Remember, this transfer that you (or I) are about to undertake may be the last time (and hopefully the best time) that the original is transferred. Here are some suggestions: (more…)

MINIMUM Tape Handling Requirements Checklist

This checklist is not a complete guideline. It contains only those items that experience and testing show will have an immediate or severe effect on magnetic tape. Failure to adhere to the items on this list may cause premature loss or deterioration of magnetic tapes and should be considered misuse of the medium. These are minimum handling requirements that summarize good practices. (more…)

As promised, I will respond to some questions that are asked via email by answering here in the Blog.

One of the things I’m most concerned with is the appropriate use of digital processing in transcription for cleanup or remastering of digital archival copies.  This includes both questions of when (if at all) processing beyond the actual A/D conversion is appropriate, and which are the techniques and currently available tools best suited to archival audio.

It’s a good question. To some extent, it depends on the client and the final use.

If the restoration/preservation reformatting is for an institutional client, then the first transfers should be as unprocessed as possible — at least the initial copies that are archived should be done that way. The main reason for this is that processing algorithms will always get better and they may hide some information that is useful to future researchers–information that today we consider “noise.” (more…)

Large-scale, enterprise-class storage is using combinations of both disc and tape. LTO tape appears to be growing more than any other format.

For those of us who are working at a much smaller scale, I have provided references on what I do for fairly robust storage on a budget. Please see these two attachments: description and map. It shows a unified (I hope) approach useful to small archives and businesses.

On March 12, 2006, Chris Goosman asked:

What does it take to point the family logins to the centralized “My Documents”? Does each user get their own “My Documents” folder or is it truly a central space that all users share?

Your page has inspired me to write up a similar document for the home/studio/office network here including my backup strategy.

I currently use a backup server with 750GB of Raid-5 running Retrospect, but I need a longer term archive storage and I found one of those LaCie NAS boxes like you use (the local one, with the 10/100 and firewire interfaces, not the newer one with gigabit and USB 2.0) for a great price and it’s on the way. I will be trying out ViceVersa which looks neat.

For the network, is your Netgear switch a layer 2 switch? I think I’ll be moving toward a layer 2 switch to handle a few different VLANs. I’m using Vonage for my own voice service which I’d like on it’s own VLAN, plus my wifes office computers on their own VLAN, my studio on a VLAN, and then soon I plan on putting together an Astrisk PBX and would want it on it’s own VLAN. But this is too much computer geek talk and not enough audio geek talk, so I’ll stop now.

I replied:

Hi, Chris,

Each “My Documents” is a separate “My Documents” folder in each user’s own logon - as is a “Favorites” which includes “Links” so no matter where you log in your IE looks the same. I move: “Favorites” and “My Pictures” and “Desktop” into the root of “My Documents” so they’re visible. Also move “Music” and “Videos”. I use Microsoft’s TWEAK UI PowerToy http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/powertoys/xppowertoys.mspx to do this.

My hierarchy is root/family/person

That way, I can back up root/family and get everyone. I also have set permissions so my wife and I can see everyone’s space. My wife is worried about deleting stuff, so I made mine read only to her.

I am not using any managed switches, and don’t intend to go VOIP in the near future, but Skype may be in my future for long calls. The only thing I have (that I’m not using) that is at all fancy is the Netgear FVS-318 firewall which also has VPN capabilities, but I don’t have a VPN client installed (and yes, I know VLAN and VPN are different things).

Since I currently have dual firewalls “in series”, my kids’ laptops when they get them (years) will be connected between the two firewalls and I’ll have a small NAS box at that point to house their documents, and then pull it across the firewall with VVPro.

It just came to my attention that computer architecture is transitioning from the PCI interface to the PCI Express interface.

This supports my contention that Firewire (IEEE 1394) and USB 2.0 are the preferred methods for connecting high-quality, high-resolution audio interfaces to computers.

While I have two RME Multifaces (the original, not the Multiface IIs shown in the link) that use dedicated PCI cards, this means that if I purchase a new computer with a PCI Express interface, I’ll have to purchase two new PCI Express interface cards for the RME Multifaces — and hope that RME makes it at the time I need it. Many users have expressed satisfaction with their Digital Audio Labs CardDeluxe.

This sounds a lot like the Zefiro Acoustics ZA-2 ISA card that is languishing in a Dell Dimension XPS PII 333 MHz machine.

My recent foray into an audio interface via IEEE 1394 was the MOTU 828 MK II. So far, I am happy and it’s finding uses in the studio as well as the remote notebook-centric applications I originally acquired it for.

I would think that a good audio interface might last longer than a good PC, so consider this approach.

Many pieces of equipment with cross-headed screws actually have Pozidriv screws rather than Phillips screws in them. This is especially true of Japanese equipment. [EDIT 2007-11-26] Or are these yet different JIS screws? See the updated post about this here.

I bought a set of Hozan [JIS] drivers, but now that I’ve learned that PB makes them [maybe] (see tools article) I’ll buy any additional ones from them. Pozidrive screws have “tick” marks between the slots–or should.

Here is an interesting explanation of the different screw heads in the context of cabinet/furniture making.

After some testing with both Phillips and Pozidrive drivers, it seems that some/many of the inexpensive screws that come packaged with home hardware-type items are non-descript and perhaps don’t meet either standard!

One way of loading C-0 cassettes is to unscrew the shell and drop the old tape into the new shell.

I have found that reloading using a modified cassette machine is much faster and easier. The following images should explain the process:

Splice one end of the original tape into the C-0:

(more…)

We have been wondering just how far we can push the Sony APR-5000 capstan servo system, so we ran a few tests using an external oscillator feeding the reference port. Unlike Ampex, Otari, and Studer machines which use an external reference of 9,600 Hz; the Sony machines use an external reference of 19,200 Hz.

We found that the APR-5000s did not run reliably below 1.88 in/s — and that is achievable with a -50% varispeed already. It didn’t matter what the base speed was.

The APR-16 (cousin of the APR-24) did not run reliably below 3.75 in/s. But the good news was that we could bring 15 in/s down to 3.75 in/s using the external reference source. We were also able to run the APR-16 at 60 in/s, but takeup tension was a bit low.

The 108 memory locations for storing setups is a real feature of the APR-5000 series tape machines. The APR-24 manual alluded to this but did not provide any instructions.

I have the only APR-16 that Sony ever made, but it is essentially the same as an APR-24. My APR-16 is running firmware version 5.01.06.0.

It appears that there are a total of 18 total preset locations in the APR-16 (and presumably the APR-24). (more…)

The 2 mm hex head screws that hold panel modules and blanks on Studer A810s are easily stripped by slightly worn hex drivers. Studer used 2.5 mm hex head screws in the later A807, perhaps aware of this issue. Using PB drivers from the start will reduce the possiblity of this happening.

There are essentially two choices when this happens:

• Slot the screw with a Dremel rotary tool and a small cutoff blade and use a slotted screwdriver to remove the screw.
• Use some sort of Ez-Out screw extractor.

When I was confronted with this situation recently and I didn’t have an EZ-out of the correct size to bite into the screw without drilling, I grabbed a T10 Torx driver and gently tapped it into the screw head. I pushed in hard while starting to turn and the screw came out.