Live Performance Backing Tracks - MD vs Wav

[OzDoug64]

I know this is a bit off topic to the thread but I wanted some input from members that know their recording gear.

The singer and myself are ready to lay some backing tracks down for duo work.

I was wondering if MiniDisc is still the preference in high quality backing. Are wav players as good? I'm not interested in midifiles.

Or is there a new portable alternative that's as high quality, robust and reliable as MiniDisc? Even something in muti-track is fine as long as it doesn't let us down at the gig.

I remember when popular solo artists used to have DAT tapes as backing.
Marantz, Sony and Denon are the quality units I have been using in the past.

[Tele-evangelist]

Originally Posted by OzDoug64

I know this is a bit off topic to the thread but I wanted some input from members that know their recording gear.

The singer and myself are ready to lay some backing tracks down for duo work.

I was wondering if MiniDisc is still the preference in high quality backing. Are wav players as good? I'm not interested in midifiles.

Or is there a new alternative that's as high quality and reliable as MiniDisc?

Which .wav player are you considering? If you can find one that uses no compression then I would tend to want to go that way. Minidisc compresses the audio at a ratio of 5:1 compared to mp3 which is a 10:1 ratio.
.wav files can be compressed but most often are not which means they equal or exceed the specs of CD's. If I wanted the best quality audio I would go with uncompressed audio as opposed to compressed. The quality of the codec is of major importance when considering using a compressed signal and please don't take my opening statement the wrong way. Yes an uncompressed file does sound best, but at the same time a mp4 which is compressed at a ratio of 20:1 sounds much better than an mp3 at 10:1 simply because there were a number of years between their conception and much has been learned about what to throw away during compression. Others may disagree but that is my experience. It boils down to file size vs quality, and with memory so cheap these days, why not go with uncompressed.

Tim

[OzDoug64]

What would you recommend? Ipod, Zen etc Would they have a huge sound through a big PA?

I've only used MD's in the past and I'm not up on the new technology. As long as it's backlit, is able to pause at the end of a song and the best quality possible, thanks