The demented ramblings of a prog-rock guy
Christian. There is nothing else of significance about me.
I should make it clear that I also burn mp3 files onto CD from time to time, largely because since 2004 my hi-fi has included a machine that will play such discs, on a random basis if desired. More of these in due course.
Meanwhile, Happy Christmas to all!
In much the same way as “Nice enough to eat”(see Post 2), the next project I embarked on after the Box sets (see Post 3) was Picnic, the 1970 EMI Harvest label double LP sampler. This featured 19 artists, including Pink Floyd, Deep Purple, and Syd Barrett. I came out with 48 hours of material here, i.e. 2 CDs, which are named “Picnic Primary” and “Picnic Secondary” respectively.
I do not have, and have never had, an iPod, though I do have some broadly comparable gadgets. Each of the other 3 members of my family (all of whom are female) does have an iPod. What I dislike about iPods is the default autosynch function of the iTunes software, which seems to me tyrannical when compared with the flexibility of mp3, wma, and atrac-3 systems. While it remains my case that the best bet is atrac-3 files burned onto CDs, that does throw up in, say, 1 per 1000, a duff track. Conversely, mp3 files, being only half the compression of atrac-3 or wma, have proved in my experience to be wholly reliable.
The next 4 discs I made were called, imaginatively enough, Box 1, Box 2, Box 3, and Box 4. These were all compiled from box sets, Box 1 comprising Disc 1 from each set, and so on. Obviously the sets did not all have 4 discs, so Box 4 did not include all the box sets, but did feature more than one disc from some. Notably, “Fleetwood Mac – The Blue Horizon Years”, had 6 discs, so discs 4, 5, and 6 from that set are on Box 4.
The first disc I ever did was based on the second 1969 UK Island label sampler “Nice enough to eat”. This featured Jethro Tull, Fairport Convention, Nick Drake, etc, but only sampled 11 albums, whereas the disc will take about 30. I therefore included other linked albums e.g. as well as “Stand Up” for Jethro Tull, also “This Was” and “Benefit”, being the immediate predecessor and successor. I have this year redone this, taking out the Ian Anderson interview on the expanded “Aqualung”, and using the super expanded versions of the CDs that came out over the subsequent years.
Music on the go has come a long way recently, with ever more capacity on ever smaller units. For the true audiophile, however, I believe that Sony Atrac3 CDs are ideal.
I first acquired a portable unit to play these in 2004, since when I have created over 90 units, each holding 24 hours of music. I set the machine to shuffle all, and off we go, usually dog-walking.
I intend to give details of some of these CDs, and current projects, in the course of these blogs.
Meanwhile, happy listening!
