The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #79878   Message #1450739
Posted By: GUEST,Bob Coltman
03-Apr-05 - 08:14 AM
Thread Name: Needed: A 'Digitrad' of Recordings
Subject: Needed: A 'Digitrad' of Recordings
On the Stewart BINNORIE thread I got into a discussion of how difficult it is to access, afford, and keep up with good traditional recordings as a reference. We have a Digitrad for printed versions, many with MIDIs. What we don't have is an equivalent archive of recorded versions.

To quote my post in part:
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...Using recordings as a reference is a gigantic problem!!! As everyone's dollars shrink and CDs get dearer (and go out of print way fast), few of us have the resources to stay current on good recorded versions.

Hence when somebody references a record ("Mocky Floptoe has the best version of 'Ane Night or Twa Awa'' waxed in 100 years; it's on Purple Vervet Records out of Namooth, Nova Scotia--I'm pretty sure it was still available in 1997" or words to that effect) it is often hard to locate specific recorded versions.

And yet hearing the song is a million times better than seeing its text and hearing a midi tune sample however well done.

What's needed is an archive of recorded versions that is as authoritative as the DT is for printed ones.

Alas this runs into all kinds of problems with not just copyright but publication rights, and is probably impractical for that reason. Still I'd love to see a website devoted to an encylopedic archive of the best traditional song recordings--if they could not be complete, even samples would be helpful.
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An archive would be the answer: can anyone figure out how to do it? And who's willing to make a start?