[slinkelist] MP3's, WAV's etc

[Gregg Sheehan]

   The most recent topic has been skirting around the idea of obsoleting CD 
JUKES and replacing them with HD storage. Several points: A majority of FM 
radio stations in North America currently use a LAN and WAN  type system of 
music storage, organization and delivery. That is, songs, spots, segues 
etc. are ripped into WAV. or MPEG Layer 2 files, stored on a big RAID array 
file server ( not necessarily local ) and pulled off, when required, to a 
work station or broadcast PC to be manipulated or to be broadcast.
   The storage medium is 16 bit full bandwidth with typically 3:1 or 5:1 
data compression. It doesn't sound too much worse than yer average CD. With 
HD's being as cheap as borscht, it's pretty cost effective, especially for 
a commercial facility.The RAID array is for redundancy and hotswapping 
drives but a home backup drive costs less than a CD juke anyway. If you 
have a decent sound card, preferably an professional "outboard" style, 
(generally better converters and less noise ) it's quite feasible to 
replace many jukes with one PC. More and more source music is being 
tracked, mixed, edited and mastered on the PC HW/SW platform every day. 
There's also a pot of software available in this platform.
  For my money, MP3's sound like shyte. I can always hear a cyclic "phase 
shifter" type sound within and a messed up top end. I suppose it's passable 
if you listen on the typical crap PC speakers after 5 beers, but they 
generally don't pass any listening on pro gear. Uncompressed WAV's sound 
best but eat up a bit more real estate. Do you really need that 
extra-special club mix of the latest Britney poo anyway ?
 The most useful aspect of Slinkee is the IR control part. Being able to 
burn 9 or more  handheld remotes is a major bonus. I don't see much 
discussion of the home automation uses of this cool product. What's up with 
that ?

  auddoc@yahoo.com