OFF TOPIC----MP3 may not be the standard.
DD, here's an email I received from a musician that checked out technology that Lucent/Bell Labs have developed vs. MP3. Basically, he says the Lucent technology (EPAC) has better sound quality but most importantly to musicians, will have features that will prevent consumer-level recopying of their music.
Read on, here's the email:
___________________
Hey everyone check this out....
Dear MOTUvmail list - Jan. 11, 1999
Just two days ago, I attended a meeting at SESAC with Lucent technologies/Bell Labs, which was called to order by none other than Phil Ramone. At the meeting, Lucent did blind A-B playbacks of their new software encoder-playback technology (EPAC), compared to CD playback of the same music. This type of technology has many applications, such as making music files available on the internet for sale or retreival. There is NO doubt that, very soon we will all be buying and selling music this way. (Everything from pop hits to music libraries. Think: the audio equivalent of Amazon.com) EPAC is truly outstanding. Undistinguishable from the CD playback, in my view. Some of the attendees actually preferred the decoded EPAC sound.
Then, we heard MP3 playback, a competing technology. Ouch! Sounds to me like a super-compressed, flanging audio cassette. Truly awful, to the ears of everyone at the meeting. But, we feared, potentially quite acceptable to many lower-end consumers, AND ... there is no doubt that MP3 has gotten out of the gate first. It is already in use.
Hey, it's Beta vs. VHS all over again. Damn it, DON'T SETTLE! Do whatever you can to give Lucent/Bell the support they deserve for this outstanding work. Do not let MP3 become the crappy little de facto standard (in my opinion) it will surely become, if we sit around and let it. Please -- we owe it to ourselves to take a stand for the quality that we all slave so hard to create.
And furthermore: Lucent is implementing watermarking/encoding technology -- in tandem with the sound technology -- which is designed not only to help us create and claim our ASCAP/BMI/SESAC rights, but will ALSO prevent consumer-level recopying of our music. This, too, was demonstrated for us. It's nice to know, for a change, that a big important company like Lucent (with 2000 PhD's and 10 Nobel Prize winners) has taken the effort --from the beginning, and without prompting -- to hold our interests as dearly as their own.
As Phil Ramone warned, the implications are sweeping, regarding both quality and copyright protection. We are witnessing our livelihoods and professions at the crossroads. In the meanwhile, it's my understanding that MP3 is already being used in unauthorized copying situations that composers are unable to prevent.
Could the choice be more clear?
But don't take my word for it. Make it your business (actually, it already is) to hear EPAC for yourself. For more information, contact:
Joyce Eastman
Manager=F3New Ventures Group
Bell Labs
480 Redhill Road
Atrium
Middletown, NJ 07748
jeastman@lucent.com
Think about it...
ian.
Please forward to others out there
____________________________________
regards,
Andretti |
