limitations of MD

[P L Patrick]

i was not signed on during the earlier thread, so apologies if this
point came up before...

	... but it is my understanding that MD technology is not useful
for anyone who plans to do acoustic analysis of sound recordings later
on, or to preserve that possibility for other researchers, due to the
digital compression that alters the signal beyond the possibility of
restoration to the original spectral characteristics.
	I haven't tried the technology myself but have been so advised
by phoneticians, who prefer DAT.
	Given that we are moving rapidly in the direction of preserving
and sharing most data in digitized form for applications unsuspected at
the moment of fieldwork, and that corpus construction, much analysis
and soon even transcription are already at the default-digital stage,
this problem with MD seems a serious consideration. I am training my
students to expect to use digital recording (as soon as they/we can
afford it!) and to plan from the beginning how to archive their data
and collect it with an eye to corpus construction. I tell them not to
use MD-- at this point, analog is better.
	If I've misunderstood the possibilities of MD I would be
delighted to learn more about it.
	--peter

Prof. Peter L. Patrick
Dept. of Language & Linguistics
University of Essex
Wivenhoe Park
COLCHESTER CO4 3SQ
U.K.

Tel: (from within UK) 01206.87.2088
    (from outside UK) +44.1206.87.2088
Fax: (as above)           1206.87.2198
Email: patrickp at essex.ac.uk
Web: http://privatewww.essex.ac.uk/~patrickp