Senhor

THE MUSIC REVOLUTION [pic]
|By WILLIAM SUTTON |
|adapted form SPEAK UP |

The entertainment industry has seen many inventions, but the emergence of the software music standard MP3* has turned the music world on its head. This is a format that permits high quality music to be transferred from the Internet into people's home computers.
In 1989, the work of German student Karlheinz Bradenburg on digital compression and perception of music led to the MP3, a file format that compresses audio into manageable digital files.
The Walkman pioneered portable music but you had to carry tapes or CDs. The MP3 was definitely a breakthrough. Imagine squeezing all your tapes and CDs onto a small drive and having hundreds of songs in your pocket selected with a simple click, easy to copy and email!!!
The iPod is the quintessencial MP3 player. The i denotes Apple´s internet products. Pods are very small containers: peas grow in pods; spaceships carry escape pods.
Are MP3s good quality?
No. In order to squeeze CD tracks into 3 or 4 megabytes, MP3 remove frequencies inaudible to humans, compressing the remaining information. Audio purists consider MP3 sound quality impoverished.
There are also questions about longevity. Although vynil deteriorates with use, Thomas Edison´s original cylinders are still playable. Recently, old CDs are becoming erratic from oxidizing or bronzing. Are computer drives such as iPods secure? We won´t know until the technology grows older.
* MP3=Moving Picture [Expert Group Level] 3 [Compression] Glossary: emergence=surgimento; turn on its head=virar de cabeça para baixo; quintessential=na forma mais pura; denote=significa; led=levou a; pioneer=inovar; breakthrough=avanço; impoverished=empobrecido; container=recipiente; pea=ervilha.; squeeze=comprimir; grow=crescer; escape pods= cápsulas de fuga; ahead=à frente; critic=crítico; tailor made=feito sob medida; in order to= a fim de; still=ainda;