quoted 7 lines well, if an analogue beating professional digital>well, if an analogue beating professional digital
>mastering/dissemination system ever gets released to the public,
>it will be a godsend; perfect pitch stability, longevity, and TRUE
>1 to 1 master cloning will make analoge die a death, and not before
>time. What we want is a switch over to the next generation of audio
>equipment that is not driven by the '2 pounds of baloney in a one pound
>bag' mentality (Mini Disc / DCC).
I have to wonder what prompted Akin to mention MiniDisc - nobody sane
considers it a professional digital mastering system. The relatively new
four-track MD gear from Tascam and others is obviously targeted downmarket
to amateurs putting together demo tapes who aren't ready for DAT but want
something better than cassette.
That's what MD is - "something better than cassette" for consumers and
amateurs. I can record 75 minutes of stereo digital sound, with random
access, shuffle play, programming, and the other features of CD. I can
erase the disc and re-record it when I want something new to listen to on
my walkman or in my car, ad infinitum, with no loss of fidelity each time I
re-record. If I choose to record in mono, the capacity doubles to two and a
half hours of music - and a lot of the older non-idm stuff I listen to is
in mono anyway. The editing functions are terrific, too.
Soundwise, MD is very good, especially compared to cassette. I don't need
pro quality, and I don't use it for archival purposes, so it absolutely
meets my needs. The ATRAC compression algorithm has gone through quite a
few revisions (they're up to version 4.5 in the newest recorders) and now
sounds much better than the earliest recorders (which caused many people to
write the format off entirely) - in fact, I've seen an article on the web
from a German hi-fi magazine that states that MD's sound is now equivalent
to DAT. And most of the comments I've seen on the web state that ATRAC is
noticeably better than MP3, especially in reproducing stereo imaging (my
computer's sound output is shit so I can't do a head-to-head myself).
BTW, ATRAC compression is used in Sony's SDDS cinema sound system, which
many of you may have some experience with.
C.
--
C.Hilker (cspot@hyperreal.com) "We don't relax, we Rolex"