If you have discovered the need for Irish Dance Music CDs, chances are you've discovered the downside of their ownership: They Take Up Space. Chances are, you've also realized this as you've gone through the pre-feis exercise of loading your Feismobile. Rather than grumble about the implausibility of loading everything a family of five says they need on a feis trip, here's some REEL HELP for the more technically-inclined among you that not only spares your back (not to mention luggage capacity) some strain but will make you look really cool in the process.
First off, this is what you're going to need:
Your ripping software, for those few of you who may not be familiar with what I'm describing, takes music off of a CD and converts it into a format (called "MP3") which can be stored on your computer's hard disk. The MP3 player serves the same function as your computer's CD player, only it plays music previously stored in MP3 format on your hard disk (Duh...).
I won't go into the details of exactly how to run each piece of software I've described, because it's going to vary based on operating system and personal preference. Either read their documentation or get your children to run the software for you.
So you've gotten everything together as I've described above, and now have your dance CD collection residing on your laptop's hard disk. You may think your job's done at this point.
Not necessarily.
One thing I've observed in several years of involvement with the Irish Dance community is the inflexibility of dancers with regards to their music. Some dancers, whether they be children or adult, are used to hearing certain cuts from certain albums for each step they dance in their school. Get these individuals on a feis stage, have the musician start up a totally different song for their reel... well, the expression of panic on their faces would be funny if it weren't so tragic. These dancers need some way in which the musical environment of a feis could be duplicated in the safety of their own home.
Yes, all this is leading somewhere, guys. Most MP3 players give you the ability to set up your own playlists of tunes. These playlists are not limited to one album specifically, but instead can come from several different albums that are residing on your hard disk. I've used this ability on our laptop to set up playlists specific to one dance step (all reels, all soft jigs, all slip jigs, all trad hornpipes, etc.). MP3 players will also have a "shuffle" button that (when toggled) selects randon cuts from the currently-active playlist when you start playback. At the press of a button, your dancer will now be confronted with a randomly-selected song specific for the dance step he/she is practicing. Since not all tempos are created equal, you will also get a randomly-selected speed for this step (highly critical if like Devonna you are someday trapped in a slip jig played above a tempo of 120). It's almost like having a feis musician in a box, but without all the expense of flying them to your home and providing room & board.
Of course there are drawbacks! Everything has a drawback if you look hard enough...
Anyway, the playback volume of your ripped CDs is limited to the power of your laptop's onboard sound card. Compared to a regular CD player, it's going to come out a distant second best unless you just happen to be next to an external sound system with a microphone and large speakers. We ran into this problem with a vengeance while practicing the night before a recent feis. Our practice time was continually interruped by several dancers from the Chicago area who, after taking over the stage adjacent to ours, rudely insisted on playing their music on their boombox (for different steps, of course) at the same time as we were trying to play our music on our laptop. This is ultimately not a technical issue as much as it is an issue of character and morality.
Thanks to Apple Computer, there is another option available to the technologically-sophisticated Irish Dance family: the iPod. It or any of its clones by other manufacturers can perform the same functions that I describe above for a fraction of the size and weight of your typical laptop. I have also seen third-party docking units for the iPod which supply amplification and speakers and still succeed in doing this in a smaller physical footprint than a laptop computer. You will still require a computer with a CD drive and ripping software, but it can stay at home while your ultra-miniaturized Feis Music Box and accessories get loaded in your Feismobile.