Tips and formats

1. Optimising transfer from tape deck
2. Tips on burning to CD and care of media
3. Indexation & retrieval of files on audio CD
4. Processing of digitised files (denoise, compression)
5. Recording direct to digital (DAT, minidisk, HD)
6. Tips on labelling and metadata
7. Don't destroy your analogue originals!

• Use Line out not headphone out
• Prefer solid RCA or Canon outputs rather than stereo miniplug if possible
• Set tape type (metal, normal) on player
• Set player to match Dolby noise reduction used on original recording
• Set levels on player and in recording programme well within the range so as to avoid clipping of the digitised sound - normalize after input

2.1 BURNING TO CD

• Use good quality CD stock
• Reliable brands (Kodak Ultima, Imation) - gold recommended for archival copies
• Some burners operate better with one brand rather than another
• Rewritable CD-RW not recommended as will not play in many commercial audio players
• For musicological research purposes I recommend to burn as audio (some burners temperamental with data CDs, and audio optimises cross-platform access)
• Archival standards now recommend saving as data files in BFW format at 192khz and 24bit addressing — resultant size of files means not practical until DVD or mass storage becomes available

2.2 CARE OF CD-R MEDIA

• Do not touch recording side of CD
• Label with permanent felt-tip marker
• Store CDs upright in cases
• Temperature control & dust control important

3.1 FROM AUDIO CDs

• For research purposes it is useful to segment audio files into tracks before burning to CD
• Apple CD audio player can store track information on CDs (CD remote file in system folder)
• CD Coyote 2.1.1 (freeware) can save your CD Remote file as text for use in databases, catalogues
• To do further work on audio stored on CDs you will need to ‘rip’ or extract the file to your HD (burner programmes such as Toast will have extractor)

3.2 FROM DATA CDs

• Indexation programmes for data files are still undergoing development - SoundIndex commonly used by linguists; XML capacity recommended for industry standard (see Nick Thieberger website)
• To do further work on data files stored on CDs you can simply copy the file to your HD

• Professional audio mastering: e.g. insert fades at beginning and end of each music track
• Denoise and declick (see 4.1)
• Conversion to MP3 for web access (see 4.2)
• Compression - not recommended for music (see 4.2)

4.1 DENOISING AND DECLICKING

• recommend professional advice
• these processes can introduce unwanted ‘artefacts’ if not used carefully
• programmes are relatively expensive and difficult to use
• Time- and resource-hungry
• Recommended for high-priority material only
• Costs and processes likely to improve in future

4.2 COMPRESSION

• Cost and capacity of storage media likely to continue to improve dramatically hence compression generally not recommended
• Mono - uses half the space of stereo if burnt as data
• MP3 - suitable for low resolution uses e.g. web
• Uses ‘lossy’ compression - irreversibly throws away data so not suitable for archival purposes
• major reduction in space needed depending on settings
• current standard for internet distribution
• likely speedy obsolence of file format > risk of ‘orphan’ files
• Conversion of CD audio (AIFF) to MP3
• various low cost or shareware programmes available; also later versions of burner programmes e.g. Toast Titanium, iTunes, Audion 2
• may need different programme for reverse conversion MP3 to CD audio

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5. 'Born digital': Recording Direct to Digital

5.1 DIGITAL AUDIO TAPE (DAT)

• High quality recording
• Unknown shelf life (perhaps 10 years)
• Relatively expensive equipment and medium
• Equipment sensitive to heat, dust and vibration
• Still needs real-time processing to HD for archiving
• Recording technology likely to endure for professional use

5.2 MINIDISK

• Compresses sound (prefer late models ATRAC 4.5 or higher)
• ‘Lossy’ compression = irreversibly throws away information
• Not recommended by archives
• Relatively inexpensive equipment and medium
• Unobtrusive and easily portable size
• Easy to index and annotate
• Need deck for digital output (portable recorders only analog outputs)
• Unknown shelf life of recorded medium
• Equipment sensitive to heat, dust and vibration
• Likely speedy obsolescence of format

5.3 DIRECT TO HARD DISK

• Instant access for processing
• Expensive equipment
• Needs large free memory (double space of file)
• Equipment highly sensitive to heat, dust and vibration
• Hopes for future development - memorystick or transferable mini-HD technology

• Soundfiles tend to look alike; so do CDs
• Save soundfiles with unique informative names
• Label CDs as created - unique informative names
• Label electronically (Apple CD Audio Player)
• Keep track of metadata
• Format of original recording
• Format and equipment used in digital reformatting
• All relevant details of who, where, when
• Keep hard copies of all metadata on archival quality paper, and store with recorded medium

• Redundancy is good (the more copies of the information, the more likely to survive)
• There is a faint possibility that information not susceptible to digitisation will survive on analogue tapes and be able to be recovered in future