Audio Preservation

Audio preservation
Audio recordings are an important part of the world's culture. Unfortunately, formats and media containing audio have changed constantly over time, often mercilessly. The major objective in current audio preservation practice is to properly transfer valuable audio recordings to secure, digital media; this will reduce the uncertainties associated with using and maintaining proprietary playback equipment in the future, as well as to negate physical media deterioration.

What we do
We provide transfer services from older analog media (open reel tape, audiocassettes, micro cassettes, and phonograph disks) using the highest quality analog to digital converters (96kHz/24 bit) connected directly to tape and disk playback equipment. Unlike some other service providers, we listen to 100% of your transfers at normal speed to provide proper quality control. If your audio is important enough for you to preserve, then we feel it's important enough for us to constantly audition it for quality. We also coordinate the storage of your audio with your institution's IT personnel, or we suggest alternatives for you, if applicable. We can supply your files on LTO tape, RAID arrays and hard drives for the cost of materials only. We do not charge for transfers to storage formats; we only charge for the exacting transfers from the analog media.
City of Rocks, New Mexico
What to preserve
The selection of which audio to preserve is based on three important factors: 1) perceived importance of the recording, 2) relative fragility of the media itself, and 3) the perceived disappearance of particular playback equipment. The first is a qualitative issue, clearly because different audio will be more important to some people than to others. Media fragility is a relatively definitive issue, with older media generally considered more fragile. And if you don't recall a disappearing format, consider the Sony Elcaset (ca. 1976).

Preservation transfer
Since the purpose in transferring to digital is to ensure the survival of the audio (which really is no different from previous audio preservation efforts), the preservation transfer itself is highly important. On a purely historial note, the National Archives and Records Administration (US) published the Sound Recording Procedures Manual (PDF 1.0MB) in 1993. Fortunately, a set of standards/practices for audio transfers to digital media has been published more recently by the International Association of Sound and Audiovisual Archives (IASA), and most organizations now base their audio preservation grants programs on modern IASA protocols.

Digital media
For many years preservation transfers were made to 1/4" analog, ostensibly because digital media was perceived as fragile and expensive. Today, digital media is easy to copy and backup, and the present standards call for RAID arrays and LTO tape backups, at multiple locations, etc.

Transfer skills and practice
No set of standards can fully address the nuances and minutiae of making a correct and optimized transfer, because this is dependent on operator skill, as well as access to well maintained equipment.

What you should do
All digital media should be 'refreshed' periodically, i.e., migrated to newdigital media. While this may seem like a daunting responsibility, computer technology is constantly evolving; the future is expected to bring cheaper and faster storage solutions, at reduced cost. For example, in the case of LTO tape, each generation brings larger storage capacity at reduced media cost; LTO specifications are designed to provide a continuous migration path (although LTO is not a long term storage format).