Before June of this year, people who wanted to hear Mandarin pop music on CD had to be good at waiting.
When they heard of a new album, they could not, as for cassettes, just go out and pick it up. It was necessary to hold back and deliberate for a month, and wait for the latest hit to become an oldie, before they could see the CD they wanted.
It's not that they enjoyed waiting. It's just that CD's weren't produced domestically. Record companies had to send the master tape to Korea or Japan; the trip, including waiting one's turn, meant that a CD came on the market only three or four weeks after cassettes. At peak season they might take three months!
Since June, domestically made CD's have come on the market. Now CD fans can enjoy the latest tunes as well.
For record companies, locally made CD's mean that it is easier to control quality, communication is convenient, and new albums can get on the market during the height of promotion.
Elise Tseng of Passion Records, which has worked with Ritek, says that, "Making the CD's in Taiwan saves the trouble of inconvenient communication. There's no need to wonder if anyone's home to receive your fax, and you can avoid those expensive overseas calls. Even more important is that everything is faster. From certifying several master tapes, it only takes three days to get a finished product."
In the process of making CD's from the master, if there's any problem the record company can go straight to the studio to fix it. In the past, if you wanted to make revisions, it was necessary to make a personal trip to Japan or Korea.
This newly available technology is even more important for the advertisers. The DJ's at most broadcasting companies use records because it's easier to select specific tracks. So for promotional reasons record companies had to produce a small volume of high-cost records. But for the DJ these are hard to maintain, take up a lot of space, and don't give the best quality sound.
Pon-pon Chiang of Sain Chen Studio notes that according to his recent survey, 90% of radio stations in Taipei and 70% in the middle and southern parts of the island have CD equipment. It's not that they would rather use albums and save the equipment; the problem is timing.
Since CD's began to be produced in Taiwan, the speed of production has overcome these difficulties. They surpass records for maintenance, song selection, and sound quality. And audiences can hear pop songs right away.
According to the Department of Publication Affairs of the Government Information Office, CD sales in Taiwan were only 100,000 in 1981. Last year they already reached 3 million. At present the rate is more than 400,000 per month. Although not large, the rate of growth is startling.
Three years ago tests to manufacture a CD were successful, and ITRI began to look for a manufacturing partner. But the technology required was very sophisticated and the capital highly concentrated. Importing one set of manufacturing equipment would have cost NT$700 million. With the market so small, the institute and would-be partner Platinum Studio both decided the risk was too high, and temporarily abandoned the project.
Last August, the cost of CD manufacturing equipment came down greatly. Platinum Studio then signed a contract with ITRI. "Now for NT$100 million you can buy an even newer, better machine," explains Wei-Chung Lee of Ritek. Currently two other technology companies are also preparing to import CD manufacturing equipment.
"In general people believe that if you buy the machine, then you buy the technology, and all you have to do is press a button and everything will be OK. That's wrong. The seller can only teach you how to use it, but the production technique is up to you," explains Liu Jung-Lung, formerly at ITRI and now with Ritek. CD production requires sophisticated processing, and if any step is incorrect, the final product will be marred. Korea, which started before the ROC, took three years to figure out the equipment. In Shenzhen in the mainland the machine they bought five years ago is still sitting off to one side with non able to use it!
Quality control is as important as manufacturing. One can draw up data at any time using a laser, and fix errors that are discovered. One can also use the device invented by ITRI which uses CD-ROM technology (which last year won the Geneva international discovery gold medal) to rapidly do a complete check of the disc sound quality. This means that errors can be reduced to less than ten errors per second (over 7,000 bits can be processed per second), far smaller than Philips' 220 and Japan's 30 errors.
Domestic production of CD's not only affects the music market, it also is an essential foundation for the disc industry, including audio and visual. The potential is startling: In the future we can look forward to telephone directories and whole encyclopedias on disc, and computers will replace our TV's, disc players, photo albums, recipe holders, and more.
[Picture Caption]
After CD's began to be produced in Taiwan, music lovers could quickly scarf up their favorite Taiwanese and Mandarin albums on CD.
(Inspecting the "cutting" of the glass master.)
(Printing the graphics on the CD.)
(Philips' error inspection device.)
(Vacuum deposition.)
In the area of high-tech CD production, you can't be lacking in either advanced machinery or skilled personnel. (photo courtesy of Ritek)
（Inspecting the "cutting" of the glass master.）
（Printing the graphics on the CD.）
（Philips' error inspection device.）
In the area of high-tech CD production, you can't be lacking in either advanced machinery or skilled personnel. （photo courtesy of Ritek）
