I have on CD what is claimed as the oldest Mozart recordings, two opera arias recorded in 1886. Interestingly these were transferred from wax rolls to 78s in the 1930s. Perhaps they were worried about the lifespan of waxrolls already then? On the other hand, maybe it was just done in order to reissue the recordings?
When it comes to archival for mankind, rather than individuals, don't forget that at least for LPs, there are usually matrices still stored in the archives of the record companies. I would suppose they will usually last better than the final product, and are also stored under good conditions. For digital, the best we can do is to always use redundancy and store several copies, at different locations, and also make new copies regularly, making use of new storage media whenever previous ones are starting to become obsolete. That's the good thing about digital, as long as we keep it digital we can copy over and over and over again without any degradation in quality.
When it comes to archival for mankind, rather than individuals, don't forget that at least for LPs, there are usually matrices still stored in the archives of the record companies. I would suppose they will usually last better than the final product, and are also stored under good conditions. For digital, the best we can do is to always use redundancy and store several copies, at different locations, and also make new copies regularly, making use of new storage media whenever previous ones are starting to become obsolete. That's the good thing about digital, as long as we keep it digital we can copy over and over and over again without any degradation in quality.
Truly redundant digital storage like a RAID 5 array has error correction. Red Book CD was a half baked system that does not have good correction, so the only way of using it as an archive is to have several copies to compare.
I thought that the record company matrices are copper? and suffer from corrossion
I thought that the record company matrices are copper? and suffer from corrossion
Re: Yep, tape is forever..........
The earliest german tape recordings from 42-45 were long believed lost, until they magically appeared from the archives of Radio Moscow in 1990. A few of themhad earlier been released on LP by Melodya, though, which I suppose was the source for earlier apperances on LP and CD here in the west. Better late than never.
What is more of a shame is that tape was considered so expensive early on that many recordings was transferred to 78s and the tapes were reused for new recordings. That happened to some recordings by the Swedish Radio in the late 40s, recordings which were done on tape, but now only exist on 78s in the archives.
Jocko Homo said:
The earliest german tape recordings from 42-45 were long believed lost, until they magically appeared from the archives of Radio Moscow in 1990. A few of themhad earlier been released on LP by Melodya, though, which I suppose was the source for earlier apperances on LP and CD here in the west. Better late than never.
What is more of a shame is that tape was considered so expensive early on that many recordings was transferred to 78s and the tapes were reused for new recordings. That happened to some recordings by the Swedish Radio in the late 40s, recordings which were done on tape, but now only exist on 78s in the archives.
Archiving music CDs or music in digital format
Digital storage is a huge problem for archival repositories. There are a variety of factors archivists must consider - temperature, humidity, pollutants (including those originating inside buildings - organic acids, aldehydes and peroxides emitted from wood shelves, drawers, etc. for example), that affect CDs and DVDs. Using gold CDs helps some, but you really have to be serious about protecting CDs to stretch their life span. Best to use opaque, air tight, plastic metal storage containers with silica gel desicant in the containers. Don't touch disks with your skin, as skin oils and acids can degrade the reflective coating around the edges even it you touch only the rim (wear gloves). If you want to listen to the music, make copies and put the originals in the archival containers. The great advantage of digital media is that copies can be made with little degradation. Thus, CDs stored as I have described above should be copied to new media every 4 or 5 years unless you have proof that the CDs can hold up longer than this.
Another reason that anybody who wishes to archive music in digital format should expect to have to make copies every few years is technological creep. You can bet that outdated formats, equipment, and software will force you to migrate your music to new systems as the hardware/software to copy todays media and formats disappears.
There is really no advantage in terms of longevity with storing you music on a magnetic drive. But at least the 4 to 5 year copy cycle can be made a little easier to deal with. It is much quicker to copy a hard disk than tens or hundreds of CDs. The catch is that with a disk drive you can loose all of the files on the disk if the the FAT tables on the drive become corrupted badly enough. The only sure way to be sure to avoid this tragedy is to have at least two drives with the copies of your music.
The bottom line is that if you have a high value music collectioin in digital format that you want to maintain archivally for a long period of time, you are going to have to work at it.
Digital storage is a huge problem for archival repositories. There are a variety of factors archivists must consider - temperature, humidity, pollutants (including those originating inside buildings - organic acids, aldehydes and peroxides emitted from wood shelves, drawers, etc. for example), that affect CDs and DVDs. Using gold CDs helps some, but you really have to be serious about protecting CDs to stretch their life span. Best to use opaque, air tight, plastic metal storage containers with silica gel desicant in the containers. Don't touch disks with your skin, as skin oils and acids can degrade the reflective coating around the edges even it you touch only the rim (wear gloves). If you want to listen to the music, make copies and put the originals in the archival containers. The great advantage of digital media is that copies can be made with little degradation. Thus, CDs stored as I have described above should be copied to new media every 4 or 5 years unless you have proof that the CDs can hold up longer than this.
Another reason that anybody who wishes to archive music in digital format should expect to have to make copies every few years is technological creep. You can bet that outdated formats, equipment, and software will force you to migrate your music to new systems as the hardware/software to copy todays media and formats disappears.
There is really no advantage in terms of longevity with storing you music on a magnetic drive. But at least the 4 to 5 year copy cycle can be made a little easier to deal with. It is much quicker to copy a hard disk than tens or hundreds of CDs. The catch is that with a disk drive you can loose all of the files on the disk if the the FAT tables on the drive become corrupted badly enough. The only sure way to be sure to avoid this tragedy is to have at least two drives with the copies of your music.
The bottom line is that if you have a high value music collectioin in digital format that you want to maintain archivally for a long period of time, you are going to have to work at it.
seoman said:
This is what I thought until I lost 250GB of ripped music last year - unfortunately it was without a backup and approximate re-rip time (up to 160Gig at the moment) of over 30 hours. I still find it easier to make archive copies of CDs and safely store the originals - don't get complacent with data - statstical probability assures one thing - IT WILL HAPPEN sometime
I'm sorry to hear it!
That's why i have spread my fotos over 2 disks. And a copy on the server at work.
The loss of all the downloades mp3 i can life with but having to re-rip is a dissaster! (I still haven't ripped my own audio material)
But lossing my fotos would be a shame!
Greetings Simon
That's why i have spread my fotos over 2 disks. And a copy on the server at work.
The loss of all the downloades mp3 i can life with but having to re-rip is a dissaster! (I still haven't ripped my own audio material)
But lossing my fotos would be a shame!
Greetings Simon
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