Sound Preservation: How Much Is Too Little?

This is one sloppy piece. I think that you should have read the study before ranting about it. I did and it doesn't advocate saving everything, nor the LoC taking over anything. Quite the opposite. It's a free download at clir.org.

Sound Preservation: How Much Is Too Little?

LOC, the graveyard of historic audio. What goes in there never comes out and only the smallest part of the public will ever hear any of it. That assuming it isn't all lost due to failure to preserve what they have. Think of the final seens in Raiders of the Lost Ark. That's the LOC. Many of us are taking the regional/small approach and trying to save what we can. There is no question as to the available space to store data, only the time and cost to do the work and ability to access the material for capture. The LOC could do much to move the effort forward by setting basic standards and offering to add to their collection audio data processed and indexed at or above the standards they set. Tell us what format for the audio files and the meta data for the audio they want and then stand back for incoming. It takes a good ear and a love for the material to do a good job. I have heard the results when a paid hack at a "library" captures audio for a collection but hates the music. Skip in the record, worn stylus, ground loop on the turntable, not a problem! "The pay is the same." I have been preserving audio captured from everything from paper and wire through transcription disks and 78rpm records for 40 years. My limitations are access, time, and money. Still I'd love to think that my work was available long after I am gone. I have no hope that LOC or any university library will accept or ever make available to the public my lifetime's worth of audio archival. There are so many complex issues surrounding the access for preservation as well as the rights of the owners to protect what they don't even still have the ability to actually listen to. The LOC has messed up, confused and been party to copyrights law so maybe they should step in again and put in place new laws to provide a reasonable structure for complete availability of historic audio to everyone yet some form of cost recovery that compensates those who hold honest rights for the original creation of the work.

Sound Preservation: How Much Is Too Little?

Brett Moss, how could you be "gear & technology editor" when you don't have any knowledge what you are ranting about in this article? "You don’t have a building big enough. You don’t have the budget to do it. No one has the organizational skills to do it. You don’t have the legal authority to save it all …" It's possible to have a building big enough, it's the whole world. You don't need to have the budget to do it. No organizational skills is needed. Most of the old sound recordings could be found on the different filesharing networks. They are digitalized and shared by enthusiast, DJ's and record collectors and is maked availible for other enthusiast, DJ's and record collectors. And at the end, todays copyright laws has to be changed, if we shouldn't lose our cultural heritage. Til that is happening this is the way to preserve our cultural heritage.

Sound Preservation: How Much Is Too Little?

Offensively written post. Why is this man working in audio/radio? From dissing audiophiles (really the only part of the general public that even gives a crap about the sound quality we audio engineers strive to create) to spewing about a study he didn't even bother to read! Brett, have fun at your next meeting of angry libertarians.

Sound Preservation: How Much Is Too Little?

preservation of sound recordings has a few more dimensions than the author considers. phonograph records from 100 years ago are often still playable (albeit with some degradation). they are a robust, simple format that can be recovered with "lo tech" devices, and the information is ususally degraded but not totally lost. the storage modes for digital reproduction are not like this. a damaged cd is usually gone. hard disc and ram storage almost always fail in such a way that nothing is recoverable. (the 1980 census was written to 1/2 inch computer tapes, a common format at the time. the tapes are intact, but reportedly there are no machines to read them back from. the phonograph record has had a remarkable lifespan and is still useable. several newer media for audio storage have come and gone. the compact disc is showing signs of popular obsolesence. the comment that copyright laws need changed is a non sequitur. no aspect of copyright law infringes upon archival action - ask any public librarian. if anything, these laws should be strengthened to protect the content creators in a time of almost universal theft and piracy. about the concept of "you don't have a big enuff building": this applies to all info storage. that's why you have editors and archivists. they mak choices over what to keep and what to pitch - always have; always will. even the bible was edited, and not by god but by men. the solution to this problem is population. the more people and organizations the collect (stash; archive; pile up) recordings, books, et cetera - the more that gets saved. and (blaspemy) it doesn't all deserve archiving. you save what you like, and i'll keep what i like. here's where the phono record has a nuther 'vantage. if you decide it sucks - it makes a fun frisbee.