A couple of years back I started to get interested in streaming radio-music. At that time there was only one system that I could get to work and it was funky to say the least. My unknowing geek pals told of dire things that would happen to my machine, my OS, and my mind if I persisted in sound madness. They warned of migrating dlls and problems with the movable platform called Win-95, compounded by the bad karma of owning the laptop. I shook my head and went on about my business and developed a primitive understanding of using my computer for a sound communication device.

I was aided by a then thirteen year old who is riding the techno wave. He would take good CD's and play them on my machine; the rest of us were then spared his takes wafting into our brains. I was proud. Since I am a classical to mean rock fan I got to know how bad the clipping and rough spots were. One day about a year and half back I heard MP-3 and I knew that sound was growing up. Personally I felt it had to get better, more tactile and easier to organise for duffers like myself. My playlist was a mess and my Zevon and Berlioz were mixed up.

With MP-3 came Win Amp; Win Amp was good. There are other systems and some have compatibility problems, along with conflict problems, but Win amp seems to have solved the conflict problems. I thought with that working the partition, placing all sound files on D:\ was the answer. That changed when the drive started to fill, the young lad simply moved everything to C:\ side and it works, no conflicts, yet.

When I got my copy of MP-3 And the Digital Revolution there was a bit of abuzz chez Coit and I thought that my early start with the book would reserve me some time to read it. Not so, the junior member has more thumb prints on this book than I do.

Revolution is a generally misused word: however it is hot with this tome because with it and a small investment in programs, one can do what the music industry has needed to have happen. The revolution is that we have for decades needed the ability produce a good sampler for not too much money. This opens up good exposure for the artist also a nifty marketing device. This is where the digital revolution is at. This and any other cheap system will not supplant a good location sound system (big hint don't save money on bad mics.) But if one can remember a Ford is not a Rolls one can send for the guys with the Nagra when the monies are raised though MP-3 marketing.

We loaded the CD and everything went on just fine. Soon there were the usual problems of who was going to do what: there were games to have their sound tracts fixed, and a whole lot of nothing got done except sound . The work went well because we followed directions. I thought that the authors had come close to spam showing so many players etc. but I was proven wrong, one needs to know what is out there. Another word of praise, having a good index is a joy.

Here is where the book and I more or less agree. Copyright is an issue to face head on and with the advent of MP-3, it is a real problem. My feelings, and I am no lawyer, are that as long as you use your music in a non-commercial way there is no problem with what one does. Sell it, plagiarize, or display it for commercial use on the web and there ought to the arrival of the MP-3 goons squad with a bill and a fine. People shoplift and people get caught, it ought to be the same for stealing another's creation.

Of course one can get permission from the artist, it isn't that hard to do if one is working, let's say, the fine arts area. I give permission all the time for use to publication of poems, articles, and art work. But I am clear on the use. No getting rich off the artist, like a certain German band that stole the Lakota Chants (and watched their karma hit bottom.)

This is a well put together, do it all book with the tools to do it, the tools include Juke box, data base, music, everything one will need to make noise.

As a reviewer and a user of MP-3 I find this book a great tool for entering the age of good sound, it enables the creative users to make personal sampler files as well as D.J. ripps and mixxes. For the interviewer, art of sound people, here is another way to market quickly produced, quality product. To be without this book in computer sound land is to be without a road map in Providence RI. I like it, and other users like it. It is an understandable guide to MP-3.

MP-3 and The Digital Revolution, John Hedtke 247pp With CD, sys req pentium 75 or better: Top Floor Publishing P.O. Box 260072, Lakewood Colorado 80226-0072 http://TopFloor.com/ Phone 303-232-3924