I’ve been giving a lot of consideration lately to converting my music collection to digital audio. Then, selling off the physical media, and only buying physical product in the future when there are no downloadable options available. This was spurred on by a few different things. First, I’ve realized that I spend most of my time listening to music either sitting at the computer, or via my iPhone. When I get a new CD, I rip it into iTunes, and then deposit the disc onto the CD rack in the hallway. Sometimes, a disc will make its way into the bedroom stereo. But these occasions are rare at best. The second reason is that storage of physical media is cumbersome. That CD rack I mentioned above is almost full. And once it hits maximum capacity, there aren’t many options left for growth. We just don’t have the space.

Obviously, there are positive and negative aspects to doing this. And balancing these aspects is what it all comes down to. Let’s take a look at the positives first:
1.) Ease of maintenance/storage/organization: It’s much easier to dust a hard drive than it is to keep hundreds (thousands, collectively?) of CD’s, records and tapes clean. And that hard drive takes up much less space. Also, organizing an iTunes library is fairly simple, as long as all of its contents are properly tagged. I like to keep things orderly. It takes time to keep a large physical media collection organized. Even if you stay on top of it. there’s always things that’ll have to be moved around when a new title is added.
2.) Economics: This one is debatable. But based on what I’ve seen, CD’s still typically retail for around $13.00. Usually, those same albums can be purchased digitally for around $10.00. Also, digital stores often let users cherry pick individual tracks. In cases where I know I’m only going to really like a couple of tracks from an album, I could purchase only those songs and save even more money.

On to the negatives:
1.) Backup/Archiving: Physical media is really the ultimate archive. You’ve got the music (in a full-quality, uncompressed state), artwork and other odds/ends right there. When everything lives on a disk, you run the risk of total loss if the disk goes bad. An all-encompassing iTunes library would have to be backed up regularly. This has been made easier through services like Apple’s Time Machine. But the old rule of backing up data is that, until there are three copies, it doesn’t really exist. Also, in many cases digital albums/singles won’t give you access to all of the artwork/information contained in a CD booklet. This will likely change as more and more product goes all digital. But for now, to someone with a completist mentality (like me!) there’s really no way to digitally have it all.
2.) Emotional/coolness factor: There’s a lot of emotions tied to my music collection. Some good, some bad. I started heavily collecting music as a teenager. Back then, I was highly obsessed. I bought a lot of records at garage sales and thrift stores because they were cheap. And while I definitely loved the music, I was also simply feeding the obsession. At the time, I imagined that one day, I’d have the space to properly store and manage a wide range of media. Sadly, that day never arrived and it’s not likely to. Through the years, I have weeded through my collection, removing things I was certain I would no longer listen to. And this has helped some in terms of maintenance. And while I don’t commune with my music collection like I might have a decade ago, I still get certain feelings of joy when I do flip through it and find something I really like that I haven’t heard in ages. While iTunes shuffle can replicate this to an extent, it’s just not the same.

I really started considering the move to digital after reading this piece by the great Maura Johnston. She relates the emotional side of this equation better than I could ever hope to. Regardless, if she was able to make the switch, it gives me some confidence to think that I could eventually do the same.

Brand new iPhone 4, still in the box.

New iPhone 4 on the right, in comparison with the old iPhone 3G on the left.


I also bought a Griffin iTrip, which came in pretty hand during last week’s Solvang trip.

I had been holding off on the upgrade for awhile. But when Apple announced its free iPhone 4 case program, and I realized I could sell my old phone as a method to cover most of the expense of a new one, it seemed like the right time to make the jump. (I chose this case, by the way.)

A cool feature of the new iPhone is its ability to capture HD video. I had considered purchasing a pocket HD camcorder earlier this year, but I no longer have any reason to do that. (The videos I linked to in the Solvang post from last week were taken with the iPhone 4.)

Will post some videos, as well as any other cool iPhone-related stuff, in the future. (More photos are available here.)

Here’s a picture of my new Telecaster:

Here’s a picture of my new (non-working) guitar amp:

Don’t forget to check out GeminiDragon.

On a related note, I really am enjoying some of the benefits of this new monitor. Specifically, photos and videos are much clearer. And since they’re bigger, I can really see them. It’s given me a whole new sense of appreciation for these visual mediums, and that’s good.

So, I’m going to keep using the monitor through the rest of the weekend. And after using it for a few more days, I should be able to tell whether or not it’ll be worth keeping.

Still, it’s got potential. I just need to spend some more time tweaking it to my liking. For now, I need to get away from the computer. All of this experimentation with the monitor has really fried my eyeballs out.

The new monitor, in all of its 25″ glory.

We went to the hardware store later that day and picked up another Qwik Cap. Now the pipe is capped and so far, so good:

I seem to have come through my respiratory infection. Haven’t completely recovered, but feeling much better. Unfortunately, Jen’s come down with similar symptoms and she’s pretty sick. Guess that was inevitable. She’s holding off for now, but she may go and see a doctor if things don’t improve soon. We were invited to a party tonight but we had to cancel, which is disappointing. But, she’s in no shape to go anywhere right now. We spent the day at home. Watching TV and playing Viva Pinata.

Later in the evening, I dragged out all of my guitar gear and hooked it up. Took awhile to get started. My Line6 PODXT Live effects processor needed some software updates, as did some of the computer software that I use along with the PODXT. I was discouraged to learn that most of the Line6 software I had used in the past doesn’t work under Mac OS 10.6 (Snow Leopard). This is more Apple’s fault than Line6′s fault. Apparently, Snow Leopard doesn’t support the version of Java that Line6 has used in most of its applications. Even after running the latest updates from Line6, most of the stuff still didn’t work. I’m going to try and install the software on my Dell tower instead, and see if it’ll still run under WindowsXP. To clarify, these programs aren’t necessary to use the PODXT. But they make the patch editing process easier, especially if you don’t see so well (like me) as everything can be displayed on a computer monitor instead of the PODXT’s little built-in display. Anyway, I was able to at least use one piece of Line6 software, and I had fun playing guitar for awhile. I made a nice-sounding patch, and I recorded an AudioBoo where you can hear it:

I’m looking forward to spending more time playing guitar and exploring this Line6 technology. Lots of possibilities there.

We moved the couch out of the back room a few days before the Big Move began.

I just took this picture tonight. (Yes, the TV has a cover.)

Now the back room.

After we moved the couch out of the room, Jen took a couple hours over the span of a few days to clean the floor. It was pretty bad.