DIGITAL MUSIC MEDIA
Originally written in Jan 2002 and was out of date within one or two years!
(Jeff Garbutt)

Vinyl is still king! And looks like staying that way for a few years yet. But there are real alternatives available to us now that weren't there about ten years ago. And whilst I don't believe that there are any callers who have completely switched off vinyl - there are many callers who are using alternative media to supplement their vinyls.

Before going any further, let me iterate two things:
· Don't throw out your vinyl records. They will still be the main source of our music for many years to come. Vinyl, in fact, has made a comeback. So much so that one of the main vinyl pressing plants in the States is even expanding.
· Nothing is static in the music media industry. Things are changing so fast that much of what appears in this article could well be out of date within months, if not weeks.

I am not even going to attempt to cover the legal implications of copying music from vinyl records to other media. But you should consider the implications if you do start to use other media.

Why are we bothering with this new media ? The obvious answer of course is to reduce space. We want to carry around more music in less (physical) space.

 

But, this ability to carry around "more music" can come at a hidden cost. It can encourage bad programming habits. If you only carry around a small box of vinyl records you tend to think a lot more about which records to take. You will plan your club night to follow some type of theme and then select the records to match, (plus a few spares just in case). But when you have so much music available - it is easy to get a bit lazy with your program.

 

Now let's take a moment to consider the attributes of an ideal music storage system:1) The media chosen should hold as much music as possible. But…2) It should be easy to access whatever piece of music you want. It doesn't matter if your media can hold 1 title or 10000 titles - if you can't get access to the piece of music you want quickly - that media is useless to you. This is the main reason that tapes, (either reel to reel, cassette or DAT), were never of use to square dancing.3) The media should be common. You should be able to go to another club and know that you can use the music you have on that club's equipment. 4) It should be possible to copy music (from any other media) onto that media easily and without too much expense.We currently have 3 main choices that can be used. The main choices are: Music CDs, Minidisks and MP3 players.

 

MUSIC CD's

Music CDs are familiar territory to us. They are physically of similar shape and size to our vinyl 45s. And we have been using CDs in our cars and home HiFi's for a few years now. A music CD will hold about 19 to 20 square dance records, and it is easy to find the track you want. 

So it should be easy to adopt them as an alternative music media. But why haven't they taken off ?

The answer of course is that until recently:
· There hasn't been much square dance music available on CD. (As a corollary to that, there hasn't been much demand for square dance music to be available on CD)
· There hasn't been an easy an affordable way to copy our vinyls to CD. (But that has changed over the last 1 or 2 years).
· The CD was originally designed as a "record once only" media. (We now have re-writ able disks.)

Square dance music on CD is becoming more available. Not by every label, but enough to make one take a serious look at it when purchasing music. The labels that are making them tend to be "value adding" to the CD. For instance, making several mixes of the music track available in a variety of keys and with the option of backing harmonies. One label is even splitting hoedowns into two tracks, the first track being the intro with the second track being the body of the hoedown. That allows one to easily reset the hoedown music. (I'm not sure if that is good or bad.)

Another trend is that some "out of print" titles are becoming available again on CD. This includes some "Rhythm", (original) "Chaparral", and "Shakedown" titles that have been un-available for a while and don't look like ever being re-pressed on vinyl.

CD-recorders have now become quite common and affordable. Not just in computers - there are several CD recorders available as Hi-Fi components now. You don't have to own a computer to create your own CDs anymore.

It is quite possible that had CD -recorders been more affordable and available back in the early 1990's, (or even mid 1990's). the minidisk format may not have become as popular as it is now.

MINIDISKS

Mini-disks seem to be very popular in the square dance community. Many callers now use mini-disks to carry their music around. And some callers even carry their own "walkman-sized" minidisk player with them when visiting other clubs.

The advantages of mini-disk are:
· The ability to make digital quality recordings from outside sources such as vinyl, CDs, MP3s or live music.
· Each (standard) disk can hold about 19 (standard square dance) records (in stereo) or about 38 records (in mono). And that capability has recently been expanded.
· It is generally easy to locate the track you want fairly quickly. 
· It is easy to transfer your music onto minidisk.
· The disks can be erased and re-recorded many times.

Mini-disks have had mixed success in the market place. Originally targeted for the hi-fi sector, probably as a replacement for cassette tapes, they didn't sell very well. They were probably victims of their initial high cost. But whilst the hi-fi market was slow to respond, other markets saw that mini-disks had superior recording qualities. For instance, rock groups had a cheap way to make studio quality recordings of their practice sessions. Other uses have been for field recordings by radio journalists, recording native animals in the wild, medical uses and some other bizarre uses such as recording ghost sounds. If you'd like to find out more check out Mini-disk Community Web page at http://www.minidisc.org/ and look under "Cool Uses & Stories"

In fact the interest from the professional world led to development of another minidisk format called MD-data, which allows for multi-track recording systems. (Not of interest to us, but interesting to know about).

And of course square dance callers found a use for them. It could be claimed that the square dance world played a role in making sure that the minidisk format didn't die.

So far we have been using minidisks mostly for carrying our music to the dance. But with their ability to digitally record good quality music, they are also ideal for recording club nights. (It is always a good idea to tape club nights and study how you went to help improve your calling.) I personally think the recording quality of mini-disk is their most under-used feature.

Other recent developments have been:
· Variable pitch available in some models.
· Combined CD and minidisk in one unit.
· The introduction of 80 minute disks
· A new model just released by SONY (MDSPC3) which interfaces direct with your computer to allow for high speed transfer of music files.

There have been interesting developments in minidisks in the last year or so. With the introduction of MDLP (mini disk long play), which allows for 4 times compression. (A 74-minute minidisk can hold 296 minutes of stereo music). However, I recommend that if you do get one of these MDLP systems, to keep recording your music in standard stereo or mono. Because there will be no guarantee that anyone else will also have a MDLP compatible unit.

MP3 PLAYERS

What are MP3s ? To simplify it a bit - when music is digitally recorded it creates the digital equivalent of the original sound wave, commonly known as the "WAV" file. And because it is an exact digital equivalent to the original sound, it is a rather large file. Taking about 10 megabytes of memory per minute of (stereo) sound. MP3s use data compression techniques to reduce the file size by a factor of about 10. The end result is a much smaller file that is "not exactly the same as the original but close enough so that the average human ear wouldn't know the difference".

Now let me emphasize here that MP3 itself is not a physical media such as vinyl, tape, CD or minidisk. It is a computer file that can be played back on a "player that is capable of reading the MP3 file". The MP3 file can be stored on:
· A "smart card" or computer memory chip.
· A CD data disk. (A CD data disk can hold about 200 square dance records)
· A DVD disk. (When DVD writers become available sometime in the near future, you would be able to store about 2000 square dance records in MP3 format.)
· A computer hard drive.

The actual media used to play back MP3 files that are available include:
· Purpose built MP3 players that store the music on memory chips.
· Purpose built MP3 players that are basically built around a computer hard drive. (Such as Nomad Jukebox MP3 player).
· CD players that are MP3 compatible. (New to the market - but becoming more popular)
· DVD players that are MP3 compatible. (Also new - and becoming popular)
· Computers (especially laptop computers)

The obvious advantage of MP3 is the amount of music that can be carried around. For instance with a MP3 compatible CD disk it is possible to store about 200 square dance records.

The disadvantages?
· It is essential that you have a computer if you wish to use MP3s. There is only one MP3 players that I know of that can also create MP3 files direct from a music source, and that is the Nomad Jukebox.
· With the multitude of different MP3 players around - it is uncertain if you will be able to "transport" your MP3 files when you go visiting.
· Not many of the players have yet developed quick and easy searching. It can be very frustrating finding the next track that you want to use.

But, it's early days yet. MP3 is the new frontier. I don't think it will be very long before more models are released that will be able to record music direct, or have improved search facilities. Watch out, in particular, for the new breed of DVD players coming onto the market - they still may not be able to record music directly - but they will have better track selection features.

Three more points before I move on from here:
· Music from the MP3 file can be recorded onto either CD or Minidisk. So it is not absolutely necessary to have a MP3 player to use MP3 files. (But you still need a computer to transfer the music onto your CD or minidisk).
· There is a trend starting with some square dance music only being made available via MP3 files. Not many yet, but there are some good titles that are already available "only in MP3 format".

 

ONE CASE WHERE MP3 PLAYERS BEATS MINIDISK

Imagine you have all your square dance music stored on your computer and you want to download your night's program onto your portable media. And you only have 5 minutes before you leave.With an MP3 player this is achievable, as your MP3 media can be finished in minutes. Minidisk transfers have to be done in "real time" - unless you have the SONY "MDSPC3" unit which can interface directly with a computer.

 

OVERHEADS WITH DIGITAL MUSIC MEDIA

With either of these systems there are two basic overheads involved with setting things up:
· Copying all your vinyls has to be done in "real time". If you have 200 records to copy, it is going to take you about 800 minutes to complete the task.
· Maintaining a database so that you can easily track down the tune you want.

But, copying of the vinyls only needs to be a one-time overhead if you do it correctly and set up a useful database. 

In a future article I will describe how I have set myself up so that I can easily switch between medias without having to re-copy all my vinyls.

 

 

MY DREAM MACHINE

A combined CD/MD unit with the following features:
· The CD to be able to read MP3 CDs.
· The CD to also be a CD-recorder able to record normal CD-audio and MP3-audio.
· USB interface with the computer.
· Direct selection of tracks by simply keying in a track number (on both CD and MD).
· Facility to select the next track I want whilst one is already playing

You will notice that I haven't asked for a variable pitch control. But if it came with one - I'd take it.

 

WRAP UP

I could easily re-write this article in twelve months time. The music world will change so much by then. We will definitely see more developments with MP3 players - so watch out. 

If you're currently thinking about getting another media to supplement your vinyl records - I think I would still recommend minidisks over other systems. 
· You can have a reasonable amount of tracks on a disk.
· You should be able to transport your music to another club. A word of warning though - don't record your music in the new MDLP format - as you won't find many other callers will have an MDLP compatible unit. 
· Also, it isn't too difficult to copy CD-audio or MP3 files onto Minidisk.


Jeff Garbutt

2 January 2002