{"id":72,"date":"2021-07-20T08:46:00","date_gmt":"2021-07-20T12:46:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/iterudio.com\/?p=72"},"modified":"2021-07-20T08:46:00","modified_gmt":"2021-07-20T12:46:00","slug":"movies-records-and-me-part-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.iterudio.com\/?p=72","title":{"rendered":"“Movies”, “Records”, and me – part 2"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Records<\/strong>
Notice that the word “movie” is not bound to a specific technology. e.g. “Movies” used to be synonymous with “films” – then the film went away, but the pictures remain …<\/p>\n\n\n

The same is true of “records”<\/em> as a noun. Remember, gool ol’ Mr Edison made the first sound recordings on wax cylinders. So “records” is (probably) traced back to “phonograph recording” in some form or other – BUT “wax cylinders” were obviously fragile …<\/p>\n\n\n

I’m guessing the “disk shaped vinyl record” that was common for most of the 20th Century came about for practical commercial reasons – that it hit the sweet spot between “cost of production”, “shipping cost\/convenience”, and then “sound quality”<\/p>\n\n\n

SO “pressed vinyl disks” became synonymous with “records”
(pop quiz: how many “grooves” does a “vinyl record” have? A: only 1 continuous “groove” – otherwise the recording would “skip”)<\/p>\n\n\n

Tapes<\/strong>
When “tape recordings” became popular they were referred to by the technology (e.g. 8-track, cassette tapes) PROBABLY for simple marketing reasons. <\/p>\n\n\n

“Tapes” were obviously more durable than “vinyl records” – i.e. step on the vinyl record that you threw on the floor of your car and it is probably going to break, the cassette might break, while the 8-track would bruise your foot and twist your ankle.<\/p>\n\n\n

HOWEVER – the “sound aficionados” out there would probably argue that “vinyl records” always provided superior “sound quality” to both tape technologies.<\/p>\n\n\n

“Cassette tape” probably won the technological fight with “8-track” for the same reason “VHS” beat “Betamax.” i.e. The AVERAGE consumer had the ability to “create” recordings with cassette tapes (the dreaded “mixtape”) and then VHS tapes – which made those particular technologies more attractive to the average consumer.<\/p>\n\n\n

btw: it seems like I’ve been hearing about how much money “media piracy” costs the “big multinational conglomerate media companies” my entire life – i.e. “that new technology is gonna kill the industry” is something “chicken little executives” have been saying on a regular basis for years<\/p>\n\n\n

Don’t get me wrong – “piracy is bad” – but in general the folks pirating content aren’t gonna buy it in the first place (so they aren’t in the “customer” category). The WORST thing a “media company” can do is make it harder for their paying customers to consume media they have purchased – and we are moving on …<\/p>\n\n\n

CDs<\/strong>
then the “compact disk” (CD) was more durable than cassettes AND held more music AND had a better sound quality – so (for the most part) cassettes are no more.<\/p>\n\n\n

Ultimately the problem with CDs is lossy compression during digitization – short version: you end up with a “tinny” sound as opposed to the full spectrum preserved with “vinyl record pressings.”<\/p>\n\n\n

Speakers<\/strong>
I always loved the “marketing speak” behind “Hi-Fi” sound systems (i.e. does anyone sell “lo-fi” systems?). <\/p>\n\n\n

The term “high fidelity<\/a>” in regards to “sound recordings” goes back at least to 1938. <\/p>\n\n\n

The fact that the recording was supposed to “sound just as good as live” was the whole point of the famous “RCA dog<\/a>” logo – oh, and then there was “it is live, or is it memorex<\/a>” back in 1981.

BUT what gets overlooked is that the sound is coming out of a set of speakers. it doesn’t matter how “hi-fi” your recording medium may be, if you are playing sound out of low quality speakers.<\/p>\n\n\n

Well, that is probably why in 2021 we talk about “sound systems” and not necessarily about individual components. <\/p>\n\n\n

Cinema Experience<\/strong>
The obvious advantages that “the cinema” has is (obviously) the “big screen” as well as “theater quality sound.” <\/p>\n\n\n

My memory of seeing “Star Wars” (when there was only 1 “Star Wars” movie) “way back when” in a “first run” theater VIVIDLY includes the opening scene with the Star Destroyer<\/a> coming in from off screen. <\/p>\n\n\n

In a “good sound” theater setup you hear and FEEL (through the “bass rumble<\/a>“) the vessel before it appears on screen (giving the illusion that it is flying overhead and immersing the “younger me” in the movie)<\/p>\n\n\n

Obviously I’m a little harder to impress now than “back then” – but “Avatar<\/a>” in the theater with the 3D-experience was a similar experience. To be clear, I’m not comparing “Star Wars” and “Avatar” as “motion pictures” but as “cinematic experiences.”<\/p>\n\n\n

Silent movies<\/strong>
Since I’ve kind of stumbled into a study of “public domain silent movies” (I’m going to put together a documentary, so I can say I’ve made a “movie”) – I’ll point out that “silent movies” were always accompanied by live music.<\/p>\n\n\n

We have come to expect sound and pictures engineered\/designed together to create a “cinema experience.” From a practical point of view – that means that any music soundtrack that is included with a “silent” movie was done “after the fact.” <\/p>\n\n\n

Kind of like my editing exercise with Home on the Range<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

RecordsNotice that the word “movie” is not bound to a specific technology. e.g. “Movies” used to be synonymous with “films” – then the film went away, but the pictures remain … The same is true of “records” as a noun. Remember, gool ol’ Mr Edison made the first sound recordings on wax cylinders. So “records” […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,10,13],"tags":[18,22,26],"class_list":["post-72","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-business","category-music","category-technology-history","tag-movie","tag-records","tag-sound"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iterudio.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iterudio.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iterudio.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iterudio.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iterudio.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=72"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.iterudio.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iterudio.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=72"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iterudio.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=72"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iterudio.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=72"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}