The Compact Disc
- Thread starter Chris Mills
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Chris Mills
That was funny....like the dark vomited up
Funny, really, considering how A&M so quickly jumped on the bandwagon and was reissuing crappy-sounding back catalog CDs just like every other label out there. 
Some of those earliest CD really sound dismal. I have a Sony demo disc from 1982 and the sound is ear-bleedingly bad. I got it free from somewhere. Back catalog was really the big moneymaker for the labels--production and marketing costs were nil, and back then, grabbing the easiest available master tape and slapping it onto a glass CD master was a no-brainer. Still, it was an exciting time seeing favorites reappear on the new format.
For me it was odd--I was a bit wowed by the thought of having a noise-free playback, but something always sounded "off" to me. Why did my new "perfect sound forever" Supertramp Crime Of The Century CD reissue sound like garbage, and so much worse than my Mobile Fidelity vinyl? A lot of it was the poor mastering of early CDs--I had (and still have) vinyl that runs circles around those. It wasn't until some of the better mastering engineers, and pioneering labels like Mobile Fidelity, DCC and others, started releasing recordings properly mastered that CD finally turned a corner and started to sound good. (And of course, when Crime was released on CD by Mobile Fidelity, I finally got back the clear sound I was used to, albeit still "off" a bit due to the low-resolution digital of CD.)
Can't tell you how many times, today, I kick myself for trading in so much good-sounding vinyl for mediocre reissue CDs.
That Dire Straits CD mentioned was one that took me months to find; what they say in the article is true about that one. Due to all the press it received, stores sold out of copies as soon as they arrived. I even remember which store it was--Discount Music, in Ann Arbor, MI (corner of State and Liberty). This was not the same Discount Music run by Musicland though--this was an indie store. One of many great music stores in A² that have since closed.
Some of those earliest CD really sound dismal. I have a Sony demo disc from 1982 and the sound is ear-bleedingly bad. I got it free from somewhere. Back catalog was really the big moneymaker for the labels--production and marketing costs were nil, and back then, grabbing the easiest available master tape and slapping it onto a glass CD master was a no-brainer. Still, it was an exciting time seeing favorites reappear on the new format.For me it was odd--I was a bit wowed by the thought of having a noise-free playback, but something always sounded "off" to me. Why did my new "perfect sound forever" Supertramp Crime Of The Century CD reissue sound like garbage, and so much worse than my Mobile Fidelity vinyl? A lot of it was the poor mastering of early CDs--I had (and still have) vinyl that runs circles around those. It wasn't until some of the better mastering engineers, and pioneering labels like Mobile Fidelity, DCC and others, started releasing recordings properly mastered that CD finally turned a corner and started to sound good. (And of course, when Crime was released on CD by Mobile Fidelity, I finally got back the clear sound I was used to, albeit still "off" a bit due to the low-resolution digital of CD.)
Can't tell you how many times, today, I kick myself for trading in so much good-sounding vinyl for mediocre reissue CDs.
That Dire Straits CD mentioned was one that took me months to find; what they say in the article is true about that one. Due to all the press it received, stores sold out of copies as soon as they arrived. I even remember which store it was--Discount Music, in Ann Arbor, MI (corner of State and Liberty). This was not the same Discount Music run by Musicland though--this was an indie store. One of many great music stores in A² that have since closed.
Dave
Well-Known Member
To me, a 'Set it, then fuggedit' of audio... Though my 2013 Cambridge without the '1-20, numbered-squares', makes programming the disc, difficult...
I take whatever "grades to audio", whether up or down in whatever format is "in" as it comes--but let it stay in whatever formats my rig can play--Vinyl or CD, for as long as I cheaply and reasonably can...!
P.S. Where in the article was the Jerry Moss comment?
-- Dave
I take whatever "grades to audio", whether up or down in whatever format is "in" as it comes--but let it stay in whatever formats my rig can play--Vinyl or CD, for as long as I cheaply and reasonably can...!
P.S. Where in the article was the Jerry Moss comment?
-- Dave
Chris Mills
That was funny....like the dark vomited up
I'm kind of surprised that the labels were hesitant. For me it was a no brainer -- harder to wreck, easier to store and carry, much handier to play, cleaner sound, longer capacity. The only "bad" things (at the beginning) were the price (both for the players and the disks -- the first player we stocked at the store had a suggested retail of $900), and the packaging wasn't near as fun as the LP package -- but by that time the best selling format for popular hits was the cassette anyway.
The first thing I ever heard on CD was Madonna's "Like A Virgin" album, and another early one was the Glenn Miller Orchestra's "In the Digital Mood." Both stellar recordings, so I was hooked from day one. Like others though, I was disappointed in the sound of a lot of the reissues. They just pumped them out too fast with no regard for quality.
The first thing I ever heard on CD was Madonna's "Like A Virgin" album, and another early one was the Glenn Miller Orchestra's "In the Digital Mood." Both stellar recordings, so I was hooked from day one. Like others though, I was disappointed in the sound of a lot of the reissues. They just pumped them out too fast with no regard for quality.
Bobberman
Well-Known Member
Some of my first cds were from mannheim steamrollers" Fresh aire" series. Since i didnt hear them on vinyl originally. I thought they were fabulous ( then they remastered them and they sounded pretty much the same only slightly louder.) Nevertheless i learned how to play drums by listening to the fresh aire cds. Too bad i quit drumming in the mid 90s and gave away my set. Nevertheless in the beginning i thought the cd format was a treat. But then they phased out vinyl and it became the standard.
What is really interesting today is how the tide has turned somewhat. The CD format continues to die a slow death, and vinyl is making a limited resurgence, with pressing capacity so backed up for the past couple of years that two US-based companies have bought up a handful of old pressed to refurbish and put into LP production. I don't think anyone ever counted on that. What is really telling is that used CD stores will not pay much for CDs, and some will not even take them in anymore.
Many years ago, I realized that major music formats had something like a 30 year cycle of popularity. 78 RPM records roughly had a 30 year lifecycle, and LPs were pretty much "mass market" by the mid 1950s. By the mid 1980s, LP sales shrunk as CDs took over. It's now 30 years later, CDs are dying off and downloads are nearly becoming the standard new music format. I had predicted that our next "albums" would come via some sort of carrier that had no moving parts, such as a memory chip. That never happened, but the idea of a non-mechanical playback system did pan out. Other formats like reels, cassettes, etc. all ran concurrently to the others; digitally, DAT, DCC and MiniDisc all never took off as popular formats.
Many years ago, I realized that major music formats had something like a 30 year cycle of popularity. 78 RPM records roughly had a 30 year lifecycle, and LPs were pretty much "mass market" by the mid 1950s. By the mid 1980s, LP sales shrunk as CDs took over. It's now 30 years later, CDs are dying off and downloads are nearly becoming the standard new music format. I had predicted that our next "albums" would come via some sort of carrier that had no moving parts, such as a memory chip. That never happened, but the idea of a non-mechanical playback system did pan out. Other formats like reels, cassettes, etc. all ran concurrently to the others; digitally, DAT, DCC and MiniDisc all never took off as popular formats.
The only thing I fear drying up in supply are CD players (in 30 years or so). It may end up being a niche market item. Yet even today's BluRay players are capable of playing a CD, so if any type of disc player still exists then, there should still be a way to play them back. In computers, I don't even think you can buy a CD-ROM drive anymore. DVD-ROM has become a dirt cheap commodity item, and BluRay drives are dropping in price quickly.
Good turntables today are a niche item, and I feel that someone out there will still offer a CD player of some sort, but it likely would be an expensive audiophile unit.
Downloads I feel are the end of the line. The change in playback formats over the decades was largely a matter of sound quality, and convenience. Once you have music as downloads, there really is no way to make it any more convenient, and CD-quality digital seems to be good enough for many listeners out there. (Who knows? High res music could be the standard in 10-15 years, for all we know.) MP3s only became popular due to the low Internet speeds most people had going into their homes, and the expense of the memory or disk space to store them in.
Where I do see further improvement is in larger, cheaper storage, and in the increased bandwidth coming into our homes. I currently get 60Mbps inbound, and it is scary how quickly I can download an entire album of music at CD-quality digital. It's a matter of only two or three minutes. I can download a converted HD video movie, 8GB worth, in less than an hour.
I still remember spending an hour downloading a 100 KB file from a dial-up BBS, connected via 1200 baud!
Good turntables today are a niche item, and I feel that someone out there will still offer a CD player of some sort, but it likely would be an expensive audiophile unit.
Downloads I feel are the end of the line. The change in playback formats over the decades was largely a matter of sound quality, and convenience. Once you have music as downloads, there really is no way to make it any more convenient, and CD-quality digital seems to be good enough for many listeners out there. (Who knows? High res music could be the standard in 10-15 years, for all we know.) MP3s only became popular due to the low Internet speeds most people had going into their homes, and the expense of the memory or disk space to store them in.
Where I do see further improvement is in larger, cheaper storage, and in the increased bandwidth coming into our homes. I currently get 60Mbps inbound, and it is scary how quickly I can download an entire album of music at CD-quality digital. It's a matter of only two or three minutes. I can download a converted HD video movie, 8GB worth, in less than an hour.
I still remember spending an hour downloading a 100 KB file from a dial-up BBS, connected via 1200 baud!
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