hand, the professional applications of the MiniDisc format are much more attractive. In effect, this format is the same as the recordable CD, only less expensive. And with the availability of equipment like Tascam's new MD-801, the MiniDisc is likely to begin making some serious inroads into studios in and out of the broadcast field.
The MD-801 is available in two models. The MD-801R is the record/play model, and the MD-801P is the playback only model. This review will examine the MD-801R.
Expecting to see the familiar brown Tascam colors when unpacking the unit, I was pleasantly surprised to see a very attractive black box with dark grey controls. Upon power up, the large amber LED display put the finishing touches to an already good looking front panel.
The back panel provides both balanced and unbalanced analog I/O on XLR and RCA jacks. There is XLR digital I/O for the AES/EBU format and coaxial I/O for S/PDIF. A parallel port and an RS-232C serial port enable remote control from external devices. A keyboard port connects a PS/2 type keyboard for easier entry of track titles and remote control. The power connector completes the rear panel.
A recessed power on/off button is at the top left of the front panel. Just under this are the headphone jack and headphone level control. To the right is the slot for the MiniDisc and an eject key. The load/eject mechanism is incredibly smooth and quiet. You have to listen closely to hear any noise at all when ejecting discs.
The transport controls are at the bottom left. There are the usual PLAY, STOP, RECORD and READY (or pause) keys. Forward and reverse TRACK keys cue to the previous or next track. Press several times to cue past several tracks. The transport control keys are all large and feel durable. Above the PLAY key is a smaller CALL key. Pressing CALL will locate to the beginning of the last recording or to the location stored by pressing the READY key, whichever has occurred last. During playback, press the READY key to enter Pause mode. Pressing the READY key again stores that location in memory for later recall by pressing the CALL key.
Above the RECORD key is the JOG key which engages the large concentric JOG/SHUTTLE controls in the lower center of the front panel. In the JOG mode, the inner control is used to easily cue to any point with single-frame accuracy. There are 86 frames per second so cuing is very precise. (Once a point is located with the JOG wheel, this is a good time to press the READY key to store the location into the CALL key's memory if you want to return to this point.) The outer SHUTTLE wheel is basically your fast-forward and rewind function. The more you turn in either direction, the faster you go.
The large LED display is easy to read and provides ample information. The top portion provides track and time information in various formats selected by pressing the TIME key. The center section is a text area where track titles, menu selections, and other information are displayed. The lower area of the display is dedicated to bargraph level indicators.
At the far right are four slide switches that select the input and record modes. The top INPUT switch selects Unbalanced Analog, Balanced Analog, or Digital. The DIGITAL INPUT switch selects Coaxial or AES/EBU. The ANALOG INPUT switch selects between Uncalibrated and Calibrated. In Calibrated mode, the left and right channel input level controls are bypassed and levels are set to standard +4 or -10. The fourth switch gives the MD-801R a very valuable feature; the RECORD MODE can be set to either Stereo or Mono. In Stereo mode, you get the standard maximum of 74 minutes of recording time per MD. In mono mode, the time doubles, providing 148 minutes of full bandwidth recording. That's almost two and a half hours! (The sampling rate is fixed at 44.1kHz and ATRAC 5:1 data compression is used.) The left and right inputs are summed in analog mono mode. In digital mono mode, only the left channel is recorded.
To the left of the input level controls is the PLAY MODE key. Playback mode can be set to Single which causes the unit to stop when a track is finished. In Continuous mode, the unit will play to the end of the last recording. In A-B mode, the unit plays back the area between two user-defined locate points. Press the REPEAT key to repeat playback of the disc, track, or segment between points A and B. To store a point in location A, simply press the MEMO IN key followed by the LOC A key. Cue to the place you wish to store as point B. Press MEMO IN and LOC B. Together with the JOG/SHUTTLE wheel, cuing to precise points and storing them in these locate points is very easy, which makes using the editing functions of the MD-801R a breeze, as we'll discuss in a moment. The MEMO IN, LOC A, and LOC B keys are also used to title tracks.
It's very easy to loop music on the MD-801R using the LOC A and LOC B edit points together with the REPEAT key. Many digital playback devices, like CD players, offer repeat play modes, but they don't offer a seamless loop. The MD-801R does so by using an optional RAM buffer, the BU-801 ($249). The buffer also provides "instant start." For radio applications, the buffer is a must.
Pressing the AUTO READY key causes the unit to enter the Play/Ready mode after a selection is through playing. There are several operating modes of this function dependent upon the setting of the Play mode and whether or not the Repeat function is active. The AUTO CUE key activates the unit's "cue to audio" function. When PLAY and RECORD are pressed to begin recording, a track ID gets written immediately. So, if you press PLAY and RECORD then input a signal a few seconds later, when you select that track, it cues to the point where PLAY and RECORD were pressed, not where the actual audio starts. The MD-801's Auto Cue feature fixes this. Press AUTO CUE to have the unit cue up to the first frame with audio on it. The threshold level can be set between -54dB and -72dB.
The MENU key accesses several system parameters. The JOG/SHUTTLE controls function as data wheels in this mode. The pitch control amount is set here. Once set, use the PITCH CONTROL key to turn the pitch control on and off. The amount of pitch is adjustable in .1% increments +/- 9.9%. Set the Auto Track Numbering level here. This is a threshold setting that causes the unit to record a new track ID every time the input level rises above the threshold. This is much like a DAT deck's Auto Start ID function, but, as mentioned, it does not record the initial track ID based on this threshold setting. Other Menu selections let you turn the frames portion of the time display on or off, set the length of the jog play loop, display the operating time of the spindle motor, or how many hours the laser pickup has been used for recording. Set Copy IDs to prevent digital copying of the MD and more.
A lot of the MD-801R's features are packed behind one small key labeled EDIT. The MD-801R doesn't present itself as a 2-track digital audio workstation in the sense that it is designed for complex digital editing, but there are plenty of functions that enable one to perform many of the tasks given to DAWs. The Divide function basically creates a track ID at any point on an existing track. If you have three tracks on the disc, cuing to the middle of track 2 and executing the Divide function will write a track ID at that point and give it ID number 3. The original track 3 is renumbered to track 4. Let's say you're using the MD-801R to record a series of five tags. Record them as one continuous track, then use the Divide function to separate them. The Combine function is basically the opposite of the Divide function. It combines two separate tracks into one, but they have to be consecutive tracks such as track 6 and 7. If these tracks were combined, the new track number would be 6 and track 8 would become 7, track 9 would become 8, etc..
The Erase Track function does just that. The Move function doesn't actually move audio on the disc but moves a track with regards to the sequence in which it is played. So if you wanted track 7 to play after track 2, Move it to position 3. All other tracks are renumbered accordingly.
The Erase A-B function erases audio between LOC A and LOC B if these two points have been previously set. The two "ends" are brought together, so this acts more like a "splice" function. The Insert A-B function removes the audio between marked LOC A and LOC B points from its original location and moves it to a new location on any track. The destination edit points create new track numbers and all other tracks are renumbered. If you're using the Insert A-B function to build a single track with several pieces from other tracks, you'll end up with a production consisting of several tracks. The Combine function is handy at this point to create a single track from several edited pieces. When making edits, the MD-801R goes into a Rehearsal mode and plays back the new edit repeatedly. You are given the option to accept the edit or abort it.
Other functions in the Edit mode include the Restore function. This function restores previously erased audio. If you've erased several pieces of audio, this function restores them all, as long as they haven't been recorded over. You cannot select individual tracks to restore. The manual states that restored stereo tracks can sometimes come back as mono tracks and vice versa. The Track Attribute function corrects this. The Erase Disc function wipes the slate clean. The Title function lets you title discs and tracks with up to 99 characters. This is more than can be displayed at one time on the LED display, so long titles are scrolled across the display. It looks pretty neat. It seems unusual, but there is no Copy function on the MD-801R.
Like computer discs have FATs or File Allocation Tables to tell the computer where everything resides on the disc, recordable CDs have a TOC or Table Of Contents. The MD-801R refers to this as a UTOC or User Table Of Contents. When an edit is made, a red LED lights next to the TOC WRITE key. This lets you know that edits have been made that have not been recorded to the disc. To record the edit information, press the TOC WRITE key. The display reads "TOC Writing" for a few seconds then returns to the previous screen and the red LED goes out. What if you made an edit you don't want to keep? Don't press the TOC WRITE key. Instead, eject then reinsert the disc or turn the power off then back on. It's not the prettiest undo, but it works.
I didn't have access to a PS/2 keyboard to use with the MD-801R, but there are several features added when one is used. Programmed play of up to 25 tracks is possible. When the BU-801 RAM buffer is installed, the twelve function keys on the keyboard become "Flash Start" keys for tracks 1 through 12. Autolocation to specific time addresses is possible as well as remote control of the transport controls and editing functions. And obviously, entering track titles is much faster with the keyboard.
The MD-801R has a short learning curve, is very easy to operate, and is a great addition to any production studio. It's ideal for capturing voice tracks quickly and storing them for later upload to a workstation or multitrack reel. Edit voice tracks. Store often used sound effects and music beds. Build complex music beds for concert and record spots. Use it as a mastering deck. And its uses are certainly not confined to production. The MD-801R is a great mini-workstation for your news department with its versatile editing functions and mono recording mode providing 148 minutes per disc. Of course, there are uses in the on-air studio as well. Promos, IDs and other programming elements can be dedicated to MD. An entire hour-long stereo program can be assembled and edited on a single disc, complete with commercials and IDs, or put a 2-hour talk show on one disc. Each air personality could have their own collection of sound effects, beds and IDs on their own MiniDisc. Just think of things you now do with a 2-track reel, a cassette, a recordable CD, or a cart machine. The MD-801R can handle many of these tasks and then some.
With so many choices these days when it comes to digital recording and playback media, it's difficult to decide upon a format that will satisfy everyone's needs. Do you get MiniDisc machines for all the studios to replace the cart machines? Or do you look for that perfect hard disk system and dump everything to SCSI drives? What about all the DAT machines you now have? Perhaps the answer is to decide on several formats instead of one. Let's not forget that before there ever was digital, we were using three record/playback formats: reel-to-reel, cassettes, and carts. Make that four if you used a 2-track and a multitrack reel-to-reel. Perhaps, when the last analog deck leaves your station, there will be three or four digital formats remaining. With machines like the MD-801R available, the MiniDisc could easily be one of them.
Specs on the MD-801R include a sampling frequency of 44.1kHz, frequency response at 20-20kHz, signal to noise ratio >92dB. THD is less than 0.008%. The MD-801R lists for $2,499. The playback only version, the MD-801P, lists for $2,399. MiniDiscs cost about $10 each, give or take a dollar or two depending upon the length (typically 60 and 74 minutes) and where you buy.
♦
