cassettes. A few misfits still had an eight track lurking in an attic, but by and large things were pretty straightforward. Then came Compact Disc and things have never been the same. Bands no longer release albums, they release formats - and they seem to multiply by the month. Now you almost need a digital dictionary to know your CDI from your DCC. So for the technically-challenged, here is a brief glossary of today's formats and buzzwords: CD - Compact Disc. The shiny 4.72-inch disc developed by Philips revolutionised the way we listen to music. Using laser beams to read digitised data, it gives listeners a clear, crisp sound unheard of on records. They don't scratch, are virtually unbreakable, you don't have to flip the album over to hear both sides and you can programme your CD machine to play songs in any order or skip through tracks like a cassette. But unlike a cassette, you cannot record on them - yet. CDI - Compact Disc Interactive. The next generation of CDs, developed by Philips and Sony and the future of home entertainment. They look the same as audio CDs and not only have great sound but also an astonishing amount of text, graphics and video. They play through a CDI machine that hooks up to your regular TV and which will also play your audio CDs or Photo-CDs (see below). A whole 26-volume set of encyclopedias can fit on one CDI disc. Interactive means you can control the programme and choose various options within it. Video quality is presently not brilliant but by next year, full screen, full motion movies and music videos will be readily available on CDI. By the end of the decade, you will be able to record on them and it will have done to VCRs what CDs did to vinyl records. CD-ROM - Compact Disc-Read Only Memory. Developed in 1984 by Philips, it is similar to CDI but plays back through a CD-ROM player connected to a personal computer, not TV.

Enables PC users to store vast amounts of information on a single disc, complete with sound, graphics and animation. DCC - Digital Compact Cassette.

Launched by Philips in 1991, this CD-quality update of the old cassette tape is designed primarily for the Walkman ar stereo market. You need a DCC player to use it but, unlike CD players, it will play your old cassettes as well. The slim, compact design includes the artwork printed on the tape case itself.

Definitely the tape format of the future, and likely to win out over its portable rival, the Mini-Disc (see below). DAT - Digital Audio Tape. Developed by Sony in 1986, it has been overtaken by DCC in the consumer market. DAT looks like a mini-videotape and uses an expensive moving recording and playback head, similar to video recorders, whereas DCC uses a less complicated and more reliable fixed head. It has neverhad DCC's support of the recording industry but the quality of its recording makes it still popular among professionals. Digital - The mathematical formula by which information is stored on CDs, tapes, in computers, etc. Virtually all music is now recorded digitally and digital equipment enables those recordings to be played back more accurately than old analogue records and tapes. In the future, all video and audio equipment will be digital, enabling a complete crossover of formats.

Interactive - Once we passively watched TV, or listened to CDs. In the future, we will "interact'' more, giving us more choices and options. In the same way we can today pull together various elements of text and graphics at the push of a button on a Macintosh computer, you will be able to do so with your TV screen. Options will range from re-arranging instruments on a CD track and choosing different endings to a movie, to shopping and banking from your TV screen. Multimedia - The digital linking of all media and publishing formats that will eventually enable you to do everything from play your CDs and watch TV to desktop publishing, all on one system. Photo-CD - Developed by Kodak, you can now have your regular 35mm film developed and the images put on a CD which can then be played back through a regular TV by either a Photo-CD player or CDI player; or through a computer using a CD-ROM drive. Software packages allow users to add text, sound and graphics for customised presentations.

Mini-Disc - A 2 -inch recordable version of the CD but at present offering slightly inferior sound quality. Designed to be a portable ar stereo cousin to the CD, Mini-Disc's main problem is compatibility - you need a separate Mini-Disc system to record and play them on. Compiled by Chris Gibbons.

AUGUST 1993 RG MAGAZINE