Re: [ARSCLIST] Preservation media WAS: Cataloguing still :-)

[steven c <stevenc@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

see end...
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Tom Fine" <tflists@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> I remember my first contact with Compact discs was late 1982, a demo at a
Tech Hifi store in White
> Plains NY. It was about as impressive as most digital-recorded LPs
released up to that point, in
> other words not very. Plus the players cost a grand or more and there were
a few dozen titles, to be
> a couple hundred by Christmas. I decided, not yet. Also, the demo guy took
a CD, scuffed it but good
> on the dusty floor and put it back in the player. Of course it didn't play
and he was very redfaced.
>
> Two years later, senior year in high school, players were down to $400 or
so and there were hundreds
> of titles available for just a couple bucks more than an LP. By that time,
pre-recorded cassette
> sales had passed LPs, showing that the future was not a grooved disk. A
couple of my friends had CD
> players and had good-sounding systems. There were beginning to be a few
decent-sounding titles out
> there but most rock stuff was done from who-knows-what-generation masters
sitting in cassette duping
> plants in Japan and Germany -- or at least they sounded that way. One
notable exception was some of
> the Verve jazz stuff to come out of Polygram Japan. They had master tapes
over there already because
> they reissued a bunch of LPs (excellent reissues by the way) in the late
70's and early 80's. Their
> CD's were not bad at all. I figured, I have a good cassette deck to make
tapes, I have hundreds of
> LPs and I'm headed off to college and need to save money, so still too
early.
>
> Finally, in 1986, I found a suprisingly good-sounding Teac CD player (Teac
was one of the few
> Japanese manufacturers to use the Philips playback circuits instead of
Sony's designs) for $150.
> Sold! I slowly started building up a CD library. Around that time, CBS and
Polygram finally got mass
> production online in the USA and already were going back and trying to
make better-sounding
> reissues, at least from USA safety copies instead of what were used in
Germany and Japan. But,
> stories abound of interns in hallways with misaligned reel machines
cranking out CD masters to feed
> the marketing beast. What I found was that some new issue albums sounded
excellent on CD's, they had
> been recorded to take advantage of the better fidelity and dynamic range
in some cases and sounded
> quite good. Still refreshing to hear a little tape hiss (most folks were
still using Dolby A at that
> point and some mastering guys were ditching NR and mastering at high
nanowebers at 30IPS on 1/2"
> 2-track).
>
> It wasn't until the 1990's that the majority of labels got serious about
doing decent remasters,
> going back to original tapes and in some cases using original playback
equipment. Some of the best
> CD's were made in that decade. As Big Music conglomerated and stripped
budgets and personnel to
> "rationalize" the bankers fees paid to conglomerate, reissue quality went
down. Then the "make it
> clipping loud" thing came in, plus the idea of professional recording
methods went "out of fashion"
> in too many cases. But, at least it was still a CD-oriented market. Then
came Napster and iTunes and
> we're back to quality about akin to a good 78.
>
> -- Tom Fine
>
I don't recall the exact year...but sometime in the early eighties I
attended the yearly ARSC gathering (Bowling Green, Ohio as I remember)
and the attendant multitude were told that "computer data storage was also
possible on Compact Discs, but the machines needed to access that
data cost about $10,000 or more, and there was so far no way to
write that data onto a disc...).

Funny how things change...

Steven C. Barr