Re: MD: Pre-Recs/Blank Quality
At 8/21/00 2:13 AM, las increased the world's knowledge by typing: Again you can't use 2000 technology to discredit 1960+ state of the art. [snip] Things get easier all of the time. But that doesn't mean that recording an album to tape was so difficult that it couldn't be done by the average person. If I remember correctly, the point was why was there a market for prerecorded cassettes, but why isn't there a market for prerecorded MDs. I'm old enough that I remember 8 tracks and reel-to-reel tapes. I was definitely "the average person" during the period when LPs and cassettes ruled the music industry. I couldn't afford anything close to the high end equipment you discussed. Even good equipment required significant manual fiddling to get a decent recording, and even then the quality wasn't anywhere near as good as a prerecorded tape. In short, there are three simple reasons why prerecorded tapes flourished, while prerecorded MDs don't: 1. Recording LP's to tape was a time consuming process that usually required some fiddling. Recording a CD to MD is as simple as it can get, even with "low-end" equipment. 2. A tape recorded from an LP was simply inferior to prerecorded tapes unless you happened to own very high-end equipment. Even then pops and clicks from LPs were common. I doubt that an audible difference can be heard between a MD recorded from a CD and a prerecorded MD. 3. Cassette players were everywhere. You could buy a tape and play it at home, in the car, on a portable player and on a boom box. MD players aren't nearly so ubiquitous. Most people will only be able to play a MD either at home or on their portable. But a CD can now be played anywhere a cassette could. To me, these reasons where why I preferred to buy cassettes before CDs took over. And these reasons are why I prefer to buy CDs and record them to MDs myself. (Note: I have a MD portable and a car stereo that plays MD. But that's it.) Ed "What the" Heckman [EMAIL PROTECTED] +--+ | Laughter is the brush that sweeps away the cobwebs of the heart. | | -- Mort Walker, | |King Features | +--+ - To stop getting this list send a message containing just the word "unsubscribe" to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: MD: Pre-Recs/Blank Quality
las [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Guess I've never seen much use for pre-recorded MDs. But compact cassettes had a large market share in the prerecorded area. Even though the durability and fidelity was poor. The MD does everything the cassette does only better and with many more options (not even counting the digital aspect). But pre-recorded cassettes had a large market share because CD's weren't around ;-) - To stop getting this list send a message containing just the word "unsubscribe" to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: MD: Pre-Recs/Blank Quality
At 8/20/00 8:56 PM, las increased the world's knowledge by typing: But there were records around. All they had to do was buy the record which was cheaper than the prerecorded tape to begin with and make a copy of the record. This is exactly the analogy that you are making between the CD and the prerecorded tape. But recording a record to a tape was _much_ more hassle than recording a CD to a MD. You had to have a decent record player and pretty good tape recorder. Then you had to make sure you had a tape that was long enough. You also had to make sure that one side of a record could fit on one side of the tape. Then you had to make sure that you weren't attempting to record on the tape leader. And finally, you had to start recording the tape and playing the record at the same time--no easy feat. And that was just one side that you just recorded. Now you have to flip the tape AND record and do it again. With MD all you have to do is plug the optical plug into the portable MD (if you don't have a preconnected deck setup.), push play/pause on the CD player, push record on the MD, then push pause on the CD player to start the recording. Then just sit back and wait for it to finish. In the process, you wind up with tracks premarked, sometimes (rarely) tracks already named, and a (almost) exact digital duplicate of the original. Compare this to the less than perfect copy of an LP that you were guaranteed to get. (Why do I get the feeling that I just missed the point?) Ed "What the" Heckman [EMAIL PROTECTED] +--+ | Kindness consists in loving people more than they deserve. | |-- Joseph Joubert | +--+ - To stop getting this list send a message containing just the word "unsubscribe" to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
MD: Pre-Recs/Blank Quality
Prince Gaz says: One not so good sign is the availability of pre-rec MDs which has always been very low here, and at best has remained steady over the last two or so years though I sorta think it may actually have reduced. That maybe because I have seen the massive growth in blanks etc, and their tumbling cost, whilst the pre-recs have remained a pound or two higher than the same CD. Guess I've never seen much use for pre-recorded MDs. To me, the whole point of the MD format is to be able to make compilations trades(and live recordings, if you're into that aspect). If you don't use a stripper and two MD recorders, you can't clone a pre-rec MD or record individual tracks off of it, so it's no wonder people don't buy them. As for differences between blanks, I do not believe there is a sound difference. The construction of the blank may affect its longevity and ability to withstand abuse, but digital is digital; they all sound the same to me. Chris Callahan -- home: [EMAIL PROTECTED] work: [EMAIL PROTECTED] URL: http://www.coldwatercentral.com Jazz Nation: http://www.thejazznation.com -- - To stop getting this list send a message containing just the word "unsubscribe" to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: MD: Pre-Recs/Blank Quality
Guess I've never seen much use for pre-recorded MDs. But compact cassettes had a large market share in the prerecorded area. Even though the durability and fidelity was poor. The MD does everything the cassette does only better and with many more options (not even counting the digital aspect). To me, the whole point of the MD format is to be able to make compilations trades(and live recordings, if you're into that aspect). If you don't use a stripper and two MD recorders, you can't clone a pre-rec MD or record individual tracks off of it, so it's no wonder people don't buy them. Since the MD can't make an exact digital copy do to compression, it really doesn't seem right that they place copy protection on an MD while not on the tape. If Sony was still in the recording business and not the record and movie business, I'll bet they would have fought SCMS just like they defended tape. Larry - To stop getting this list send a message containing just the word "unsubscribe" to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
