PHILIPS COMPACT DISC CD early 80s introduction

[tz8gz2]

Appears someone decided to have some "fun" under my user ID on Youtube - my apologies! This bro is not mad.

[Alantgv]

@tz8gz2

LOL sorry for saying all that stuff to you. I thought you were a douchebag who hates on youtube for a life! Again sorry but maybe you should change your password and atually keep it a secret.

[charliellorente]

This is fucking great!! thanks!

[Alantgv]

@tz8gz2

umadbro?

[PHILIPScomment]

Unfortunately not. The best I have is video CD mpeg1 quality.

[sirvidia]

does anyone have this vid in higher quality? i would love it

[anonimosur]

Este vídeo es todo un documento histórico de la música. Philips tuvo la visión de aunar para este vídeo a dos grandes que ya forman parte de la história de la música de todos los tiempos como son Alan Parsons y Eric Woolfson, y con los que yo "quemé" varios motores de mi compact disc de tanto escuchar a The Alan Parsons Project.

[SpiralPegasus]

Man, that version of Sultans of Swing is INCREDIBLY good!!

Does anyone know where it's from?

[spacehelmetforacow]

1:08

Why are they putting the CD in upside-down?

[TheOneartist]

haha I bet Alan Parsons is so eating those words now. Vinyl is way better at capturing the sound of the studio.

[spacehelmetforacow]

@TheOneartist Depends. Early CDs, done directly from analog masters, sound superior to vinyl in every respect.

Modern CDs, on the other hand, are usually so compressed and badly mastered that they might as well just be white noise.

[TheOneartist]

@spacehelmetforacow I wouldn't say so. Vinyl isn't only better than CD's because of no compression. It's analogue, and it doesn't have a cut-off point like digital does. Digital doesn't capture an entire sound wave, but approximates it with a series of steps. A well-mastered CD will sound better than a badly mastered vinyl, but a brand-new, well-mastered vinyl will definitely best a well-mastered CD.

There's a good explanation on the HowStuffWorks site.

[spacehelmetforacow]

@TheOneartist A CD has slightly *higher* dynamic range then vinyl does, it just gets mastered badly a lot by idiotic record comapnies who like to do showy, look-at-me mastering that's litearally impossible to do on viyl without causing skips.

compare one of the early CDs to a record from the same era, and CD will win every time.

not that it really matters anymore, what with web distribution and all...

[TheOneartist]

@spacehelmetforacow I know about bad mastering and the loudness wars on CD's.

But the point is that analogue sounds better than digital, and I don't see how you can say a 16-bit 44.1 khz digital file sounds better than a completely natural sound wave. I'm talking about well-mastered vinyl.

Google vinyl vs. digital and click on the HowStuffWorks link. They even have a good graph that explains it. Also, it's something hard to convey unless you've actually heard the difference on fine equipment.

[spacehelmetforacow]

@TheOneartist It isn't a "completely natural sound wave". Besides wear and tear from requiring physical contact, dust, Hiss and pops, wow, and harmonic distortion, Vinyl always has compressed bass, because too much bass causes the needle to jump out of the groove.

[TheOneartist]

@spacehelmetforacow CD's & digital are still nice for portability. It is true that you have to be more careful with vinyl and take care of it, but it's perfect for home listening to music. And a pristine well-taken care of vinyl, or a brand new one, will pretty much have no surface noise at all. Sound completely clean.

As for bass, we have pre-amps for that, right? I've never really seen people complain about lack of bass on vinyl. Only heard it mentioned on earlier or cheaper-made records.

[antonmjor]

@spacehelmetforacow Yeah, the bass is compressed at mastering according to the RIIA-curve, but it is expanded again at playback in the RIIA-amplifier. A correctly mastered vinyl played on the correct equipment should sound exactly like (or better than) a CD.

[spacehelmetforacow]

@antonmjor Compression always causes loss of information (read: sound quality) no matter what kind of amplifier you use.

[palatialplaster]

what is the music starting at 5:56 that accompanies the manufacturing segment? Does anyone know the band and track??

[BestofJackSoundstack]

@palatialplaster have you found out the song yet ? im looking 2 :) ?

[joemaffei]

What version of Sultans of Swing are they playing at 4:23? Never heard it!

[6netfire]

Zidiot!

[ZXRulezzz]

Dire Straits kicks ass!

P.S. OMFG!!! 8:50 - handmade head assembly!!!

[odeliagardens]

funny how Philips used the Alan Parsons project in their promo, when this band was signed to Arista Records at the time, which is not part of PolyGram which Philips is the parent company. You'd think Philips would use a PolyGram-signed artist for this video. Also, the generic music used in this video was often used by my local television station in the 80s as music accompanying the breakdown slide.

[eyeh8nbc]

Nice, but why is this in mono? What video format was this on? (Probably not laserdisc because of the head-switching bars at the bottom.)

[mikk999]

That's the best way to hold a CD! Outer edges only, to avoid build up of oil, dust, and dirt in the middle of the CD and on the spindle of the CD player.

[dimebagdave77]

they seem to sum it all up at the end by showing the viewer that "it's just like being there in person."

[pillsbur]

I'd like to show this video in my class about pop music in the 80s. Do you know what year this was produced?

[PhilipsResearchinfo]

I think its if from 1985. It includes the Dire Straits -Money for Nothing - from the Brothers in Arms Album. This was one of the CD that was fully DDD digital recorded, mastered and printed on CD. Philips Compact Disc sponsered the Dire Straits tour in that year.

[mikk999]

@PhilipsResearchinfo When they made that CD they made sure the quality was spot on. Later on many recording engineers got lazy and many of the harsh sounding, low quality CDs were produced.

[1990chrism]

Way ahead of its time.

[searchme45]

where did you dig this up?

[NudistPoet]

Amazing historical footage of my all-time favourite music group THE ALAN PARSONS PROJECT (Alan Parsons & Eric Woolfson)! R.I.P. Eric (1945-2009).

[elpicopormisvenas]

the CD killed the music!!

vinyl forever!!!

[stonee206]

@elpicopormisvenas Agreed... We are getting a modern vinyl player, so that we can get the classics over to the PC's and have the awesome quality =P

[azzorroww]

the video of alan parsons and eric woolfson in the studio is priceless, first iv'e seen was in abbey road, may fair or parsonics sharper ears than mine recognized eric playing a early version of sterreotomy on piano that would make this late 85 early 86 when sterreotomy was being recorded.

Great insight by eric and alan and as much as i  love dire straits more of alan and eric i would of perferred, but i'm greatful for this video doc beyond words.

[urbania70]

Yes, Eric left us, very sad days for us fans. It has been revealed only now that he was ill since years, yet he had more creativity and positivity than ever, until the last minute.

Giorgio

[hourofthetime]

RIP Eric! You'll be missed.

[JackSirTo11]

Excellent video. Thanks for sharing

[nostromusrex]

In that times my father works on Phillips Electronics of Uruguay and I remember the trailer, some years later I work for the company too until 1997, best work place I ever had!

Great video, thanx for sharing!

[voorhes80]

This is solid Gold!!!

[skitch88]

what was all the pagoda stuff about?

[PHILIPScomment]

Thanks for watching. Good comment. This video was a promotion video from Philips. It also includes - non Compact Disc related - video fragments of Philips products used worldwide (such as the airport, and road cameras that Philips used to supply at that time). The pagoda is about landmark/building illumination in which Philips is still active, but now with energy efficient lighting such as LEDs.

[juniordonet]

@PHILIPScomment nessa epoca o Cd estava engatinhando ainda para o consumidor de renda menor

o Cd nessa epoca era novidade assim como o atual bluray

e um aparelho nessa epoca custava o preço de 2 computadores hoje

[maxwelljrdn]

The piano solo that Eric is playing sounds like the Stereotomy song. at this point when this video was made it must have been "under construction" because the final album version sounds slightly different.

[urbania70]

well said

[KatCassidy]

That video was great, although I do feel they went a bit "arty-farty" towards the end. None the less, it works well as a promotional video (which is what it is) and helps to demonstrate how much of a breakthrough it was at the time for the music and hi-fi industries. Thank you for uploading it

[PHILIPScomment]

Thanks for watching. Philips used to sponsor the Dire Straits at that time and was allowed to use the Dire Straits in their CD marketing activities. The arty-farty bits are actually taken from the original Dire Straits - Money for Nothing video clip (you know the 3D animated movers that fly into the TV set).

[RetroToledo]

@PHILIPScomment Even I would remember that!

[knightrats]

Thank you very much Giorgio for forwarding this!

I must say I do love still love vinyl but cannot dispute how CD has revolutionized music.

Hope all is well with you!

Love Michelle xxxx

[urbania70]

You're welcome dearest Michelle. Please note this is the 1st time that we fans see a video of Eric and Alan working together in the studio. It's an extraordinary document.

[Clairs88]

This video featuring dire straits and the alan parsons project is just fantastic. and above all, it gives an idea of what could look compact discs like when they were first relesed! 80s rule ---

[urbania70]

Hey Claire, this is an exceptional document since it's the 1st time we see a video of Eric and Alan working in the studio! After so many years!

[frankzito1]

This is awesome , thanks Giorgio. You can hear Eric's distinctive voice when he talks. No wonder he could sing so well.

Thanks for the post also. word

Jason

[urbania70]

Hi dear Jason. Please note that this is not the 1st time we see a video excerpt of Eric talking - but we never saw before a video of him working in the studio with Alan.

[frankzito1]

I guess I should of said when he was younger, for me anyways. ;) thanks again my friend.

[urbania70]

Oh yeah Jason sorry, you're right, I think we didn't have much Eric interview video material filmed in APP years. Some italian fans have an interview to Eric and Alan filmed at Ammonia Avenue time, but I think it's the only other case.

[CorradoRossiMusic]

Amazing! It's great to see Alan & Eric in the Studio and there are a lot of scenes that could be an official video for sure! Really beautiful, thanks for sharing this gem!

[Syngularity]

Giorgio - this is a treat! Thank you very much & added to my favourites :-) Pascal

[RicBNH]

Philips also blew the 8 track out of the water when they invented 'the cassette'.

Fantastic video-quite nostalgic. *****

~Ric~

[Watcher3223]

To be fair, the Compact Cassette was not designed for music reproduction but for dictation.

However, just because it wasn't designed for music, it doesn't mean it wasn't capable.

[RicBNH]

Amazing sound from a little mylar tape 3.5 mm moving at only 1 7/8 IPS.

Add metal tape and dolby and it rivaled the best media at the time.

♫Ric♫

[Watcher3223]

Well, some people actually believe in not using Dolby System because of peculiar sound quality in the highs when using the appropriate Dolby type NR with Dolby-encoded tapes. Dolby B was okay, but people complained about Dolby C.

However, IMO, Dolby type S is fantastic yielding a very quiet recording with sound quality and dynamics very reminiscent of CD. Unfortunately, that NR type came a little too late.

And then there's DBX.

[RicBNH]

Probably because dolby B was more a dynamic algorythm and C was supposed to be more (to put it loosely) along the lines of how humans perceive sound.

DBX ftw in tape mediums.

♫Ric♫

[Watcher3223]

As for metal tape, definitely. Metal tape and Dolby S = winning combination.

Unfortunately, it's difficult to find metal tape these days.

[RicBNH]

Ditto☺

♫Ric♫

[urbania70]

PS attach to URL &fmt=18 to watch with high quality sound (since this is about CD, it deserves it! :-)

[ALEClovesGENIALMUSIC]

Many thanks for sharing this true rarity !!!

[urbania70]

Sorry for the long comments but this rarity deserves them.

The ad-hoc video at 5:50 featuring Mammagamma from "Eye in the Sky" is also a gem. An official video for that track didn't exist. Given the camera at 6:55 and the "CD in the sky" at 9:09, it's partly to consider an official video for it (and the computers and the figure at 6:00 is reminiscent of the first APP video, "I Wouldn't Want To Be l Like You" from "I Robot").

[milaraven]

It is a fantastic document with Alan and Eric !!!

I ´m impressed !.

Thanks for sharing my friend .

[urbania70]

Many thanks for posting this. Not only an historical document about CD but also a never-seen Alan Parsons Project gem: for the 1st time a video document of APP recording in studio.

What we see at 1:50 is a draft of the beginning of Stereotomy, the first APP CD and one of the first CDs in music industry, so the perfect example. And an unpublished rarity because different than the definitive version. It also shows the centrality of the duo, Eric's unique piano style and Alan's mixer importance.