I have a Sharp MD-MT877 minidisc recorder that I'm very pleased with. It's tiny and the sound quality is excellent. Record level is manual, not automatic, and you can change the level while it's recording. The internal rechargable battery will power it long enough to record two 74-minute discs, and you can also add an AA battery in an external holder to roughly double the recording time.

I get the sound into the computer by capturing the analog output with a Creative Labs Audigy Platinum card. S/N seems to be about 80dB -- plenty for my video work.

I bought a Sound Professionals stereo omni mic (actually two omni mic capsules with clips on a 4-foot cable), and was amazed with the results in some symphonic "capturing."

I got the recorder and mic at minidisco.com.

I've had excellent results with two Sony Minidisc models (MZ-N707 & MZ-R90), which I purchased from a Sony outlet store for $160 & $100 respectively. Be sure to get a model that has a microphone input jack (many don't)! Refurbished recorders also appear on eBay.

I capture in Vegas, using the analog inputs to my Audigy soundcard, monitoring the Vegas audio meter and adjusting the track-level slider to ensure that the audio peaks NEVER exceed the 0-decibel level (which is an absolute ceiling in the digital world).

When recording, I manually adjust the Minidisc input levels -- at a very low level (the S/N ratio is superb), to avoid "clipping" distortion which would ruin the sound. The automatic level is MUCH TOO HIGH on both of my Sony MD models, when using the "mono" setting (to double the recording time while using a single mike).

Brandon's Dad

It would be nice if there was a cheap minidisk that let you bring the audio through spdif or USB or firewire. I've done a search for one with no luck.