When I first read this I thought "yes I'm sure that's absolutely right". But then I thought a little bit more and I'm not sure it's the whole answer. What I think looking at covers (real or virtual) gives me is some information / association that I can absorb very quickly and use to make a decision on what to play next. It's not the only way you could do that though - i.e. I don't just want to do it this way because it's what I'm used to. I can think of other things. In fact the "covers" thing would not be as good as a gadget that quickly "previewed" in the headphones how a load of alternative tracks would sound mixing out of the one playing. But of course there wouldn't be enough time to do this with too many tracks - what I was saying about accessing the info quickly. So let's imagine some other wonder gadget that did a different version of "covers". How about a jack that plugged into your head and gave you a millisecond flash of how a track "made you feel"? OK I'm being silly now but maybe you get my drift.
And the funny thing is even though I don't DJ with a PC (yet) I know what people mean when they talk about not being grabbed by a list of file names. Sadly I keep a log (not always up to date or accurate) of the records I buy. Just a clipboard with a few A4 sheets with the 12"/LP names pencilled on. I started this about 15 years ago when I only had 3 or 4 hundred records and wanted a way to quickly look through them. I've kept it up and it isn't a big deal to do - just a few words every week or two when I've been to the shop a couple of times (there's no way I could start it from scratch now, it would be too big a job, I'd like to switch to a database with more details on but it would take winning the lottery and employing someone to transcribe). But the point is although I keep this up, as it's easy, it's never really served its purpose: sitting down at the kitchen table with a list of all the records I have and being able to quickly skim down to select a boxful to take out. It just doesn't sink in and your eyes slip over a title without really taking in what it means. I still end up on my hands and knees crawling around my record shelves actually looking at them because only then do I really see (=hear?) them. So although I agree it's partly about making new digital forms act like old analogue ones by aping their physical aspect, it's also a psychological one about how we absorb information. Phew! (good job I'm off on holiday for 3 weeks on Friday as that's 313ed me out). > -----Original Message----- > From: JT Stewart [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: 02 January 2008 19:59 > > interesting...i think this has more to do with music > appreciation/collecting than dj'ing (although relevant to many dj's), > turning digital music into a digital "object" closer to what we > experience with actual objects. we had like a 30 page argument > touching on that on c-b-s recently.
