Sound, recording, etc.

Brian writes:

> Thus it behooves us all to produce the best
> possible cassette recordings of microtonal music...
> a task akin to producing the best possible
> buggy whips we can make. Insane, senseless,
> bizarre, and outlandish--yet incontrovertibly
> necessary given the utter failure of DAT,
> MiniDisc or DCC to survive in the consumer
> marketplace as affordable viable mass
> recording/playback formats.

[Non-tuning related content -- with apologies from the author.]

While DCC is, for all intents and purposes, dead, I think it's a bit
premature to sound the bells on behalf of MD. Sony is starting to
promote the medium again in the US, and I believe Sharp is returning as
well. Prices are coming down, if not by stellar leaps -- blank media
has come down from $10 per to $6.50 per just in the past couple of
months. Traffic on the MD-L leaves me with the impression that Japan
and some parts of Europe are already heavily entrenched in MDs.

Not too long ago, I picked up a JE500 as part of Sony's MDBundl3
package, and have been *very* pleased with it. [I've heard of street
prices as low as $379 for the JE500, BTW.] I never got the chance to
hear the original ATRAC machines, but the current version (4) sounds
"close enough" to CD to keep me happy, given its intended purposes.

I've made a couple of "test case" live recordings using it along side
my cassette machine (Marantz PMD-430/dbx/metal tape) and the results
are noticeably superior, even on less than stellar playback systems,
and even after making "deliverable" cassette dubs from each source.
This is all the more remarkable given that I have to use the mic pre's
in the Marantz, and they, shall we say, leave a bit to be desired. ;-)
Editing is a bit easier, too.

To top it off, there are three MD 4-track machines on the way as well.
The Yamaha has been here for a month or two, and the Sony and TASCAM
should be available this month, according to dealers. (As soon as my
checkbook recovers, I'll probably be springing for one of the TASCAMs
myself)

Granted, none of this stuff is in the same league as DAT, big hard disc
recorders and digital mixers, but some of us can't afford that kind of
stuff. :-)


A peaceful and joyous holiday to all,

Steve

Received: from ns.ezh.nl [137.174.112.59] by vbv40.ezh.nl
with SMTP-OpenVMS via TCP/IP; Sat, 21 Dec 1996 00:33 +0100
Received: by ns.ezh.nl; (5.65v3.2/1.3/10May95) id AA17530; Sat, 21 Dec 1996 00:36:14 +0100
Received: from eartha.mills.edu by ns (smtpxd); id XA17075
Received: from by eartha.mills.edu via SMTP (940816.SGI.8.6.9/930416.SGI)
for id PAA29673; Fri, 20 Dec 1996 15:36:11 -0800
Date: Fri, 20 Dec 1996 15:36:11 -0800
Message-Id:
Errors-To: madole@ella.mills.edu
Reply-To: tuning@eartha.mills.edu
Originator: tuning@eartha.mills.edu
Sender: tuning@eartha.mills.edu