Hi Richard:

So, that actually amounts to a good pile of media still being burned just in your studio each year.
So, again, how is there not a large enough niche for a market?

As for Jerry's comments in a separate e-mail, all I can say is either most archives don't belong to
or pay any attention to this list and/or there is rampant, rampant penny-wisdom/pound-foolishness.

Folks, of all the money in your grant or budget, to do an audio preservation project right, blank
media really is a tiny expense, whether it's archival-grade or cheap Staples crap. And, the cost
differential of archival grade media pales in comparison to the cost of re-doing lost work. This
reminds me of friends in my youth who would sit for days making a really nice, personalized mix tape
but record it on some X-brand cassette or something like TDK D or Maxell UL media. Or the band that
brought in their Tascam 4-track session tapes done on antique duplicator grade tape. Media cost is
never anything more than a tiny fraction of people-time cost.

-- Tom Fine

----- Original Message -----
From: "Richard L. Hess" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Tuesday, December 12, 2006 8:38 PM
Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] Clarifying the MAM-A gold comment


>I make a choice: 2-3 CDs and/or DVDs plus access copies OR a place in the file system and 1-2 CDs
>for access. More things are staying in the file system these days. It's at 1250 GB triple redundant
>and one 250G volume is personal and demo media -- and it's about full. DigiPix are a separate (not
>full) 250G volume. Client hold stuff is a third, work in process is a 4th, and all the other stuff
>is a fifth. I do not hold most client files more than 3 months after delivery.
>
> I have some projects that will necessitate expansion.
>
> For private and some institutional clients I do CDs. I'm also doing downloads for some of my
> clients for smaller jobs and one DVD set to institutional clients when the job size is small
> enough not to warrant a hard drive.
>
> I encourage clients to make backups and keep the gold media I send them pristine.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Richard
>
> At 06:40 PM 2006-12-12, Tom Fine wrote:
>>Hi Richard:
>>
>>You don't archive anything to "archival media" for safety anymore? I do. Don't most people? Maybe
>>not?
>>
>>-- Tom Fine
>>
>>----- Original Message ----- From: "Richard L. Hess" <[log in to unmask]>
>>Sent: Tuesday, December 12, 2006 10:39 AM
>>
>>>At 06:46 AM 2006-12-12, Tom Fine wrote:
>>>>I am actually somewhat surprised that there isn't a large enough medical and mil-spec market for
>>>>high-quality data storage that a manufacturer would have enough critical mass right there. Tack
>>>>on archvies/institutions and the music "business" (in quotes because it is quickly becoming the
>>>>opposite of a business model if business model = profitable and long-term) and it seems there's
>>>>room for a quality niche. Why not?
>>>
>>>Because...the only real niche for optical media are the archives too small for a managed digital
>>>store. All of the large institutions are looking towards managed digital stores aka institutional
>>>repositories.
>>>
>>>It's true. You and I keep things on spinning hard drives even now.
>>
>>Richard L. Hess email: [log in to unmask]
>>Aurora, Ontario, Canada (905) 713 6733 1-877-TAPE-FIX
>>Detailed contact information: http://www.richardhess.com/tape/contact.htm
>>Quality tape transfers -- even from hard-to-play tapes.
>