Sunday, April 5, 2009

Virgin Closed (Part 2)

Though I think of CD's as being a format that are better in concept than in execution, I have to tip my hat to DVDs and game discs...DVDs compared to VHS or BETAmax? No comparison! DVDs look far better and in the end, are the superior product. They hold far more data, and when it comes to movies, anyone can tell you that the larger the storage capacity, the better, as the better the quality, the higher the space required. Game discs? Yeah, same thing here. Nintendo was 8-bit, Xbox 360 has processors that I don't even want to think of...you have eyes...go look for yourself.

So how did CDs lose this? Well, as I said in my earlier post on the subject, digital audio is not the actual audio. It's fragments brought together so quickly, you are fooled into hearing the audio as a whole, much like TV shows and movies being made entirely of still frames, working under the same concept as CDs. When it isn't the real thing, generally, it isn't better. You can make that bit rate as high as you would like, but in the end, it's still a series of fragments.

CDs were truly a matter of convenience for the time, and the risks of the format were not known or were simply ignored. I will say that if I had to chose between playing a record or a CD in my car, hands down, it would be the CD, as records are a tough act in the car. I might say skipping would be the big problem with records in a moving automobile, but up until the late 90s, the same applied for CDs, even on higher end model players. I'm sure you remember just as well as I do, the days of walking around with your discman in your hands and if you stepped to heavily, you would get a skip. Not cool.

Let's look at CDRs...I actually like these because they are so CHEAP AND OFFER THE EXACT SAME BENEFITS OF COMMERCIALLY PRESSED CDS. Actually, from what I can tell, CDRs are actually more durable than regular CDs. Although my experience and simple statements don't validate this in any real way, I'd think someone else may have noticed this. There are many of us who look at a band selling a CDr and immediatley, we begin to think of them as cheap or unprofessional...nothing is further from the truth. First off, if it's looks you are after, I've seen plenty of beautiful CDRs printed via LightScribe drive or some other means, with a shiny jewel case, and professionaly laid out booklet. Of course, I've seen (and made) the most simple CDRs that just are what they are. To me, there is nothing wrong with that. To me, the people with the CDRs are smart! They aren't spending their precious time dealing with a pressing plant or spending the money that could go to better recording, equipment, sound, venues, etc on simple aesthetics. It also means that if they need more copies, it's a trip to the office supply store, and viola! Fresh copies! And, you can sell them for very cheap...so I must ask you...what is wrong with CDRs? It's simple...it doesn't come with the hype machine associated with major labels and artists. And that is both the fault of the consumer for being an idiot, and the labels for their nonsense exclusivity.........

(part 3 coming soon)

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