Re: [ARSCLIST] software for .wav files

[David Lewiston <david.lewiston@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hello Kevin

I don't recall your earlier post, so some of the following may be redundant.

The whole chain of conversion from analogue to digital needs careful
consideration:

1. In the case of 1/4" tape, the quality of the playback recorder.There are
several issues here: Can the recorder handle tape gently and reliably, with
minimal wow & flutter? Does it have a high-quality playback head? Are the
playback electronics of high quality? Is there a scope in the playback chain
to detect azimuth abnormalities in the recordings? (This means, of course,
that the recorder must provide easy azimuth correction.)
2. The quality of the A/D conversion. To what extent is the highest quality
an issue? For highest quality, an outboard box still seems to be the way to
go, though one or two sound cards seem to offer extremely good conversion --
though a step below the quality of an outboard box.
3. If A/D conversion is done using an outboard box, the sound card in the
computer must be able to convey convey the digitised signal to the hard
drive without alteration.
4. Software -- the subject of your query: I use Samplitude, widely regarded
as being one of the most pristine ways of manipulating digital sound.
5. I've looked into archiving to hard drive. Since their life and durability
are uncertain (for example, the internal lubrication can dry out, leaving
the drive unusable) you may wish to use an original and a backup. A prudent
approach would be to migrate the data to a fresh drive/drives every year or
two.
6. Gold CDRs, specifically Mitsui Archival Gold CDRs, still seem to be the
most durable choice for archiving at this time.

Salutations, David Lewiston
The Lewiston Archive, Recordings & Documentation of the World's Traditional
Music


----- Original Message -----
From: "Anonymous SET ARSCLIST DIGEST" <KIrelan@xxxxxxxx>
To: <ARSCLIST@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Monday, February 21, 2005 5:52 AM
Subject: [ARSCLIST] software for .wav files


Hello all,

This is a follow-up to my format conundrum query a while back.  Thank you
all for offering your suggestions on what I could use to replace 1/4" analog
tape for archiving.  I have decided that, in addition to the CD-Rs that I
generate of every original recording, I will begin to save .wav files to a
500GB hard drive.

Now, my question is, what have those of you doing this found to be a high
quality software to do the conversion to an uncompressed .wav file?

Thank you,

Kevin Irelan


--
No virus found in this incoming message.
Checked by AVG Anti-Virus.
Version: 7.0.300 / Virus Database: 266.1.0 - Release Date: 2/18/2005