CMS Author MikeRivers Posted July 14, 2011 CMS Author Share Posted July 14, 2011 Sony this week announced it will stop making its MiniDisc Walkman as early as September, due to a sharp decrease in consumer demand. I can't remember the last time someone demanded a MiniDisc Walkman, or MiniDisc Anything for that matter. The early ones were pretty rocky because of the Sony proprietary data compression, and their copy discouragement system wouldn't allow you to copy an original recording from the disk to a computer. They finally got over that, the later versions of ATRAC file compression sounded pretty decent, and it was a fairly robust medium (when you could find blank disks). Sony came out with a "pro" version not too many years ago that was popular with reporters who were holding on to their cassette recorders rather than switch to DAT, prior to the introduction of the hand held flash memory recorder. I never owned a MiniDisc recorder, but I was tempted for a while. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Jeff da Weasel Posted July 14, 2011 Members Share Posted July 14, 2011 I hardly think that MiniDisc deserves recognition of an "era" of any kind. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members the stranger Posted July 14, 2011 Members Share Posted July 14, 2011 Yeah, I was just coming in here to say exactly what Jeff said. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Zooey Posted July 14, 2011 Members Share Posted July 14, 2011 I am flabbergasted they were still being manufactured. Are they discontinuing laser disc players, too? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members UstadKhanAli Posted July 14, 2011 Members Share Posted July 14, 2011 I thought they stopped making those years ago. Hell. And next you're going to tell me that Elvis is dead. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Anderton Posted July 14, 2011 Members Share Posted July 14, 2011 Minidisc was a fantastic "bridge" technology for me between Walkman Pro cassettes and flash recorders. I can't tell you how many samples I grabbed with that thing, and I used it as part of my live act in the late 90s/early 2000s. I'm not particularly sad to see it go, after all it has been eclipsed by the latest generation of solid-state recorders, but it deserved a better reputation than it had. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Jeff da Weasel Posted July 14, 2011 Members Share Posted July 14, 2011 We sold a good number of MiniDisc machines into places like dance studios and restaurants in our systems contracting division at TASCAM. At the time, they were a convenient format for those who wanted to both record and play back. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members UstadKhanAli Posted July 14, 2011 Members Share Posted July 14, 2011 Even when it was out, you always got the sense that it was a transition technology, much more so than ADAT, which most admitted was a transition technology as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CMS Author MikeRivers Posted July 14, 2011 Author CMS Author Share Posted July 14, 2011 Even when it was out, you always got the sense that it was a transition technology, much more so than ADAT, which most admitted was a transition technology as well. Yeah, and one of these days people will no longer record and mix with their computers, too, again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members SoundMuppet Posted July 15, 2011 Members Share Posted July 15, 2011 I was an early adopter. I used the minidisk as a standard walkman, plugged it into many a DJ deck at some pretty large venues and I even used it for recording working sessions on projects to make sure I did not miss anything. Even fairly recently I recorded a band practice with it. It always generated a great deal of interest, so I guess that it was a relative novelty even in it's heyday. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators Lee Knight Posted July 15, 2011 Moderators Share Posted July 15, 2011 Crap! My whole Minidisc library is obsolete?!?!? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members UstadKhanAli Posted July 15, 2011 Members Share Posted July 15, 2011 Don't worry, you still have your digital cassette library. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Jeff da Weasel Posted July 15, 2011 Members Share Posted July 15, 2011 And his 8-tracks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators Lee Knight Posted July 15, 2011 Moderators Share Posted July 15, 2011 Nope, I backed up to stereo Beta. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members UstadKhanAli Posted July 15, 2011 Members Share Posted July 15, 2011 Ah, good, smart man. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Monkey Mouse Posted July 15, 2011 Members Share Posted July 15, 2011 I have had 4 mini disc decks over the years (still have two - the portables krapped out) and used them in the late 90's/early 00's until CD-Rs became both affordable and reliable. I am lucky enough to have bought one of the Sony DJ models that has pitch control and 8 hot starts like a modern DJ CD drive - only thing was the thing is huge and is desktop, not rackmount! I would have figured it would have died 5 to 7 years ago, but the Japanese LOVE their minidiscs... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Karma1 Posted July 21, 2011 Members Share Posted July 21, 2011 I still use my trusty Yamaha MD4 (4 track mini disc) for when I occasionally do solo performances of ambient electronic music. I have backing tracks and samples on four channels that I do live mixing with along with the synths and midi guitar I'm playing. On the one hand, it's big and bulky compared to today's hand held units, but on the other, it's got a huge lcd display that's easy to read on a darkened stage and it has full sized transport control buttons and channel sliders compared to tiny little buttons. The sound quality is quite decent and I have no plans to stop using it. Although maybe I should stock up on mini discs while I still can. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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