Re: arsclist Digital knowledge preservation

[Don Cox <doncox@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On 18-Jun-02, Mike Loughlin wrote:
> Don-Just because you make an mp3 file of a recording doesn't mean you
> have to throw the source of the file out. Save it for when it is
> really needed. In the meantime mp3 files of any recording are easy to
> make. They are easy to post on the internet. And they are easy to
> access. If you go to my page at www.mp3.com/stations/totaledison you
> will find 1,000 Edison recordings on one web page. They all sound
> great! Why not 1,000,000? Isn't the preservation of knowledge best
> served by making that knowledge accessible to everyone? What is unwise
> about this?

Nothing wrong with serving up MP3s on a web site, until we have faster
downloads and can use lossless compression (in a few years).

That sems to be a good collection, but the web page is too big for easy
downloading (it crashed one browser), and you have to register to
listen, which means yet more Spam. 


>>> minimize the risk of obsolescence. I limit my own attempts at
>>> preservation to self-contained CD-ROMs in strict ISO 9660 format
>> and
>>> include Windows retrieval capability. The language is HTML 2.
>> Audio
>>> files are in MP3, which is not as well-defined as I would prefer.
>>> Unfortunately, the alternatives (WAV, AIFF) are inefficient in use
>> of
>>> space and would not serve my purposes as well.

But this poster was talking about archival storage, not consumer
distribution formats.


A major limitation of MP3 for old recordings would be that clicks and
scratches will be less accurately stored, making digital removal from
the files difficult. It's safe to assume that Cedar will come out with
more and more sophisticated software for retrieving good sound from old
or damaged recordings. To use such software, you need the original raw
PCM data - ideally in 24/96.

For example, they now have software for correcting wrong azimuth on tape
playback. That will need the phase of the original audio transfer to be
preserved.


Regards
-- 
Don Cox
doncox@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

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