MiniDisc

Hello,

If you're here, either you're googling and this new site has been indexed, or I linked you to here from some other location, such as Reddit, or a disc you received. If I'm extraordinarily lucky, someone who trusts me linked this to you.

I started using MiniDisc in 2021, and it has since become my primary research project and music listening tool.

This is the hub or primary page for minidisc on this site, but there's several other pages with additional information:

Even though this is all static HTML, please consider every part of this site to be a living document. It may receive updates.

Core Information

Minidisc (primarily) is recordable, cusotmizeable, portable, convenience-focused audio format on a miniaturized magneto optical (wikipedia link) disc format developed and sold by Sony from the early 1990s through to the early 2010s. Background information can be found on wikipedia.

The format uses audio compression (a relatively idea in the early 1990s) to fit 60, 74, or 80 minutes (or more) onto a disc roughly 1/5 the size of a CD. Advances to the format include new compression options, new connectivity options, and a pair of whole relaunches.

As a rough outline of the timeline of the format:

 

Why?

My own interest in minidisc has a couple aspects:

Minidisc is, as mentioned, a recordable format. So, while there are period pressed discs as well as modern releases on re-recordable media, the emotional core of the format is doing recordings in various ways.

The originally prescribed use case was to use a digital link to connect a CD player and a minidisc recorder and copy a CD to a minidisc.

You can do this with any digital source, and, the "CD player" doesn't even need to be a CD player, I bought a Sony DVP from a Goodwill for like $15 and it works great for CD dubbing.

I love taking the time to do a dub from either my computer or a CD to a minidisc, whether that just involves picking an album and hitting "go" or designing a playlist. I've had a lot of fun finding different ways to automate it, but I do still do by-hand dubs and editing every now and again.

Different of course may people have different reasons and there's no wrong way to do the hobby or use the format.

Outside Resources and Links