Future Proofing Your Music (CL152 June 2002)
Jeff Garbutt, Western Australia

So you are starting to use minidisk or CD or even MP3 ? Or you have been using them for quite a while?

Like many callers, I had originally recorded my vinyl collection direct to Minidisc. But then after a while I found that I didn't like the way I had my records organised on the minidisk, so I brought some more blank discs and started again. (As it can take a while to redo everything it is best to keep using the old set until one has completely re-done the new set.)

Which led me to wonder if there was a better way of getting my music onto minidisk. And preferably only require me to record my vinyls once. So that if I decided to re-organise my minidisks again, it would be less of an overhead.

The solution I came up with is something I call "re-mastering vinyls" and basically involves the following steps.
(1) Copy the music onto computer.
(2) Clean-up the music file to get rid of problems such as "pops" and "clicks" caused by scratches on the original vinyl.
(3) Adjust the tempo as required.
(4) Copy the completed music files onto CDs. These CDs then become my "master source" which I will use for copying to minidisk.
(5) Finally, I copy from the CD masters direct to minidisk.

Now some of you are probably asking, "why don't I simply copy from one minidisk to another if I want to re-organise my collection?" The answer is that minidisk stores music using data compression techniques and some of the music information is lost. (It is only the stuff that the human ear can't hear that is lost, but nevertheless it is still lost.) And when you start making copies of copies the music data will eventually deteriorate. With CD I can make an exact copy of the original music waveform.

These CD Masters then become my main source of music whenever I need to copy the music to another format. I can use these masters to load music to Minidiscs, Other CDs, MP3 files or any other media that becomes available. Furthermore, real time copying of music generally does not restrict me.

So, if I decide to switch from minidisks to say MP3 music, I simply copy music from my CD-masters. In effect I have "future-proofed" myself against foreseeable changes in technology. And I don't have to keep going back to my vinyls every time I want to make a change.

However all this comes at a price - a big one - you must have a computer.

Don't forget copyright! Although record producers will tolerate you copying your music to another format for use at your club, the above procedure of making a CD master is pushing the tolerance a bit. One thing for sure - they will not tolerate the following:
* Selling your original vinyl, (or CD or MP3), and still keeping a copy for use at club nights.
* Giving a copy of your music to someone else.
Anyone who does either of the above is just plain stupid after all the warnings that have been given.

Jeff

Changes since June 2002:

Probably the biggest change is to steps (4) and (5), (with the recommendation to use CDs as masters). External Hard Drives (External HDDs) are now common place and are very convenient for storing all your music.

The other change is that minidisc media is basically a thing of the past. Sony no longer manufacture or sell Minidisc systems. Tascam probably do. Computers, iPads and other mp3 players are now the most commonly used device.

This all reinforces the need to future proof yourself to be adaptable to future music player changes. The basic principles still apply.

Jeff (January 2013)