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The First Sony Walkman Was Released 40 Years Ago

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Re: The First Sony Walkman Was Released 40 Years Ago

#171

Post by rypskar »

madengr wrote: post #110
livatlantis wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is indeed interesting. I'd say that it has to do with: - complex structures (not necessarily always 4/4 or 3/4) - variations in dynamic range (loud parts vs. quiet parts) - storytelling / philosophical themes (the human condition, freedom, suffering, literature) - intense "solos" (Mendelssohn insanely fast yet moving segments on the piano vs. Petrucci going crazy on the guitar) - mastery of musical instruments (pa…

Ha ha, Dream Theater and Complete Mendelssohn String Quartets (Pacifica Quartet) are probably the top played on my phone. The string quartet tributes to Iron Maiden and Dream Theater are pretty good. My daughter is going to a rock strings camp next week where she will be playing Metallica, Zepplin, etc on cello.

>>My daughter is going to a rock strings camp next week where she will be playing Metallica, Zepplin, etc on cello.

Have she listened to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apocalyptica?

Re: The First Sony Walkman Was Released 40 Years Ago

#172

Post by thirdsun »

gchokov wrote: post #36
niftich wrote: post #11

The UX of cassettes was very useful for sharing and swapping music or speech, and for resuming where one left off. Because of the linear tape, the cassette's "playback cursor" was stateful and independent from whether the medium was read-only or not. Playback resumed at (nearly) the same spot as it was last stopped, even if moved to a different player. Successor formats didn't have this property. Interestingly, Sony…

I enjoyed reading your comment, and couldn't help but thinking how I miss this time. The joy of bringing something physical to somebody - a cassette, a vinyl - for their listening pleasure. The feedback loop from the act of giving and receiving. This whole idea of physical sharing made the music more personal and magical. Nowadays I have shared playlist for family and friends, and it lacks magic.

> Nowadays I have shared playlist for family and friends, and it lacks magic.

The physicality of the medium is just one aspect - another source of magic was the lack of a skip button. Well, that and the fact that most people had fewer distractions back then and regarded listening to music as an actual activity, not merely background noice.

Your comment makes me nostalgic - few things feel as magical as carefully compiling and recording a mixtape for someone special and knowing, to a certain degree, that there's a good chance the gifted person actually takes the time to listen to it just as thoroughly. As a music lover and collector I still have the tape decks and, more importantly, the selection to create those tapes, but good luck finding anyone being able to play them.

On a sidenote: There's still a niche audience for tapes. If you spend time on Bandcamp you'll see quite a few labels and artists offering their release in good old tape format. There also this limited series inviting various DJs, selector and crate diggers to share their mixtape: https://www.alteredsoulexperiment.com/products

Re: The First Sony Walkman Was Released 40 Years Ago

#173

Post by thirdsun »

criddell wrote: post #158
KozmoNau7 wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The vinyl resurrection is mostly due to hipster cred, and a whole mythology that has sprung up around the (imagined) sound quality benefits. The format also has a lot of drawbacks. The records are large and fragile, turntables are relatively large and the whole setup is not very portable. Records are also very much read-only. The compact cassette is small and rugged, tape players can be small enough that they are bar…

> The vinyl resurrection is mostly due to hipster cred, and a whole mythology that has sprung up around the (imagined) sound quality benefits. I think that was the start of it, but at this point it's spread well beyond hipsters. One of my kids bought a turntable and they do the same thing I did when I listened to records 30 years ago - lie on the floor and examine the sleeve and liner. Aside from the large format art…

> Not really and the ones that exist are expensive and have poor selection.

- Bandcamp

- Boomkat

- Qobuz

- 7Digital

- Bleep

- Juno Download

I buy everything I like (and it's a lot) in a lossless, digital format and the only time I can't find a legal lossless purchase option is when it's actually a physical-only release.

Re: The First Sony Walkman Was Released 40 Years Ago

#174

Post by FabHK »

thesmok wrote: post #170
FabHK wrote: post #119

One super useful feature was "Auto Reverse", allowing you to listen to both sides of a tape without having to take the cassette out and flipping it. It came out 3 years later, eg in the Sony WM-7. One thing I learned while looking into this now is that Music Cassettes (MC) have the magnetic recording tape, and then at both ends a "leader", which is much stronger than the thin magnetic tape, so it doesn't break when t…

My Walkman senses when the supply spool stops rotating, and then reverses.

That's what I thought would happen. I really wonder whether the WM-7 actually has an optical sensor.

Re: The First Sony Walkman Was Released 40 Years Ago

#175

Post by criddell »

thirdsun wrote: post #173
criddell wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The vinyl resurrection is mostly due to hipster cred, and a whole mythology that has sprung up around the (imagined) sound quality benefits. I think that was the start of it, but at this point it's spread well beyond hipsters. One of my kids bought a turntable and they do the same thing I did when I listened to records 30 years ago - lie on the floor and examine the sleeve and liner. Aside from the large format art…

> Not really and the ones that exist are expensive and have poor selection. - Bandcamp - Boomkat - Qobuz - 7Digital - Bleep - Juno Download I buy everything I like (and it's a lot) in a lossless, digital format and the only time I can't find a legal lossless purchase option is when it's actually a physical-only release.

I just looked on those services for a few CD's I recently bought and Qobuz is the only one that had them. The price for a download from them is more than the price to get Amazon to deliver the physical discs to my door. For now, that doesn't make any sense to me especially since I actually want the physical media. It's what I listen to as I work. If I only wanted the files, then I would be on board.

Re: The First Sony Walkman Was Released 40 Years Ago

#176

Post by rasz »

kevin_thibedeau wrote: post #156
opencl wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Everything since CD audio has been either the same quality or worse. Increasing the sampling rate does nothing but encode ultrasonics which are at best inaudible and at worst introduce additional harmonic distortion into the audible frequencies. 16 bit samples with dithering are well beyond the dynamic range limits of human hearing.

SACD and DVD-A have more than two channels (or 4 if you could get a hold of a quad CD)

Especially useful if you have more than two ears.

Re: The First Sony Walkman Was Released 40 Years Ago

#177

Post by rchaud »

pmlnr wrote: post #62
badamp wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Remember how iPod beat Walkman No. No I don’t. Who the fuck was still using a Walkman in 2001?

I was using this around 2001: Freecom Beatman Mini CD MP3 Player ( https://www.semox.de/23-06-2008/verspateter-fruhjahrsputz-is... , scroll ) MP3 players in 2001 were either expensive or had tiny capacity, eg a single album, which was never enough.

Yup, I had a Memorex MP3-CD player around then. Gave me the flexibility to play both regular CDs and 700MB of MP3s on a CD-R, at a much cheaper price than what iPods were going for at the time.

Re: The First Sony Walkman Was Released 40 Years Ago

#178

Post by opencl »

kevin_thibedeau wrote: post #156
opencl wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Everything since CD audio has been either the same quality or worse. Increasing the sampling rate does nothing but encode ultrasonics which are at best inaudible and at worst introduce additional harmonic distortion into the audible frequencies. 16 bit samples with dithering are well beyond the dynamic range limits of human hearing.

SACD and DVD-A have more than two channels (or 4 if you could get a hold of a quad CD)

Well yes, but the person I replied to was specifically asking about 2 channel audio.

Re: The First Sony Walkman Was Released 40 Years Ago

#179

Post by thirdsun »

criddell wrote: post #175
thirdsun wrote: post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Not really and the ones that exist are expensive and have poor selection. - Bandcamp - Boomkat - Qobuz - 7Digital - Bleep - Juno Download I buy everything I like (and it's a lot) in a lossless, digital format and the only time I can't find a legal lossless purchase option is when it's actually a physical-only release.

I just looked on those services for a few CD's I recently bought and Qobuz is the only one that had them. The price for a download from them is more than the price to get Amazon to deliver the physical discs to my door. For now, that doesn't make any sense to me especially since I actually want the physical media. It's what I listen to as I work. If I only wanted the files, then I would be on board.

Ok, I understand. For me it's different - if I have to get the CD (for example if it's a rare, old release - Japan has lots of rare stuff from the 80s on CDs) I only rip it and put it back on the shelf forever. I have no interest in the physical medium.

Admittedly, and somewhat ironically, it's only the most popular mainstream music that seems to be lacking digital lossless purchasing options. Even mainstream music like the stuff that gets featured on Pitchfork seems to be widely available these days.

However when you mention CD prices, you're talking about new/mint offers from Amazon, right? Comparing second-hand prices wouldn't be fair. Since I was surprised about your discovery I just took a recent rather popular, mainstream and widely available album like Cate Le Bon's "Reward" to compare prices. CD was the worst offer at € 16,40:

- Amazon (CD): EUR 16,40

- Qobuz: EUR 15,99

- Boomkat: GBP 7,99

- Bandcamp: USD 9,99

Also, never buy the premium quality at Qobuz. Their standard quality already is lossless 16 Bit / 44,1 KHz (CD quality).

Re: The First Sony Walkman Was Released 40 Years Ago

#180

Post by rusticpenn »

totaldude87 wrote: post #135

The problem with pioneers is that , they rarely move to next level, may be due to the thinking that "whatever" they have today just rocks and will "probably" rock tomorrow. Few Examples : Nokia missing the Android boat - thinking Symbian was great Windows missing the Mobile operating system boat - thinking Windows Phone OS was great Sony missing the iPod boat - thinking , hey we got Walkman , what else you need. And…

Nokia never thought that Symbian was great. Meego was being developed for a long time ( I fondly remember my N900). Its very hard for a huge company like nokia to move (As most middle managers are invested in their direction or people might be let go).
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