OR-0035
Yumeo
Japan · 1985 – c. 2005
Ser. M-2170534
1994 · effect
Issued as VST3 · AU
Restored 2026 from 1994 hardware.
Yumeo MD-1 — MiniDisc (ATRAC)
Yumeo MD-1 · ATRAC recorder · restored from unit no. M-2170534 · Yumeo, Japan, 1994
The restorer's note
A generation's first "perfect" digital recorder, and the gentle softening of transients and stereo that ATRAC left behind. The restored unit — number 2,170,534 off the line — was, like most surviving MD decks, barely used: obsolete before it could wear out. The character is the codec, and we kept all of it.
Acquisition
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The plate
Listening
Listening
Demonstration recordings, prepared at the bench.
ATRAC, plainly
The mix runs dry, then through the recorder at SP from five seconds. What ATRAC discards at standard play is quiet — listen to the cymbal tails and the space around things, not the middle of the mix.
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Three speeds down
Mode steps SP to LP2 to LP4, the allocator coarsening each time. Back at SP, Generations then climbs to eight — a dub of a dub of a dub, and the loss compounds.
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Narrow, and dark
LP4 throughout. HF Trim shelves the top down eight decibels at eight seconds, and Width then narrows to 20 % — the intensity-stereo image folding toward the centre.
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The exhibit
The exhibit.
