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Taeke
Feb 2, 2010


Sagebrush posted:

Nothing -- it's classy. The LED display kind of ruins it for me though; the originals are true industrial art.

I wouldn't mind the LED if it was gold, instead of red. The colour ruins it.

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Mr. Beefhead
May 8, 2003

I can make beans into peas.

torjus posted:

As far as I know replacements for the plastic surrounding the discs were manufactured so you could swap out the stock one and fit standard DVDs in the GameCube.

Also, the Gamecube discs were just minidvds, which you could easily buy and burn in a standard dvd burner.

sleepy gary
Jan 11, 2006

I use 3.5" floppy diskettes (well, more precisely, a single 3.5" floppy diskette) several times per week to transfer programs off a non-networked 486 running windows 3.1 and controlling a ~$1M piece of scientific equipment.

I actually enjoy using computer equipment and software spanning 25 years on a daily basis. It's living history.

Zamujasa
Oct 27, 2010



Bread Liar

Plinkey posted:

All this talk about Aiwa brings me way back.

I had this thing all through middle / high school / college and only got rid of it a few years ago although at that point the only thing that worked was the radio and aux in. It was beast.



I remember listening to the radio and whenever the song would change being ready to record the next one if it's something I wanted onto the tape deck. Then napster showed up.
I think we still have one of these! I'm not sure how much of it works besides the radio, but I always liked watching the display demo when it was off. I'll have to get a picture later. :shobon:

Shame Boy
Mar 2, 2010

Ron Burgundy posted:

Here's the Seeburg 1000 A very 50's looking microwave size jukebox that played proprietary size 16rpm records of background music for public areas. The records were supplied by Seeburg and recalled and destroyed when a new set was sent out (sometimes). They had 3 tailored libraries: Basic, Mood and Industrial. Basic was for supermarkets, shopping malls and the like, Mood was for fine dining etc, and the Industrial library was specifically formulated to increase productivity and reduce noise related fatigue which can occur in a factory setting.

The records were in mono, 9" with a 2" centre hole. The jukebox has 25 records, 20 songs a side, so 1000 selections in the jukebox at any given time. After the jukebox had played the side of a record, it lifted that record up and played the other side upside down, with the tonearm rising to meet the record. Once the whole stack of records had finished, the jukebox lifted the whole stack and started again. It really is cool to see.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B_UIUsyrTsU

I collect the records, and slow them down in Audacity, but I really need to get me one of the jukeboxes.

This thing's pretty neat, but I'm really curious as to what the hell "industrial" sounds like.

KozmoNaut
Apr 23, 2008

Happiness is a warm
Turbo Plasma Rifle


Parallel Paraplegic posted:

This thing's pretty neat, but I'm really curious as to what the hell "industrial" sounds like.

I'm imagining something like this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zSRcFxZVAA

Mr. Bones
Jan 2, 2011

ain't no law says a skeleton can't play the blues

Um, the video seems to be blocked in the US (Thanks, EMI!)

Personally, I like to think it sounds like this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qaC0vNLdLvY

Mr. Bones has a new favorite as of 18:17 on Oct 12, 2012

Benly
Aug 2, 2011

20% of the time, it works every time.

Parallel Paraplegic posted:

This thing's pretty neat, but I'm really curious as to what the hell "industrial" sounds like.

Well, according to the wikipedia article he linked to: "The Industrial library consisted of lively, medium- to quick-tempo music to induce workers to be more productive. This was perhaps the most varied and adventurous of the libraries; it contained polkas, mariachi music, twangy guitar, Hawaiian songs, and occasionally synthesizer."

KozmoNaut
Apr 23, 2008

Happiness is a warm
Turbo Plasma Rifle


Benly posted:

Well, according to the wikipedia article he linked to: "The Industrial library consisted of lively, medium- to quick-tempo music to induce workers to be more productive. This was perhaps the most varied and adventurous of the libraries; it contained polkas, mariachi music, twangy guitar, Hawaiian songs, and occasionally synthesizer."

So basically exactly what Manfrompoot posted.

Dalax
Oct 27, 2007

Kalos posted:

You're a 30+ year-old person lacking basic sewing skills who's easily seduced by pretty tech?

I'm sorry, I'll be straightforward: you suffer from a lifelong debilitating disease called "being pretty much everyone."


:ohdear:

Is.. this something that stem cells can sort out?

Phanatic
Mar 13, 2007

Please don't forget that I am an extremely racist idiot who also has terrible opinions about the Culture series.
The problem with CD changers was that you'd get one that could handle N CDs, and then as soon as you owned N+1 CDs it was just as much of a pain in the rear end as if you had just a single-disc player. If not moreso, the Pioneer changers had ittle cartridges that you'd load 6 discs into, and then insert the cartridge into the changer:



They made one model of I know of that took three of those things. 18 discs. But if you own 19 CDs, you've got to eject the cartridge, flip out one of the discs, take it out, put a new disc in, close the cartridge, plug the cartridge back in, and then play.


There are laser phonograph players, did you know. Instead of scraping a needle down the groove of your pristine, coddled vinyl, they shine a laser, just like a CD player does. I have no idea how they sound, a needle at least has the advantage that it can push aside some dust instead of reading it. They cost like $20,000 loving dollars. But a friend of mine in high school had something almost as cool. It was just a record player, with a regular old needle, but it had a tray like a CD player or even more like a laserdisc player. You'd eject the tray, load in a record, and press play. It didn't have a regular tone-arm, it had a track with a needle in it so it would always move perpendicular to the groove (the way a tone-arm swings in an arc annoys some audiophiles, I'm led to understand).

But the cool thing was it had a laser. Not to play the record, but it had an optical sensor that could use the laser to tell the difference between the songs and the spaces between the songs. So you didn't have to pick up the needle and move it to a new song, it had track-skip buttons (and FF and reverse) just like a CD player did.

Only one I ever saw.

Mister Kingdom
Dec 14, 2005

And the tears that fall
On the city wall
Will fade away
With the rays of morning light

Phanatic posted:

But a friend of mine in high school had something almost as cool. It was just a record player, with a regular old needle, but it had a tray like a CD player or even more like a laserdisc player. You'd eject the tray, load in a record, and press play. It didn't have a regular tone-arm, it had a track with a needle in it so it would always move perpendicular to the groove (the way a tone-arm swings in an arc annoys some audiophiles, I'm led to understand).

But the cool thing was it had a laser. Not to play the record, but it had an optical sensor that could use the laser to tell the difference between the songs and the spaces between the songs. So you didn't have to pick up the needle and move it to a new song, it had track-skip buttons (and FF and reverse) just like a CD player did.

Only one I ever saw.

Sounds like it was a linear turntable.

minato
Jun 7, 2004

cutty cain't hang, say 7-up.
Taco Defender
Our old record player used to have an automatic record changer.

You put a record in the regular place, then stacked records on an extra-long spindle that had a notch near the top to keep the record stack from falling. When the tone arm on the playing record neared the middle, the mechanism would automatically pull the tone arm out of harm's way, retract the spindle notch briefly to make the record on the bottom of the stack fall, then place the tone arm at the beginning of the new record.

It's fascinating to watch it in action.

edit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDZ5DEkm3w8&t=53s you can see one working here

minato has a new favorite as of 19:12 on Oct 12, 2012

Mister Kingdom
Dec 14, 2005

And the tears that fall
On the city wall
Will fade away
With the rays of morning light

minato posted:

Our old record player used to have an automatic record changer.

I had one of those. It was a BSR. One day the motor finally locked up.

For those of you young whipper-snappers who collect old vinyl and notice that double albums are numbered Side 1/3 and 2/4, this is why. When you put the two albums on the changer like this:

2
-
1

and then flip them over you get this:

4
-
3

Some albums had a ridge molded in around the label to help prevent scratches when one disc landed on the other.

Dick Trauma
Nov 30, 2007

God damn it, you've got to be kind.
While we're on the subject of records, in the 1980s when 45s were still popular they came out with the idea of one sided singles. These were 45s that were only pressed on one side and sold at a lower price. I used to buy lots of singles so I gave this a shot and they sounded terrible. The reverse side originally was just lightly grained plastic but then they switched to a horrendous raised cross-hatching that would instantly eat the needle of anyone dumb enough to try and play that side.

Sagebrush
Feb 26, 2012

Mr. Beefhead posted:

Also, the Gamecube discs were just minidvds, which you could easily buy and burn in a standard dvd burner.

I thought that GameCube discs were CAV, meaning that all CLV readers and burners (anything available to the consumer) were incompatible?

KozmoNaut
Apr 23, 2008

Happiness is a warm
Turbo Plasma Rifle


Sagebrush posted:

I thought that GameCube discs were CAV, meaning that all CLV readers and burners (anything available to the consumer) were incompatible?

They are CAV miniDVDs. Wii discs are CAV as well, based on standard DVDs. Dreamcast GD-ROMs were CAV, but people managed to copy those just fine.

There were a couple of anti-copying measures, such as a unique key in the burst cutting area. DVD burners are unable to write in that area, you need commercial DVD duplication hardware to do it.

Mr. Bones
Jan 2, 2011

ain't no law says a skeleton can't play the blues

KozmoNaut posted:

They are CAV miniDVDs. Wii discs are CAV as well, based on standard DVDs. Dreamcast GD-ROMs were CAV, but people managed to copy those just fine.

There were a couple of anti-copying measures, such as a unique key in the burst cutting area. DVD burners are unable to write in that area, you need commercial DVD duplication hardware to do it.

Weren't the first Dreamcast copies made through some convoluted method where they had to transfer the GD-ROM contents from the disc through the modem? Also, early Dreamcast copies generally had lower-quality audio or tracks missing entirely so they could cram everything onto a CD-R.

Jedit
Dec 10, 2011

Proudly supporting vanilla legends 1994-2014

Dick Trauma posted:

While we're on the subject of records, in the 1980s when 45s were still popular they came out with the idea of one sided singles. These were 45s that were only pressed on one side and sold at a lower price. I used to buy lots of singles so I gave this a shot and they sounded terrible. The reverse side originally was just lightly grained plastic but then they switched to a horrendous raised cross-hatching that would instantly eat the needle of anyone dumb enough to try and play that side.

I'll see that and raise you flexidiscs. These were single-sided records printed on a thin vinyl sheet that would bend without damaging the groove. They were used in the pre-CD era as a way to include music or other audio content with books or magazines. CDs obsoleted them and they went out of production in 2000, but apparently there's recently been a resurgence of interest in them from the indie scene.

Dick Trauma
Nov 30, 2007

God damn it, you've got to be kind.

Jedit posted:

I'll see that and raise you flexidiscs. These were single-sided records printed on a thin vinyl sheet that would bend without damaging the groove. They were used in the pre-CD era as a way to include music or other audio content with books or magazines. CDs obsoleted them and they went out of production in 2000, but apparently there's recently been a resurgence of interest in them from the indie scene.

Flexis in magazines were pretty common, but flexis you had to cut out of the back of a cereal box...



My brother and I collected a few of these back in the 1970s. The sound quality is what you would expect.

Mister Kingdom
Dec 14, 2005

And the tears that fall
On the city wall
Will fade away
With the rays of morning light
^^^^drat YOU DICK :argh:

Jedit posted:

I'll see that and raise you flexidiscs. These were single-sided records printed on a thin vinyl sheet that would bend without damaging the groove. They were used in the pre-CD era as a way to include music or other audio content with books or magazines. CDs obsoleted them and they went out of production in 2000, but apparently there's recently been a resurgence of interest in them from the indie scene.

I see your flexidiscs and raise you cereal box records from the late 60s/early 70s.

Bonzo
Mar 11, 2004

Just like Mama used to make it!

Jedit posted:

I'll see that and raise you flexidiscs. These were single-sided records printed on a thin vinyl sheet that would bend without damaging the groove. They were used in the pre-CD era as a way to include music or other audio content with books or magazines. CDs obsoleted them and they went out of production in 2000, but apparently there's recently been a resurgence of interest in them from the indie scene.

I used to have a lots of these from Modern Drummer magazine. It was a way for drummers or drum companies to have the reader experience the sound of a new product line or how to use certain techniques. I think they choose this format because everyone had a record player. Some musicians at the time didn't like cassettes or CDs.

And then you'd get stuff like this. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GdIyv8swK9k
If you've ever seen a Rush concert in the last 25 year, you'll know that song.

Ron Burgundy
Dec 24, 2005
This burrito is delicious, but it is filling.

Parallel Paraplegic posted:

This thing's pretty neat, but I'm really curious as to what the hell "industrial" sounds like.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5iKJ3U0uXy4

(all of the yellow, and very light blue label discs on youtube)

Phanatic posted:

There are laser phonograph players, did you know. Instead of scraping a needle down the groove of your pristine, coddled vinyl, they shine a laser, just like a CD player does. I have no idea how they sound,

The original ones sounded horrible. After 20 years they may have made some progress, but the wear induced by a properly adjusted turntable is almost nil. They used to harp on about how these could play physically broken 78s, but if the platter still spins, I fail to see how the halves will not spin out at 78 rpm especially.

Old James
Nov 20, 2003

Wait a sec. I don't know an Old James!

Jedit posted:

I'll see that and raise you flexidiscs. These were single-sided records printed on a thin vinyl sheet that would bend without damaging the groove. They were used in the pre-CD era as a way to include music or other audio content with books or magazines. CDs obsoleted them and they went out of production in 2000, but apparently there's recently been a resurgence of interest in them from the indie scene.

I remember at one point McDonald's had a promotion where they included these in the newspaper with a song of their menu. The idea is that if you went in and sang the song to the cashier you could get a free small fries or soda.

I spent so long memorizing that song, but then my parents would never drive me to McDonalds to get the reward. That song still pops into my head when I am trying to remember important things like where I parked my car.

Mr. Bones
Jan 2, 2011

ain't no law says a skeleton can't play the blues

Old James posted:

I remember at one point McDonald's had a promotion where they included these in the newspaper with a song of their menu. The idea is that if you went in and sang the song to the cashier you could get a free small fries or soda.

I spent so long memorizing that song, but then my parents would never drive me to McDonalds to get the reward. That song still pops into my head when I am trying to remember important things like where I parked my car.

Is this the one?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=agr0a-G26dY

El Estrago Bonito
Dec 17, 2010

Scout Finch Bitch

Manfrompoot posted:

Weren't the first Dreamcast copies made through some convoluted method where they had to transfer the GD-ROM contents from the disc through the modem? Also, early Dreamcast copies generally had lower-quality audio or tracks missing entirely so they could cram everything onto a CD-R.

The issue is that the DC uses a gigabyte sized disc and a standard CDR is 750mb. Most games are in the 400-650 range and fit fine on a standard CD but any game that actually used all the space (Shenmue II for instance) would have to be cut down. The easiest way to do this is by replacing the music files since they are usually uncompressed WAV files in a directory on the disc.

Before SEGA left the console market and there was a definite chance they would beat the PS2 Sony was planning to release a format of, you guessed it, burnable gigabyte discs. The DC was already having huge piracy issues, especially in Asia where the companies who were pumping out pirated VCD movies/porn were using the same equipment to steal DC games. So this was probably the only time in history a company has planned to kill another companies console by making it easier to pirate games on the competitors machine.

BogDew
Jun 14, 2006

E:\FILES>quickfli clown.fli
Soviet Bootleg records are interesting. Until the Union fell, all Western music was considered illegal, however a bootleg market importing singles from the states existed, known as roentgenizdat. The officials knew and often sent "music patrols" to attempt to bust people who might be sneakily listening or distributing.

The method of recording was to basically dub from one record player to another.



However making new records was where the fun came in. One readily available material was X-ray negatives which were just durable enough to be used - and lasted around a month. These cost 1 to 1 1/2 roubles compared to the five roubles for a vinyl.


Listen to St Louis Blues - in xray


More info and songs here - in Russian
Some background information of the effect of underground music in Russia in the 70's and other illegal devices like electric guitars

Another obsolete record device was the Voice-O-Gram. You got an envelope with your recording so that you may post it away.

Terrible Robot
Jul 2, 2010

FRIED CHICKEN
Slippery Tilde

El Estrago Bonito posted:

Before SEGA left the console market and there was a definite chance they would beat the PS2 Sony was planning to release a format of, you guessed it, burnable gigabyte discs. The DC was already having huge piracy issues, especially in Asia where the companies who were pumping out pirated VCD movies/porn were using the same equipment to steal DC games. So this was probably the only time in history a company has planned to kill another companies console by making it easier to pirate games on the competitors machine.

Goddamn, that is :black101: as gently caress. "Business is war" indeed.

Improbable Lobster
Jan 6, 2012

What is the Matrix 🌐? We just don't know 😎.


Buglord

WebDog posted:

Soviet Bootleg records are interesting. Until the Union fell, all Western music was considered illegal, however a bootleg market importing singles from the states existed, known as roentgenizdat. The officials knew and often sent "music patrols" to attempt to bust people who might be sneakily listening or distributing.

The method of recording was to basically dub from one record player to another.



However making new records was where the fun came in. One readily available material was X-ray negatives which were just durable enough to be used - and lasted around a month. These cost 1 to 1 1/2 roubles compared to the five roubles for a vinyl.


Listen to St Louis Blues - in xray


More info and songs here - in Russian
Some background information of the effect of underground music in Russia in the 70's and other illegal devices like electric guitars

Another obsolete record device was the Voice-O-Gram. You got an envelope with your recording so that you may post it away.


Wow. I would love to have a few x-ray records framed or something. That is amazing.

AlternateAccount
Apr 25, 2005
FYGM

I actually knew the lady who won this. She worked at the local convenience store.

Code Jockey
Jan 24, 2006

69420 basic bytes free

Holy poo poo that's cool. Very interesting stuff, thanks for that!

JediTalentAgent
Jun 5, 2005
Hey, look. Look, if- if you screw me on this, I shall become more powerful than you can possibly imagine, you rat bastard!
On the subject of flexidisk records, the novel "Fast Sofa" from the 90s actually came with one featuring the punk group The Flesheaters.

http://www.amazon.com/Fast-Sofa-Bruce-Craven/dp/0688123368/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1350108029&sr=8-2&keywords=fast+sofa

I think there was also a music magazine from the era called "Reflex" that also included flexidisks with them, too.

BOOTY-ADE
Aug 30, 2006

BIG KOOL TELLIN' Y'ALL TO KEEP IT TIGHT

This is really cool...wish they'd done an Elvis one on a pelvic X-Ray

sleepy gary
Jan 11, 2006

Those xray bootlegs are loving awesome.

Magic Hate Ball
May 6, 2007

ha ha ha!
you've already paid for this
Nothing says "trapped in communist hellhole, send real chocolate" like x-ray records. I love that it's "Cheek To Cheek", too. I can imagine a couple putting it on and having a romantic moment while some woman's hipbones spin on the turntable.

Plinkey posted:

I remember listening to the radio and whenever the song would change being ready to record the next one if it's something I wanted onto the tape deck. Then napster showed up.

The really annoying thing was when the DJ would talk over the opening or closing, but you listen to it over and over again because what choice did you have? And then for the rest of your life you have some dumb babble burned into your brain and you anticipate it every time you hear the song. ...And that was Alanis More-upset with one of her happy, upbeat songs! gently caress you too, Crazy Ira.

Mister Kingdom posted:

For those of you young whipper-snappers who collect old vinyl and notice that double albums are numbered Side 1/3 and 2/4, this is why.

This is why I sincerely miss our awesome old record-player. It crapped out just as I started to collect vinyl as a teenager but now I have a bunch of great multi-disc sets that are all goofy-sequence like that and it's a pain in the kiester to have to pull the discs out and put them in over and over again.

Old James posted:

I remember at one point McDonald's had a promotion where they included these in the newspaper with a song of their menu. The idea is that if you went in and sang the song to the cashier you could get a free small fries or soda.

Man, the cashiers must've loved that. Also flexidiscs ruled, we have a bunch of National Geographic ones that are samples of like "Jazz Hits!" or "The Best Of Beethoven!" I remember Mad Magazine did one, too.

BogDew
Jun 14, 2006

E:\FILES>quickfli clown.fli

Magic Hate Ball posted:

Man, the cashiers must've loved that.
Oh I guess you might have forgotten this one.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6sAQDko-R1s

Puddin
Apr 9, 2004
Leave it to Brak

WebDog posted:

Oh I guess you might have forgotten this one.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6sAQDko-R1s

There was the triple cheese one too.

No video I can find but it was get a free triple cheese burger if you could say, 'I choose the triple cheese, the triple cheese lovers choose when they choose the cheese, cheese, cheese, that the triple cheese lovers choose.'

Snark
Sep 19, 2003

no dice

Magic Hate Ball posted:

The really annoying thing was when the DJ would talk over the opening or closing, but you listen to it over and over again because what choice did you have? And then for the rest of your life you have some dumb babble burned into your brain and you anticipate it every time you hear the song. ...And that was Alanis More-upset with one of her happy, upbeat songs! gently caress you too, Crazy Ira.
Which reminds me of another obsolete music thing: The Box. It was a music video cable channel with a 900 hundred number. They'd list videos with a code, you'd call their 900 number, enter the code, and ten minutes to an hour later, your video would hopefully show up. For a while you could see the video for "You Oughta Now" on The Box before Jagged Little Pill came out so that's how I got my first copy of that song. The Box also showed stuff that MTV didn't or wouldn't. I totally ordered A person could have theoretically ordered the video for "Put 'Em on the Glass" - Sir Mix-a-lot's followup to "Baby Got Back". It did for tits what "Back" did for asses and more importantly was not shown on MTV.

MTV wound up buying The Box around 2000 anyway.

Pilsner
Nov 23, 2002

A few weeks ago, I found a Dell Inspiron 4000 laptop in my apartment building's trash. I actually had an Inspiron 4100 that I was trying to sell, but its keyboard was a bit wonky and it was noisy, so I patched up the 4000 with a hard drive and battery from the 4100, with intent of selling the 4000 model instead. I turned it on, installed Windows, and wanted to toss on some drivers and Windows Updates. Oh, it doesn't have wireless, fair enough, it's old. I'll just plug in an ethernet cable... uh, no? No ethernet? No wireless? Nothing??

I discovered it actually had an ethernet plug, but it was hidden behind a plastic dummy cover, and there was no power (and no NIC) behind the plug. It only had a modem. It actually had wireless antenna wires, but then I would have had to buy a small adapter cable to connect the intermediate wireless antenna board to an actual MiniPCI wireless card. I ended up dumping it, just salvaging a few parts I had use of from it.

It just reminded me of how useless a computer without a network connection is these days is.

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tacodaemon
Nov 27, 2006




Yeah, in case you didn't make it through the guy's endless rambling on the video: On all but one of the flexidiscs, the people singing the song wouldn't manage to finish it, because they'd gently caress up the lyrics somewhere along the way. For the million-dollar prize you'd need to luck out and get the flexidisc where the singers actually managed to finish the whole song. (The flexidiscs came with a bunch of McDonald's coupons in the Sunday newspaper.) I remember going to my grandparents' on that Sunday in hopes of getting the winning flexidisc, but when we put it on their giant wooden console stereo, those assholes on the record hosed up the song as usual.

Which reminds me: The Magnavox Astro-Sonic console stereo controls! (Click for more detail.)



I remember being perplexed by the "Loudness" dial that was there in addition to the volume knob on 1970s stereos. What that thing does is apply an EQ curve that compensates for the human ear's natural frequency response (the Fletcher-Munson curve) so that music played at a low volume sounds more natural. To oversimplify, human hearing picks up midrange better than low and high sounds, meaning that at low volume it can be hard to pick out the lows and highs at all, so the loudness knob lets you boost the lows and highs to even out the sound when playing the stereo at a low volume.

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