Tweetback: Minidiscs

In response to yesterday's piece on the end of portable minidiscs, @theealex responded:

i still use my MD recorder very regularly - it's essential for field recording

If I were you, Alex, I'd try and grab a spare. (Or a machine that uses flash memory?)

This does remind me of a time, towards the end of the last decade, when I was doing a thing for a UK commercial radio station which meant lots of mutual-interviewing with other stations around Europe. We arrived in Prague, at a voluntary, part-time station, and settled down to do the recording.

The volunteer looked a bit embarrassed as he rummaged in his pocket and pulled out a minidisc recorder - "I'm sorry, this must seem a really basic, outdated way of doing things" he mumbled.

Which made it awkward for us, as we then had to drag out an antediluvian compact cassette Marantz recorder, which was twice the size of a pulpit Bible and three times as heavy. Our Czech friend was nice enough to try and hide his disappointment.