YOU CAN'T PUT A SPARE-TIME MUSIC COMPOSITION,
RECORDING, AND PRODUCTION PROJECT ON HOLD
AND THEN START IT UP AGAIN TEN YEARS LATER.

They changed everything during those years so nothing still works.

I was writing a long musical work that I started in 1996. I did my last work on it in 2006. Then my employment situation changed, and most of my time was taken up by my new job. I also got married.

I have now retired, and wanted to start up the project again. Nothing works. Some of my equipment has failed, the old software won't work with newer operating systems, and they changed all of the standards in my absence.

1. Amazingly, my multitrack tape unit and my mixers still work.

   All I had to do was clean the belts in the tape drive.

2. They no longer sell the tape for the multitrack unit.

   They sell very little tape at all now.

3. My live musicians are gone.

   Two had moved away and the third one died

4. All of the computers I had been doing this work on have irreparably failed.

   The replacements won't run the old operating systems and hardware.

5. My MIDI music composition software no longer works.

   It ran on Windows 3.1.

   It actually runs on a Windows 3.1 boot disk, but won't keep time properly when playing the music on a newer computer.

   Nothing else can read the files.

   The company that made the software was bought out, and the new versions won't read the old files.

6. The frequency-shift-keying on the multitrack sync track can't be read by anything now on the market.

   There is now no way to perfectly synchronize the live and MIDI tracks.

   Putting a new sync track on the multitrack destroys any sync that existed.

   The live parts were recorded while the musicians were listening to the MIDI tracks. So those parts are locked to the existing sync track.

7. The connector for the multitrack sync unit doesn't exist on the new computers.

   New computers don't have game ports.

8. My hardware MIDI controller and its software won't work on any operating system newer than Windows XP.

   It won't keep proper time on the newer systems.

9. The connector for the MIDI controller interface unit doesn't exist on new computers.

   New computers don't have parallel ports.

10. My mastering software won't work on any operating system newer than Windows XP.

    It won't keep proper time on the newer systems.

11. Both of the music keyboard units I was using for sounders have died.

    New keyboards won't have exactly the same voices and sounds.

    One just needs a new power adaptor. Nobody sells it.

12. My digital delay for the surround encoder quit. They don't make these anymore.
13. Some newer surround sound systems don't decode Dolby Surround

    My mixes were made to be played on Dolby Surround.

    Dolby Surround was the only surround sound system in use when the project started.

    Dolby Surround is the only useful surround sound system that can be put on a CD.

14. Most newer surround sound amplifiers don't have 5.1 analog inputs.

    My special mixing decoder requires a 5.1 surround input.

    My surround receiver failed. Fortunately, I was able to repair it.

15. It's hard to get stereo or surround components today.

    People now buy boomboxes and Bluetooth instead of component stereos.

    I need some replacement audio power amplifiers.

16. They stopped selling CD-music enabled CDRs.

    My portable CD recorder requires them to be able to record.

17. It's getting hard to find CD recording equipment.

    They are trying to get rid of CDs by selling downloaded music online and portable mp3 (yuck) recorders.

18. If one of my mixers failed, I might not be able to replace it.

    Most companies have switched over to digital mixers.

I thought standards were supposed to be standard.

They aren't, because Microsoft decided otherwise. Profit is more important to them than standards.
Microsoft makes more by changing standards to make the old ones obsolete.

My 1961 Collaro Conquest record changer is still working fine after at least 56 years. So is the phono preamp on it. And phonograph records have not changed since then (other than low availability). I bought plenty of styli and drive wheels for it. Why can't other equipment last that long?