Release/Format
From MusicBrainz Wiki
< Release
Jump to navigationJump to search
Description
This field describes which medium a Release is distributed on. Normally a release will be distributed on multiple media with different ReleaseCatalogNumbers and BarCode
s; each should have a separate release event.
The values may be:
- CD
- DVD
- SACD
- DualDisc
- LaserDisc
- MiniDisc
- Vinyl
- Cassette
- Cartridge (4/8-tracks)
- Reel-to-reel
- DAT
- Digital Media
- Other
Exhaustive list
Here's an attempt at listing some/most/all (?) known/existing audio physical support, and how we map them to our own list:
Purely audio physical supports
Name | Date of creation | Rarity | Details | Picture | Map to |
Phonograph cylinder | 1877 | Very rare | Mechanical analog; "hill-and-dale" grooves, vertical stylus motion | /200px-CylinderRecordsWPackage.jpg | Wax Cylinder |
Piano roll | 1883 | Very rare | Mechanical digital | /180px-WelteHandnuancierung.jpg | Piano Roll |
Gramophone record | 1895 | Common | Mechanical analog; lateral grooves, horizontal stylus motion. The terms LP record (LP, 33, or 33-1/3 rpm record), EP, 16-2/3 rpm record (16), 45 rpm record (45), and 78 rpm record (78) refers to specific types of gramophone records | /156px-Vynil_record.jpg | Vinyl |
Wire recording | 1898 | Rare | Analog; magnetization; no "bias" | /250px-Peirce_wire_recorder.jpg | Other |
Reel-to-Reel | 1930s | Rare | Analog; magnetization; "bias" dramatically increases linearity/fidelity | /300px-Reel-to-reel_recorder_tc-630.jpg | Reel-to-reel |
Vinyl record / Quad Vinyl | 1948/1957/1971 | Common | Is a simple evolution of gramophone record: Analog, with preemphasis and other equalization techniques (LP, RIAA). Lateral grooves, horizontal stylus motion. Monaural were created in 1948, then stereo vinyl came later in 1957 and Quad in 1971: analog, with preemphasis and other equalization techniques. Combination lateral/vertical stylus motion with each channel encoded 45 degrees to the vertical. | /156px-Vynil_record.jpg | Vinyl |
4 tracks cartridge / 8 tracks cartridge / Quad 8 tracks | 1962/1965/1970 | Rare? | Analog, 1/4 inch wide tape, 3 3/4 inches/sec, endless loop cartridge. Quad: 4 Channel Stereo. | 270px-Sexpistols8track | 4 Tracks/8 Tracks/Quad 8 |
Compact cassette | 1963 | (still) common? | Analog, with bias, preemphasis, 1/8 inch wide tape, 17/8 inches/sec. 1970: introduced Dolby noise reduction. | Audio cassette | |
Microcassette Minicassette | 1969 | Rare | Analog, 1/8 inch wide tape, mostly mono, some stereo. 2.4 cm/s or 1.2 cm/s. | /250px-CassetteAndMicrocassette.jpg | Audio cassette |
4 tracks/8 tracks/multitracks recording | ? | Very rare? | This is not in itself a physical format (may be performed on a variety of equipments, from tape based equipment to digital equipment and hard disks). Likely to be only available in studios, as professional equipments. | /300px-Tascam-16Track.jpg | Other |
Elcaset | 1976 | Rare | A short lived cassette format. | /350px-Elcaset.jpg | Audio cassette |
Compact Disc | 1982 | Widely spread | PCM, Avaialble in 120mm and 80mm formats. | 200px-Typical_Compact_Discsvg | CD |
DAT | 1987 | Rare | /250px-Dat_cartridge.jpg | DAT | |
Mini Disc | 1991 | Common | ATRAC | /250px-Minidisc_Sony_MZ1.jpg | Minidisc |
Digital Compact Cassette | 1992 | Very rare | Other? DAT? | ||
DTS-CD a.k.a. 5.1 Music Disc | 1992 | Very rare | DTS Audio | CD | |
DVD-Audio | 1999 | Rare? Common? | DVD | ||
SACD | 1999 | Rare? Common? | /200px-CD_autolev_crop.jpg | SACD |
Video and mixed physical supports
Name | Date of creation | Rarity | Details | Picture | Map to |
Betamax | 1975 | Common? | 'Dolby Stereo' cinema surround sound. | File:Sony bmc100p.jpg/180px-Sony_bmc100p.jpg | Other |
Laserdisc | 1978 | Rare? | /250px-LDDVDComparison.jpg | Laserdisc | |
DVD | 1997 | Widely spread | /200px-DVD-R_bottom-side.jpg | DVD | |
DualDisc | 2003 | Common? | An audio cd on one side (though not redbook), and a dvd on the other side | Dualdisc | |
HD-DVD | 2005 | Rare? | ? | ||
Blu-Ray | 2006 | Rare? | ? |
Partial list of digital audio formats
- 1985 Audio Interchange File Format (AIFF)
- 1985 Sound Designer (by Digidesign)
- 1992 WAVEform (WAV)
- 1992 Dolby Digital surround cinema sound (AC-3)
- 1992 Adaptive Transform Acoustic Coding (ATRAC)
- 1993 Digital Theatre System (DTS)
- 1993 Sony Dynamic Digital Sound (SDDS)
- 1995 MP3
- 1999 Windows Media Audio (WMA)
- 1999 The True Audio Lossless Codec (TTA)
- 2000 Free Lossless Audio Codec (FLAC)
- 2001 Advanced audio coding (AAC)
- 2002 Ogg Vorbis
- 2004 Apple Lossless (ALE or ALAC)
(*) Rarity is just a rough indication of availability as consumer products - values are: "Very Rare", "Rare", "Common", "Widely spread"
More information
- The original ticket that led to our implementation is 2565
- Mailing list discussion is here
- Wikipedia has a list of Audio Formats
- Discogs has its own list in their Submission Guidelines