Re: [ARSCLIST] current role of soundcards

[Tom Fine <tflists@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

One quick comment on Pohlman's mostly excellent work. I think he doesn't make enough emphasis on how 
important it is to start with as good source material as possible (ie properly clean grooved media, 
try to find first-generation tapes, etc) and do an excellent analog playback (ie correct 
professional-grade equipment used and maintained by someone with proper skills and knowledge) with 
proper interface matching to the A-D converter (ie proper levels, impedences and noise rejection). 
All the digital excellence in the world cannot compensate for screwing up these points in the chain. 
Just like excellent material played back on excellent equipment can get totally clobbered by bad 
digital equipment and bad file-format choices.

Probably the best thing about Pohlman's paper is how clearly and concisely he boiled it down to the 
essentials. Definitely should be on every archivist's reading list -- and also read by anyone who 
wants to make a good digital transfer of an analog audio source.

-- Tom Fine

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Sam Brylawski" <goodlistening@xxxxxxxxx>
To: <ARSCLIST@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Thursday, November 02, 2006 6:37 PM
Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] current role of soundcards


> An informal, unofficial notice:
>
> Earlier this year, the National Recording Preservation Board
> commissioned a set of white papers relating to digital-related topics
> in sound preservation. The very first of these papers to be
> "published" was placed on the web this very morning. It is
> "Measurement and Evaluation of Analog-to-Digital Converters Used in
> the Long-Term Preservation of Audio Recordings" by Ken Pohlmann.
>
> A formal announcement of this publication will come from LC in the
> next few days but given today's thread, why wait? It's a wonderful
> work.
>
> Sam
>
> http://www.clir.org/activities/details/AD-Converters-Pohlmann.pdf