“Something is happening and you don’t know what it is/Do you Mr Jones?” – Bob Dylan ‘Ballad Of A Thin Man’

THE FUTURE IS IN CYBERSPACE

Something is happening. In fact, a multitude of things are happening simultaneously. We are in the period of a technological revolution which many believe will change society more than the change brought about by the Industrial Revolution.

Maybe it’s a cliché by now, but I will repeat the fact: Every two years computing power doubles while its price halves. Nothing will remain the same, and that goes for music and the music industry. Art forms will move out of their boxes and begin to mould together into brand new forms. That’s basically what multimedia is: a coming together of visuals, animation, video, film, words, voice, music, to create something brand new.

By the end of this decade it is predicted that there will be more computer memory available than there is information. CD ROM is all about memory capacity. You can get about 600 mega bytes of information on a CD ROM. That’s about 600 three-hundred-page novels. That’s why CD ROM is so exciting. Because you can store so much on one little disk, you can create so much.

For the music fan, there are going to be loads of releases on CD ROM which will turn the enjoyment of music into a total sensory experience. For artists, the time is now – right now – to start exploring how CD ROM/multimedia can be used and expanded. There is a genuine revolution happening, and as of this moment the multinationals are probably more confused and afraid of it than anybody. There is a massive opportunity for very small groups of people with minimal equipment, to create stuff that will knock the world out. This amazing opportunity won’t last long. So, if you’re feeling creative and want to really make your mark, CD ROM is fresh, vibrant and full of awesome potential.

BUYING MULTIMEDIA EQUIPMENT

Everywhere you look right now, there are multimedia computers. The essential difference between a multimedia computer and a standard computer is that a multimedia computer has a CD ROM drive and speakers. It may be possible to upgrade your present computer – if you have one – to multimedia capacity. Stand-alone CD ROMs can be plugged in to the back, as can speakers. In fact, if you have a good hi-fi speaker system and it’s in the same room as your computer that’s probably the best option. You’ll need to check with your supplier, however, to make sure that your computer has the capacity to do this.

There’s a large range of multimedia computers and ad-ons available. If you’re buying, you should consider the following:

Service: Service is vital. Computers can and do fail. There can be all sorts of minor things you have to do to make your computer suit your specific needs. So, it is vital that you get good service. This usually means buying from a shop that is well established or at least looks like it’s going to be around for a while. It means dealing with people who know what they’re talking about and – even more importantly – are friendly and willing to help you. It has been my experience over the years that computer sales representatives tend to be arrogant, dismissive and full of a capacity to talk down to you. As a rule of thumb, if you’re not getting questions answered to your full satisfaction before you buy, you certainly won’t get them answered any better afterwards.

Upgradeable: Computer products come and go at an amazing speed, and it’s important to know that the computer you buy today is to at least some degree “future proof”. In other words, that you can upgrade it to the new model, and/or add-on more memory, processing capacity, etc., to it.

Hardware: Hardware is the actual physical computer. Particularly with CD ROMs it is important that you have a computer which is fast enough and has enough memory. If it doesn’t then your CD ROMs will run slow and you will have all sorts of other hassles.

Price: If you can at all manage, don’t go for the cheapest option. Cheap in computers rarely means good or even satisfactory. Basically, spend as much as you can reasonably afford. Because although you might get a computer that just about does the job today, you can be guaranteed that next week a CD ROM will come out that you will want to buy, but will not run well at all on your machine.

Which Computer? Here lies a problem. I much prefer Apple, because Apples tend to be genuinely user-friendly and reliable. The problem is that Apple have about a 10% share of the computer market, and that the other 90% is controlled by the ‘PC.’ The PC is a very different machine to the Apple. In other words, a PC CD ROM will not run on an Apple CD ROM player, and vice versa. (Things are changing in this area but not quickly enough): In the beginning, a large percentage of multimedia products were created on and for Apples, essentially because many creative people tend to use Apples. However, the reality now is that the CD ROM market is beginning to reflect the general computer market. What this means is that if you buy a PC you will have more choice. That’s not to say that there isn’t a wide selection of CD ROMs for the Apple, because many multimedia publishers produce their product both for the PC and the Apple. However, it is a point to consider.

There’s more to multimedia machines than Apples and PCs. CDi is a multimedia set-top technology (it hooks into your TV) developed by Philips, the company who invented the CD. Because it’s linked to your TV, CDi is cheaper to buy than a multimedia computer. Presently, there are about 500,000 CDi’s sold, so it’s the most popular TV set-top multimedia system. There’s a wide range of CD ROMs available for CDi, though they tend to be oriented to games and entertainment. (You can buy films such as Top Gun and Black Rain on CD ROM for CDi.)

Sega CD is a TV set-top machine that has a low price and is very popular, though its CD ROMs tend to be almost exclusively game titles. The 3DO Interactive Multiplayer straddles the middle ground between a games machine and a computer. This is a new machine and there’s not much CD ROM software available for it at the moment.

ARE YOU CONFUSED?

If you’re confused by it all, then congratulations! You’re a normal human being. So, if you want more information than you’re getting from sales reps, then you should check out some of the magazines available, many of which are excellent. The computer magazine rack in Easons on O’Connell Street has a great selection, and it would be well worth browsing through and buying a few. If you want to get a feel for this whole cyberspace, superinformation highway thing – where it is now and where it’s headed – then by far the best magazine to buy is Wired. Wired, however, is not oriented towards advising you on what equipment to buy.

And new and better products are coming on the market all the time. However, if you wait for the ‘next best thing’, you’ll never buy. There are excellent products on the market right now, and they are more than capable of bringing to life the power of multimedia and CD ROM. CD ROM software has reached a point where most of the versions on offer are decent and some are excellent. They’ll get much better, sure, but you’re going to have to go through the stage anyway of finding out which is the best publisher, etc.

TRAWLING THROUGH THE MUSIC CD-ROMs

The Residents: “Freak Show”

Based on the 1990 album Freak Show, this creates a visual world for that music. But you don’t just watch it. You explore. You can ‘walk’ into a circus and visit the tents, rummaging through the secret lives of Harry the Head, etc., finding out more and more detail about them by clicking with your mouse. Freak Show is regarded by most critics as the best music-related CD ROM available right now. I’ve played it and I’ve found it very impressive and freaky indeed.

Prince: “The Graphic Zone”

Here, you can tour Symbol-head’s recording studios, participate in creative and recording sessions, and solve mysteries and puzzles and riddles. You can pick up his guitar and hear his greatest riffs, and you can remix the vocals and music. The disc contains samples of 52 of his songs and three full-length videos. It’s a big package.

Peter Gabriel: “Explora 1 Peter Gabriel’s Secret World”

This enables users to explore four areas relating to Peter Gabriel: his music; his most recent album, Us; his personal insights and interests; and the music of the world. This journey allows you to do all sorts of things: go backstage, visit his studio, mix some tracks, experiment with tones and rhythms of unusual instruments, etc.

David Bowie: “Jump: The David Bowie Interactive CD-ROM”

Based on the single, ‘Jump They Say’, this allows you to enter a studio with David Bowie, listen to a few of his tracks, and watch a few of his video ideas. It gets interactive by giving you five separate sources of raw video footage for the single, allowing you to basically create your own video. I’ve seen a bit of this and it’s just alright. Basically, it’s a stab at the possibilities.

Todd Rundgren: “No World Order”

Rundgren’s music is chopped up into hundreds of fragments and the user can create totally different versions, controlling tempo, mood, etc. Essentially, you can be your own producer.

Total Distortion: “Pop Rocket”

This is a kind of a music-video adventure game. You’re a video producer who has been somehow transported to the Dimension of Distortion. Stranded there with limited funds, you have to create music videos by using a special camera to collect such “treasures” as video clips, still images, lost recordings, and song snippets. You must then put all the stuff together into a good video and attempt to sell it to TV producers back on earth. It’s fun enough to play and there’s lots of heavy graveyard riffing around.

Bob Dylan

At the moment good old Bob is suing Apple because they’ve called one of their new systems, ‘Dylan’. However, it’s not that he’s against technology. He’s planning to bring out a CD-ROM of his music and life. More details later.

Woodstock: 25th Anniversary

You get some music, some trips backstage, you can mingle with the crowd, and a general feel for what it was like. I played a demo of it and it was alright, though nothing spectacular. You get this little paint program that allows you to draw all these psychedelic colours, but after the initial 10 second buzz I got bored. You get a quiz with totally obscure questions. I can’t be a good judge here but other reviews I’ve read are not terribly impressed with it.

Nothin’ But The Blues

Nothin’ But The Blues has a database of 5,000 blues albums, 700 biographies and short reviews of classic available blues albums. There are thirteen songs on it, ranging from Sonny Boy Williamson to John Lee Hooker. Sounds good? Unfortunately, the reviews of it are not very positive. Poor layout, serious omissions. So, it would seem that it’s only recommended to the blues completist.

BITS AND PIECES

Mortal Kombat II, the grislier follow-up to the grisly ‘child’s’ game, Mortal Kombat, sold $50 million worth of product in its first week . . . The non-violent CD ROM Myst has sold 500,000 copies. Quite an achievement and proof that we’re not all caveman sickos at heart . . . Who surfs on the Internet? 80% males. 80% white males. 80% rich, white males . . . It is predicted that something in the region of $3.5 billion will be spent on CD ROMs this year. The Key is a new “interactive multimedia musical instrument.” It’s designed to make those who can’t play an instrument sound like they can. You just start strumming away on its keyboard and it fills in the chords . . . Michael Erlewine is a bit of a collector of music album information. He has collected information on 200,000 titles so far, which makes him the owner of the world’s largest music database. He has stuck most of this info in a 1,200 page book called the All Music Guide, while we should soon see it all put on a CD ROM, released through Compton’s. Erlewine believes that in the future we’ll have massive cyber record stores, and he thinks that his database will be a very handy guide as to what to buy . . . “We like violent movies, books and other stuff,” says John Romero, game developer for id, the company who brought you the very violent and very popular computer game, Doom . . . For those of us who can’t dance, raise a leg. Believe it or not, a touch-sensitive floor has been invented in Texas which makes sure that the music keeps time with the dancer. It’s a very talented floor this; it can recite poetry and flash lights to the beats of a dancer’s feet. And it’s all done by use of computer-driven sensors, of course . . . Coming soon from Ion, the company who brought you The Residents Freak Show and David Bowie’s Jump: are Gingerbread Man by The Residents, and Headcandy, a collaboration by David Bowie and Brian Eno . . . With a bit of extra software – which is generally reasonably priced – you can turn your multimedia computer into a really great recording studio . . . One of the most popular activities on the Internet right now is talking about sex and trading in erotic and often pornographic material . . . The Internet is a great way for minorities to reach out to each other and create a global community. This is particularly a happening thing with young gay people who are stuck in the arsehole of nowhere, full of homophobic arseholes . . . Using computers, video footage, computer games and rave music, Rev. Chris Brain is saying mass on the Internet . . . The FBI are scared that the information superhighway will get beyond their reach. That’s why the American Congress has just voted in the Digital Telephony Bill, which will allow the FBI to snoop more effectively around everything from phone conversations to electronic mail . . . Mike Oldfield is about to make history with the upcoming release of Songs of Distant Earth, which will be the first audio CD that also carries a CD ROM track . . . The Internet Underground Music Archive (IUMA) allows you to download high quality music samples from some 140 bands from every part of the world . . . The Rolling Stones recently did a bit of a gig live over the Internet . . .