Re: arsclist A question about multiple CD Burners

[Jerome Hartke <jhartke@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Brian Levy wrote:
> 
> Hello, again,
> 
> And please forgive me for cross-posting.  Once again, we've been
> re-considering our archiving strategies for our now nearly 200 CD archive
> of Caddo songs, oral history, and language.
> 
> I have a few specific questions about multiple CD burners, because given
> our small staff, it is getting truly overwhelming to produce the 4 copies
> per each CD that is required to have a multi-site archive to protect in
> some measure against damage, theft, etc.
> 
> I know there was a brief discussion of CD Duplicators some months ago, but
> I have a few additional questions concerning them:
> 
> 1.  Do they make such multi-burners which only burn say 3 discs at
> once?  Or do they only do larger numbers at once?  (Someone recently told
> me of a burner which would do 8 discs at once.)

REPLY: Duplicators can be purchased with any number of drives less than
the maximum number. With your limited demand, why not buy three PC's and
run each separately? This could be cheaper than a professional
duplicator. Another option would be to use one higher speed writer. In
any case, quality the recording drives and media before you generate a
large library.

Jerry
Media Sciences, Inc.
 
> 2.  Do any of you have any experience with any multi-CD burners, and could
> you recommend a. a good brand and model, and b. a specific kind of media
> that has been working well for you with that model (based on CD Analyzer
> test results and such).

REPLY: Drives and media must first be qualified. Brand names alone do
not assure quality.

Jerry
Media Sciences, Inc.
 
> 3.  Is it a bad idea in general to use multi-CD burners to produce CDR's
> which need to be archival?  Do all such machines produce lesser quality
> CD-R's than good single burners such as the computer-based Plextors or the
> stand alone HHB's and Tascam's?

REPLY: Duplication equipments use the same drives. Quality depends on
pre-qualification.

Jerry
Media Sciences
 
> 4.  Do you have any other advice on how to handle a growing archive for
> which one needs the ability to make multiple copies for a multi-site plan,
> especially given the likely need to replicate each 'master' CD every 5
> years, or whatever it turns out to be, based on CD Analysis of sample CD's
> every year of so to determine rate of decay and concomitant errors? (Of
> course, one will likely need to update equipment in a few years anyway, to
> switch to a DVD-R archiving strategy or something else, but in the
> meantime, while we are still using CD-R to house these precious audio
> recordings, we are presented with this need for a _lot_ of replication.)

REPLY: Not clear what you mean by CD Analysis. There are many levels of
testing, and confidence in archival quality requires investment of
$30,000 or more.

Jerry
Media Sciences, Inc.
 
> I would appreciate any help any of you could offer.  Please feel free to
> respond off-list if you feel that would be more appropriate.
> 
>   Thank you again for your help.
> 
>                        Brian Levy