Heresy? - should we extend these forums to new MD-like formats?

[ozpeter]

It seems pretty clear that new improved MD/HiMD equipment is not going to appear.

Gradually, a significant number of the members here will be forced to turn to other media formats and hardware to fulfil the role of their MD equipment, when their current stuff dies or they want something new or better.

There's a fantastic resource among our members here relating to recording with small, high quality recording equipment that just happens to be MD based, as well as the living knowledgebase about totally MD related matters, which will remain invaluable for years to come.

Should we consider at this point adding another forum for "Non-MD portable recorders" (o similar) or should we leave that to TapersSection and suchlike? Is there a danger of our membership leaching over to that or other forums?

I don't think we're quite at the "adapt or die" stage but given the time it takes to turn a big community round, like a big ship, perhaps it's not too soon to kick some thoughts around?

This suggestion is not any kind of attack on this community - it's to do with preserving a great resource, and building on it.

[bobt]

To me that seems to be taken care of at Atraclife an tstation, and from what I see members freely go to all

JMHO

Bob

[ZosoIV]

The problem is that the concept of a "format" is passe - newer devices are media agnostic, and so just create files that can be stored on any old digital medium, like flash, HDD, DVD+R, et al. Part of the coolness about MD was the actual format itself, those neat little shiny discs that looked so futuristic back in the mid 90s. A MiniDisc also contains files but in a sense, IS the music, whereas "music" post-CD/MD is now a transient, formless entity, shifting electronically between hard disks and flash chips.

Since no physical/disc-based medium will replace MD, a discussion of post-MD recording devices loses its common denominator and becomes about anything and everything that records PCM audio - and that's a lot of different devices nowadays. At least with MD you could compare x unit to y unit.....with other types of recorders, that's less straightforward.

[Strungup]

The problem is that the concept of a "format" is passe - newer devices are media agnostic, and so just create files that can be stored on any old digital medium, like flash, HDD, DVD+R, et al. Part of the coolness about MD was the actual format itself, those neat little shiny discs that looked so futuristic back in the mid 90s. A MiniDisc also contains files but in a sense, IS the music, whereas "music" post-CD/MD is now a transient, formless entity, shifting electronically between hard disks and flash chips.

Since no physical/disc-based medium will replace MD, a discussion of post-MD recording devices loses its common denominator and becomes about anything and everything that records PCM audio - and that's a lot of different devices nowadays. At least with MD you could compare x unit to y unit.....with other types of recorders, that's less straightforward.

Well spoken Zep dude.