Sony MZ-N707 Net MD Walkman Player/Recorder (Blue)

If Sony didn’t suck, it would be PERFECT for live recording!, February 12, 2004

I bought my MZ-N707 for one purpose: to record live music. My friend is in a band and he wanted me to record his gigs, so I looked into ways to record live music. What I found was that if you don’t have thousands of dollars, endless hours of time, and a fully-equipped sound studio, you’re hosed. So I called my local GuitarCenter store and was told the Sony MZ-N707 was just the thing I needed. It just so happened they had a bundled package there that included the works: microphone, car adapter kit, rechargable batteries, etc. And the price was right: about $350. So I bought it, took it to my friend’s show, recorded the show with no problems, listened to the show on the way home (FABULOUS, CD-QUALITY SOUND!), and then, when I got home, tried to load the tracks onto my computer in order to burn them onto CD’s. NOT!!! After literally weeks of trying different things, re-reading the manual, reading the dozens of web forums that are devoted solely to this subject, and, finally, emailing Sony, I found out that YOU CANNOT TRANSFER ANYTHING FROM THE MINIDISC TO YOUR COMPUTER that you didn’t take off of your computer. I don’t know what rocket scientist thought of packaging the minidisc recorder with a microphone if you can’t use anything you record with that microphone, but I hope that person is one of the millions of Americans on the unemployment line right now (God Bless the rest of you!). Sony said it was because they were concerned about copyright infringement, but what if you, like, OWN THE COPYRIGHT? Sorry, no provisions are made for such a common occurrence.

Ultimately, I found a couple ways of transferring the music recorded onto the minidisc to your computer, but unless you have a separate digital CD burner, as far as I know, you’re limited to creating analog files. The easiest way (I think) is through RealPlayer’s “record from outside line” option. If you use this option, be sure to create separate tracks on the minidisc recording first; if you don’t, you’ll be stuck recording the entire disc onto your CD, and if the session is too long, it won’t record at all (I can attest to how frustrating this is — the last time I recorded my friend’s gig, I downloaded it and then gave him the minidisc so he could use his studio equipment to download it digitally. Unfortunately, the session I downloaded is about 2 minutes longer than what will fit on a CD, so I can’t transfer any of it until he gives me back my minidisc!).

I want to be clear that the QUALITY of the minidisc’s recording is phenomenal–10 stars–but that the product’s potential is severely hampered by the lawyers at Sony. However, there really isn’t anything else on the market for recording live music that is as inexpensive, portable (the minidisc is tiny), and reliable as the MZ-N707. For anyone who is as inexperienced at recording live music as I am, I highly recommend this device. I promise you two things: (1) you will get CD-quality sound recordings, and (2) if I can figure out how to get the music onto my computer and then onto a CD, you can! Also, as another reviewer mentioned, the battery life is unbelievable. It uses two AA batteries (don’t bother with the rechargable ones), and they probably last for at least 320 minutes of recording time, plus the related download time. I’ve run out of batteries a few times while recording, though (my own fault), so don’t believe the little meter in the window–just replace them every time you need to record and you’ll be set until the next gig.

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