Rare DCCs & the missing lyrics
An unplanned video in which I get to look at a few rare Digital Compact Cassettes, and attempt to find out more about the unused lyrics feature.
In the comments under the Patron extra videos and last weeks 'repair' video I saw a few people were concerned about 'the new format'. I've never knowingly had any format other than making videos about things that interest me. So, just to put minds at rest, I won't be unboxing DCCs in every video from now on - this opportunity just cropped up out of the blue after I'd agreed to help redirect a box.
In other news...
You'll have to forgive me if I don't respond to comments as quickly as normal this week. It's just that I'm attempting to edit together a particularly convoluted retro-tech video that's now expanded into a two-parter. I'm deep in the weeds with that at the moment. All things being well, those videos should be viewable some time in May.
Comments (21)
In the 90s we developed a software to learn languages and we had to record 15000 vocabulary audio clips for 5 different languages (including Latin, can you imagine) each. We used DCC to record the voices. It was perfect. It was the best and cheapest way to get background noise free audio. We then compressed the data for the software. It was perfect. The audio quality was great. I only have good memories to the DCC era.
Ahhh. I'm on holiday in Florida, chilling by the pool and watching Techmoan. Perfect.
It's this kind of obsessive attention to detail that marks the true collector.
For what it's worth, I thought the broken record player video was quite entertaining.
It went down as well as I could have hoped. I’m confident that if the preamble wasn’t there to temper expectations it would have been a very different story. I’m amused how many people suggested that they would repair it though - the economics or logic of spending any more time or money on this low quality and totally trashed turntable which needed a new stylus which cost more than the whole broken thing itself just weren’t there. You could spend another £500 on it and it wouldn’t be worth £100.
Love obsolete media. I raged about your Tefifon video back then that much, that my SO bought one for me as a gift. Loved it. Still have to repair the bloody thing though, so I can finally play Cuba Baion from the cartridge I bought just because of that song. I still have to try that LS120 "super-disk" drive I salvaged from a trashed PC ages ago. And then there's my old reel-to-reel monster (Studer A80) that needs some TLC. So at least I don't care what other old media you can find, bring it on, I'll love it.
It sounds like you’ve got a bit of a backlog there, perhaps I should hold off showing anything that might be a temptation for a while to give you time to work through those.
I'm beyond excited for the particularly convoluted retro-tech video two-parter!!
Wonder if the "Lyrics"-function on a regular DCC-player was only meant to show that "Now you're attempting to access the lyrics track" and not actually show the lyrics on such a tiny screen? 🤔 Any word on this in the manual? Edit: Now, why on Earth did I write - and POST - this comment in the middle of watching the video?! Of course you would get to this at the end! Shame on me. Lesson learned. 😳
Just the section shown at 09:19 - I think it was just wishful thinking.
And there they were; gone. The lyrics, that is. Interesting video, well presented as always. Really, the style is often as important as the content as far as Techmoan is concerned. I think you could make a watchable video about paint drying, Mat. Have fun in the weeds!
I just want to know how the puppets feel about DCC vs. other digital formats!
I tried to read those lyrics... and they were... bizar?
I spent a while to make sure that they do match in time with the song...that’s the kind of pointless Kubrick-esque attention to detail that no-one notices other than me. <a href="https://youtu.be/XOYKRN-hGQM" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/XOYKRN-hGQM</a>
I wanted to watch you unbox each and every DCC. I'm disappointed!
Thanks for all you do keeping older and even dead formats in the picture.
I’m an older and defunct format myself, so it’s the least I could do.
I like updates to older videos. :) And as a collector of other things, it's interesting to see what is rare and therefore considered valuable :P I hate being in thrift shops, but the ex would drag me to them and I would always try to find the most recent VHS tape they had. Usually Harry Potter 3 :P
I’m on a hunt for the most recent and most unlikely artist to feature on 8-Track - the other week I bought a cart with The Style Council on it. Score.
I cannot believe that all videos going forward are going to consist solely of you unboxing DCCs. I am outraged.
You look smashing in that leather jacket. It really sets off your glasses. ;) Ha ha, thanks for that. You've captured it.