[Dixielandjazz] The future of 78s, CDs, mp3s, etc.

[Bill Gunter]

Listmates:

Brian Harvey wrote:

“ . . . MP3s are fine as samplers and for advertising but for jazz posterity 
they're a big No - No.”

This is the same thinking that led some “pundits” back in the 60s and 70s to 
predict “computers will never be useful in the home.”  I think Brian has too 
narrow a view as to the future of mp3s.

And Jim Kashishian wrote:
“MP3 is "squashed" audio, not near CD quality . . . ”

Jim is a sound engineer and knows whereof he speaks. It’s true that wav 
files (on CDs) are superior to mp3 files.

But it’s not as if WAV files sound really good and mp3 files sound really 
bad. My ears are incapable of detecting any difference, but then at my age 
I’ve lost a considerable amount of the high frequency range.

It’s a sort of trade off. To gain the advantages of mp3s you have to give up 
some of the qualities of WAVs. At some point it’s not worth it, but at the 
moment mp3s are clean and crisp enough for all but the pickiest of people.  
And I can send an mp3 file with ease as an attachment to an e-mail whereas 
it is virtually impossible with the amount of space a WAV file takes up.

And Brian Harvey also wrote:

“The MP3 is transient - 78s, LPs and CDs are not. Neither is our music. I 
rest my case.”

Well . . . everything is “transient” in some respect including the existence 
of our solar system. But it is true that 78s, LPs, audio cassettes and CDs 
are virtually obsolete today and mp3 is the sound system of choice today and 
for a few more years. And, like everything else, something better will come 
along - but in the meantime mp3 is KING!

Hans Koert asks a provocative question:

“Did some of you ever [think] about how a "disco"grapher should list the 
MP3-files?”

Probably the same way discographies have always been produced - in text 
files found either in books or in digital form on your computer.

Summation:

Since we can easily observe the progression from Edison’s wax cylinders to 
78s, LPs, 45s, tape recorders, audio cassettes, CDs, mp3s and so on it is 
quite logical to assume that something else will become more useful down the 
line.

For example - I can envision that every piece of music ever recorded at any 
time in any place will be available from a universal wireless digital source 
which can be accessed from anywlhere in the world in much the same way a 
cell phone accesses information from anywhere in the world today via 
satellites etc. The music would be logically organized and all one would 
need would be a small receiver dedicated to accessing everything in that 
system in whatever is the highest fidelity in sound reproduction and one 
would listen through headphones or, with a simple connection, through 
loudspeakers.

Oh yes . . . it could even have a 3D visual component to make it really 
interesting!

The technical aspects of such a scheme are not daunting in today's digital 
milieu and the economic aspects of such a thing (how do you pay for it, who 
profits, etc.) will automatically develop as the scheme comes into play.

Bye bye turntables, tape decks, CD players, computer web sites (Napster, 
etc) and welcome to a massive reorganization of the music business.  
Fortunes will be won and lost. Competition will be fierce but so what? - How 
is that any different from anything else in the world?

The Ipod is just another step on the road to universal access.

Respectfully submitted,

Bill “you may want to write this all down for future reference” Gunter
jazzboard at hotmail.com