jklee@phoenix.Princeton.EDU (James Kin Wah Lee) (07/17/90)
Does anyone happen to know if Peterson's "A Field Guide to Bird Songs" is or will be available on compact disc? For that matter, how about any of the other "audible" field guides that are currently on tape or LP? I have an old LP version of Peterson's bird songs (done by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology?), but it seems to me that this sort of thing would lend itself nicely to CD format. I would think that that there would be some demand for such a product. jim -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Jim Lee (jklee@phoenix.Princeton.EDU) * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Dept. of Geol. & Geophys. Sci. * THERE ARE STRANGE THINGS DONE * Princeton University * IN THE MIDNIGHT SUN ..... * Princeton, NJ 08544 * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * --------------------------------------------------------------------------
sandee@sun13.scri.fsu.edu (Daan Sandee) (07/18/90)
In article <1266@idunno.Princeton.EDU> jklee@phoenix.Princeton.EDU (James Kin Wah Lee) writes: >Does anyone happen to know if Peterson's "A Field Guide to >Bird Songs" is or will be available on compact disc? For >that matter, how about any of the other "audible" field >guides that are currently on tape or LP? >-------------------------------------------------------------------------- >Jim Lee (jklee@phoenix.Princeton.EDU) * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Peterson Eastern&Central Bird Songs is available on 2 cassettes or 2 LPs. Peterson Western Bird Songs is available on 3 cassettes. A new version on cassette and CD is supposed to be released in fall as a companion to the newly released edition of the Field Guide to Western Birds. There are also other bird song recordings available on cassette, but I do not know of any on CD. Daan Sandee sandee@sun16.scri.fsu.edu Supercomputer Computations Research Institute Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL 32306-4052 (904) 644-7045
horvath@granite.cr.bull.com (John Horvath) (07/19/90)
In article <1266@idunno.Princeton.EDU> jklee@phoenix.Princeton.EDU (James Kin Wah Lee) writes: >Does anyone happen to know if Peterson's "A Field Guide to >Bird Songs" is or will be available on compact disc? For >that matter, how about any of the other "audible" field >guides that are currently on tape or LP? Yes, I have seen the Peterson Eastern guide to songs on CD at the Nature Company stores and in a mailorder bookstore. It was suppose to be available since sometime this past spring. Earlier this year, there was some discussion in this group about this and one person mentioned that HMinc was going to make available a device for this CD that plugged into the remote switch of certain (Sony only) CD players. It was a type of bar code reader that would be used with a specially coded version of the field guide book, where you could turn to a page, touch over the bar code and hear the vocalization. Presumably, each species would be at a seperate track, which could be directly addressed by the CD player. Sort of an evolution from those "Audible Audubon" card players. I've been waiting to see/hear this for myself so I haven't gotten the CD by itself yet. I haven't seen anything else about this anywhere. The manager of the stores that had the CD had never heard of this CD remote control device either. I've seen a few other bird song CDs at the Massachusetts Audubon Society bookstore. None of the other ones were specific to any existing fieldguide. I've had the peterson LP's for the eastern guide for a few years. I've tried to cram in the spring by listening to it, but found that I could only listen to it for a few continuous minutes before losing attention. I've used it more for reference, to hear what a specific mystery bird sounds like. Much better for learning bird songs, IMHO, is the Walton tapes (also in the peterson series). In them, Dick Walton talks about each bird song, what its about and easy ways to distinguish. Rather than group the songs taxonimically, they are ordered in groups of similar sounding (whistlers, namesayers, etc). There is also a 'quiz' at the end to test your progress. This spring, I listened to the tapes on the way to work, for about 20 minutes a day, for a couple of weeks. After that, I was pretty impressed on my new "imprinting". For example, during a recent walk I easily found a Warbling Vireo, which if I had relied on the available visual clues would have been checked off as a LGJ (Little Gray Job). I have the Eastern version and they have recently released a western version. Both versions contain less than a hundred species, which isn't everything but it is alot of detail. John Horvath it Internet: horvath@granite.cr.bull.com un e mail: Bull HN Worldwide Information Systems Inc Re ! MA30-824A, 300 Concord Road, Billerica, MA 01821 land USA Gon na dwa
rsl@cbnewsm.att.com (randolph.little) (07/19/90)
Jim Lee inquired about "audible" field guides available in CD format. The new third edition of Peterson's "Field Guide to Bird Songs of Eastern North America" was just released on tape. Also, a new edition of the companion "Western" guide will be out next year. In both cases, a CD version is simultaneously being produced, along with barcode labels that can be affixed within the printed guides to work with a new Sony CD barcode reader accessory. Since this is the first time the CDs and barcode labels have been produced, and since their production has to be contracted out, there will be a few months of delay between availability of cassettes and CDs. Globally there are already a few CDs available: 1) CMC ReSearch has issued in the US a CD containing 98 species which are arranged as a companion to the Audubon "Birds of North America" book; and 2) a French outfit has produced "Amazonia - Voices of the Tropical Rain Forest" which contains 40 species of birds from French Guiana as well as other natural sounds. Do other netnews readers know of any other CDs of bird sounds? Randolph S. Little (randolph.little@att.com)