Mini Disc Players

[ziggy]

I'm the same , I use 2 Sony MD players with set to auto pause. The track finishes & the music stops, talk as much or as little as you like, press play & the music starts again immediately.

[ironbaden]

the auto pause is the key feature for me I think....once the song has paused can you then scroll to another song say that you don't wanna play the next one?

[bladez]

I do solo guitar/vocals and sometime duo with a mate. I have my desk set up on my right had side, not behind me. That way as songs are playing I can cue the second player up to what I want while the other is playing. It's also handy for tweaking the desk during the night. When I first started I had the desk behind me and it was a pain all the time. I have two road cases that bring the desk at the top to chest height and the two minidisc players straight underneath, so just an arm away.
One of the biggest grips I have heard about midi bands is the time between songs, so I try and run 4-5 together then have a quick natter and go again. I've yet to find an mmp3 player that can give me the screen size and buttins to do this sort of work.

[levi2]

ironbaden
yupp as soon as its paused you can go to any song forward or back

[civicman]

I do a single and I used to use the mini disk format. I did that for about a year but found that I t was hard to read the little window. There was no backlight. Also I didn't like loading and unloading all the various set discs. When ipod came out with their 30 gb video with a big backlit screen I bought one and have found it much easier to work with than the mini disc. You can put your whole library on the hardrive. Then I use the 'playlist' function to list all my sets. I also have categorized all my songs in to their appropriate decades, e.g. 50's, 60's, 70's, old country, new country, blues, and so on. If somebody asks me for 'Billie Jean', I just go to my 80's playlist and scroll down alphabetically and press 'Billie Jean'. Then I'm good to go. Much faster than midi or mini disc, I was happy with this little unit that I went out and bought another one for backup. I'm surprised that more singles and duos are not going the ipod route. Oh yeah, I've never played a video on my ipod which was what it was designed for. Strictly backing tracks and midifiles.
Civicman

Civicman

[levi2]

Hi civicman The minidisc player you must have had was the walkman type the one i uses and prolly most other ppl use the hifi seperate type with a bright coloured display you cannot miss
i know where ya coming from having all yer sets on a ipod but even with minidisk you can have 40+ tracks on a disk if recorded in mono or if you got the latest models that came out they done long play like VCRs My ideal player would be the same as my mini disk but that did mp3

[growe]

Hi Guys,
Interesting to read about the mp3 backing tracks option, how do you find the sound quality when played through a PA system. Have you had to rip the original songs to a higher resolution to get acceptable quality.

I have always used original cd's or copy compilations when providing disco type intervals etc. and wondered if the mp3 sound would be as good?

It would certainly help in not having to lug around hefty cd players.

Regards,
growe.

[ironbaden]

civicman...could you tell me what the actual model of the ipod is? also when you play a song does it pause between songs?...how does it work?

[civicman]

Hi Ironbaden,
You asked what model ipod I'm using. Its called the 'ipod 30gb' It plays music, video and photo slideshows. It does not pause between songs so you have to manually do that. To get around that you can record long spaces in between songs. I believe the new version of this ipod--the 80gb has a 'pause'. I have the ipod positioned on a tray that is attached to my mike stand so it makes it easy to just manually pause it. Its really not an issue with me but it might be if you have it positioned elsewhere. How does it work? You have to have a computer to make this work. You load up the software (included w ipod) and it sets up program that configures all your tunes. First of all you have to enter all your midifiles into the program and then seperate them into their appropriate playlists. e.g. Jailhouse Rock would go in the 50's playlist; Get Back goes to 60's playlist. Once you get all that sorted out you plug your ipod (usb port) into your computer and it automatically downloads all the playlists to the ipod. It sounds a little complicated but its not really--its all very intuitive. Oh yeah, you can also make playlists for your sets: set 1; set 2. etc. You also have to charge up the ipod using your USB port. I bought an adapter so I can just plug it into the wall to charge it up. This is a very useful item because when you play a gig on the road you don't have access to your computer. Anyway, I hope this answers some of your questions and if you need more information let me know.
Civicman

[sweetk2678]

It was great to hear everyone's opinions about the types of instruments they are using for live performance. I myself have been using a laptop and roland sound module for the past 5 years, but in the last two months have had to record all my midis to mp3's and burn to cd as my computer began stopping in the middle of songs, for which I have no explanation. I find it annoying to change cd's constantly and also that the set will always be the same, so I will research all the ideas I have read about here and find the best way for me to continue doing great gigs without the stress. Thanks to everyone for all your great information.