IDM Mailing Archive

With all of the talk about unorganized piles of cd's and stacks of releases that people either A.) Cannot find B.) Did not know they had or C.) Never even listened to ......may I suggest/mention that I have recently ran across a few cool items @ work that may make some of your listening endeavors more enjoyable and or make you the "shit" at your next party. Before I go on just let me say that this is not an endorsement for any product(s) mentioned nor is this a blatant sales attempt.I have been on this list for a LONG time. I will be happy to answer any/all questions because I think some of you will really like this. For anyone who has problems with passing along helpful info I would rather you go to your local mega-chain electronics super-store and bug them. For those of you that have hundreds and (some of you) even thousands of cd's : Try one of the NEWER megachangers from SONY (ES). They have between 50-300 disc changers out now. Most of these changers will let you daisey-chain several changers together to give you more storage and access. For you videophiles out there check out the 200 cd/dvd changer. Just toss em' all in there! I spotted that Bjork dvd at Borders, so there is promise. How you catalog your cd's and keep track of what is where is often aggravating! For instance: Some give you a photo-album style booklet in which you can insert the cd booklet and some will let you type a song title,artist or genre in the display. This method of doing this is often rather time-consuming (using the unit's remote and small text/typing character set and or buying an extra pc keyboard to hook to the front panel to input data). So what happens when this is completed and you decide to take your KUMQUAT cd out to the car or someone else moves your B.O.C. cd's around to the wrong slot? I will let any mega-changer owners answer that for me? But it's not pleasant experience let me tell you. Some of the latest (due this X-mas) changers have included a software package that lets you manage your database a little more efficiently.It's not perfect but it's a start in the right direction. Also for you MD owners they have software that lets you drag and drop (and record) your favorite titles/songs right on the computer. You can make a MD compilation for the road in a snap. For those of you with more expensive tastes' (and wallets). Check out the DCM5000 from DENON. It's the cream of the crop for pro-style mega-changers.This is what many radio stations are using so it's built like a tank (unlike some of those plastic models that are lighter than a feather).It has 24 bit D/A converters with a dual zone tray (50+50) for listening in two different parts of the house at the same time. So when you cannot decide which AE release to hear in which room and to match what mood to which room (at your next IDM get-together) look no further. You can also link (with a digital Coax cable) up to FIVE of these players together.So Lance, and a few others that are approaching the 5000 mark take notice. So you say this is nothing new? None of these work perfectly in the real world right? Well, then check out the various controllers out there from Escient.Remember the CDDB database that many of you have been contributing to for many years? Well this company bought that database and have developed several products that will make a person's life much, much easier! Round up all of your mega-changers and get ready for some fun. The Escient Tunebase system will control ALL of your changers and catalog ever cd/artist/song title and release you have. You hook the unit (which is basically a computer housed in a black box the size of a vcr) to a phone line and it auto-dials to the internet and gets all of the cd covers and all the info about that release and sends it back to your system and displays it on your tv. You can then organize your changer in any way you want, all with a nifty remote control and graphic user interface. If the cd is not in the database (hundreds of thousands are) then you can manually type it in or you can scan in the cd cover artwork yourself. I loaded a changer with some easy titles and then some IDM-esque titles such as: OVAL,KLUTE,SCORN etc., and it came up with most of the info but not the artwork, so if you have lots of smaller indie labels and cdr's you would simply scan the artwork yourself,which takes 2 minutes to do. The cool thing about it is if you take cd's out or re-arrange by accident it senses the change and auto-dials to the internet and re-builds for you. It is very quick after you have mastered the simple wiring setup and interface. The initial "build" (depending on the size of changer) could take a few hours.Just plug it in at night and when you wake up your in business. For the IDM party host this is a dream. Trying to decide on what to play at the next get-together? No problem,ten minutes before the part starts, just turn the tv on and go to the playlist menu. Pick from either the artist/song title/release title/genre or cover artwork and select however many songs you want, hit save and your finished. BTW you can have unlimited playlists. So for people (such as myself) that can switch from : SLAYER/DJ KRUSH/COLTRANE/DAVIS to classical and back this is mindblowing! The unit has an rs232 port so you can control it with a computer or touch panel remotes such as (Crestron,AMX) etc. I know many companies have tried this before but this one actually works and is simple to operate. I am also aware of systems that work with your computer/software (that are much cheaper) but most people have their cd player in the home system or main living room. So what do you guys think? Take care, _____________________________________ ---------------------------------------------~ Curt King cking@xnet.com COLUMBIA AUDIO Chicago,IL.USA.EARTH "Taste is the enemy of art" _____________________________________ ----------------------------------------------~ --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: idm-unsubscribe@hyperreal.org For additional commands, e-mail: idm-help@hyperreal.org