STOP THE (RECORD) PRESSES

Home DAD Recording

By next spring, you may be able to record digital audio discs at home not on CDs, but on 5 1/4-inch floppy disks that hold about an hour of music. CompuSonics, of Cambridge, Mass., showed a prototype of such a recorder, with a planned selling price of $1,200, just as we went to press.

The unit will interface with both IBM and Apple home computers for editing and other control functions, and will accept digital recordings over high-speed telephone lines or via cable TV. But it will have no digital output, to prevent digital-to-digital sound pirating. A multi-channel studio version, with digital mixing and equalization, is available now.

Hawaiian Eye

At a recent meeting of the Technics/Panasonic sales staff and dealers in Honolulu, Hawaii, the magnificent sand sculptures shown here appeared on Waikiki Beach for one day only (because of local laws).

Entitled "New-Wave Family (Harry, Mable & Jr.)," the tableau was created by Joe Maize and Sandman & Associates from Tupperware, Formica, gelatin, sand, and water. If this reporter had been on the scene when the sculptures were being built, she would have requested loudspeakers, an amp, and a decoder to capture stereo-TV sand.

Because of the great distance between Hawaii and the mainland, the only cable movies available for viewing were: True Grit, Beach Blanket Bingo, Oceans 11, The Story of Vernon and Irene Sandcastle, Jaws, The Last Wave, Woman in the Dunes, The Poseidon Adventure, Jaws II, Now Voyager, Jonah Who Will Be 25 in the Year 2000, The Swimmer, South Pacific, 20,000 Colleagues Under the Sea, Lifeboat, Blood and Sand, The Deep Shell Is for Heroes, Jaws Ill, Where the Boys Are, From Here to Eternity, The Old Man and the Sea, The Sand Pebbles, Splash, and Jaws IV. K.B.

Digital Newsletter

The Digital Recording Report is more a newsletter for audio professionals than for amateurs, but it has some nuggets audiophiles might appreciate. Examples from one recent issue (with my own comments in parentheses):

Fifteen Japanese manufacturers, plus Philips, are working on an international standard for home digital cassette recorders. (Audio's editors have already seen Matsushita and Sony prototypes.)

Several Sony 1610 PCM converters (used in making CDs) are in use in Moscow. (Melodiya CDs may appear sooner than you think.)

Telarc Records and Suma Recording have developed an interface for digitally translating signals between the Sony PCM-1610 professional and Sony PCM-F1 home recording formats. (With CD here and digital cassettes coming, this should open the possibility of CD mastering on home equipment.)

The American Compact Disc Manufacturing Corporation is shopping for equipment for a new CD plant to be built in Pennsylvania or New Jersey.

Laser Video, a division of Quixote Corp.. Chicago, is working out a process for production of CDs using laser video equipment, with production about a year away.

Industry experts imply that the slow video presses will make production costs too high (but reports elsewhere cite Quixote's claim that their process will lower CD costs).

If getting items such as these each month is worth $39 a year to you ($50 overseas), order from The Digital Recording Report, 195 Willowbrook Ave., Stamford, Conn. 06902.

(adapted from Audio magazine, Jul. 1984)

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