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Gold Member Username: DmitchellOttawa, Ontario Canada Post Number: 4597 Registered: Feb-07 | http://gizmodo.com/5729864/why-the-cd-is-74-minutes-long |
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Platinum Member Username: NuckPost Number: 15685 Registered: Dec-04 | I'll buy that! Whats my angle? Who's baby is that? I'll buy that baby! Seems reasonable enough to me, from a guy who will know more about Beethoven than I will be able to spell Beethoven's name correctly, 3 times in a row. Hey, who is gonna argue with that? Besides, Beethoven is largely boring. |
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Gold Member Username: DmitchellOttawa, Ontario Canada Post Number: 4601 Registered: Feb-07 | 74 does seem like a rather arbitrary number. |
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Gold Member Username: MagfanUSA Post Number: 2021 Registered: Oct-07 | I heard the Von Karajan version many years ago. Seemed weird enough to at least have a shot at being 'true'. |
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Platinum Member Username: ArtkAlbany, Oregon USA Post Number: 13815 Registered: Feb-05 | I have many cd's that are over 74 minutes. |
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Platinum Member Username: Jan_b_vigneDallas, TX Post Number: 15764 Registered: May-04 | . "But that, my friends, I don't want to believe, even while it's the truth." According to all the literature I can remember reading about the earliest CD's, the story is essentially true though it has been contorted into an urban myth of sorts to fit a particular story line. Compact disc had to have more identity when it hit the market than it just being a new format and along with the "no snap, crackles or pops" it hd to be convenient. Remember, the first CD players were selling for $1k in 1983 dollars (I bought a new car for under $8k in 1985), there were only a handful of discs available at the time of the player's introduction and they were mostly classical re-issues. Convenience is what has sold virtually every move to another format or another gadget since the beginnings of audio and for that matter all of consumer electronics. Convenience grinds the beans and begins the brew process on time every time each morning. Convenience pops the popcorn in 2:10. So on and so forth. If CD's were going to catch on, they had to attract all buyers and at the time the format was being developed and the basic Redbook standards were layed out (1974-76) classical music was considered the rich man's music when it came to LP sales. There would have been far less reason for classical music listeners, and therefore the first target audience for CD, to replace their treasured collections of symphonies by long dead conductors, artists and famous orchestras if they still had to stop at the end of a movement to exchange discs. The size of the disc determined the amount of data that could be stored and the two companies developing the standards did not agree on much even down to the physical size of the disc itself. To my recollection it was decided the disc should be large enough to contain the longest known classical performance the average buyer was likely to want. Seventy four to seventy six minutes was then the limit of practical use. Over the years the amount of data has increased slightly. On a Truth-O-Meter scale of accuracy I'd say the article is mostly true. . |
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Gold Member Username: SuperjazzyjamesPost Number: 1270 Registered: Oct-10 | "Beethoven is largely boring." To each his own Nuck, but I don't find Beethoven boring at all. I find AC/DC boring, but look how hugely popular they are. The difference in taste from one person to another never ceases to amaze me. Regardless of how the cd got to be 74+ minutes long, I'm glad it did. It sure is nice to be able to listen symph 9 all the way through without any flipping or switching of discs. I had it on record at one time. I'll take the cd! |
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Gold Member Username: MagfanUSA Post Number: 2025 Registered: Oct-07 | The 9th Symphony took up 3 sides of a standard LP format. The 4th side? Maybe the 1st or some 'misc' Beethoven. Also, different conductors 'paced' the symphony differently so the length of performance varies somewhat. Nuck strikes me as a Mahler fan, anyway. |
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Gold Member Username: SuperjazzyjamesPost Number: 1271 Registered: Oct-10 | Yeah, Nuck and Mahler! I can see that! My father can't stand Mahler. I have only heard his first symphony and I like it. Mozart & Haydn are my 2 favorites. |
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Gold Member Username: John_aLondonU.K. Post Number: 4840 Registered: Dec-03 | Shannon, Beethoven, and the Compact Disc. Link from Compact Disc - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Quote from that: The first test CD was pressed in Langenhagen near Hannover, Germany, by the Polydor Pressing Operations plant. The disc contained a recording of Richard Strauss's Eine Alpensinfonie (in English language, An Alpine Symphony), played by the Berlin Philharmonic and conducted by Herbert von Karajan. By coincidence, yesterday's BBC CD Review rated that same recording as the best of Strauss's Alpine Symphony currently available in the catalogue. Personally, I pass on that. The longest playing CD I own is 83 minutes, I think. I remember gazing in awe at the first CD players from Sony and Philips. £500 here in UK - same as a current Rega Apollo. Adjusted for inflation, it would now be more like £5,000. Top-loaders. I never heard one. The consensus is they were terrible. Yes, the very first CDs were mostly classical, but I don't recall that they were predominantly re-issues, Jan. I could be wrong. Digital recording had already become the norm for LP. There were these codes, AAD, ADD, and DDD. You rarely see them these days. The letters A/D in sequence were for recording, mastering/editing, and playback. DDD was supposed to be the premium, but the hype was overwhelming. Now I look back, the CDs I like best are usually ADD. Mahler: I have a complete cycle (Tennstedt) on EMI. It covers the recording transition from ADD to full digital DDD and the sound quality plummets as a result - it is easy to hear. If anyone would like a serious Mahler Symphony recommendation, for both performance and sound quality: the recent Deutsche Grammophon "Collectors Edition" Box of Leonard Bernstein recordings from the 1980s, all live performances and mostly with the New York Philharmonic in Avery Fisher Hall. I guess they used fewer microphones than usual. Budget price, too. CD SQ hard to beat in my opinion. But I am not heavily into Mahler. Now, Beethoven... Boring? Wow. |
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Platinum Member Username: ArtkAlbany, Oregon USA Post Number: 13895 Registered: Feb-05 | Only Nuck could say Beethoven is boring and then go and play Mellencamp...lol! Beethoven was a rock star! |
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Gold Member Username: John_aLondonU.K. Post Number: 4847 Registered: Dec-03 | Yep. He was! Thanks, Art! I'm catching up slowly after time away from this forum. I recall good discussions with you about music, and your recommendations. If Beethoven symphonies had any part in the format of the CD, it was surely just something like "...so people don't have to stop in the middle of, for example, Beethoven's 9th". I read the best-selling classical piece ever is the Four Seasons. Vivaldi, that is, not Frankie Valli.... If Sony-Philips has taken that as a benchmark, a CD would be 40 minutes max. |
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Gold Member Username: MagfanUSA Post Number: 2076 Registered: Oct-07 | What's the difference between a 'music' and 'data' CD? I can't think of a reason for there to BE a difference. Price diff? Couple bucks on a 100 count spindle. I think the label says.....'80 minutes'. My copy of Four Seasons, a Telarc disc is 40". What's the longest CD you own? |
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Gold Member Username: DakulisSpokane, Washington United States Post Number: 1277 Registered: May-05 | Leo, all of my CDs are the same size. But, I really think it's juvenile to get into the whole, "mine is longer than yours thing". Hey just playin' with ya, bro. Dave |