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Tag Archives: music
The Archivist’s Dilemma
I am a collector because I collect a particular kind of cassette. I am an archivist because I disseminate and publish facts and data which future generations might find useful. The (meta)data ends up in a database called Discogs. Scans end up in my personal stash, and the cassettes end up in the trash. Nobody wants those, they’re just plastic matter. But what of the audio on those tapes, the gist of it all? Let corporate greed ensure that the majority of “European” recordings will survive for future generations to gush over. Continue reading
My Ravaged Ears: The Sequel
For me, personally, digging through and cataloguing second-hand recordings is an immensely gratifying task, and there must be scores of such treasures that, during their glory days, were proudly displayed in tape cabinets or fancy shelves. Today, these remnants are hidden away in the back of a drawer, stuck in a box under the bed or simply gather dust in the basement. Continue reading
Cassette Project #1: A Reprise
Two years ago I wrote about how my tape collection had, as part of the process of elimination and digitization, actually ballooned to more than tenfold its original size. Wheat and bran had been separated from the chaff — although no negligible amount of the former has been dropped off on my desk since then. I’ve begun entering that serendipitous stockpile of cassettes into the database. Continue reading
Music Browser Wars
Like most connected people in the 21st century, I’ve accumulated a plentitude of MP3 audio/music files. Digital media has arrived, and I suppose it’s here to stay for a while. But how does one effectively maintain a growing collection of MP3 files, one that, as the owner’s tastes and interests change, becomes increasingly unclear and unwieldy? How does one keep track of everything? Continue reading
Posted in Music
Tagged collections, digitization, media player, MP3, music, software
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Five years and good dope
Five years of deciphering cryptic codes and punctuation and matrix codes on CDs and tapes and records and figuring out and defining relationships between this label and that licensee, this company and that pressing plant, or this band and its members who don’t wish to be associated with the band anymore. Sometimes we get even met with thanks and tokens of appreciation. Continue reading
Posted in Music
Tagged compulsion, discogs, music, research
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Project Tape2MP3: Completed!
This, dear readers, is all that remains of my tape collection. Twenty years of collecting and nurturing an audio cassette collection have been reduced to nothing more than one 16GB USB flash drive’s worth of bits. Continue reading
The death of the Compact Disc, part 1
Who hasn’t fallen for the charms of iTunes, MusicLoad, AmazonMP3 and/or Beatport for all their musical needs, buying and downloading gigabytes of music that you cannot touch or feel? Call me old-fashioned if you will, but nothing beats picking up a real record and admiring the physical, real entity that I hold in my hands. A record is a work of art. A recording is a historical artefact. Continue reading
Music, mayhem, and more memories
Little else evokes memories in the way that sound recordings do. Currently tied up with adding the finishing touches to the mayhem that is the Cyberia selection of electronica and dance music, the Tape2MP3 project is on pause until next year. Continue reading