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"What do you know about MP-3 players?" In 2005, I asked that simple survey question -- targeting the 40 yr. old
+ audience. "What?" was the almost universal response.
I set out to discover MP-3 technology for myself and describe the technology and its benefits, in plain English, for the
mature music-loving audience. This is the article I produced.
When the article was written, I survey the audience to find out what they thought. Overwhelmingly, those surveyed were
grateful for the clarity it presented. They also looked at MP-3 players in a whole new way.
For the Music Lover Over 40, an MP-3 Player May Be Just What You Need
Recently, I realized that a whole technology for storing and playing music had passed me by - MP-3 players. I asked people
in my age group about them and discovered: (1) most knew nothing about them, other than the name; (2) they thought they were
for the young; and (3) they dismissed them as something requiring computer literacy. These thoughts reflected my feelings,
yet we music lovers over forty have been missing the most advanced way of playing our favorite music.
Understanding is the key to using any new technology; without it we tend to shy away from its advance. I recall the advent
of "high-fi" - those ornate, cumbersome pieces of furniture that improved the sound of our long-playing records
(LPs) and 45s. Considered antiques now, they had a radio as well as the record changer inside the cabinet; a speaker hidden
behind wire mesh to one side; and a place to store records on the other side. It was the rave until the stereo was born -
an amplifier with tubes to boost sound, turntable with stylus mechanism, and separate tuner for playing the radio (all freed
from the confines of a cabinet). And with stereo I heard instruments I'd never heard with hi-fi. Yet, the stylus: required
constant maintenance or replacement (often picking up dust from the records); wore grooves in the surface of the album: and
scratched the record if it received a sudden movement. If that weren't enough, the albums warped.
Presently, we stand at the new age of technology regarding music listening; the CD heralded that new age. In this respect,
the MP-3 player is a step beyond the CD but before taking advantage of all it has to offer, we need a basic understanding
of what it is, how it evolved, and where it's going.
MP-3 is an acronym formed from the initial letters of the words Moving Pictures Expert Group - or MPEG, for short. That
group of experts developed the compression systems used for video data - DVDs (digital video devices) and HDTV (high definition
television) - so video and movie data could be stored in smaller spaces. In addition, the MPEG compression system also contains
a part that compresses sound as well, called MPEG Layer-3; we know it by its abbreviated name, MP-3. It is, then, the more
advanced compression system for music. Let me, briefly, explain.
To record music for the CD, the sound waves are converted into digits; this helps maintain high fidelity while eliminating
distortion, keeping the sound as close to the original source as possible. Although a great achievement in its own right,
analog music recording (music recorded on wax albums and tapes) lost some fidelity in copying; the sound became distorted.
However, converting the music into digits means converting it into data (and it takes lots of space to hold all the data
of one CD). So, it's compressed but, even with that compression, you can only hold seventy-four minutes of music on one disc.
On the other hand, the MP-3 system compresses the data to a fraction of the size required by CD technology - compressing
it by one-tenth to one-fourteenth of the CD format. Moreover, while it reduces the storage size, it does not hurt the sound
quality. Therefore, an MP-3 player can hold many times the amount of music compared to a CD.
The MP-3 movement began, not with the industry, but with a huge audience of music lovers on the Internet. At that time,
most of its users were under the age of twenty-five, spent a large amount of time on the computer, and were savvy enough to
understand and use the software required for MP-3 players. The way it worked was: (1) you needed the software to download
music from an Internet site to your computer's hard drive - called "ripping a file to the hard drive"; (2) you needed
software to compress the song or file to MP-3 format - called "encoding"; (3) you would then transfer the encoded
song onto the MP-3 player by inserting a special cable into a port on the back of your computer.
There is nothing terribly complicated in doing any of that. But if the terms used aren't explained, you can get the
idea that you have to be "computer literate" to make it work. After all, most people aren't going to dive into
something they believe too complex to understand - or use. I believe that this is what gave MP-3 players a bad reputation
with the mature music-loving audience. However, since MP-3 system manufacturers recognize that the mature music audience
will be the market most appreciative of their product, they are making the system and players as easy to use as possible.
In fact, the only computer literacy required is being able to "drag and drop" files on your computer screen. You
can do that with a click of your mouse.
Right now, you can download free MP-3 software from the Internet. "Simple MP-3 Maker" (www.sofotex.com) is
about the easiest and simplest to use -- judging by the overwhelmingly, satisfied customer reviews. It comes with ripper,
encoder, audio player, and decoder. Moreover, by using the product with some simple hardware -- that you can purchase from
Radio Shack -- you can even convert your LPs and tapes to the MP-3 format.
In addition, MP-3 manufacturers have teamed with car manufacturers to provide the means of using your player in your
car -- called "in dashboard". With this system, you simply plug your player into a port in your car's dashboard
to listen to your recorded music. Yet another product - a hybrid MP-3/CD - allows you to play your CDs plus recorded MP-3
music, on one portable system.
In essence, MP-3 technology gives us the capability of carrying our own personal jukebox; and like a jukebox, the limits
of how much music we can carry have expanded to magical proportions. For instance, a manufacturer named Archos produces a
player that records up to three hundred hours (five hundred CDs; five thousand songs) of top quality music in MP-3 format.
If you're over forty (like I am, though I won't confess my age), you know how it feels to slide into your favorite songs.
And, if you like to snap your fingers, shake your head, or lift your spirits, take another look at MP-3 players. Nothing
brings a sparkle to your eyes or a spring to your step better than a world of your own music.
END
Copyright(c) 2005 Collis Harris
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