Problem recording in stereo

I'll give you my best guess since I sold my JA3ES and am doing this from memory. Check your analog connector cables are good, be certain you have the input switch set to analog input.

Be certain you are not setting your inputs for the microphone jacks. If you are getting the error message din unlock the recorder is not getting the signal from the analog source.

It is possible to have damaged analog inputs on a used machine, but you have micorphone jacks and might get adaptor cables to hook your analog inputs in through the microphone jacks. Note this machine is old enough the microphones are 2 mono microphones left and right. If you want to use a modern stereo microphone you need an adaptor cable for that too.

If you try the above be careful as the mike jacks are really for mikes not what I mention, but it is a probable go around if your rear analog jacks are damaged for some reason.

Your microphone is a mono input (one), therefore recording in stereo is not practical. Stereo inputs are left and right (two inputs). Whatever your recording setup or audio workstation, the track you record to from your microphone needs to mono.

Condenser microphones require phantom power (48v) to operate. Ipod's do not supply phantom power.

I have similar problems with inputing stereo sound. How do you know your mic port on the PC is set for stereo? What kind of a cable are you using? If it is an XLR, the connection is pure mono. Maybe you need a TRS cable, which looks like a 1/4 inch jack but is really stereo. Maybe you need a stereo mini. Usually a cable mismatch is the problem. Is your phantom power supply passing stereo? All the ones I have seen are mono. You may need two. Is your sound capture set for stereo? Are the input level controls set correctly for equal volume on left or right channel? I would try the mic with a regular amplifier to insure both channels are working. Then trace the signal from mic to power supply and power supply to computer.

You may have ruined the phantom power source in your minidisc recorder. XLR microphones use a 48 v power supply.

If you take it to a store then you can probably have it sent to sony who will give you an estimate before fixing it. This mic offers one of the best cost performance ratios so you will probably end up buying another one. Upon that assumption, ifthe repair quote is less than about 70% of the retail price then it may be worth getting it repaired. I have found sony repairs (to a digital camera) to be reasonably priced.

Just in case you have having the same problem as me....

The reason why my microphone was giving mixed results was because I was using the wrong setting. The microphone slider says "90 degrees" and "120 degrees." I assumed that these angles refered to the area that the microphone picked up. So for a single narrow sound source, like my voice, the narrower, 90 degrees setting seemed appropriate.

Now that I have looked at the manual I see it is the reverse (weird but true. Perhaps the angles refer to the angles that the microphone ignores completely under each setting?).

I have been recording my voice. I noticed that sometimes the sound was good and other times the sound level was too low. I think that the reason is because sometimes I inadvertantly set the microphone to the 120 degree setting, which picks up my voice well, while at other times I set the mic to the 90 degree setting which attempts to pick up sound from a wider area, giving the central source less prominence.Setting the microphone to the 120 degree setting cured my problem. I hope it cures your problem too.

The manual is here:
http://www.docs.sony.com/release/ECMMS907.pdf

The quick, easy solution is to change your microphone to mono recording. In the attached YouTube clip, I'll show you how to do that.

The short and simple is to go to your Mac HD -> Applications -> Utilities -> Audio MIDI Setup. Select your C01U USB device, and set it to 1ch 16bit. This will set the microphone to record in mono, equally over both speakers.

My first guess would be that the minidisc player does not provide enough power for the mic. I believe Sony makes an external battery pack to compensate for these problems. Hope this helps!

In the volume control panel look for mic boost and tick the box to boost the microphone volume. It's under options properties/Advanced controls etc.