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Naropa Audio Archives wrote: > > Responding to Claire Michelle Viola's request for information: > > <While we have been transferring here and there to CD-R, mainly in order > to provide service copies, the audio engineers here at Eastman are now > seriously considering the option of transferring directly to hard drive, > with several servers to provide for back-up.> > > The Naropa Audio Archive Project is in a one-year pilot (NEA > funded)project to test the migration of analog audio cassette from 30 > years of lectures, performances and panel discussions onto various > digital formats, including hard drive, for preservation and for access. > We've been moving over audio since October. > > Both considerations - preservation, and access - have specific > requirements that need to be addressed before any material is migrated, > or you run the risk of having to redigitize it. > > For preservation - neither cd-rs or hard drive are 'approved' > preservation mediums for audio at this time. That means your DAT is your > oficial preservation copy. Any format you migrate to is provisional and > needs to be as pristine a copy as you can afford (uncompressed file, > high sampling rate, professional equipment). You're likely to have to > migrate off the cd's or server at some point in the near future, so > budgeting for multiple (continual) migration is a consideration. As is > the format and encoding you intend to employ in creating your digital > copy of the audio. > > For access, how are you going to catalog the transferred files, how do > you want access to be handled from the server, what kind of permissions, > copyright, or releases are necessary, how are you going to log material > as it's transferred for which cataloging format...gotta work all that > out first. > > We have a small audio lab equipped with a professional grade (nakamichi > dragon) cassette playback, (for your project this would be replaced by > DAT playback machine). After converting analog to digital the signal is > transferred in realtime into a digital audio workstation (computer with > audio programming - ours is a SADiE). We're sampling at the highest rate > we can afford to store on - 44/24. We want a high-quality preservation > master, because the cassettes are going to be unplayable soon - even if > we are calling it our 'preservation' copy. Is it worth it to go even > higher? Everyone we talk to disagrees. > > Once the file is in the computer, we create: > -one CD-DA (audio)for reference - this is a flat, unaltered transfer > -two CD-Rs in BWAV format - also the unaltered file (BWAV is the most > open format we could find - we want the files to be able to be read in > 20 or 200 years). We burn copies of the audio files on two different > manufacturers' CDs because there seems to be almost 10% bad cd stock on > a random basis. We're using Mitsui gold and Taiyo Uden, although I don't > think TU is making gold alloy anymore. Anyone know another supplier? > This is a preservation issue - gold alloy being > most stable. We may move over to DVD's as standards emerge. > -one back up BWAV file on AIT data storage tape in case the CDs reach > some as-yet-unknown end of lifespan > > As we transfer into the computer, we log the material for all fields > required in Dublin Core cataloging. We'll test capturing info sufficient > for Marc/Ead records next month - then we'll make test-catalog records > for both to see what level of cataloging we can accomodate on a > moving-forward basis. We want the public and researchers to know the > material's available, so cataloging for digital web-based access is very > important to us. We're also logging the content so as to better describe > the files. We're not creating transcripts at this time. > > All copies made to this point go to a temperature and humidity > controlled storage facility as the preservation copies. We intend to > check the cds and AIT tape annually for loss of data and migrate as > needed. > > -For access, we take the original file that's still in the SADiE, and > put it through noise and hiss reduction programs. We edit out the > intermissions, smoking breaks, and other dead air. We create an access > protection/dubmaster CD-DA (audio copy) and a listening copy. > > This is at a 3-1 ratio - three hours of real time to process one hour of > original audio. It takes up a lot of CDs. At 44/24 every hour of > original uses up 3 cds for each BWAV copy. Our librarian does not want > to store and handle the 15000 or so access cds we expect to make. So > we're developing plan to test server for digital access to collection. > > We will still create CD-rs and AIT tape for preservation. There's too > much fragility to count on keeping preservation copy on hard drive, at > least for us. We're in a flood plain. Too much memory for us to afford > uncompressed hard drive copies of the entire collection. We'll rig up > output from SADiE into server to move compressed access files over. > Server will have RAID array as well as a tape back up system. We're > working on the front-end internet design now. We figure 2.5 tb to store > 3000 hours of compressed audio. > > The compressed MPEG files will go out to folks over the internet after > the internet user registers online and signs use agreement. We are > planning to offer streaming audio as opposed to downloadable audio, but > we'll have to see what's most useful to people. What we are worried > about is how many people might use it at once - I have no idea how to > budget for bandwidth until we're up; still looking at what to do if too > many simultaneous users attempt to listen. We should be so successful. > > Hope this is helpful. If you'd like more specifics, budget info,etc, > don't hesitate to give me a call. I were you, I'd call Seubert and > Seadle to advise on the project design. They have been very helpful to > our project. > > Sue Salinger > Administrative Director > Naropa Audio Archive > 2130 Arapahoe > Boulder, CO 80302 > (303)546-3573 > [log in to unmask] Having conducted quality tests on both helical scan tape (DAT) and CD-R discs, the latter would be significantly better for archival purposes. Is DAT approval a format issue? J. Hartke Media Sciences, Inc.