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Regan Inner circle U.S.A. 5726 Posts |
I am having soem major problems with the music on my minidiscs. Last night I was arranging a grouping for a show, and I lost everything on 2 discs! I had 3 duplicate discs, so I am down to 1.
I was trying to record a few songs on some of the discs so they all matched. Everything seemed fine, and I was labeling the songs and they were playing. Then, when I took the disc out of the minidisc player/recorder and later reinserted it, a message came up that said , "Cannot read or record disc" (Or something similar). I could not get it fixed. It told me I had to press cancel or enter, (when cancel was pressed the same message would come up, and when I pressed enter, the "No audio file" message came up). Everything seems to have been erased! I was shocked and dismayed! I put one of the other discs back in and it did the same way. I did not want to lose my last copy, so I spent most of the night copying everything back onto another disc. I had most of the material recorded on a backup disc, and a lot of it labled. Then I started having problems getting some of the tracks to record. It would seem to record, but on playback they were mostly silent with some squealing and static-like sounds. I erased these problem tracks, and tried again. All the while, the earlier tracks I had recorded still played fine. Then, some of the those tracks began to give me problems. They were still there, and titled, but they were silent. It finally got down to where only songs from one group would play. I took this disc out, and again, the dreaded " Cannot read or record" message came up, and I had lost all the material on the backup disc. I am afraid to remove my last disc from the minidisc player. It's still doing fine, but when I removed the discs is when it seemed to happen. I have no idea what is going on. I have used minidiscs for many years, recorded thousands of tracks in various ways, and never had any problems at all. Does anyone have any ideas about what could be wrong, any suggestions for a fix, or just some advice for me? Thanks for your help. Regan
Mister Mystery
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ClintonMagus Inner circle Southwestern Southeast 3997 Posts |
Sounds to me like the player mechanism might have been knocked out of alignment, the discs might have finally "bit the dust", or the electronics are messed up.
I have never had a problem with my MD players, but I have had issues with some CD drives giving me similar messages when the CDs would read fine on other players. I wouldn't think the discs are actually erased. If you have access to another MD player, see if the discs can be read. If so, there is probably a problem with your player.
Things are more like they are today than they've ever been before...
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Regan Inner circle U.S.A. 5726 Posts |
Thanks Clinton. I tried to play the discs in 3 different minidisc players. All of them give the same message. I'm scared to death I am going to lose the music on the one disc I have left. I'm not going to dare and take it out of the player until I can get some of my busy show schedule caught up. If it will keep playing I can make do for a little while. I'm scared to change the playlist, or anything now.
I am making some backup CDs for the shows I have coming up this weekend. I also have some festival shows coming up, and those will be trouble. At some of them I do several shows per day. Normally I have some different playlists (1 for each show that is different) set up on the seperate discs. I won't be able to do that right now. If I can find the time I may try and re-record copies on some other discs, but I'm going to test it....a little at a time this time. I wasted half the night and half the day messing with it today, and still lost all I'd done. It may be ime for an iPod??????
Mister Mystery
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ClintonMagus Inner circle Southwestern Southeast 3997 Posts |
The only other thing I can imagine is that something happened to the "host" MD player that caused it to write to the MD in a form that could only be read by that player. I had this happen with a 3.5" floppy drive once.
I have a pretty good amount of experience with my MD recorders/players, and I can't imagine any situation that would cause an automatic deletion of everything on the disc. If I were in your position and had this much at stake, I would give Sony (assuming that's the manufacturer) tech support a call NOW! Please keep us posted. There are a lot of folks out there who could face the same thisn one day.
Things are more like they are today than they've ever been before...
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hugmagic Inner circle 7655 Posts |
Regan,
I can't help you with the specific problem. I have always kept a cd of my music in the raw and finished formats so I can use it. I also keep a set on my computer in the Itunes. I can easily rearrange or burn another disc at anytime. It should like the player is going. I had a digital camera card reader that did the same thing. It blanked out the card when I removed it from the camera. That reader went in the trash quickly. Richard
Richard E. Hughes, Hughes Magic Inc., 352 N. Prospect St., Ravenna, OH 44266 (330)296-4023
www.hughesmagic.com email-hugmagic@raex.com Write direct as I will be turning off my PM's. |
Regan Inner circle U.S.A. 5726 Posts |
Thanks Clinton and Richard. It is weird. I've never had any problem at all similar to this. I have tried 3 minidisc players, all Sonys. I'm still scared to remove the one working disc. I have got to hope it gets me through thhe rest of the week. I have some big shows scheduled and I am going to need it.
Richard, I have my music backed up on iTunes also, and I use CDs sometimes. However, with longer shows (1 of mine this weekend is a longer show) I don't have enough space on CD. The reason is that I use lot's of silent tracks between the audio tracks so I just have to push 1 button each time I need a track played. Downloading music from iTunes to minidisc is difficult (I don't even know if it can be done) and relabeling everything is going to take forever! I had hundreds of tracks on 3 duplicate discs, all grouped appropriatly so I could find what I needed easily. Trying to get everything back the way it was is scary to say the least. I have been thinking about an iPod anyway. I love the minidisc, and I may still keep them for my musical purposes, but it seems to be a lot easier to transfer music to/from an iPod/computer. From what I understand the labeling is transferred also, and this is a biggy for me. There's no way I could begin to keep up with everything I have on the discs without labeling the tracks. There are disadvantages (for my needs) with an iPod vs. minidisc, but before I try making 2 more copies of my minidisc again I think I may give in an make the switch. Regan
Mister Mystery
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hugmagic Inner circle 7655 Posts |
Can you burn it to a jump disc, ecxternal hard drive or dvd?
Maybe just make a audio tape of it, or split it into two files that you could put back together again. Ipod still is not rugged enough for my liking when traveling. I would try to get an answer from Sony on this. It is weird. Richard
Richard E. Hughes, Hughes Magic Inc., 352 N. Prospect St., Ravenna, OH 44266 (330)296-4023
www.hughesmagic.com email-hugmagic@raex.com Write direct as I will be turning off my PM's. |
Regan Inner circle U.S.A. 5726 Posts |
Richard,
I can burn the tracks from iPod to multiple discs, and transfer them back to minidisc with a digially with my CD burner/player. The problem is that the transfer back to minidisc would be in realtime, and it takes forever bacause I have lots and loats of silent tracks of various lengths, and many, many songs and special effects, etc. I need at least 3 copies so I can have 3 different show playlists set up. I don't need that many very often, but there are some festivals I do where the shows are really close together and I do up to 3 different. It helps to have the shows preset so I don't have that to worry about. All I have to do is change the disc and it's ready to go. On my minidisc I have my tracks catagorized into around 10 groups. I'm not looking at it right now, so going from memory, I have it set up something like this: Group #1 is left open for my show list. Group #2 is my long silent tracks (That way I don't have to worry about stopping the player after the show is over) Group #3 is the short silent tracks Group #4 is all my routine songs Group #5 is my postshow songs Group #6 is my various introductions Group #7 is audience chasers Group #8 is special effects Group #9 is preshow/postshow announcements Group #10 is preshow music (some without announcementsand some include announcements) That is pretty close to how I have it set up. There are hundreds and hundreds of tracks. Recording 2 copies in realtime will take a lot of real time! And worse than that is the relabling of all the tracks!! I'm like you about the iPod. I worry about them, and don't know if I could ever trust them or not. My daughter's will freeze up now and again, and the only way she can fix it is to lat the battery drain until it goes dead. Then she can get it going again. Also, I've heard that the units "sleep", which can cause a delay that I just can't have in my shows. However, I don't really think this would be a problem for me because with the silent tracks mine would never pause. Also, I guess they only operate by battery, so I imagine you need to remember to keep them charged up. I have not looked into or heard much about the new generation iPods. I know I would like to have a larger screen, and a backlit screen would be nice. I love the minidisc, and mine have been trouble-free until this. It's very disgusting though. I have spent years and years collecting and editing my music. I finally got it set up really well, and to lose it so quickly is very disheartening. Regan
Mister Mystery
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Chezaday Inner circle Naperville, IL 1673 Posts |
We've been using the Mini Disc since it came out, I use nothing else. I do however carry my music on a back up CD .. just in case. So far we've never had a problem with the MD.
The iPods are great for walking .. but, I don't trust them for a show. My set-up includes a Sony MD in a rackmount case. It helps absorb some of the shock that comes with travel. Now it's pretty much considered old-school technology .. everyone else has their act on an iPod. Steve |
Regan Inner circle U.S.A. 5726 Posts |
Steve, I know what you mean. It seems most everyone jumped on the iPod bandwagon, but I love and prefer mindisc. I've never had any problems, and that is why it is so baffkling. I mean, if I did something wrong, I cannot see how it happened 3 times! There is definitely something going on with at least 1 of my player/recorders. I always keep a backup CDs also, with enough to get me by, but I have never had to use it.
I have the MD software installed, but I hate it. When I installed iTunes it sucked all my material out od the Sony program. I didn't mind though, becuase the Sony software was awful. I did transfer some things, but I hated using it. It tracks the number of transfers also, and will only allow 1 or 2 if I remember correctly. If it transfers the track labels back and forth, it may be worth a try to see if I could make a couple of disc copies that way. However, I think it had denied certain tracks the last time I tried to use it because it recognized that they had been downloaded more than they allowed. Whatever I do, I do not want to mess up the disc that is still working, nor do I want to transfer the tracks into the Sony program and have iTunes "steal" them away again. If I could transfer the entire disc into the MD program without losing it from the disc, and then transfer back to make 2 duplicate copies, that would be the most wonderful thing in the world! Well, that is if the groupings and especially the track labels remain intact on the new copies! It may be worth a shot, but right now I can't take a chance on anything until I get caught up a little bit. Regan
Mister Mystery
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MAGICBYTIM Special user Louisiana 531 Posts |
I switched to the iPod because of the sony program. It would not allow you to transfer from the md to the program (computer). If you can figure out how to do that then you figured something out that I couldn't. If the software allowed more than two transfers I would have stuck with the md.
As far as your problem, can you play it out of the md to your computer and capture it. You will still have to rename everthing but you will have all your music. The real time record back to md can be done at night or while you research the rest of the problem |
ClintonMagus Inner circle Southwestern Southeast 3997 Posts |
For what it's worth, here's something I found online:
Quote:
Minidiscs record a Table of Contents (TOC) at the end of each track, creating pointers to where the data resides on the disc. The most common problem with minidisc recording is lost or damaged TOCs making the audio inaccessible. Be careful to allow the recorder to finish writing the TOC after you press stop, try not to jiggle or bang it before it finishes, don't try to eject the disc until you're sure it's done. And watch your battery levels: if the battery runs out while you are still recording, there's no power to write the TOC, and it will appear that you have no audio since the last time the TOC was written. Also, http://www.minidisc.org has a LOT of useful information.
Things are more like they are today than they've ever been before...
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hugmagic Inner circle 7655 Posts |
I never used the sony program. I guess I lucked out. I just used the minidisc like any other recording device. I did an input and recorded.
Richard
Richard E. Hughes, Hughes Magic Inc., 352 N. Prospect St., Ravenna, OH 44266 (330)296-4023
www.hughesmagic.com email-hugmagic@raex.com Write direct as I will be turning off my PM's. |
ClintonMagus Inner circle Southwestern Southeast 3997 Posts |
An addition to my post above:
Also, http://www.minidisc.org has a LOT of useful information. Why not post your question in their forum http://www.forums.minidisc.org ?
Things are more like they are today than they've ever been before...
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Regan Inner circle U.S.A. 5726 Posts |
Tim, thank God I still have everything on computer.
Clinton, thanks for that link. I will check into it when I get more time. If this had happened only once I would have thought I goofed, or that maybe a disc had went bad. But it happened 3 times! I was not using the Sony program, I was just using line in/out. I've done this hundreds or thousands of times without a problem. See, I was adding some recently recorded tracks to all my discs to get them updated. I was using 2 MD player/recorders (Sony MZ-NH900). Everything seemed fine, until I reinserted the first disc I had updated. That’s when I got the message that the disc could not be read or recorded. Immediately I checked disc #2, and it did the same thing. I did not dare remove the remaining good disc from the player it was in. I then tried to make a backup copy, and all seemed to be going well. Then, as I was labeling the tracks, I discovered that the songs in group 8 and 9 were not audible….except for occasional squeals and static. I erased the songs in those groups and found out that my other songs were missing. The unit showed the track was there, and the titles still showed up, but they were not audible. Every time after that I tried to record the level indicators appeared to be recording correctly, but I only got the squeals/static. I am wondering if maybe one of my MDs has a problem. That’s about the only thing I can think of that makes sense. Maybe the remaining good disc was recorded in the “good” unit that it is still in. I cannot be sure as I was using both units back and forth. I may find out that this disc goes blank like the others though, so I am not going to remove it from the player it is in just yet.
Mister Mystery
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