[AV Media Matters] 1/4" 4-track archive format question

[bbaker@sulross.edu]

         I am the Media Center Coordinator and Distance Ed
Videoconference Technologist for a small west Texas university. I am
often called upon by our Archivist to assist in restoration and
duplication of audio records, mostly oral histories and mostly
recorded on audio cassette tapes. Not an ideal format, but it is what
we could afford. Naturally there have been serious problems working
with the cassettes.
         The Archivist and I are developing a new strategy for audio
preservation, both for existing recordings and new ones as they are
collected. Fortunately, almost all new material is being produced by
archives staff.
         I would like opinions on this plan and specifically if the
recording format of the 1/4" archive master is a reasonably good one.
         Beginning with the collection of the original material, I am
proposing a portable DAT cassette recorder. We are not intending to
archive DAT, but use the digital recording to bring the audio from the
field back to our library where the archives and media center are
housed. We currently use standard cassette and archive the cassette.
With the DAT we will record, in house, a 1/4" archive master and a
CD-R duplication master. 1/4" goes to deep archive, CD-R is used to
produce work and circulation copies in whatever media is needed.
         For the 1/4" archive master, I presently have a Tascam 34B, 4
track recorder. This deck can play or record any combination of the 4
tracks individually or simultaneously which has been a great advantage
when working with all the various formats of 1/4" tape. I would like
to have a half-track machine to produce the archive masters and I am
working on that. What I am proposing for now is to record two sides,
as it were, on one tape for economy, with each recording from the same
recording session (not to mix unrelated information.) I further
propose that each side be recorded in the side one, forward direction
with the first side on tracks 1 and 2 and the second side on tracks 2
and 4. Note that this is not the typical 1 and 3 1/4 track stereo
format, all of our material will be mono. Perhaps we might record
each side in a different direction, I'm not sure how much that
matters. Play back on a 4 track or a half track machine would be
possible either way, it would seem.
         Recording all 4 tracks as one recording would add extra
insurance against loss of information in the event of damage or
physical or magnetic degradation, but we will have copy masters and
circulation copies that will be migrated as media evolve and change,
plus there will be electronic document transcripts and hard copies
produced and stored as well.
         The question my Archivist wants answered from professionals in
the archive field (I am not), " is the 1 & 2, 3 & 4 recording format
an acceptable one for an archive master?"

  Bill

mailto:bbaker@sulross.edu
Bill Baker
Media Center Coordinator
Sul Ross State University
Box C-169
Alpine, Texas 79832
( 915 ) 837-8128
http://libit.sulross.edu/departments/media
http://libit.sulross.edu/departments/de
http://homes.sulross.edu/~bbaker