People today are always too busy, with too much to do and not enough hours in the day for all these tasks.
Although we have the mistaken impression that digital will do things quicker, it is not so.
Where will busy people find the time to:
- download music on their PCs, organize it in a library, sync it to the MP3 player, make backups;
- transfer photos to their hard disks, organize them in albums, edits and process the best ones and print then at home, if they find ink cartridges;
- upload video footage on their folders, make clips, edit the segments, create movies and burn them to DVDs.
Maybe that's why technology is directed at adolescents who have plenty of time and no money, but a lot of pester power. Working parents have hardly enough time to open their emails.
Before anything was digital, choice was limited, but things were easy and fast: 2 examples below.
Photos
I used to put a film in my camera, took my pictures, dropped the negative at my photo shop, collected the prints later. DONE! Whilst they were dealing with my works of art, I could get on with my work and my life.
The digital photo process is often called the chain of pain. It is complicated, time consuming, expensive, with a lot of waste, even more so if you want to do it yourself. It's better to use an outside service.
But of course, we can do more things with digital photography, like share it on line.
See the section on Photography
Music
I just visited my friendly record shop, browsed a little, listen to a few discs, bought one or two and dropped it on my hi-fi chain at home, pushed a button or two. Hey presto: DONE!
To copy it, I just dropped a cassette in the machine, pushed "record" and I had a tape: MUSIC!
Digital music is complicated, time consuming, expensive. It require an account with a dreaded "Service provider". Then download on the PC, make libraries, albums, then sync. with your MP3 player.
But of course, more things can be done with digital music, like playlists, radio on line, etc.
See the section on Music.
Media setup
Like everybody, my home setup was simple and standard. One good radio set and a transistor radio or two; one telly in the corner; a hi-fi chain with 2 big loudspeakers, an amplifier with its equalizer, a radio tuner, a cassette recorder + player, a turntable, replaced later by a CD player. Later on I added a 4 channel tape recorder. All units could be changed easily,and all connections went into the amplifier.
With this gear, I could do all I needed very simply and quickly: copies, compilations, editing, sound processing. And not a computer in sight!
But of course, more things can be done with digital today, certainly for sound editing and processing.
See the section on Sound
