It’s a long time since I looked into this but at that stage it certainly wasn’t possible and from reading that I would say real time recording is the only way you’re going to easily transfer the audio.

I think the issue is that ATRAC is a codec like – but different to – MP3 and AAC. Since support for it is low, it doesn’t look very easy to simply copy off the ATRAC files and convert them.

Recording the optical output seems the best plan (it could output a WAV that way if you’ve optical-in); and that, sadly, means real-time copying. Doesn’t look as if there’s an easier way.

I’m in a similar situation to Stuart and this is something I’ve been looking into – with much the same outcome.

It looks like real-time dubbing is the only way, which means it’s not going to be done in the immediate future as it’s hardly a high-priority job.

Looked at this a few years back too & doesn’t seem much has changed. Best bet is to play all the tracks into a PC in realtime & make it split the files on silences.

Annoying, slow, but sadly the only way.

Loved MD back in the day, never managed to kill one yet, despite running over large numbers of them which slid off the dash (who didn’t just throw them up there?!) flew out the open car window going round corners in summer!

Yes you can convert from Mini-disc to a computer file version of the ATRAC file and convert to WAVE using the right model (one of the last) Net-MD recorders and the right version of SonicStage software.

I’ve done it.

I’ve even successfully copied “pre-recorded” mini-discs this way. Which is a surprise as I’m sure most (consumer) MD decks used to flag the copy control bit on the digital output when you played these!

I’ll have to report back another day the exact model I used and version of SonicStage.

So don’t got resigning yourself to realtime dubbing just yet.

Alternatively if you know someone who’s got one of the HHB ‘reporter’ minidisc recorders, these have USB connections, but from memory these do something strange like present the recorder as a soundcard you can then record from in real time, but presumably this is just the same as doing it with a S/PDIF connection.

Phil – that’s great to hear! Look forward to hearing full details of what kit I need to do it!!

Stu

Aah, pre-recorded MDs.

I have one: Celine Dion – Let’s Talk About Love. Now! compilations also briefly came out on MD, around 99-00ish.

So for Stuart (and others) the model mini-disc recorder I used to “rip” the audio was a MZ-RH1 via USB to a recent (last?) version of Sonic Stage I downloaded from the Sony Site – I got it following links from the MZ-RH1 support pages. I haven’t got that machine set-up at the moment to check exact version number.

To note I did this on Windows XP, and Sonic Stage only runs correctly as a user with ‘Administrator’ rights – not a ‘limited’ user – this may mean it won’t work correctly under Visa/7 with UAC enabled – not tried it.

When you load SonicStage it gives you all sorts of warnings about Sony’s music download service being now closed – you can safely ignore all these.

You need to load your mini-disc and ‘import’ your disc into the Sonic Stage library (which sticks all your ATRAC files hidden away in some obscure file location under App Data or User Data – not in the ‘My Music’ folder as you’d expect.)

As you import it asks if you want to convert your files to ‘WAVE’ format – obviously say yes to this. From memory this does ask you where you want to save the files, however it still generates the ATRAC files so watch your disc space getting eaten up fast.

In my experience it converted anything – pre-recorded discs, discs recording in all sorts of vintage machines from mid 90’s early models, right through Net-MD discs in Stereo, Mono, LP2 and LP4 formats. I’ve never tried Hi-MD format discs. The software does convert mono format recordings into stereo wave files – but this is just a minor inconvenience.

The steps above are going from memory – so maybe you need to poke around in the SonicStage options and menus to get the convert to wave function, but with a bit of experimentation you’ve a good chance of figuring it out.

Fantastic news Phil – that’s really handy. Don’t suppose you still have the MZ-RH1 and you want to sell or loan it to me?

Looking online it looks like I can get one for around £190….

Even better – looking at the support pages for MZ-RH1 it looks like you can dump all the ATRAC files onto your PC then use this converter to find all ATRAC files on your computer and batch convert to mp3 – http://esupport.sony.com/LA/perl/swu-download.pl?mdl=MZRH1&upd_id=2971&os_group_id=13