4th Run – revisited (Nike+)

Posted on July 20, 2010 by Fresh

It’s about 8:17am. I got into work early this morning (but not early enough) hoping to get into the software lab before my colleagues, to do a run a quick login procedure for a practice demonstration later this morning. Getting in early also allows me to leave early (5pm). With this scorching heat lately, I decided I’d try and run at lunch (no, not outside) but in our fully equipped workout facility on the first floor – complete with three treadmills. If things go as scheduled, I should be down there around 12:30pm (that is if I can break away to go home and forget the shorts I forgot-lol)

Anyway, I was still curious as to why my iPod didn’t record the last run I (umm…”we”) did. I brought it in and decided to have it find the sensor (as I shake it in my hand to simulate walking) and record the data. To my surprise, I booted up the iPod and checked History to find out it DID record the data. Cool. Now when I go home, on the shorts run, I can upload the data to Nike Plus. Gotta love technology!

Here are the run stats:

Time: 8:20pm
Temp: 82 deg
Weather: Sunset
Distance: 1.32 mi
Time 22:52
Pace: 17:13 min/mi
Calories: 178
Type: Run/Walk

Looking forward to the lunchtime run…

Have a great day…
F!

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4th Run – Nike+

Posted on July 18, 2010 by Fresh

Greetings….

Just got in not too long ago from run #4. It’s been a crazy busy weekend and I would have much preferred to run early this morning, but that wasn’t possible at all. That being said, I had to wait until late this evening because of this crazy heat. Lately, my eight year old son has taken up an interest in running since I started, and especially having an understanding how Nike Plus works. He’s always asking for “sensor shoes” and I always gotta tell him they’re not made in his size….yet. Anyway, he begged to go along this time, so we both headed over to PGCC’s track. I knew that it didn’t make sense to log this workout data, figuring I wouldn’t get a consistent run in.

We got there and I took him through a stretching routine then we started the jog. I was pleasantly surprised for two things: 1) We did a whole lap non-stop and 2) Running at his pace told me MAYBE I should slow my pace to his on my regular runs!

We completed lap #1 and walked a cool down lap for the second one. Lap #3 was a job again…all the way through…I’mproud ;-). Lap #4, the final lap was a cooldown walk, followed by stretching. Big surprise was a 5th lap…wow, at his request. It was fun, and in hindsight, I might have done my best time in the mile yet…something I didn’t expect this evening. Too bad I didn’t log this data on the iPod! Oh well.

The plan is to hit the track at 6am tomorrow, but the morning rush to work. Which means off to bed within the hour. Have a good night.

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3rd Run – Nike+

Posted on July 17, 2010 by Fresh

Good morning crew.

6:00 am: On the move this Saturday morning. Getting ready to head out for run #3. Busy day ahead … 3 rehearsals with three different church choirs (eyein’ my guitar beside me). Finishng up this protein shake, be back later.

7:24 pm: Back from the run. I run at a community college track, at which I arrived at 6:30am. Even at the time there were already folks running and walking, with the parking lot across the street continually filling up. You can’t say these people are not serious about fitness if they are out there at 6:30 am. The temperature was already 76 degrees and the sun was out.

I warmed up by walking two brisk laps and people were still coming in. As I hit the second lap, a guy was slow walking ahead of me. There was a woman walking a little faster behind him. As she was about to pass him, he said good morning. At about two paces ahead of him, he says to herDo you come out here often? (oh boy at old man trying to get his mack on). Ha!

I finish the second lap, stretch the legs, hit the center button on my iPod Nano, and start Nike Plus for the 1 mile run. First lap is good, still trying to get my form right where the stride is easy (daggone shin splint). I brisk walk the second lap, checking my breathing regulation. This run is, so far, better than the 2nd one. Third lap I begin the run, but do only three-quarters. At 6am I had that protein shake, and at the three-quarter mark my stomach was reminding that I only had that shake about 45 min ago. I listened to my body and walked the last quarter lap.

I like “Honey” giving me my distance reminders while my workout jams are flowing in my ears. When I hit one mile, “Congratulations, your workout is complete, please hit the menu button to stop the workout” (which I did). I get back to the car after stretching some, and do just a few more calf raises to stretch them and the shin areas out, then head home. Already getting hotter outside, I noticed a low lying, thin fog. It’s supposed to hit the upper 90s again today. On the way home, I’m listening to my playlist and Honey says “Workout activity paused, please hit the center button to resume workout” (Uh oh….grrrr). I let it go, as the Nike Plus screen is not even showing. I get home to check my workout data – none record. Ugh. Buttons and screens, got it right last run, flubbed it this one…oh well. I’ll FINALLY get it correct!

Ok here are the run stats:

Weather: Clear and sunny
Tenperature; Approx 76 degrees, slight humidity
Duration: 6:30am to 7:10 pm
Distance: 1 mile
Time:About 10 mins (last run)
Run Type: Walk/Run
Run Classification: So-so.

Busy day ahead, next run will happen, at best, Sunday evening around 7:30pm.

Have a good weekend!

peace,
F!

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2nd Run – Nike+

Posted on July 13, 2010 by Fresh

What’s up follks? Hope all is well. In our last episode (my first run), I had issues with the iPod Touch seeing the sensor, but that’s old hat. Today I took my second (official) run, which incidentally was a run/wallk. I have no qualms about being a beginner runner, the most impoirtant thing is to get my form right and build up my endurance.

I got to the track about 7:05pm and found it full of activity – excercisers, runners, walkers, joggers. I walked two laps as a warm up and started the run. My current issue, as it is with most beginners, is the dreaded shin splints condition. I attribute it to the way my running form is. Since doing some reading and watching other runners, I thought that I’d try coming down on my toes/balls of my feet vice heel to toe. I tried that today and though I still suffered some shin splints during the run portions, it wasn’t as bad as this past weekend.

I happened to run into a long time friend who is also running for a reason. We chatted and caught up on stuff during the walk portions and he extended the offer to be a running partner…I might take him up on it. I do a lot better on the track than street running, at least for now, so I think that’ll be the plan.

Ok here are the run stats:

Weather: Overcast to rainy
Tenperature; Approx 80 degrees
Duration: 7:05pm to 8:15 pm
Distance: 1 mile
Time: 13:27
Run Type: Walk/Run
Run Classification: So-so.
My run stats at NikeRunning.com

As the skies grew dark, I did some calf raises for a few minutes. Surprisingly enough, that eased the shin splints a great deal, to the point where my lower legs weren’t feeling too bad at all.

That’s about it for now. Thursday, I’ll be back into my gym regimen (free weights and Cybex machines). Thumbs up for having a free, well equopped workout room on the first floor of my building.

Have a good one….

peace.
F!

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1st Run – Nike+ iPod (Nike Plus)

Posted on July 10, 2010 by Fresh

Greetings readers…

I hope this post finds you well. Some of you that have known me for years also know that I regularly try to exercise and have been working out more on than off since college. For those that regularly exercise, often times it can take just *one* break to get you to fall off the fitness wagon for a good long time. I suffered such a break and have been off the wagon for about TWO YEARS (thank goodness for muscle memory and a decent knowledge of a good diet), luckily during that two years, people still have occasionally asked me if I work out, so that’s a good thing.

In the same vein, some of you know I’m a techie and a mild gadget guy. Being such, one of the gadgets I own and enjoy is a 2nd generation iPod Touch. Late last year when I graduated up from a failing 1st generation one, I noticed it came loaded with the Nike Plus app. I knew of the Nike Plus system primarily as an app to track runs. There are many other free and paid fitness apps at the iTunes store, a few that I tried, but I paid no attention to the Nike Plus app.

Unsatisfied with being off the wagon for so long, I recently took another look at the Nike Plus app and then went to the website to see how this thing really works. I first found out that the sensor in the sports kit transmits data from your work to your iPod at 2.4 GHz…that immediately interested the techie in me (wireless transmission anything gets me, and as an engineer, I’ve worked for years in fields that use it). Now that I became more interested in it, the biggest thing I wasn’t interested in was……running. I never really cared for it and REALLY had my share of it while pledging a fraternity (Alpha Phi Alpha) in undergrad. During those 12 weeks I had to run just about everywhere I went…in combat boots…class to class, class to the dining hall, dining hall to my dorm, my dorm to class…you get the picture.

Consequently, from a fitness popularity standpoint, all I saw around me regularly, were runners. Since I let my World Gym monthly membership go, I wanted to adopt another form of exercise that would get me in shape and keep me that way. After some thought, running seemed to be the best. I went back to Nike’s site, and became wowed not only by their marketing of Nike Plus (this IS Nike, right?) but the resources that it offers to new and season runners alike. Still loving this whole tech + fitness combination, I became even MORE interested.

Nike (unsurprisingly) makes special shoes that house the sensor which sends the data to your iPod Nano or 2nd Generation iPod Touch. The most popular shoes in the Nike Plus line are in excess of $80….I have NEVER paid $80 for a pair of sneakers in my life and wasn’t about to. Even the New Balance and Nike crosstrainers I’ve had over the years didn’t exceed that price. So…of course, I hop on the net to find out other ways of using this sensor on non-Nike Plus shoes. Unsurprisingly, I found hacks, mods, and actual products that allow you to use the sensor with other shoes…hence saving you money if already have running shoes OR don’t prefer Nike shoes for whatever reason (I’ll provide some links below). Along with some Google search results, I decided to hop to my fave place for info, Twitter, to get some feedback on those in my stream that run and post their results to various places on the web. I got feedback by those who use the Nike Plus shoes and those who don’t…a perfect sample size to help me decided which way I want to go. Primarily, I didn’t want to spend that amount of money on a pair of running shoes, but as I gave it more thought, I realized that I’ll be running and should get a pair of shoes designed for that, as opposed to any sneaker. Still seeing some ASICS, NB, Sauconys, Nike and others in excess of $125, I was like…whew. After my three hours of article reading, Twitter feedback, and Nike Plus related videos on YouTube, I decided that as an engineer, I thrive on accuracy. I found that mounting the sensor in the sole of the shoe (as opposed to in the tongue/laces area), would provide the most accurate data results….I couldn’t let go of the need for accuracy LOL (it’s ingrained in my from professional training and being a techie, what can I say?) It was this post that made me decide to get a pair of Nike Plus running shoes (instead of cutting a hole in the current (but old) NB crosstrainers I own (wifey was shocked to see me with a new pair of sneakers on top of that …LOL). That being said, I chose, at $63, the Nike Air Alaris+ (I feel I got the best of both worlds…the tech, and a good shoe at a decent price – think I’ll hit Sports Authority for a second pair):

Fast forward to day one of the run (today). After reading up on how to set up the sensor with iPod Touch, I was psyched to do my first run this morning. The only issue I had was though the sensor was linked to the iPod, when I was prompted to calibrate it by walking around, the iPod Touch couldn’t find the sensor. After a few times last night, I gave up and decided to try in the morning.

I arise at 5:30am, get dressed, grab some juice and a cup of apple sauce and head out. I open the garage door and………….rain….ugh! After watching it for a bit and seeing it let up, I decided to take a first time drive to the nearby community college that has the track that I’ll run on. I stay in the garage and try to calibrate the sensor, but still no luck. The rain let up on my side of town, so I drove out the track and tried once more to calibrate the sensor with the iPod…no luck! Still being excited about the run, the tech, the whole thing. I warm up by walking a few laps. At 7am, in light rain, there were already one runner and another walker. Within 30 mins, another runner and 3 more walkers arrive. After finishing lap 4, I was a bit disappointed that the iPod Touch still couldn’t find the sensor. I knew that it wasn’t necessary to calibrate it but I’m a fiend for accuracy. Being that this was the first time I ever ran for fitness, I stretched, and did one (yes one) lap only. Halfway through the lap, it started raining heavier, but the temperature didn’t make the rain feel that bad. I finish the lap and head home. Soaking wet and still no data to post online, I get home, dry off and hop in the shower.

After the shower and breakfast with my son (who was a lil ticked I didn’t take him with me at 6:30am), I decided to engage in my usual problem solving activity – hit Google search to see if anyone else has had this problem. Sure enough I found good amount of folk that experienced the same. It turns out that the sensor can be put to sleep by holding a small button on the bottom of it for three seconds. Though the sensor, as I understand, is supposed to come in the package awake (ready to use), I suspect mine was sent asleep. I read the guide again (finding nothing about having to wake it upon first use), as well as a few posts online, then flipped the sensor over, pressed the button, placed it back in the shoe, followed the instructions from the iPod Touch, walked around a bit and ….voila…received a sensor found message on the iPod Touch 🙂 Now, I’m definitely happy. I run back up stairs thinking I can do a run around the neighborhood, open the garage and…..rain!. Oh well.

As you can guess, I’m looking forward to my next opportunity for a run AND to be able to post my results on line. I’m excited about joining the Nike Plus running community.

Special shout outs to my Twitterati for the input and advice:

@daniellericks
@bevjack
@fave and Mrs Fave
and my new online running coach (haha..THX!) @FITTorrent

I’m exciting, and hope to keep it alive. Here’s a few links for anyone interested.

Nike Running (Nike+)
Nike + iPod FAQ (Technical)
How To Get Into Running? Your Complete Guide To Running Into Your Best Form
Hacking Nike Plus, Part 1Creating Your Own Nike Plus Sensor holder in any running shoe sole
Nike Plus Sensor Mod (YouTube)
Tweet Your Run Data
Nike Plus on Twitter

Thanks for the long read! Catch up with u later!

peace,
F!

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“Give It To Ya” goes international!

Posted on June 21, 2010 by Fresh

Some of you received an email from me about two weeks ago about a single put out by a group I’m in called C3. Here’s the scoop in case you haven’t seen it:

I am pleased to share with you the debut single, “Give it 2 Ya” from our upcoming EP, Contempojazzsoulhop.

Produced by The Big La and Fave
Lyrics written by Fave
Drums and Sampling: The Big La
Electric guitar: Fresh
Keys and Vocals: Fave

It’s a challenge scheduling our families, careers and other “life stuff” in order to coordinate this project, but it is (and continues to be) a blessing to work with such open-minded, talented and tech savvy brothers. You may download the single using the title link above or from our website. Feel free to share it among your social networks (i.e., Twitter, Facebook, etc.).

In the interim, we appreciate your time and support. Have a fantastic week!

Kind regards,

Fave
_______________________________________
Fave Media | PO Box 301046 • Houston TX 77230
+1 713 568 9089 mobile • AIM: fridayfavecast
www.fridayfavecast.com • www.allthingsfave.com

Well, Fave just contacted us last night with this email:

From: soulunsigned@aol.com
Date: June 21, 2010 1:24:44 AM CDT
To: tomglide1@mac.com, smoothswingrecords@gmail.com, chris.young@nurturemusic.co.uk, funkeepers@mundo-r.com, lars@candycream.de, soulfoodmusicuk@gmail.com, diesler.promo@googlemail.com, dsingleton@gedsoulrecords.com, favecast@gmail.com, breakingartists@btinternet.com, igo1077@gmail.com, soulman1902@gmail.com
Subject: Soul Unsigned Show (Edition 2010-024)

You (or someone you represent) has been featured on this week’s Soul Unsigned show, which was aired on all of the following radio stations –

Jun 16th – Network 1 (UK)
Jun 17th – International Showcase Radio (UK)
Jun 17th – Raunchy Rhythms Radio (UK)
Jun 17th – QFM 94.3 Tenerife (Canary Islands, Spain)
Jun 17th – Exite FM 93.1 Costa Blanca (Spain)
Jun 17th – Positiva FM 96.0 Tenerife (Canary Islands, Spain)
Jun 17th – Radio Bombo FM 100.1 Treni (Italy)
Jun 18th – MRS 90.5 Stockholm (Sweden)
Jun 19th – HearDat (UK)
Jun 20th – Netjazz (UK)
Jun 20th – Kiss FM 91.6 Kristianstad (Sweden)
Jun 20th – APCS Radio (Amsterdam, The Netherlands)
Jun 20th – Key 56 (San Diego, USA)
Jun 21st – Soul And Jazz (UK)
Jun 22nd – MotionFM (Toronto, Canada)

You can hear a full copy of the show on Podomatic –

http://soulunsigned.podomatic.com

Playlist (2010-024)

Tom Glide & The Luv Allstars – Kool party
Oui & Fresh – Steppin out
Max Sedgley – All around me
Funkeepers – Im gonna stay
Candycream – Love what you do
Edei – In my bed (Sed Soul remix)
Diesler – Zebra boogie
DeRobert & The Half Truths – The joy
Crosscountrycollective – Give it 2 Ya
Boozoo Bajou – Take it slow
Jumbo Aniebiet – Love change the world
Groove Stu – Be free
KS – Worthless
YCB – Jazzified

Our Website
If you haven’t previously been featured on a show, a link to you has been added to the “artists” section on the Soul Unsigned website –
http://www.soulunsigned.com/artists.htm

Your Website
We would greatly appreciate a reciprocal link to the Soul Unsigned website on your website and/or myspace page so that your fans and other artists and musicians visiting your website will be aware of Soul Unsigned and what we have to offer.

Thanks

Phil Driver
Soul Unsigned
www.soulunsigned.com

Pretty cool…. Keep ya eyes, we’re comin’ in 2010!

peace,
F!

Posted in Indie Artists, Music Production/Studio Recording | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Organization: A path way to creativity (I need my muse!)

Posted on June 4, 2010 by Fresh

Workin' it out in The Lab

Greetings crew…
Hope the weekend is going well. Mine has definitely started on on a great note – I was scheduled to work tomorrow, but got a call from my coworker (I was off today) that informed me that weekend work has been canceled for the whole test team…cool!

In any event, I spent the last two days redoing a The Lab’s signal flow diagram. Being a systems engineer for a long time, it’s a natural for me to diagram anything that comprises a systems (inputs and outputs) in order to better understand how it works. I don’t like to see any equipment I currently have connected go without some use….that situation has gone on for too long, hence the need to complete this little project in organization. Secondly, after completing it, I knew it would help awaken my music creativity and production muse. Work has been so crazy busy, that creatively (being new tracks and ideas or the stuff I need to complete) I’ve been pretty much spent after work.

I thrive on a certain level of ergonomics and organization of my environment in helping me to create music. Everyone has a different approach to the aforementioned areas, but I know that I need a synergistic balance between them to effectively move through and to the results I’m trying to achieve. For those who haven’t seen it (or seen it in awhile), I’m here typing this blog post:

I’ve been a big proponent on utilizing the expertise on video sharing sites like YouTube and Vimeo to help on learn about many things. For me, the primary area is, of course, music production. I carry well over two GBs of instructional video on my hip (iPod Touch 2G) regularly for watching at my leisure (especially during break times at work, etc). As convenient as it is to have that instruction available to help learn what it is I am trying to do in studio, nothing beats actually sitting down and executing what u learn.

You’ve seen The Lab…everything I need to do my thang, but now (with the various projects that float through), it’s really time to take advantage of the organization created and ….make…more…music (from the smallest to greatest extent).

11:44pm…I’m gone…an early morning awakening and it’s off to the races.

peace.
F!

Posted in Daily Musings, Music Production/Studio Recording | Tagged , , | 4 Comments

A DDO Realized (An experiment in virtual abstinence)

Posted on May 31, 2010 by Fresh

Hello Readers…

I hope all is well with you. and that your Memorial Day will be or was spent, to some extent, doing what the holiday was created for – in memory of the men and women in our armed forces. Those that are currently serving and have served for us in all capacities.

Well, it came to fruition this weekend, an experiment I’d been wanting to conduct for about a month now. Yes, the DDO (dedicated day offline) happened yesterday. There are a few of you that I had mentioned this concept to in the last month. I had two particular conversations with Deb Lee, @dallisonlee, professional organizer, on this topic (some of you may know I’ve been a contributing author to her Organize To Revitalize blog on the subject of my adventures in time management and the technology that can aid it). I initially called it a “Digital Day Off”, but thought the term was too broad, broad enough that it would have to included most, if not all, things digital (video games (though I’m not a gamer)), the use of mobile phones, HDTV, etc). My reason for conducting this exercise of “virtual abstinence” was to assess the amount of time I do spend online and how much of it, spent doing certain activities (largely related to social networking), is actually robbing me of time better spent reaching goals. Interestingly enough, the day I had the conversation with Deb, this article appeared in The Post.

My first foray into social networking came back in 2000 via membership to Blackplanet. I actually joined by way of helping a coworker design her site page. I was then that I began to learn the basics of website design (within the HTML code constraints for what Blackplanet would allow). After getting a taste of social networking there, it was basically onto Myspace and Yahoo 360, Vox, blogging from my own website, various IM clients (AIM, Yahoo IM, MSN Messenger), then Twitter, and finally FB (the latter I’ve since left about two weekends ago). Along with the social networking, I always used the net for two basic things – work, and as a learning tool for basically five areas of interest – music production, technology, photography, financial literacy, and web design. Let’s now add the mobile web, and there you have it, a communications medium, now in the palm of your hand, deeply woven into the course of our everyday lives. A communications medium, whose benefits (as well as its negative aspects) range far and wide Looking over the last 10 years of being a regular passenger on the information highway, but growing up through college my first two years of college WITHOUT the internet (fancy that, huh?), I began to remember what life was like without it, and how I spent my time without it. While I can only speak for myself, my assessment was that more time was wasted on the info highway than not. This assessment caused me to purposely conduct the experiment during a normal day – not a day or timeframe where I would be away from the net for whatever reasons (vacation, family visits, etc), but during a time where it was always a mouse click (or similar) away. It created a great challenge in overcoming the temptation to connect. As inferred above, it was done as a matter of habit assessment more than anything else, but the correlation to time management is there. In looking back on my regular online activities, I saw that I could have altered them to achieve what always seems more impossible than not (with my busy schedule) – knocking tasks off my to-do list. Was a DDO really necessary to make this assessment of time management? No, I could have just decided to allot only a certain amount of time online of every aspect of my online daily routines (which probably could have been easier).

The outcome of the experiment allowed me to use a good part of my regular online time time to improve my financial budgeting/investment literacy and revamp a financial improvement SPD (systematic plan of development) for savings, investing, debt reduction and retirement . I also got a great nap in during the early hours of the afternoon ;-). In retrospect, it made assess the extent of my habitual behavior and constant temptation to be “connected”. I won’t say that all possess it to an extent (my wife is a good example of one who spends very little time on the internet – but get rid of the TVs in the house and …never mind…you see the point I am generally illustrating – 🙂 ).

Now that I’ve taken my first DDO, purposely, I feel it’ll be something that I’ll regularly do, maybe more than just once a week. Curbing time daily spent online is, of course, something to throw into the mix as well, but it wasn’t until today that I really see how a forced day off (for me) is beneficial. The time is currently 11:44 EST, and this DDO will officially be over in less than 16 mins, but I’ve learned some valuable things on a personal level. That’s always a good thing. Back to the SPD. Forget the government, I want to create a stimulus package for my own economic situation.

peace.
F!

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Welcome To The Sunday Soundtrack (recast)

Posted on May 23, 2010 by Fresh

Greetings Listeners…

Yes, it’s been two months since the last SSP, and a good friend who recently had a minor coughing fit (hahah), pinged me about the lack of podcasts. Ironically, I went from weekly to monthly in order to produce better quality podcasts, but in retrospect, let the supposed free time get occupied otherwise. For that I apologize for I truly miss bringing you the new tracks.

After a very productive meaning this afternoon with my business/recording partner/longg time friend, we’ve gotten our final CD project schedule completed. That being said, I can get back to my hoped for weekly production schedule for the monthly podcasts. I have tons of new tracks ready, but for today, I bring you a recast. I hope u enjoy now, as u enjoyed it then. It’s my true intention to begin working this back into my schedule, starting tonite.

More soon…

peace,
F!

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Why minidisc? (….in 2010)

Posted on May 23, 2010 by Fresh

Jazzy chilled beats - MD

Greetings readers….

For those who have been following my posts here, as well as on Twitter, you know that I’ve been ,along with another friend, on the minidisc technology topic for some time now – reasoning pretty much alludes to a recent post of mine here. Recently, a good friend of mine and mutual friend of the other, posted this question. While I referred him back to the post I wrote, I thought I’d further expand on why I hold on to the technology.

1. HIGH QUALITY SOUND – Copies from SACD / DVD-A, VINYL ALBUMS and CDs sound so much better than mp3 compressed sounds. While I am not an audiophile by any great length, I’ve heard the difference and definitely believe this to be true. I’ve recorded live rehearsals and concerts over the air (meaning via a mic) straight to MD and have even achieved true stereo recordings (especially of band rehearsals) to MD…with crystal clear sound. Sony has added support for CD Audio quality recording and playback on the latest HI-MD recorders. This gives you that capability to have 1.4 hours of uncompressed PCM CD quality recording on your little HI-MD MiniDisc unit. Again ATRAC3+ at high bit rates can yield even better sound in my opinion because it uses a 20 bit engine even though it compresses the sound. Good thing is you have a choice of now being able to record with CD quality and not having to convert it if you want to make a regular CD .[COUNTERPOINT} – Yes, there are many digital recorders out (Zoom H4n, for one) that use standard removable media to store audio, record in stereo with built in mics, and can dump the audio to your computer via USB (without the care of proprietary designs), but for me…I don’t need to purchase one because of the MD units I own. You can download music to the from iTunes or import .m4a, .wav, mp3 files, yes, but not without a computer with iTunes loaded.

2. CONVENIENCE – Grab a few discs and go for the day. With the amount of music u can load to an 80 min disc alone (I just put 28 songs on one disc), that’s more music than you;d probably listen to in a day Discs are smaller than CDs and hold more. {COUNTERPOINT} – I’ve iPods since the original 5GB model costing almost $300. Today all iPods hold thousands of songs, which gives you the convenience of taking your whole collection everywhere you go, to listen to anyway you’d like. Should you come across some music you’d like to add to your collection that may be hard to come by, without connection to iTunes (library or online), you’re out of luck (unless you have an iPod Touch 2G or iPhone that you can record that music live as it’s played back from another unit – but then we’re back to sound quality).

3. FULLY EDITABLE DISK’s – you can add, delete, move, cut, join, and re-label MiniDisc’s up to 1,000,000 million times. NICE… [COUNTERPOINT] – Yes, this can be done with an iPod…but again, not without iTunes.

4. PROTECTIVE SHELL – All MiniDisc’s are protected by a plastic shell which stops dust, fingerprints and scratches from hurting your precious music and data. [COUNTERPOINT] – Deal with mp3s only and you back them up to your hard drive? No need to consider a protective shell, only concern is if your hard drive crashes and your music is not archived to CD.

5. MP3 PLAYBACK – With the latest generation of HI-MD players from Sony you can now playback regular MP3 files. Sony added support for native MP3 Playback on the newest HI-MD portable units. AAC (ITunes files) and WMA – windows media files would have been even better for great compatibility Having native MP3 support does allow you to quickly copy those MP3’s onto a 1 gig MiniDisc. Very nice. Fan of album art? If you happen to own the Sony MZ-DH10P, it will even show you the album artwork on the mp3.

6. TACTILITY – Here’s more of an odd reason why I like using MD technology. I like the tactile and sensory aspect of using a MD units, being portable or a deck. I like the sound of opening the unit, popping a disc in, and closing it. Yeah, the MD unit has moving parts (unlike an iPod), but I’ve owned many and only had a problem with one (which was old and purchased used).

7. A friend, Darrenkeith, recently said minidiscs are like having “mini-LPs”. Should you chose to do so, you can make great covers for your disc jewel cases and nice labels for the MDs themselves. Again, kind of a tactile thing that collectors of CDs, LPs, cassettes could more relate to then those who pretty much deal solely with mp3s, etc. Labels and covers that are striking, take a look at some of Jay Tilson’s work.

Anyway, there are 7 complete (7 IS a number of completeness) reasons why I like the MD technology. Love my iPod Classic too, but they both live in coexistence pretty nicely…. Would I steer a newcomer to portable music towards a MD player today? If it was to be their only medium to play music, honestly probably not, but as a unit to use with their current portable player of choice, I’d tout the same merits as I have above.

For some active discussion on MD technology and users who still are into it, check out this article

peace,
F!

Note: quoted items are excerpts and shared thoughts of Paul DeMara ofThe Minidisc Collector Homepage

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