mini disc to mp3 ...please help me !!!!

[noony]

I am a cabaret singer who uses and works my own small pa systetm on stage.I use mini disc to play my music tracks I'm thinking of changing to mp3 but i have no idea where to start looking. I don't even know what they look like ,i don't want a small portable thing ..do they come full unit size ? can anyone tell me the following.....

1.i would be wanting to transfure my tracks dicetly from mini disc..can you do this?

2.I want to keep my tracks in set compartments so i can find them in the way i'm used to (not in abcde etc... order..can i do this?

3.can you get BIG screen version or very easy button acsess ...its so dark on stage! ?

what models would you sugest based on all this, thank you so very much for any help...

[IvanSC]

laptop with a touch screen.

I have a mate who programmed his whole show in MIDI including his own guitar preamp changes and a full lighting rig.
Uses W Media Player and a touch screen.

Word to the wise: If you do decide to use mp3s on a lappy, make sure you have at least one spare laptop with you on gigs.
And all your stuff backed up on DVD or CD.

[ROLO46]

Remeber ATRAC is better than MP3

Why not use a lossless codec

You could use Apple lossless,I-Tunes and Front Row on a Mac

Ie a tiny remote control for the lappy

Roger

[Hugh Robjohns]

1.i would be wanting to transfure my tracks dicetly from mini disc..can you do this?

You can.... but I wouldn't.

MiniDisc uses a form of data reduction called ATRAC, and on its own it's pretty good.

MP3s use adifferent kind of data reduction, and provided you keep the data rate high (about 256kb/s) it is also pretty good.

But copy material recorded with ATRAC into a system using MP3, adn the quality will drop quite dramatically -- it's a bit like copying cassettes, but with nastier and more obvious artefacts!

You would be far better going back to the original recordings you used as the source for the MiniDiscs, and copy those to MP3.

Hugh

[John Willett]

Following on from Hugh - as MiniDisk is already a compressed format, it's best to convert to uncompressed wav files - this way you keep the quality as-is without degrading it any more.