[Dixielandjazz] new technologies

[Bill Gunter]

Hi Cees and all,

You wrote (regarding iPods):

>So it's now time to put my old wire and wax roll recordings on my Ipod?

The short answer is "yes."

A longer reply would be "perhaps it has already been done. I mean this in 
the sense that many of those old wire recordings and wax cylinders etc. may 
have already been converted to digital data and made available as mp3 files 
which may be stored in your iPod."

Another aspect of this is that converting them to digital files will help 
preserve the wire recordings and especially the cylinders themselves which 
deteriorate with age and usage. They still have historic value even though 
the sounds they produce may be of inferior quality compared to today's music 
players.

That brings up an interesting point. The wax rolls won't get better and 
there is nothing you can do to them which will improve the sound quality.  
However . . . when the information has been converted into digital form one 
can use sound editors to enhance the tone quality considerably. For instance 
when old 78's are digitized one can eliminate many of the scratches, clicks, 
hissings etc. and other distractions you hear when playing the record. Some 
amazing things can be done with this technology.

But, the answer to your question ("So it's now time to put my old wire and 
wax roll recordings on my Ipod?") is simply "Yes."

By the way, the word is spelled "iPod" with the second letter being upper 
case. I think it stands for something like "information pod." It's one of 
those cutesy affectations you see a lot of these days.

Cheers,

Bill Gunter
jazzboard at hotmail.com