[Dixielandjazz] Obsolesence (with some advantages) --- Was: CD-Rs with short memory...

[Craig Johnson]

Thanks for the responses to my note. As a retired (read 'fixed income')
Techie, I am nost likely to use the audio editor approach, given that
these days, I have few reasons to actually access 78s.

But to the real point of this note:
I appreciate the fact that there are ways to overcome the lack of
current 78 rpm turntables at a reasonable price. HOWEVER,
the initial, and main, point of my note was that the TECHNICAL
issue of CD DECAY was probably a untrue, but that the MARKETING
issues mean that you mist never totally rely on ANY currently marketed
storage medium for the storage of either written (text or music)
or sound (and video) data - or for that matter ANY computer data.
 At least not to the point that you store it back in a closet and expect to
 find and economic means of retrieving it at a later date.

And I think the 2 solutions presented make my case very well.
One is overly cumbersome (or overly technical) for frequent usage or
for non-techies and the other is not within what I consider my
(reetirement-imposed) price range.
If I were a 78 collector as a hobby , both solutions would have been
greatly welcome. But the 78s to me were just a source of information
on how something was played and I now have some other resources..

Most economical solution...(to me)--------
Rather, I think one needs to expect that from time to
time you will have to change media, transfering from the recent medium
to the future one. (As I should have done with my lead sheets years ago
when Microsoft changed the floppy format. At that time I should have
copied them to the new format or a different (at that time, magnetic)
medium.

I made the decision a number of  years ago to dump my 78s rather than
going through this. (Also, partially because they were too breakable and
had been a pain every time we moved, or rearranged the house (as my
wife does inordinately frequently). On the other hand, at this point
I am converting my lps  to CDs as a way to preserve what is on them.
And at some point will probably have to copy those to DVDs or whatever
the technology is  when CDs per se become "old hat".

Advantages:
In the process, I am converting them to mp3 as I
have an mp3 CD player in my pickup and that's where I listen anyway.
Sure, the sound quality is less than a .wav format or the normal CD
sound format, but much of the stuff is transferred from 78s anyway and these
old
ears don't hear half the frequencies I am losing anyway.
(In fact, as I used to explain to my "HI-FI"-addict friends, I never did
hear (or at least, care about) the difference. Add to that I'm listening
in my TRUCK."

-- The real advantage is that it's "hands off" listening
as I can get 160 or more tracks onto an mp3 CD vs. 16-20 on the
standard one. That's at least a 4 hour trip without touching the
CD and the other advantage is tha ability to see the titles of the
obscure tunes on the console vs. chancing an auto-wreck by
vsiually scanning the jewel case.

Regards,
Craig



On 4/24/2004 10:48:06 AM, adaywayne at aol.com wrote:
> As a satisfactory alternative, if you have a turntable with a P-mount or
> universal-mount cartridge, one can buy a cartridge.stylus designed for 78
> records.
> Play them at 45 rpm and then use  audio editor software to change to  the
>
> "correct" speed without changing the pitch.
> Arnie
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>
> In a message dated 4/23/2004 10:31:44 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
> roadie at btinternet.com writes:
> > Secondly, it is a bitch or at least very expensive to get a
> > turn table for 78 rpm records these days.......<snip>
>
> But they are still produced. Technics still make
> 'em and at around GBP 400
> retail I s'pose they are a bit on the pricey
> side but they will also play
> 33/45rpm discs. Numark and other brands also produce turntables which
> include
> 78rpm for about half the price.
>
> ~=~
> John,
> Suffolk, England.
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