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On 29/10/2012, Craig Breaden wrote: > Derek, I'm a firm believer in doing what we can to get our mountains > of tape digitized, and sometimes (and in fact, most times) that means > working with limited resources. I think, as Richard suggested, that > given a caring steward, effective digitization can happen with good > results in institutions that do not have audio engineers on staff. In > fact, it happens all the time. The greatest lesson I learned in my > professional training was from a colleague who told me, "We have to do > the best we can with what we have." Time marches on, and putting aside > projects while waiting for outsource funding can be a liability (for > the tape, certainly, but also for the end users), particularly if you > have a capable and well-thought-out rig in-house, with a good workflow > and good people. I think a question that is worth addressing is how > the economics work out best for your institution. Outsourcing versus > doing it in-house is an question that will have different outcomes > depending on budgets and programs individual to institutions and > situations. > I think we should distinguish between spoken word tapes such as oral history, where good sound is desirable but a slightly wrong setting is not fatal, and music recordings direct from microphones, which do need to be reproduced with the highest possible fidelity. Off-air tapes I am not sure about. > > Craig Breaden > Audiovisual Archivist > Duke University > David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library > Smith Warehouse, 114 South Buchanan Blvd > Bay 11, Box 90767, Durham, NC 27708 > 919-684-6229 > > > > -----Original Message----- From: Association for Recorded Sound > Discussion List [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Derek > Jackson Sent: Monday, October 29, 2012 12:27 PM To: > [log in to unmask] Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] compact audio > cassette questions > > Thank you for all the suggestions and help... please keep it coming. I > am still sifting through all of Richard Hess's suggestions and the > threads that stem from them. I have my copy of Marvin Camras' book on > the way too. However, I wanted to clarify my second question, about > institutions digitizing their own cassettes, and I apologize in > advance because I suspect this question is naive. Nonetheless, I > didn't mean to suggest that anyone with a tape deck and a PC should > start digitizing cassettes. Rather I was wondering if folks on the > listserv thought that there was some middle ground and if audio > cassettes might be a part of that middle ground? So I guess a better > way to state the question is: WIth some modest investment in > equipment, resources and training do folks on this listserv believe an > archive/museum/historical society could responsibly digitize (for > preservation) its own audio cassettes of spoken word materials? or > even more dynamic content like music? Or is this just something that > should only be done by professionals in a professional environment? > (and Mr. Hess did answer this in his response, but I wonder what other > opinions might be.) > > Best, > -Derek > > > > > > > >> >> Regards -- Don Cox [log in to unmask]