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|
| Author |
Message |
| 25 new of 163 responses total. |
mcnally
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|
response 131 of 163:
| 
Mar 10 03:56 UTC 2003 |
..and effectively killed DAT as a consumer audio format and nearly did the
same to MiniDisc.
|
goose
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|
response 132 of 163:
|
Mar 10 14:07 UTC 2003 |
YEs, if it wasn't for the tenacity of Sony we'd not have MiniDisc's
|
anderyn
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|
response 133 of 163:
|
Mar 10 15:11 UTC 2003 |
Which is agood thing (having MiniDiscs!)
|
polytarp
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|
response 134 of 163:
|
Mar 10 20:09 UTC 2003 |
JABBER !
|
gull
|
|
response 135 of 163:
|
Mar 11 01:34 UTC 2003 |
I've avoided MiniDisc because I don't like formats that only one
manufacturer supports.
|
scott
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|
response 136 of 163:
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Mar 11 04:19 UTC 2003 |
It's a semi-propriety standard, but there are certainly recorders and media
available from manufacturers other than Sony.
|
jazz
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|
response 137 of 163:
|
Mar 11 14:52 UTC 2003 |
Sony was, though, as usual, very late in opening up the specification
to the MD format.
|
gull
|
|
response 138 of 163:
|
Mar 11 15:00 UTC 2003 |
Yup. I kind of figured it was doomed to be the 8-track tape of the
digital world, and it's looking like I was probably right.
|
krj
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|
response 139 of 163:
|
Mar 11 16:39 UTC 2003 |
Minidisc is highly useful if you need a very small, very portable,
decent quality digital recorder. My wife uses hers a lot to record
herself singing. However, if you don't need the
portability at the recording end, MD has pretty well been replaced
by MP3 files recorded on a larger computer and played back on a
portable.
Unfortunately the development of quality portable MP3 recorders
is blocked by the Audio Home Recording Act, due to the requirement
that consumer digital recorders implement a SCMS (Serial Copy
Management System). The few MP3 recorders on the market appear
to be trying to stay under the radar by limiting the MP3 rate
to 128K or so.
|
scott
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|
response 140 of 163:
|
Mar 11 16:45 UTC 2003 |
Outside of the US, MiniDisc is quite popular.
|
keesan
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|
response 141 of 163:
|
Mar 11 17:03 UTC 2003 |
Isn't a microcasette recorder small enough?
|
scott
|
|
response 142 of 163:
|
Mar 11 18:12 UTC 2003 |
Small enough, but the sound quality of microcassette is terrible.
|
goose
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|
response 143 of 163:
|
Mar 11 18:21 UTC 2003 |
Saying it's terrible is being kind.
|
anderyn
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|
response 144 of 163:
|
Mar 12 00:17 UTC 2003 |
I've never tried recording on a microcassette, but a minidisc recording has
the good qualities of both a cd and a tape -- you have digital quality,
archival permanence, the ability to re-record and rearrange tracks.
|
krj
|
|
response 145 of 163:
|
Mar 13 05:12 UTC 2003 |
Here's an interesting item from the NYTimes about Natalie Merchant,
former lead singer for 10,000 Maniacs, former million-seller solo
artist. She has chosen not to renew her contract with Elektra
and her next album will be self-released.
A comment from Jay Rosenthal of the Recording Artists Coalition
(the performers group launched by Don Henley) echoes things
Richard Thompson said earlier when he chose not to renew his
contract with Capitol/EMI: "The only reason to go to the major labels
is to get your songs on the radio, to go for the promo money."
Rosenthal predicts that a large number of artists will soon
be following the self-employment model: "he expected major
labels to cut their rosters by 30 to 50 percent in the next
year."
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/03/13/arts/music/13NATA.html
|
krj
|
|
response 146 of 163:
|
Mar 13 15:06 UTC 2003 |
Two electronics hardware firms introduce new portable disc formats.
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99993490
Sony announces a system which uses minidisc-style encoding to
cram 30 hours of music onto a single CD-R. Philips uses DVD
blanks and says its system stuffs 100 hours of music onto a
single disc.
"The music industry this week condemned the launch of two
recording systems that will let people copy between 30 and 100
hours of music onto a single disc. The launches, from electronics
giants Sony and Philips, are being seen as a potential
pirates' charter. ..."
"Sony Music did not want to comment on its sister company's launch..."
|
gull
|
|
response 147 of 163:
|
Mar 13 15:54 UTC 2003 |
The toothpaste is already out of the tube on that one. I routinely put
ten to twelve albums' worth of MP3s on CD-R blanks. Lets me carry a
good chunk of my CD collection around in my car in a compact way,
without risking losing the real CDs if my car is broken into. I could
stuff 30 hours in if I were willing to tolerate lower quality.
It's amusing to watch the internal disagreements between Sony Music and
Sony's electronics division.
|
tpryan
|
|
response 148 of 163:
|
Mar 14 00:02 UTC 2003 |
I've noticed it's easy to get 9 hours on an MP3 CD
encoded at 192-44-S.
|
dbratman
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response 149 of 163:
|
Mar 14 07:27 UTC 2003 |
I can already carry around as much music as I need at any time in my
pocket on CDs as it is; why do I need more miniaturization, especially
if it's at a loss in sound quality, which I definitely don't need?
|
anderyn
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|
response 150 of 163:
|
Mar 14 13:58 UTC 2003 |
But minidiscs aren't degraded. They're digital too, and you can rearrange the
music on them. I love 'em.
|
gull
|
|
response 151 of 163:
|
Mar 14 14:01 UTC 2003 |
Yeah, I've kind of settled on 160 kbps, 44.1 kHz, joint stereo as a good
compromise for the environments I listen in. With a good encoder (I
like LAME) I can't tell the difference between MP3 at that bitrate and a
CD when I'm in a moving car. I can tell with headphones in a quiet
environment, but it's not enough that I find it objectionable.
If I'm doing something where I'm not so concerned about fitting as much
music as I can onto the disc, I go with 250 kbps, 44.1 kHz, joint
stereo. My player starts to flake out at bitrates above that. It was
an early model.
I've always liked that MP3 lets me set my own trade-off between space
and quality. That's something that's lacking in these proprietary lossy
formats like MiniDisc. (Yes, MiniDisc uses a lossy compression, and
does cause some quality loss. It's just not enough to be noticable in a
single generation.)
|
goose
|
|
response 152 of 163:
|
Mar 14 20:18 UTC 2003 |
RE#150 -- MiniDiscs use a lossy compression scheme known as ADTRAC, to they
are degraded, in a similar fashion to how MP3s are degraded.
|
dbratman
|
|
response 153 of 163:
|
Mar 15 07:28 UTC 2003 |
The kind of music I listen to, you notice the loss in quality. Or at
least I do.
|
anderyn
|
|
response 154 of 163:
|
Mar 15 22:12 UTC 2003 |
Ah. I am just not good enough to hear the losses from a recording on a
MiniDisc, not so sophisticated as Ken or David. (I know that I never noticed
that much of a problem with my off-the-rack tape recorders as compared to nice
tapes with all the bells-and-whistles that Ken made.) I suspect that I don't
have an ear for that kind of distinction.
|
scott
|
|
response 155 of 163:
|
Mar 15 23:49 UTC 2003 |
There are some artifacts which I can occasionally hear.
Not enough to prevent me from enjoying small, cheap, recordable media which
allows rough editing and very compact location recording.
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