Re: [ARSCLIST] Article about digital archiving in the NY Times

[John Spencer <js@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Tom,

Some of us out here have multiple DASH/ PD machines and 1630s. Since  
we work with multi-tracks every day, it is more of a budgetary issue  
within the labels than with those of us who maintain the equipment.

John
jspencer@xxxxxxxxxxxx

On Apr 9, 2008, at 7:10 PM, Tom Fine wrote:

> Here's one avenue I didn't explore at all. What about the digital  
> multi-track session tapes? Sony, Mitsubishi and 3M, among others,  
> made many-tracks digital reel machines. I wonder if any are still  
> in operation and if these tapes are being transferred to Protools  
> sessions and hard drives? Was DASH a standard? Didn't Sony and  
> Mitsubishi make DASH machines?
>
> But, if you count up every single master made on these Dawn of  
> Digital early systems, it's probably a handful compared to how many  
> 1630 masters sit un-transferred in record company vaults. Why  
> should these be transferred? Let's look at one example, Polygram/ 
> Verve's extensive program of jazz reissue compilations. Many of the  
> specific albums I know of were assembled to a 1630 master from  
> multiple tape and even disk sources. The cost of that production  
> was assembling the 1630 master. Thus the valuable asset of that  
> release is the 1630 master as well as the old analog masters of  
> which it is made. In the case of the Mercury Living Presence, the  
> ONLY place where the producer's 3-2 mix existed was the 1630 master  
> and the second safety master made at the same time. I think this  
> was also the case with many Sony/Columbia and BMG/RCA CD's mastered  
> from new mixdowns of old multi-track tapes. So these are not just  
> CD manufacturing masters, these are valuable intellectual property  
> of the record companies. I just hope everyone has been busy for at  
> least the last decade migrating this material to managed hard drive  
> farms. I sense they might have had other priorities ... Considering  
> how much classical and jazz material once available on CD is now  
> out of print, this is a big worry for me.