On the Record
I was recently thinking about the different media versions of recordings I’ve had over the years, for instance I’ve had King Crimson first album on LP (long play record) 8 track, cassette, CD and now MP3. That is five incarnations of the same music.
If you think about it the music industry has been leaping forward over the last century and a quarter. Music was first recorded on wax cylinders 1888-1929, however production of wax cylinders declined with the Great Depression.
Next came the flat disks with a variety of speeds ranging from 60 rpm to 120 rpm. The speed became standardized at 78 revolutions per minute in 1925. These recordings were made on hard rubber and
In 1931 microgroove LP 33⅓ rpm record and the 45 rpm single records are made from vinyl plastic and could hold a total of 45 minutes of recording.
1958 saw the invention of a 5inch by 7inch cassette making a portable version of reel to reel tapes, but that product failed and was replaced by the standard cassette in 1962 which could hold up to 60 minutes of recordings per side.
1964 saw the creation of the 8 track loop that was the rage in the 70, but remained problematic with tension problems and tracking problems. People moved back to the earlier cassette tapes which were more reliable.
In 1976 the compact disk was invented and is the present falling standard which is being replaced by MP3 which was invented in 1991. I presently have an MP3 player that I haven’t reached a limit of it’s capacity. I’m listening to Jean Shepherd radio shows recorded in the 1960. Each show is 45 minutes long and there are 64 loaded on my player with room for more.
I can’t help but wonder where it will go next. It’s hard to believe there is any room for improvement, but I’m sure someone out there is thinking.
posted by The Guy Who Writes This at 4:00 AM
7 Comments:
Unfortunately for my fumbling fingers and ailing eyesight, whatever is next is sure to be smaller. I could have the whole Jethro Tull oeuvre on a device the size of a tic-tac and mistakenly swallow it as one of my arthritis pills. That wouldn't go down well, I'm thinking.
veri word: amunivvb- The lesser known egyptian goddess of unpronounceable names.
Implants... Although not sure how you'd share your playlist with others at a party.
They have already stated, in one of the tech books I read recently, they though activated Google searched will be possible by the year 2020. I only fear someone using such a tactic to manipulate the way people think to put politicians in office who don't deserve to be there.
Everything is a vibration anyways, so I'm certain it is already happening.
That's the reason you can't take the battery out of the new Iphone. I tell people this all of the time.
Nobody believes me though.
If you ask me, (and no one did) most things have gone downhill since the Kennedy assassinations. Especially recorded music. Records sound better than cd's which sound better than mp3's. The convenience of the newer formats has come at a tremendous loss of richness and blend that the old analog formats captured. Thankfully records and turntables are on the rebound. http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1337910/why_audiophiles_believe_records_sound.html?cat=33
Hopefully a FLAC player with lots of storage capacity.
Darev, that would be your luck.
Anon, Implants eh? I already have songs stuck in my head so maybe I already have one.
Shelly, iphones are passe. The Droid is where it's at with open source apps for free. But we are already under the spell of well calculated image manipulation and I agree it will get worse.
Anon, I'm going to hopefully post something tomorrow about things going down hill.
g, what is the size of a FLAC file compared to MP3?
I'll use the Pink Floyd song "Time" for example:
FLAC format bitrate=794 comes in at 40mb.
Mp3 format bitrate=320 comes in at 16mb.
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