Audities 4 - New music / old formats
In this video I’m mostly looking at a few new(ish) releases on old and sometimes defunct formats.
Behind the scenes…
The making of a video has a few common steps.
1) Think of the idea
2) Get everything together
3) Shoot it
4) Edit it
With this one I was well into step 4 (editing) before I realised that the original idea didn’t really gel. The main issue is that youtube’s increasingly aggressive auto (and manual) content match system means I can’t play any sample audio clips from anything I’m showing.
You may recall earlier this year I had as little as three seconds of audio lead to the demonetisation of a video. These artists have understandably protected their music from unauthorised use by registering it with the content match system - but this same protection also prevents me from promoting it by playing any audio.
So this is a video all about music, with no music in it - not the smartest idea I’ve ever had.
During editing I tried my best to steer around this problem, but it definitely shows. It’s a bit like one of those movies where the star dies before shooting has been completed. You can usually tell something is not quite right despite all the CGI and body-doubles shot from behind.
It’s still a perfectly serviceable video, but also falls a bit flat, it’s missing a spark. Never mind though, there are a few shiny things to look at - including a rare Minidisc machine I recently imported from Japan.
-----REUPLOADED----
The version embedded and linked above has been re-uploaded. It's now about 30 seconds shorter than the original due to the removal of three brief sections where I expressed opinions on how the Dimeo box set could have been done slightly differently. It might be blander now - but at least it won't unintentionally upset anyone. Well that's the plan.
The original has been deleted - cue confusion.
Comments (63)
hi Mat, and thanks for another Audities! You (and Techmoan subscribers) may be interested in this feature that Discogs included in their latest newsletter, about rare formats. They have a YouTube link for each format - needless to say you're heavily featured! Anyway, have a fantastic Christmas & New Year, best wishes for all the Techmoan videos to come. https://blog.discogs.com/en/10-weird-formats-discogs-database/?utm_source=mktg&utm_medium=pm&utm_campaign=DC_Charts_1912
Yes I should mention that in a future update.
Cheers, Richard
I just found this company in Nebraska selling Nortronics and other tape heads and accessories.
Hey just joined love your channel happy to be here I wouldn’t notice the lack of audio if I hadn’t read hear the quirky nature of the disc is what held my attention personally loved the video
I’m glad to hear that. The video was significantly revised from the original idea I started with, so it sounds like it worked better than I thought.
I was looking for a company that makes magnetic tape heads and I found one in New Jersey. They refusbish, as well as sell. quality tape heads. http://www.jrfmagnetics.com/index.html?JRF_mainframe=/JRF_nortronics.html Cheers, Richard Riewer
Some of these websites are orphaned. I hope that’s not the case with this one as it looks a bit old. I hope they’re still in business and therefore the rumours about the death of stereo cassette heads isn’t true.
Another big TechMoan boost for the DCC Museum. Thanks Mat!
Well I hope it has a positive effect, it's the least I could do.
I thought that was totally fine, Mat. It hung together well. If the vinyl discs had been boring black it would not have been so good, but there were a few "wow" moments in that for me. I don't know if you're planning anything else before Christmas, but if not, have a great time and best wishes to you and your family for the festive season and 2020.
I’m trying to get together a video on the recordable laserdisc. There’s one big issue though.... It might still be out before Christmas if I pull my finger out. Irregardless - Merry Christmas to you and the Bells.
I need to buy a minidisc player
There are usually plenty about on eBay in the UK. I bought a couple this year before they started to disappear and/or get too expensive.
Here is an Audity from the past. There was a record shop on Hollywood Blvd in the 1960s called Paradise Records. The proprietor was a Brit. He sold 45s and LPs imported from England. I still have at least three: The Who, Bob Dylan and The Yardbirds. We bought our copy of Sgt Pepper from him as well. On one particular day he presented to us a novelty item that had either just come on the market or was still a prototype: A portable record player. He slipped an LP inside, some sort of laser beam, or something similar, shot a beam onto the record surface and music poured out of the speaker. Then he did a Pete Townshend windmill and the music kept playing with little to no wobble in the sound. He pronounced it ideal for the beach. We were impressed and wanted to buy one. Not for sale. Never saw its like again.
It sounds like he must have had a time machine in the back of the store. I’m guessing though it was some variant of a ‘Mange Disque’ machine from the description.
I think the piece works well without playing any of the music, because of the quantity and variety of media formats shown, some of which are quite visual. Obviously some audio of the music would have helped promote individual items, but sadly YouTube’s Copyright Robot has yet to learn about “Radio Promotion” style plays, so less promotion for the artists :-( Thanks for making the video, I really enjoyed it. Ewen
I’m sure someone has commented this already (sorry, just tuning in and haven’t scanned all the comments yet) but some pressings of the Split Enz 1980 album “True Colours” also had a similar laser cut design as those first records you showed. Awesome vid as always Mat! Thanks!
I only bought a MiniDisc recorder last year, curiosity mainly from your video and those of a few other channels. The machine cost me £25, and so far, I've only managed to get two pre-recorded discs (Retro Grooves 3 being one). Most on eBay are more expensive than the player was. I'd assumed charity shops would be full of discs, but I've not seen one. However, I did find a batch of home recorded discs and sealed Sony blanks at a church table top sale a couple of months ago. It's a fun format, which I must try recording with one day.
Pre-recorded discs sold very poorly - hence the sky high prices nowadays. Pretty much anyone with a minidisc recorder also had a CD player and with CDs half the price of Pre-recorded minidisc it wasn’t worth paying double for the nice MD packaging. Then Net MD came along with MDLP and you could fit two or three LPs on one 80 min disc without any noticeable loss in quality - or just download ‘free’ MP3s and put them on the MDs as ATRAC - pre-recorded discs never really stood a chance.
The Minidisc releases on bandcamp, along with chrome tapes, seem impossible to buy except to the most dedicated. Often they are limited to lots of 15 or so with no effort at promotion. You would think companies like BandCDs would try to cross promote the works using their service with larger quantities for people who just want a few novelty prerecorded media to have around for testing or collection. I really prefer the way companies like LimitedRun handle this for limited physical game runs(and music too), where they leave an open period for people to order and set the run quantity, although those companies have their own issues.
love this. thanks :) i don't mind the little rants; they add character. ;)
This wasn’t a rant, just constructive suggestions as to how someone making recordings at home could package them effectively. However criticism, whether constructive or not, is now commonly being interpreted as an attack. So it’s simpler just to say everything is fine, no problems. It’s all good. A+
I have rewatched and spotted the bits removed , I find you allways offer a good fair explanation on things you don’t like and offer a good soloution and advice, fair critique is a dying trade and you do it really well , I mean your DJI is IMO pocket review is literally the best product review ever I had no suprize after pitching that as you just told me everything
So when's the next indie release on Tefifon? 😃
I’d buy it, but the tech to make them has been lost to time.
I DEMAND to know why you del... oh... you already explained it. ;) *demandboi was here*
I have only seen the first video so I am commenting on that
Ah ok - well I’ve removed all the personal opinions from the version posted above. The other one was deleted.
Apologies my written word is bad , the only person your being to harsh on is your self , good reliable criticism is a good thing , at the end of the day you rule this neich on YouTube and your opinions are totally valid , I think everything said in the original video or fair and you offered good soloutions , so totally fair
No honestly there must be something there I’ve missed - let me know. I’m prepared to make this the blandest video ever made.
Also great video , I get your felling your a bit harsh on rob but at the end of the day your improving his future products and offering advise for others , tha mini cadet should really have as much on it as can be fitted and the bespoke tapes will hugely improve the look and feel to people
Could you post a time stamp to the bit you think is harsh. I’m prepared to take all personal opinion or comment out of this video until there’s none of it left. I thought I had done - but there must be some left in there.
Where are the blank DCC cassette comming from
New old stock DCCs are still quite plentiful.
No pale waves DAT :(
Thanks for sharing! I like the microcassette, and that deck is really extremely cute :-D. Have to look if you featured it in a video, since I can't remember...
Microcassettes are one of my passions. I’ve a few more to show sometime. - here’s the only video I’ve done on them so far. https://youtu.be/ZZYpPlpD3ow
Another fist shake at the content match system. Anyway, for anyone interested, the Make: channel uploaded a video about the Roland UV printer a few days ago and it's likely to be the one used by Band CDs. It's a very impressive bit of kit. Now I'm off to find Rob Dimeo's album as I'm a fan of those games.
Links in the video description on YouTube. I’ll take a look at that video.
Such a shame about the content match system! I too enjoyed the video as it was (being a geek with imagination and all), but I certainly feel your pain, thanks for sharing the background. I’m just thinking out loud here, how feasible is it to have a Patreon Version with all the copyrighted music you want, and a “free-for-all” cut down version like this side by side? It’ll be a little more work in editing, but might potentially draw in more Patreon subscribers. It’s also best of both worlds, with the majority of views still generating revenue. I’m only saying this because I feel that your own creativity is being hampered by “the man”, and none of us want to see this happen.
Unfortunately it's not possible - an unlisted version on youtube is subject to exactly the same restrictions as a public video. A few months ago I tried to see if Vimeo might be an alternative for Patreon only videos - long story short...it's horribly expensive and pretty much unworkable. I spent over £100 to learn this lesson.
As noted - still a good video. But damn the content match system! I'm nerdy enough to be into the format more than the actual content so for me, it was OK but for the 99% non-nerds ... yeah. But your point about using these as promos for music that is otherwise intangible, yes. Spot on. Good work as always, Mat.
It still works as a compelling video. Very informative!
Can you not add the audio sound to the patreon vid and leave it out on the regular YouTube vid?
Even a separate unlisted video will get flagged with the threat of a potential strike against me.
I liked this video a lot. I’m thinking of recording myself and releasing the recordings on RCA large cassette and Garrard...whatever Garrard called their drop-in reel cassette things. Exclusive!
If it comes to you - let me know...I'm not sure I've covered those.
In fact you can get chrome tape cassettes from Thomann; they‘re of course old TDK stock - you can’t be picky when collecting half-dead formats... https://www.thomann.de/intl/atr_magnetics_prochrome_cassette_c60.htm
Oh you can always get old stock of anything if you look hard enough. New 8-tracks or sealed Dictabelts, but as far as ordering a new cassette album on Chrome tape, it'd be out of the question for most duplicators.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/985045284868489/permalink/2828022873904045/
I’m not on Facebook - would prefer to set my trousers on fire (while wearing them).
I think you're a bit too hard on yourself in the description here on patreon. I have to admit i didn't read it first, but instead went right to the video. I was about to comment that i really enjoyed this video, especially the close ups of the formats! The lack of music was not a detractor or even something I noticed. I suppose that could be the techmoan fan boy in me talking, or the old music format fan boy, or...who knows, either way, i quite enjoyed this video Mat, thanks for making it!
Personally thought this was a great video as good as the other three. Hoping you was going to break out your 8 track quad. Got a quad 8 track by John Keating in the week very weird music. What is your favourite format of all? Think mine has to be vinyl
I'm starting to think it's Minidisc, but it's hard to pick a favourite.
nothing unfair about sharing your opinion. it was a great video as always
it never even crossed my mind that this video was lacking somehow for not having music samples. fully enjoyed this. My only other comment was that you were a bit harsh on rob demio. perhaps he had financial constraints regarding the CD-Rs and non-custom casettes. the microcassette however, i would agree is a bit sad being right channel only....no reason not to invest in a proper recorded if you are going to sell such an item.
I really tried to be positive about it - way beyond what I was feeling. Which bit seems harsh? I’ll have to re-edit it if it’s coming across that way. I don’t want to be unkind.
I can't believe Rob Demio's CD is made on a CD-R. There's really no excuse for that being you can get professionally printed CDs for actually less money as long as you order 1,000 or so minimum quantity. The CD-Rs probably won't even play 10 years from now, where the pressed CDs will.
I was a tad disappointed. Rob had been in touch and was very enthusiastic and offered to send the box set over. The Microcassette was what really appealed as I had a couple of devices I really wanted to show it in. I thought it was the full album in stereo - especially for $15. Then again it was all a home made DIY set so I was expecting too much for a first attempt. I’m sure he’s learned a few thngs from the experience.
The patterns on the vinyl are laser-etched, and I have the first example of that, the ‘True Colours’ LP by Split Enz from 1980.
I’m surprised I haven’t seen it used more often.
First , helloiioi