時差N小時:新舊數(shù)字音樂

Before MP3s and other forms of digitized music therewere CDs. Before CDs came vinyl records. Andbefore vinyl?

在MP3和其它形式的數(shù)字音樂盛行之前，CD已經(jīng)出現(xiàn)。在CD出現(xiàn)之前有黑膠唱片,那么在黑膠唱片之前有什么呢?

Most of us are not nearly old enough to remember,but in the early years of the twentieth centurypopular songs such as "By the Light of the SilveryMoon" were recorded on shellac discs and waxcylinders. Many of these early recordings still exist,but with each passing year they grow more fragileand likely to fall apart while being played. Consequently, music archivists are faced with adelicate problem: how to preserve old-time recordings without silencing them forever?

少數(shù)的老一輩人可能還記得，在20世紀早期有首流行歌曲“在銀色的夜光下”被錄制在蟲膠唱片和蠟筒里。許多早期的唱片仍然存在，但是年復一年，在播放的時候，這些唱片越來越脆弱，極易破碎。所以唱片保管者們面臨著一個微妙的難題：怎樣保護好這些古老的唱片，又能讓他們播出美妙的音樂?

Enter Carl Haber and Vitaly Fadayev, particle physicists at the University of California, Berkeleywho happened to hear a radio piece on the preservationist's dilemma. These music-lovingphysicists suspected that the techniques they use to make sensors that track subatomicparticles might help the troubled archivists. With the aid of a powerful microscope theymapped out the grooves of an old 78 RPM shellac disk and the grooves on a wax cylinderrecorded in 1909.

加州大學伯克利分校的粒子物理學家卡爾·哈伯和維塔利偶然在電臺聽到這些唱片保護者的困境。這些酷愛音樂的物理學家認為他們用于制作跟蹤離子的傳感器工藝可能對正處困境中的檔案保護者有幫助。在兩架高倍望遠鏡的協(xié)助下，他們繪制出了一張78轉(zhuǎn)蟲膠唱片，以及一張1909年錄制的蠟筒上的紋道。

After digitally reproducing the mapped grooves on a computer, Haber and Fadayev then createdsoftware to mimic the effect of a needle moving in the mapped grooves in order to re-createthe sounds. Incredibly, the digitized version sounded even better than the original recordings.And as the mapping technique improves, the physicists hope to enable the digitalpreservation of large amounts of endangered music. So even if you don't remember the darkages before CDs, you may soon be able to enjoy down-loadable old-time music, courtesy of thedigital revolution.

在電腦上將這些紋道處理成數(shù)字音樂后，哈伯和維塔利接著發(fā)明了一種軟件來模仿唱針在紋道內(nèi)旋轉(zhuǎn)而重現(xiàn)音樂。令人難以置信的是數(shù)字版本的音效比老版更好。并且隨著映射技術(shù)的不斷改進，物理學家們希望能用數(shù)字儲存大量頻臨消失的音樂。因此即使你不記得CD出現(xiàn)之前的黑暗時代，但很快你就能享受到可下載的舊時音樂，這是數(shù)字改革的恩惠。