From Chris Fahey Sent Thu, May 28th 1998, 19:44
From Chris Fahey Sent Thu, May 28th 1998, 19:44
>> > actually, i just read that someone has developed a big 12" round thing
>> > that fits on a turntable and sends signals to a specially modified MP3
>> > player and can scratch accurately to a millisecond.
>> Jon, you're kidding right?
>> Maybe it's true...someone told me the word "gullible" isn't in the
dictionary.
>> How could this device *work*?
>Actually Peter, some guy in Europe has done this.
>He hooks up turntables & mixer to a AtoD convertor,
>plugs the digital stream into a BeOS computer, which has software that
>interprets the signal coming off of the vinyl.
>By reading the position code, you know where you are on the
>record. Whether it will work if you bump the stylus or get
>your special records warped and scratch is anyone's guess.
This sounds totally workable to me, especially since the article alludes
to the vinyl having to be a specific pre-made record, probably one with a
continous tone on it (so the computer can recognize the change in motion
from the record.)
But frankly the idea sounds stupid as hell. I mean, basically its a
fancy way of turning a record player into a substitute for a screen-based
slider bar or even for a regular old hardware knob. It sounds like it would
only allow you to control relative position, sliding back and forth from the
MP3 player's current position - i.e., if you move the needle from one groove
to another, the MP3 won't skip to that relative spot in the song. (although,
if the tone on the record has a built-in time code which the cpu reads,
maybe it can do this...) The only use I could see for this configuration is
to allow DJ's who don't know how to do anything with their hands except move
records around to step safely and lightly into the digital era. Besides,
it's on a BeOS, about six of which are known to exist.
The Yamaha SU-10 portable sampler thingy I asked y'all about last week
has this little slider box on it which allows you to control the speed and
directions of the little samples it plays by simply sliding your finger
across a little black rectangle. It sounds neat, and actually seems
practical.
-Cf