Music Players
...’s 8-track system was actually not the first of its kind, its almost identical to the 4-track system that came before it (SC7). The main difference between the 4-tack and the 8-track players are in a 4-tack the pinch roller is part of the tape cartridge (SC 7). 8-tracks were available for home, and care entertainment. They were popular for playing in cars (SC5). 8-tacks were the preeminent portable car audio format of the 970’s (SC 7). All 1966 fords had the option of a factory installed in dash 8-track player. By 1967 Chrysler and GM offered the same. 8-tracks now sell for upwards of 175 dollars in antique stores (SC7). After the 8-track there was a break through in pre-recorded music players, audiocassettes. The first audio recorders started to be produced commercially in the early 1930’s (SC5). In the early 1950’s tape recorders were being widely used in radio and recording industries, also in the 50’s home tape players were being manufactured. By the mid 1960’s cassettes revolutionized the tape recorder market. It gained even more popularity when the noise reduction was added and began to compete with phonograph records (SC5). There are two main types of audiotape players/recorders, open-reel and cassette. Open reel recorders are used by studios and broadcasting stations. They produce better quality sound than cassettes (SC5). To use an open reel recorder the operator places a supply reel and a take up reel on spindles on the outside of the recorder the tape is threaded by hand past the heads of the recorders and through capstan and pinch roller. Cassettes are easier to operate because the tape doesn’t have to be threaded through them. A cassette recorder uses a small plastic case called a cassette that encloses a mini supply and take up reel. A cassette is snapped into a recorder. Audio recording tape (tape inside the cassette) is a thin plastic ribbon. The recorder receives sounds in the form of electronic signals and converts them into a changing magnetic field. The magnetic patterns are converted into sound waves. (SC5) The digital forms of cassettes include the DAT (digital audio tape) and the DCC (digital compact cassette). Each requires special players. Both digital audiocassettes produce better quality than regular cassettes. Tape recordings can be edited by cutting and joining end, but they are not as durable as CD’s (SC 5). Tape recorders are widely used in homes, cars and in portable tape players. Cassettes were the most popular form of listening to music for a long time (SC 5). After cassette’s very long popularity came a big boom in the music industry, CD’s (compact discs). Compact discs are round flat platters that record music, data and other information (SC4). Manufactures introduced digital recording systems in the 1970’s. Market for prerecorded music in the US became even more popular and competitive in 1983 when audio CD’s were added to the market. By the 1980’s CD’s had largely replaced phonograph records but audiotapes remained popular. (SC4). Audio CD’s were introduced in Japan and Europe in 1982 and in the US in 1983. By the early 1990’s CD’s had largely replaced long-playing records and had begun to outsell cassettes (SC4). During the recording of a CD microphones translates the sound waves into electromagnetic signals. An analog-to-digital converter divides these signals into 44,100 samples for each second of sound. A code is expressed as a string of 16 electronic pulses. As the CD spins in a player a laser shine through the plastic underside and follows the pit spiral. This is converted into sound waves (SC4). CD’s have three major advantages over cassette tapes; 1.) They last long, 2.) They have supiorer sound quality, 3.) They enable user to switch and select any part of the recording quickly. CD players also allow listener to play certain tracks (songs) in random, to fast forward or rewind, to repeat and program specific tracks (SC4). Some CD players have CD changers, which allows listeners to load more than one disc at a time and change them at any time. Most hold 6-10 CD’s. CD players are the most popular prerecorded music players and are available for home, cars or portable. CD players can be very small boom boxes or can be very large entertainment systems (SC4). Another form of music players is minidisks (SC4). Minidisks are small and different than CD’s. They are discs and music is contained in a flat plastic cartridge (SC4). Minidisks use a method called magnetoopical recording. It uses a heated high power laser beam. A person can record up to 74 minutes on most minidisks and on some you can go back and rerecord sound (SC4). Minidisks need their own player, which can be played on portable, home or car players. Although minidisks are fairly easy to use they aren’t very popular and are pretty expensive. The newest forms of music/music players are MP3’s and downloadable music. MP3’s are an audio compression file format. The format allows people to trade music over the internet (SC8). They are sound files that are available through the internet to listen (SC6). MP3’s are the fastest way to get music (SC8). MP3 stands for Mpeg 1 Layer 3 and is an audio compression format with a ratio from 1:24 to 1:5 dependant on the bit rate (SC6). MP3 technology was created to allow a person to listen to a certain song with near CD quality (SC6). MP3s don’t get fuzzy and are a lot easier to copy than the tapes of the 1980’s. An MP3 file compresses music data while retaining crystal clear sound quality. MP3...