My Audio Files Are Trapped on Minidisc and Microcassette!

I recorded [almost] every JC performance I attended, from 1987. I can listen to them whenever I want. Yay!

However, I want to be able to share these recordings! (Words in Italics added 1/15/26 for clarity).

This evening, for the thousandth time, I pulled out my pile of antiquated recording devices with the intention of hooking one of them up to a somewhat less antiquated Mac computer that actually has ports that could facilitate transferring audio files.

Some background: my audio recordings are primarily in two caveman formats. The earliest ones are on microcassette (late 80s to late 90s). The later ones are on minidisc. The earlier ones are really bad quality. The later ones are absolutely phenomenal quality. My concern now is the later ones. They are extremely high quality digital recordings . . . but for the past 2+ decades it has been impossible to transfer them intact to another format. Thank you, Sony, and eff you.

At this point I have decided to try copying them analogue. I have my mom’s iMac that has an in-port. So this evening I thought I would give it a shot.

So I spent about two hours rounding up the audio equipment and connectors. I haven’t rounded up the actual recordings yet, but I can see them right now. I got Mom’s old iMac up and running.

But the mouse is not working. STOP. DONE.

I hunted all over my effing house trying to find a mouse that would allow me to use the ancient iMac.

I have at least half a dozen mice. Mouses. I have just spent HOURS looking for them.

I have been trying to get my minidisk recordings OFF of Sony’s “proprietary format” for more than 20 years!

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I eventually found a mouse.

I have yet to find a way to do what I want to do. What I want to do is copy audio files. (Actually, what I really want to do is duplicate digital to digital to a format NOT MINIDISC. But for now if I can make analog copies I will feel like I have accomplished something.)

Turns out the old iMac is too old for updates so there is no way to get software I need onto it. NEXT!

My 2021 MacBook Pro, it turns out, has a combo headphone/microphone 3.5mm port. I Plugged in my Sony MD player/recorder (the same one I used to record the performances). I got Garage Band up and running. Oh. My. Fing. Gawd! It worked! But I was in the middle of doing something else. I left everything EXACTLY as it was and finished what I was doing. (I 100% blame this on ADHD!) (Edit 1/16/26: Spoiler! I 100% blame this on the powers that be ensuring I didn’t settle for analog!)

The next day I went back to continue. Guess what? It didn’t work anymore!

After many futile hours trying to make it do what it had done the day before, I found a Youtube video offering a (possibly ridiculous, really ridiculous) solution . . .

I ordered from Amazon all the (ridiculous) intermediary connectors as well as a cheapie unpowered microphone. At the time I ordered, Amazon promised all of these connectors would arrive yesterday. Ahem. I got the headphone/mic splitter yesterday. The cheapie microphone arrived today. Neither has solved my problem. I await the, er, “4-way to 3-way” or maybe “TRS to TRS” connector. It was very confusing trying to figure out exactly what hardware to order. And mind you, I have absolutely ZERO dollars for this shtuff!

I may have to add to this entry depending on what happens when/if the last connector arrives.

Meanwhile. WHY did it work and then not work????

UPDATE 13 January 2026

All the (ridiculous) connectors arrived. It didn’t work.

I just ordered a USB-C to Audio adaptor. Supposed to arrive tomorrow. I will believe it when I see it. Meanwhile I spent a few minutes hunting for an OPTICAL to USB adaptor (this is what would allow me to copy the digital files over rather than converting digital to analog to digital). Get this: adaptors exist, but they are ONE-WAY, USB to Optical! That’s to ensure f-ing Sony can trap my recordings on their device! Have I mentioned how much I hate Sony?

Update 15 January 2026

USB to 3.5mm cable didn’t work. Mac still thought it was headphones. I wasted another few hours trying absolutely everything. One interesting thing: Apple wired headphones (which also have microphone) registered as an external microphone. So. Now I have just ordered another pile of fing adapters:

• Yet another mic/headphone splitter. This one supposedly separates the two. Right. I will believe it when I see my mac recognize my minidisc as an imput.
• A USB-C audio capture adapter. This is the most promising if it does what it says.
• An optical audio cable because I had an optical cable a week ago but wtf did I do with it?
• A 4-pack of 3.5mm adapters with various configurations of TRS and TRRS.

At time of order Amazon promised delivery tomorrow. I’ll believe it when I see it. More dollars. Almost $50 this time.

To be continued. . . .

Update 16 January 2026

VICTORY!!!!!!!

The optical (TOSLINK) cable and USB-C audio capture adapter worked! The other two items didn’t work, but I tried them first because I didn’t know where the power adapter for my PORTADISC MDP500 MiniDisc Recorder was. So when the first attempts failed, I set about trying to find the effing power adapter. I have a big box full of miscellaneous power adapters, sorted by voltage. Somewhere. Big question was, why would the power adapter be separated from the PORTADISC? (Have I mentioned I have ADHD? This is a classic ADHD thing.) So I hunted here. I hunted there. I went out in the garage and opened up boxes covered in rat poop. Nope, nope, nope. Total failure. So I stood in the middle of my living room in despair. Then I thought, um, yeah, I actually had the PORTADISC hooked up to my stereo before I decided to start trying to transfer the recordings . . . which was like two years ago. Ahem. So I spent another half hour or so sorting through the stereo snake farm . . . and there it was! After some effort I managed to extract the PORTADISC power adapter from the snake farm. Plugged the sucker in. Plugged in the TOSLINK cable (which I had to buy because I can’t find the one I have). Plugged the cable into the SPDIF to USB-C receiver. Plugged the receiver into my mac . . . prayed a lot . . . and OMFG the mac recognized it as an input!

But! But . . . Garage Band was not receiving any sound. (Trumpet going bwah bwah bwah for disappointment.) Another hour or so googling. Finally I figured it had to be the PORTADISC rather than the Mac. Sure enough. I had to RTFM and there I learned there is a setting on the PORTADISC where you have to turn on “digital output” (“See page 24”). Turned on digital output, tried again, and BAM! It works!

So now I am doing experiments as I am not sure exactly how to adjust the input. This is always a challenge when transferring from one format to another. Minidisc recordings are near studio quality and come in really loud when you transfer them. I am not sure exactly how it works with an actual digital-to-digital transfer . . . so working on it. Hopefully it will still be working next time.

I am not sure how precise the digital-to-digital copy might be, but I am thrilled out of my freaking mind that digital-to-digital is possible at all. As I said at the top of this post, I had resigned myself to digital-to-analog. Digital-to-digital is a dream come true!

Right now I am transferring his reading at The Cooler (NYC) 12 May 2001. Some highlights of this one are the one-time-only “bed monologue” and what I think is the only time he read the “snake people” bit that didn’t make it into The Petting Zoo (because I couldn’t find it in his files). I think if I were working on it today, I would just transcribe it from this reading, because it’s classic JC.

Here’s the first rough cut of maybe half of the show:

Let me know if you have any thoughts on how to tweak the input. I know I need to figure out how to add tracks. Anyway, this one is 100% representative of all of them, good and bad. I know there’s noise from me bumping and moving the microphone around etc. (My earliest recordings on microcassette I stashed the recorder in a zippered bag because recording was not allowed, so there’s zip zip at key moments lol.)