For the kindest preservation of artifact musical information, I would
reach beyond the shellac disc and run straight into the arms of
dedicated musicians. The world's legacy in music would be safe in the
hands (and lips) of a vibrant troubadour tradition. If they altered the
data a bit, well, we would neither know nor care. I'm sure we would be
entertained.
It might be money better spent to fund musical guilds rather than
recording archives. Isn't the natural inclination of archives to seal
away heritage under the pretense of "preservation," while active
musicians are "called" both to study their predecessors and evolve the
traditions in partnership with their contemporary listeners?
Just a heretical concept.
Certainly, we could be enriched by both: the musicians, and the
archivists. I just wonder sometimes if in our quest for the
Philosopher's Data Storage Media we aren't creating an unnatural
parallel to Real Time music, something like what the manuscript scribes
did with the old knowledge through early post-Roman Europe.
Steven Austin
-----Original Message-----
From: Association for Recorded Sound Discussion List
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Steven C. Barr
Sent: Tuesday, February 22, 2005 7:31 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] Audio storage on external hard drives
----- Original Message -----
From: "Scott Phillips" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
> It is a pity everyone must become IT managers.... But then everybody
> already was, of a different type. There doesn't seem to be any way
> around it. A pity digital formats are so unforgiving when they
> deteriorate... And least analog is more recoverable when the media is
> trashed.
The interesting thing is, that based on several criteria: Lifespan (and
absence of natural deterioration); ease of data recovery; obviousness
that
the artifact contains data and how to retrieve that data...the best
choice
would seem to be the shellac disc! However, nobody makes them, or even
makes the equipment to make them!
Steven C. Barr
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