Gmdrec

Overview

gmdrec records and labels tracks on selected Sony portable MD recorders.

Compatible models include: R55, R37, R70, R90, R91, R700, R701, R900, N707, R909, R910, N1, N707

Note: R909, R910 and N1 require 100k Ohm pulldown on the LCD data line. This is applied automatically by the rev3 hardware. Rev2 has a solder bridge, on rev1 you need to swap out the connector.

Need to be tested: G755, G750

Quick start guide for Windows

Quick start guide for Linux

Demo

How it works

You need:

• Foobar2000 (Windows) or DeaDBeeF (Linux/macOS) music player
• beefweb plugin for the music player
• an interface circuit that emulates the remote (see below)

gmdrec uses an API provided by the beefweb plugin to remotely control a music player. It grabs the track names from a playlist and breaks them down into a sequence of buttons to press. These are translated by the interface circuit into signals recognized by the MD recorder.

Interface circuit

The circuit comprises a USB-I2C bridge and a I2C digital potentiometer as well as a few passive components.

The schematics and PCB files are provided in the hardware directory. You can get a preassembled one from me directly.

Software

Feature overview

label: Specify how the tracks should be formatted. You can use any combination of fields from here.

recorder: Select your recorder model. Note that some devices may behave differently depending on firmware.

disc_title: Optionally, the disc can be labelled with an album title.

lang_code: By default, gmdrec will attempt to transliterate non-latin scripts. As some languages share the same characters (e.g. Japanese and Chinese) you can specify a two-letter language code to make it more accurate.

label_mode: Optionally, you can use gmdrec to label a disc which has been already recorded. Make sure the number of items on the playlist equals the number of tracks on the MD and set the recorder to the first track to be labelled. If you select ERASE, old track names will be deleted before labelling.

no_tmarks: By default, gmdrec will insert a Track Mark at the end of every track. This option adds 2 seconds of silence between each track and adding track marks is left to the recorder. Strongly recommended for R909/R910/N1.

--ignore-gooey: Optionally, you can run the software directly in console without the GUI.

Recording a MiniDisc

1. Create a playlist you want to record.
2. Connect your PC audio output (toslink or analog) to the input on the MD recorder.
3. Connect the interface circuit to USB and to the remote connector on the MD recorder.
4. Start gmdrec.

Linux

gmdrec works on GNU/Linux but requires some additional setup. Instructions are on a separate wiki page.

Limitations

Limitations of the MD format:

• up to 254 tracks per disk
• up to ~200 characters per track
• up to ~1700 total characters per disc
• limited character set: ASCII charaters excluding [ \ ] ^ { | } ~

gmdrec will fail if track duration is too short to finish labelling in time. It takes about 35 seconds to label a track. If you have a disc with many short tracks, consider recording it first and then using label_mode which pauses each track for labelling.

Contributions welcome

Merge requests providing new functionality or support for additional devices are welcome.

Note: if you are looking for the older version of this project which relied on a Raspberry Pi, check out https://github.com/fijam/md-rec/