The Case
Frank is a Long Island, New York native who is stuck in the age of Boy George, MC Hammer and oh yeah-- MADONNA. Both his musical tastes and his technology are Painfully lodged in the 80's. Frank owns every one of Madonna's albums, and listens to them on a record player. He also has an 8-track cassette player and of course owns an audio cassette deck.
The Problem
Frank has a huge collection of records and tapes that he can't listen to away from home and his antiquated stereo system. Frank wants to "get into the groove" in the car, be able to "cherish" his albums by preserving them forever on CDs, and put his entire collection on a portable music player like an iPod so that he can take it with him if he goes on vacation to "La Isla Bonita."
The Tech Expert
Byron Estep is a musician, composer, and computer audio expert who has played on a number of CD's as well as composed music for film, television, and computer games. Many of Byron's recordings were made in his home studio, which features a host of computers (both Mac and PC) and a ton of assorted high-tech audio gear. Byron is a man serious about both music and tech. He may not be a devoted Madonna fan, but he'll put aside his musical tastes to get Frank out of the 80's and into the 21st century.
First Impression
Byron evaluated Frank's tech needs and sent back these notes:
"My main concern was that Frank was going to need a total solution, including a computer, to get from a stack of dusty LP's to complete musical portability. I was also interested in making sure that whatever we did for Frank, he would be able to listen to music in the car, since he commutes to work and spends a fair amount of time on the road."
The Plan
Byron decided to get Frank a new computer, a turntable and cassette deck that allows Frank to directly transfer his albums to the computer. This way Frank can digitize all his music with as little hassle as possible. Byron also got Frank a 60 Gigabyte iPod with a car charger and iTrip adapter (to play the iPod through the car stereo). Byron also wrangled up all necessary software to successfully transfer Frank's records and tapes into the computer and iPod. Finally, Byron bought a great set of speakers to play all the digitized music through the computer.
Here's a list of all the gear we got Frank
HP Pavilion a1440n Computer
A desktop PC with media features, comes with a big drive, tons of RAM, a double layer Lightscribe CD/DVD drive that burns silkscreen-quality CD labels, memory card slots etc. It comes with keyboard and mouse, but needs a monitor so we got Frank an LG flat screen.
Bose Companion 3 Speakers
These are pretty good multimedia speakers and they have a handy volume control that is nice. They are also wall-mountable.
PlusDeck 2c
This is a high quality cassette deck that sits in your PC like a CD drive. It let's you easily convert audio to digital.
Numark ttUSB $299
This is a fully functioning phonograph with the added bonus of USB output (normal phonos require a pre-amp before going into a PC). Plug it into his PC and he can listen to and record his records.
60 gig iPod video
He can carry his entire music collection to his car instead of using crappy cassette mixes like he does now.
Kensington digital ipod charger/FM transmitter
He can listen to his iPod through his car stereo, while charging it simultaneously through the cigarette lighter.
In my next post: the installation, the problems, and the assessment.
Also, how to transfer your own music from tape or record player to computer without buying a ton of special equipment.
http://tech.yahoo.com/blog/worley/69;_ylt=AikyizvDZ5OQ0qvq21aVKfcSLpA5
