Sony MINIDISC - Manual (Page 14)

Input Components Specifications
A A D D C C D D
A U S T R I A
12
3.1. Sound Carrier Specifications
DADC offers all necessary facilities to prepare
sound carriers for MD-production. For exam-
ple PQ-encoding, digital editing for the
common digital tape formats U-Matic and
R-DAT, as well as A/D transfer from 1/4” and
1/2” analog tapes and transfer from CD-R
discs can be done at DADC. However,
PQ-encoded U-Matic tapes in the Sony 1630
format as used for CD-production is the
most common format. DADC can transfer
this tape into the MD format via the ATRAC
Format Converter.
The following pages contain important specifi-
cations as well as necessary information sheets
which have to be sent with the tape (Samples on
pages 14 to 18, blank formsheets in Appendix).
Please forward this information to your studio.
General System Specifications
• The maximum recording time on premastered
MD is 78 minutes 16 seconds.
• The maximum track number is 255.
Digital Tapes
• Please send a “label copy” with the tape. On
the label copy the order and duration of the
titles (as it has to be on the MD) should be
indicated by the producer.
• Prepare the "Premastering Instructions" form
(see Appendix, form 1) which describes the
music start times with an accuracy down to
one frame.
• Please note all noises (kind of noise and time at
which it appears) as well as general quality
notes in the ”Sound & Noise Information”
sheet (form 2).
• Start recording of time code and digital mute at
least one minute before the first track.
• Stop recording of digital mute and time code
not earlier than two minutes after the last track
has ended.
• A pause (digital mute) of at least two seconds
has to be kept in case you want to change the
preemphasis status.
Please note that de-emphasis will be performed
during format conversion at DADC.
Additional Specifications for U-Matic Tapes
• Sampling frequency:
44.1kHz
• Tape format:
3/4" U-Matic NTSC standard
(Sony PCM 1630/1610)
• Time code:
SMPTE non-drop-frame; The time code
has to be locked to the NTSC video-frames
and must be recorded continuously and
without interruption on analog channel 2
of the U-Matic tape. It may not go beyond
23h 59m 59sec 29fr.
• PQ code:
The PQ data has to be stored on analog
channel 1 of the U-Matic tape.
Track 1 Track 2 Track 3
Begin Track 1 Begin Track 2
Offset time
≥ 5 frames
Offset time
≥ 5 frames
Begin Track 3