[Music] How dear again everyone and today I've Got something a bit different for you Recently I've been seized by Nostalgia For cool old technology and for music From when I was a teenager and I've Become almost completely obsessed with One particular piece of historical music Technology which is the Sony mini disc You see I have a tiny bit of a personal History with this groundbreaking little Format from the '90s and 2000s uh one Which was actually pretty popular here In Europe and especially in Japan if not So much in the US not only that but While I'm editing my videos about camera Equipment in the background I'm normally Watching some video or another about Historic technology from YouTubers like Gordon Lang or or Matt especially from Techone and popular videos about mini Dis have inspired me to put together Something a little different today and Offer a bit of history about some cool Old technology and if prices on eBay are Anything to go by people's interest in Minidisk today is unexpectedly really Surging I've got loads of fun Information in this video and a few Personal stories to tell and I'll be Answering questions like why on Earth Are some people still so interested even Passionate about Minis today how much Does the equipment cost and what should
You buy or avoid what can it do and why Would you even bother using them now in The first place and finally when does a Hobby go too far and become a slightly Unhealthy Obsession and have I reach That point myself well stick around and You'll find out back in the 1990s when I Was about 9 years old like lots of other People I was obsessed with recording Cassette tapes for use on my Walkman as I loved music and my dad had an Excellent cassette high-fi component Which could record Chrome and metal Tapes at very high quality I was a Hopeless nerd at the time and I'd make Recordings of Beatles albums and Computer game soundtracks from my old Sega Mega Drive at the highest quality I Could because cassette tapes never Sounded particularly great back then and The super nitpicky side of my character Really loves great sound quality my dad Was a sound technolog and computer Journalist who at one point actually Worked a little bit with a well-known Journalist and YouTuber Gordon Lane on PC World magazine he tested out all Kinds of things though so our little House was often full of gigantic Loudspeakers surround sound amplifiers Super audio CD and Philips CDI machines And other interesting technology who was Testing including at one point the first DVD player available in Europe I
Remember telling him I didn't think it Would take off it's funny how I've ended Up journalistically doing the same kind Of thing as him now except with Photography equipment anyway back in '92 He came home from some big press event That Sony had put on carrying this with Him excitedly telling me that this was One of the first ever production mini Discs to be made in fact it was actually Distributed among press journalists Before any minidisk player was available To listen to it with cassette tapes were Ripe for replace at this point as people Wanted recordable media with better Digital sound quality and a smaller size Not to mention instant access to Whatever track they wanted just like on A CD and minidisk offered it all and it Was pretty showstopping technology at The time Sony were using a very early Music compression technology that they Had developed themselves called at track In order to fit an entire CDs worth of Music onto one tiny mini dis with very Loss in sound quality and in the days Before MP3 that was A New Concept at the Time also mini discs were re-recordable Sony claimed up to a million times Without any loss in sound quality as it Was of course all digitally stored that Was exciting too mini discs are Magneto Optical discs inside a plastic casing The kinds that went on to be referenced
In movies and in Resident Evil games During recording the laser that normally Reads the disc becomes way more powerful Heating the dis surface up to the cury Point at which point binary code can be Recorded from the top of the mini disk Using a magnet which represents the Music then that information could be Reread from the bottom with the same Laser but at a lower power minidisk was Also one of the first devices to let you Record from your CD player using an Optical cable for a Philly digital Recording from end to end something that Fascinated my teenage mind beyond words Because it meant that you could totally Bypass a lot of the issues that would Otherwise degrade your sound quality you Could even add titles and track names to Your discs and edit the discs in all Kinds of clever ways after recording Them although adding track names was a Real labor of love as you can see here Something else most mini disk players Had were fancy remote controls like These I especially love this Sony one Which lights up so brightly right out of The gate mini disc also came with anti- Skipping technology which meant you Could easily go walking or even jogging And a buffer inside would stop your Music from skipping the first machines Could store about 10 seconds of Music in Case of skipping but later machines
Could hold way more and this useful Feature eventually made its way over to Portable CD players where skipping music Really was quite a problem now my dad's Journalistic skills were in high demand At the time and he actually ended up Being interviewed on a popular British Radio station Classic FM a couple of Times to talk all about what this Amazing new technology was and what it Could mean for music enthusiasts which Simply increased my childhood excitement About it even further all that new Technology was astonishingly cool at the Time remember back in 1992 MP3 files Hadn't even been developed and if you Could find a CD burning machine anywhere Then it would cost you about £10,000 so to contemporary consumers Minidisk looked like something that had Fallen from a spaceship but Unfortunately at first it was priced Accordingly the first mini dis recorder This mz1 was gigantic heavy expensive at About £600 and had a uselessly poor Battery life which would barely play Back one 74 minute mini dis which really Took the wind out of the sales of Sony's Big launch effort and most consumers Understandably just stuck with recording Cassette tapes apart from any Particularly affluent early adopters Because cassette Walkman were still so Much smaller and cheaper I've got a nice
Example of the MZ one here and I've Never seen a machine that's at the same Time so ugly and yet so beautiful it's Not quite as big as it looks but you'd Still have trouble fitting it into your Pocket and its weight of 700 g is Horrible too but the metallic build Quality is absolutely beautiful to the Touch with so many buttons and controls For everything as well as well as Optical in and out connections one of The few minis players ever made to have Both here it is opened up and it's clear That Sony faced quite a challenge in Packing all that technology into the Player over the years all those chips And components would become greatly Improved and miniaturized doesn't it Look beautiful and neat and tidy in There Sony's technical designers must Have been Geniuses just look at that Battery though and how big it is Compared to the last mini dis player Batteries that Sony were making Tech Technology really was racing forward in The '90s original batteries won't work Anymore this big battery is from a Chinese company who made a limited run Of USBC rechargeable ones which worked Absolutely fine in this player another Thing to be careful of is that early Minis machines like this from various Makers had front loading mechanisms Which unfortunately are prone to
Breaking quite easily anyway thankfully Over the next few years while minidisk Was a bit of a flop in the US it started Picking up Traction in Europe and Particularly in Japan where it really Took over from cassette tapes as the Most important recording format and Thankfully minidisk players and Recorders started to get smaller and More affordable and a large number of Other companies began to make them most Particularly sharp in fact the first Mini disk recorder I ever got to use was A sharp model that my dad bought for Work it ran off two AA batteries and I'd Take it with me in the mornings as I Delivered newspapers around my Neighborhood and I could not get enough Of its amazing sound quality I Immediately bought a load of blank mini Discs to record onto it and I forgot About my tape collection and I got Annoyed with my dad whenever he had to Take the thing to work which prompted me To save up that paper round money to buy My first ever minidisk player and here It is playback only mini disk players Could be far smaller and much cheaper Than minidisk recorders because Obviously the extra recording Hardware Was not needed and I have a massive Nostalgic soft spot for this particular Player the Sony MZ E60 and not just Because it looks so cool with its
Brushed blue aluminium finish it's super Lightweight it conveniently runs off a Single AA battery for like 35 hours and Its sound quality is lovely once more it Came with one of these an early version Of Sony's clipon remote controls that I Mentioned earlier these have a full Display giving you track and dis titles As well as all kinds of other Information as well as full volume and Track skipping controls so you could Keep the minidisk player in the pocket Of your school Blazer like I did running Your mini disk of 1990s music but Controlling it all from a remote clipped To the edge of your jacket really really Neat over time these little remote Controls got more and more features and Later recorders had ones that would Light up like a pinball machine and let You control the speed of the disc's Playback as well as the sound tone and Mega base settings among all kinds of Other things later on in mini dis Lifespan you could get playback only Machines which were incredibly small Here is a little special edition Kenwood Machine that I bought for my wife and Daughter to play around with and as you Can see it's barely any bigger than a Mini disk itself it's use of a gumstick Battery thankfully the kind that are Still being made today meant it could be Super thin also it seems like different
Companies really we in a race to outdo Each other's militarization with these Mini disk Machines now as a teenager I went to Quite a posh grammar school with a few Rich kids there uh unlike me and around 1999 minidis became affordable enough That virtually every kid I knew with at Least a bit of money would have a mini Disk player or even one of these Recorders and this is the oldest Minidisk recorder I actually own the Classic MZ R50 exactly the kind of thing My peers were playing around with and Pirating music on or using to make Bootleg recordings of gigs they would go To in fact fellow photography YouTuber Gordon Lang who I mentioned earlier has Made a video all about minidisk and this Is the exact recorder he was using Around that time too and it's easy to See why as it's an absolutely classic Design as you can see it's still a Little bit large but it comes from the Era where every control had a physical Button you could press press instead of Searching through menus for different Settings around this time Sony had Increased the player's battery life to About 6 to8 hours which was quite Acceptable although the lip 8 battery That this particular player needs is Unfortunately not made anymore by anyone At all at least not at the moment and
The original batteries Sony made that These things came with will have long Since stopped working by now thankfully I've got a Chinese made battery here From a few years ago which is still Working fine but more interesting than That there's a guy on eBay who actually 3D prints lip 8 battery holders for this Exact player and if you fit it with a 14500 3.7 volt lithium iron battery It'll work just as well another win for Free market capitalism there I'll put a Link in the description down below Failing those you can always get a side Attachment which will let you use two AA Batteries but that's a seriously ugly Solution I think if you're going to go The whole hog and be geeky enough to Play around with mini discs in 2024 or Beyond you should at least have your Player looking nice and sleek and not so Clumsy anyway I love this old MZ R50 for A number of reasons it has very good Line out sound quality with very low Hiss which could be an issue sometimes With older players it looks good and it Handles really well it has a lovely Clear screen and also the dis motor Inside it is much faster than Sony's Later model it seems to have more talk To it it can load up discs and Skip Tracks much quicker than newer players Which seem to slow their Motors down to Preserve battery life in Japan they even
Came out with a rather fetching orange Version of the MZ R50 but whenever I've Seen that available on Japanese auctions They end up costing a fortune and I Don't want to buy it and incur the WTH Of my bank manager any more than Necessary so towards the end of my time At school I worked a Christmas job in my Local Argus tour which is basically Where everyone in the UK back then went To do their Christmas shopping and I Went through all that pain and hardship So that I could save up £230 and buy one of these the Sony MZ R900 which was the first in a new Generation of minidisk recorders and it Was around this time that minidis really Got its second wind on the market it Featured minidisk longplay or LP LP2 Mode would give you double the amount of Recording time out of a disc and had Almost no effect on sound quality and Lp4 mode would quadruple your recording Time although the sound quality at that Point really began to suffer I'm Miss Tickler for sound quality so I've always Avoided recording any music in these Longplay modes even though LP2 is Admittedly fantastic but lp4 mode is Only really good enough for dictation or Spoken word tracks so I often recorded Standup comedy prank phone calls and Even audio Bibles onto lp4 including the Amazing Bible experience recordings
Featuring a cast of the world's most Famous African-American actors oh and When listening back to music in the lp Modes your player will offer far better Battery life than normal also if you Record something in LP mode on a dis Then you can only play that track back On an mdlp compatible machine though Otherwise it'll just play Silent it was Also about this time that Sony Qui Updated their atak music compression Technology to sound even better than it Did before atak initially had its Critics for affecting sound quality too Much although it always sounded miles Better than tape but now it sounded Virtually indistinguishable from a CD These later minidisk players from around 2001 and onwards really do sound Phenomenal especially if you recorded With an optical cable so look out Especially for mdlp minidisk recorders Oh and battery life for these later Machines had gone from being around 6 Hours to being 24 hours or about 10 Hours when recording and all out of this Little gumstick battery new ones of Which as I mentioned before are still Easily available today from Chinese Manufacturers a word of warning if You're on the market to buy this player Though or a similar one often the Battery terminals are badly corroded at This point which will cause you serious
Battery life problems and can be hard to Fix fix if it's gotten too bad so do Check that out before spending any money And for my 40th birthday last year I Decided to treat myself to this thing Which I consider by far the most Beautiful mini player ever crafted by Human hands the mzr 99 is an update to The 900 with a few extra features and Another slight Improvement to the atak Compression system this red colored Recorder is in perfect condition and was One of the first to feature a charging Dock to put it into and the whole setup Looks gorgeous on my desk plugged into My sound blaster sound card to play Music through my computer speakers Whenever I need it the only issue with This model though is that Sony Experimented with a bluec colored LCD Screen which isn't very easy to see Goodness knows what they were thinking There and they soon reverted back to Normal black ones and finally laest Resistance the last mini dis player Sony Ever made and it's the format ding Masterpiece a bit like Samsung's last NX System camera the nx1 or the Fantastic Final games that came out for the Sega Satin released in 2006 the Sony MZ rh1 Is considered the ultimate mini dis Recorder being slim and beautifully Designed with two cool o LED displays Next to each other there here it is next
To the first machine the MZ 1 and isn't It amazing how technology had marched on And militarized everything so Beautifully back in the '90s Crucially the MZ rh1 offers two powerful Features which had hit the mini disk Format by this time high MD and net MD Functionality High MD was a bit of a Product relaunch that Sony performed in The face of the increasing popularity of Competing MP3 players and it allowed you To use mini diss which held a gigabyte Of data instead of the usual 140 mbes These high mini discs could store nearly 8 hours of music and the best quality or 34 or 45 hours in LP2 and lp4 modes Respectively which kind of brought it in Line with MP3 players of the time some High MD recorders could play Back MP3 Files on those discs also or lossless Linear PCM recordings for lossless sound Quality there was even a high empty Camera or two bought out and I'd love to Do a camera review of one of those Babies one day but they are Exceptionally rare to find you could Still play your old mini disc collection On high MD machines too it was all Backwards compatible in fact High minis Recorders could take older mini Diss and Reformat them to have over double their Original space for music too another Brilliant idea Sony really thought this All through so well for its time the new
High MD format was an attractive Proposition but sadly it wasn't enough To counter the Unstoppable rise of solid State and hard drive MP3 three players Which were crashing in price at the time And the end of mini disk had finally Come with almost everything being Discontinued in 2013 oh and I nearly forgot this Recorder has another great feature that Had come out a few years before and that Is netmd functionality netmd recorders Let you plug in a USB cable and download Music onto any dis directly from your Computer with a bundled Sonic stage Software and the finished disc is Playable on any mini disk player this Meant you could get your music onto disk Quicker and easier than ever and Directly transfer dis and track Information too to prevent you having to Laboriously write in track names using The fiddly controls on your minidis Machine this could save you a lot of Time that original Sonic stage software Will not work on Modern computers now Without a whole bunch of elite hacking Skills but a lot of very kind and Wonderful programmers have published Their own transfer software online for Free platinum MD and Web MD Pro all work Fine on chromium browsers and here you Can see net MD wizard at work too before Trying any transfer software though be
Sure to get the right driver for your Minidisk player by running a free bit of Software called zadig otherwise your Computer will not recognize your Minidisk device in the first place and I'll put links to all that software down In the description below while the MZ Ih1 might be the best mini disk player You could possibly buy and it certainly Is pretty amazing well as a lot of other YouTubers have pointed out at this point You should definitely proceed with Caution firstly the very thin lip 4 WM Batteries are all pretty old now and While my two still work there's no Guarantee that others will and it's only On rare occasions that Chinese companies Make a limited run of replacement Batteries which means you could end up Having serious power issues remember the MZ rh1 does not have an option AA Battery pack that you can use secondly Those two magnificent o LED screens next To each other tend to fade in brightness Over time and as a result there are lots Of these machines available on eBay with Dead screens which forces you to use the Remote control quite a lot it's not Impossible to open up the players and Replace those screens but servicing this Tiny thing without damaging it will be As challenging as finding new screens to Put inside it in the first place another Thing to be in mind is that if you want
To use this player's High MD Functionality then those 1 GB High MD Discs are rare and expensive nowadays Costing at least about £30 each or $35 and the final problem is the price Of the machine itself you'll have to Spend at least £500 here in the UK to Get hold of one of these machines in Properly working condition and to get One in good condition you'll have to Spend even more especially if you want One with nice bright LED screens on it And that's with no guarantee of how long The machines will work for if it breaks Down which is hardly impossible then You'll have trouble finding someone Willing to repair such a fiddly and Unusual device for anything less than a King's Ransom I'm actually looking to Sell my machine on to go towards my College fund I really can't justify Owning one of these things my mother Would kill me if she knew I did she'd Chase me around the house with a broom Or something as well as portable mini Dis players and record ERS there were Absolutely loads of Hi-Fi component Machines available as well as all-in-one Systems like this particularly Jazzy Number from the Japanese Victor Company Which is visually the closest thing to Tripping on acid while listening to Music that you're going to get without Well tripping on acid anyway that's a
Bit about the players and their Development over time what about the Discs themselves initially the Recordable discs were only 60 or 74 Minutes long but eventually that went up To 80 minutes of recording in standard Play mode Sony ended up rushing mini Disk to Market a little as you can tell The very first recordable discs were Kind of ugly with a lackluster design Just look at the generic font used here On the top of this one as time went on Though they became quite beautiful and You can still find special edition Recordable discs on the internet there Are tons of mini discs on sale for very Low prices on eBay and a lot to be found That are still in their original Wrapping and there's just something Really special to me about unwrapping a Brand new Mini dis it takes me right Back to my childhood at their Peak even Wh Smith here in the UK were marketing Mini discs it just goes to show you how Popular the system was for people with Enough money to go beyond playing aoca Sents and no matter how much you spend On your mini diss no matter what brand They are and no matter what anyone on The internet says the sound quality Should always be the same this is a Digital music music format of course not Analog it's just storage and it's rare To find an old minidisk that doesn't
Work as I mentioned before Sony said you Could rrecord them up to a million times Although I don't imagine they ever Actually physically tested that claim And you might be surprised to know that At the time of making this video Sony Still make mini diss over in Japan They're still used and you can buy these MDW ATS and as you can see they have a Very plain simple design if you're Really in the mood to throw some money Around then a number of Manufacturers Produced very expensive studio recording Discs which you can see here at about Four times the price of normal ones I've Read rumors online that they were Designed to have a life expectancy of at Least 50 years I don't know if that's True or not but still if dis rot ever Does begin to become a problem for mini Diss then buying some of these to work With is probably your best bet oh and They come with an extra large sized case Too to be honest though even in the Oldest recorded and pre-recorded mini Discs I own I have never detected any Hint of disc rot all my old discs still Work absolutely fine including these Musty old ones I recently found in my Parents attic from when I was a teenager Don't smell that great but work just Fine and that sample mini disk I showed You earlier the one made before mini Disk players were even available still
Works great and sounds fantastic 32 Years later it's actually a really cool Compilation of early '90s rock ballads You know the kind that spend about a Full minute fading out at the end of Every song it's the kind of stuff the Dude from American Psycho listened to While doing his thing the kind of music Borat still listens to on his Tero and His village and talking about Pre-recorded discs they were available Too but I never bought many myself at The time because of their high price the Cheapest I could actually find them Anywhere was about £20 each and the Colelection was pretty much limited to Music labels owned by Sony like most People I preferred buying music on CD And then transferring it over taking the Opportunity to add or remove any songs That I particularly liked or disliked These things are attractive and Collectible nowadays though and they Command ridiculous prices on eBay so if You have any hidden away and you're LOF Then dig them out while you can they are Smaller than a CD with a nice Brooklet In the front and have the track titles In coded onto the disc and best of all I Love the big sticker on the front of the Disc itself a pre-recorded mini dis Doesn't need an opening flap on the top For the record head to access and as a Result the discs look fantastic some
People have complained that the sound Quality on these pre-recorded discs Isn't so great and that you could Probably make them even better yourself I found them to sound fantastic to be Honest or accept this ER rasist disc Which sounded a bit like it had been Duplicated off of a cassette tape which Was disappointing I was tempted to buy The cool Japanese version of the album And the larger squarer Japanese box Along with another disc but they ended Up going for 26,000 Yen at auction which Is about £40 nearly $180 which just goes to show how sought After some of these discs really are Nowadays but here's a Japanese Pre-recorded disc I did manage to get Far cheaper with a slightly different Japanese casing that some people happen To prefer some people complain about the Thicker design of European disc cases But that was needed for occasionally Fitting two discs into the same case as You can see here one problem with Pre-recorded discs though is that their Boxes gets cuffed and scratched very Easily and nearly always the secondhand Ones available have big cracks in them As you can see the box for this thing Has become a real mess over the years no Problem though you can always visit Retrosty media.com co.uk and get some
Brand new boxes in all different colors It's so cool to me that a company today Still makes these things and something Else that's still being newly made are Pre-recorded discs themselves well Unofficially anyway a number of artists Have been using special companies to Duplicate their new albums onto mini Disk with special UV printed discs to go With them here is an album from lemon Demon which is even weirder than usual For him and as you can see its artwork Has been UV printed onto one of those New Japanese discs that I mentioned Earlier and it actually looks pretty Cool there some people are doing quite Creative things with mini dis still Although it's a tight fit to get that Disc back into its tiny case there are a Few new albums being launched by this Over time and of course it's more for Promotion than for profit but it's Exactly what I would do if ever I Created and tried to sell an album of my Own music which will never Happ by the Way if you really love those Pre-recorded discs though and you wish The selection was a bit bigger like I do Then one challenging option is simply to Try and make them yourself okay it's Obviously not pre-recorded if you make It yourself but let's dive into a rabbit Hole here all the same this is the part Of the video that gets a little crazy
I'm going to start by designing and Printing my own front and back covers Onto glossy paper adding some mini dis Logos along the way for extra Authenticity this took some trial and Error but retro style media do help by Publishing the cover dimensions on their Website and we've got a retro star media Case here for it all to go into there we Go that looks nice enough doesn't it but What I don't like is that the recordable Disc inside it looks terribly out of Place I want to go a bit further than Just sticking a label onto the side of It so let's saw some old pre-recorded Discs off of eBay stuff from the '90s That no one's going to be interest Invested in for the cheapest prices we Possibly can I recently found a whole Load of these egregious suede mini dis Singles being sold at a rock bottom Price I got quite lucky to find them Really the UK's first minis single Apparently that promise is misleading Though as tragically there are actually Six suede songs on this monstrosity not Just one well let's repurpose it into Something a human being might want to Actually listen to let's start the Insanity by warming this disc up in the Bread proving drawer of my oven for an Hour or so at about 37° in order to soften the plastic case A little warm them up but don't eat them
You're best off using tools for this Next bit but fingernails will sometimes Do as well and just prize the disc case Apart slowly and gently and bingo there We go one opened Cas and one suede music Disc be careful as you do this it's up To you what to do with the disc it's Itself you could always try and rehouse It into another plastic mini dis shell If you actually like this kind of music But in this case seeing as the album is Called Electricity ah Poetic Justice I finally Found this album's true entertainment Value don't try this at home by the way No matter how much you hate suede next We'll have to carefully remove that Front ticker and warm soapy water Combined with scratching with long Fingernails will do the trick if any old Bits of scker just won't come off then Try some isopropyl alcohol anyway here's An album I actually want to listen to That I recorded earlier I recorded it From high quality files through the Optical Connection on my sound blaster Sound card added the dis and track files I wanted and double check the disc of Course to make sure it was working Exactly right the first thing to do is To crack open a mini disc's casing and Get the disc out easy enough but the Problem is these recordable discs are Actually a couple of millim is wider
Than the pre-recorded ones and if you Just put them straight into a Pre-recorded dis casing like this then They're likely not to turn freely enough For your player to play it unless you Get very lucky trust me I've tried it so We're going to ramp up the insanity to Over 9,000 by filing down its edges with This coarse nail file it'll take you at Least 5 to 10 minutes to do this and You'll have to be very careful not to Scratch the dark recordable surface on The disc which is the side with the Music on Just hold the disc by its edges So you don't even touch that recorded Side many discs do not like scratches Although they can cope with a small Amount of them anyway once you've done That and you've convinced your spouse Not to call a psychiatrist let's put it In the reconditioned plastic shell being Sure to keep the dark recorded side of The disc facing out of the hole make Sure the little catch is probably in Place here too I had filed down the four Corner connectors here just a little so Let's now add some glue do not use Gorilla glue or any other super glue Look what the fumes eventually did to The plastic casing on this one and the Disc I recommend mixing some araldite or Similar epoxy and the good thing about Epoxy is that if you make a mistake and Your finished disc doesn't test properly
Then if you catch your error within half An hour or so you can blast the disc With a hot hair dryer to loosen up the Glue and take it apart and try again Make sure everything is clean and free Of dust inside of course then dab the Glue into the corner recesses keeping it Well away from the disc and press it all Down hard together for a few hours under Some books just to be safe although as I Mentioned before you might want to check It after half an hour to make sure the Recording still works and voila one Pre-recorded uh sort of mini dis and we Can now put on a cover image that's been Printed on stickyback photo paper now You can live in a dream world where Minidisk rightfully took off and every Major recorded album ended up on the Format the other information on the Front and rear of the disc's case has Been directly printed on somehow that's Not going anywhere unfortunately but you Could always fix that with some printed Stickers if you want to I should warn You at this point not only is this whole Process fraught with risk you could Easily break expensive things here but a Homemade pre-recorded disc like this Will only work on newer minidisk players Designed from the year 2001 or so like My Sony MZ 900 onwards Sony actually put A lot of measures into their earlier Players to stop you doing exactly this
Sort of thing to prevent disk Counterfeiting and it's only later in The format's life that they removed Those security features in their players Presumably because they were an Unnecessary extra manufacturing cost Considering that pre-recorded discs had Never really ended up taking off even if You drill holes into your discs to try And fool your older player they still Didn't work for me I think there's an Extra layer of security on a dis itself Or something hidden away in there so This is just for owners of the newer Minidisk players and don't get me wrong I'm not actually recommending that you Go ahead and do this with all your discs Aside from anything else it'll cost a Fortune because those pre-recorded discs Are very expensive and also in a way You're kind of destroying a part of History by taking them apart I just got Lucky enough to find a whole bunch of Those lousy suede mini discs at a rock Bottom price because no one in their Right mind wants to buy them I reckon The company I brought them from has a Warehouse full of unsold stock that no One will even buy on eBay this is all About me just being a weirdo taking my Creative hobby to a strange and Unhealthy level but the finished discs Look undeniably cool by the way I'd like To thank the community at the mini dis
Central Facebook page for helping me Figure all that out and there are other Excellent online resources still out There for all things mini disk Especially minid disk. org and minidis Wiki well we are coming to the end of The video now and anyone's still Watching at this point might be forgiven For wondering if I'm trying to suggest That everyone should just ditch their Smartphones and cancel their Spotify and Get into listening to music on old Mini Disk players that are found on eBay Instead well it's certainly true that Their sound quality especially on later Recorders is fantastic inexplicably I Really just seem to prefer the sound of An arrack file compared to MP3 perhaps The very subtle differences in sound Quality subliminally remind me of Discovering exciting new music as a Teenager ultimately though minidisk is Just another digital format no better Than any other highquality digital Recording and that's why I haven't Bothered to play you back samples for Comparison in this video because after YouTube has done all its processing it Won't sound any different to any other Highquality digital audio file just for The sake of it though the audio of my Voice that you're hearing right now has Been recorded through my lavalier mic Onto a mini dis I think the number one
Reason most people might collect and Listen to mini diss today is more out of A sense of nostalgia than anything else Because like me you might have fond Memories of discovering and recording New music onto it back in the day Remember when Sony Unleashed this Technology on the world it was Absolutely groundbreaking and a lot of People have fond memories of the days When advancement in miniaturized Technology was actually something new And exhilarating most people listen to Music through their smartphones now but All the latest ones just look and work As essentially the same it's a bit Boring speaking of smartphones some People might want to invest into Minidisk if they want to Simply reduce Their smartphone usage and that's Something I'm definitely interested in Doing one day I'm not convinced that Smartphones and social media are really Good for anyone's mental health or even For how we get along as a society so With lots of my music being on Mini disk I can easily take it with me on long Walks or plug it into my car's sound System and to just take a dumb phone Around with me instead while still Listening to music but ultimately I Think I just cherish the physicality of Recording my own mini discs and loading Them up and playing them back on my
Recorder there's just a a hidden Beauty To owning and handling physical media That well that we just don't experience Today now don't get me wrong I think That's treaming music is a great thing The move away from physical media over The past 15 years has probably saved the Planet a huge amount of physical waste And uh also the internet has obviously Made music way more accessible and Easier to discover all that stuff is Great but actually holding and handling Your music on a physical disc one that You've made and perhaps even decorated Yourself just seems to give that music a Greater sense of value and what's Otherwise become for us a bit of a Throwaway Society anyway it's time for Me to get back to testing out camera Gear now and watching a few more techm Videos in the background ciao for now Everyone keep aiming for the sky and God Bless
