Introduction

^*Digital transfer possible with a Sony MDS-JB980 or Sony MDS-JE780 NetMD deck.

Pros

• Unattended uploading. Select the tracks and start the process, return to find titled MP3 files in a folder on your hard drive.
• Track beginnings and endings accurately determined from NetMD information (program currently leaves <1.5 seconds of silence at the beginning and <100ms silence at the end of each uploaded file).
• File names and ID3 tags are created directly from MD track titles.
• Handles SP, Mono, LP2 and LP4 tracks.

Cons

• Transfer occurs in realtime.
• Transfer is conducted over an analog^* connection.

Software Required

• Win NetMD (Christian's freeware package) -- includes initial documentation.
• Microsoft .NET Framework (free download [20MB]).
• PC running Windows 98/ME/2000/XP.
• Sony NetMD Drivers (on CD shipped with NetMD equipment).

Hardware Required

• Sony NetMD unit with line or headphone output (e.g. MZ-N1, MZ-N505, MDS-N1, etc).
• Stereo patch cable (with 1/8" stereo phone plug on each end -- see photo).
• Optional: Griffin Technology iMic -- US$35 analog stereo LINE and MICROPHONE input to USB adapter. Although untested, this should yield much quieter recordings than those from a typical PC soundcard.

Instructions

1. Make sure the Sony NetMD drivers have been installed.
2. Download Microsoft .NET Framework and install it.
3. Download Win NetMD and install it.
4. Connect the stereo patch cable between your LINE/Headphone output and your PC's LINE input.
5. Play an MD and use the Windows "SOUND RECORDER" program (under Programs -> Accessories -> Entertainment) to record a bit of audio to make sure the cable is good and audio levels are set right. Adjust input levels if required (Control Panel -> Sounds and Audio Devices -> Audio -> Sound Recording -> Volume. You may need to select Options -> Advanced Controls, then click Advanced and turn on or off the Microphone Boost).
6. Connect your NetMD unit to your PC's USB port.
7. Exit OpenMG Jukebox if it starts.
8. Start WinNmd. It should read the track names and display them in a window.
9. Select the tracks you want to transfer, then "right-click" on one of the selected tracks and choose "MD==>PC"
10. Choose the destination folder and the bitrate (don't choose an invalid bitrate! Stick with standard MP3 bitrates, e.g. 128, 192, etc).
11. Click OK -- transfer starts.
12. When the "progress indicator" (which does not progress) disappears, the tracks have been transfered.

I think the combination of a NetMD deck (the MDS-JE780 starts around 250€ these days!) which features S/PDIF-out and a decent PC soundcard with S/PDIF-in together with Win NMD (automatic track splitting, which seems to be exact in its current version, and on-the-fly MP3 encoding if you want) does a good job in terms of automated uploading of your recorded stuff, with the ability to preserve also SP-mode quality. It's only realtime but can be done completely unattended, so it's not too bad. And if you convert your WAVs to SHN or APE format, which are lossless and achieve compression factors around 50%, you avoid generational recompression loss. This means that you end up with about 450MB of data for a 80 minute SP-recorded MD. Acceptable with a 4.7GB DVD in mind (e.g. for archiving purposes of PC-edited material).

(A decent soundcard doesn't mean expensive! On the contrary, the SoundBlaster Live! family (and similar) is bad in this regard, as it inherently does a resampling to 48kHz which means two resamplings if you record to a 44.1k WAV! I recently replaced mine with a cheap Zoltrix "Nightingale Pro 6" (available for 40€ at www.pearl.de or 60€ at www.my-minidisc.com, the latter one in English and with international shipping available) which can run at 44.1 kHz natively and has been shown in reviews (to be found on the Web!) that it is able to store the incoming data bit-exact.)

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