Sound Archiving

[Ernie Zahn]

Hey,

I was wondering what the best media was to archive audio recordings? I thought it might be minidiscs, but does anyone know of a better one? I figured DAT wasn't good because it's video equivelent, miniDV, is very unstable and doesn't really last. Thoughts?

[John Pytlak RIP]

Hey,

I was wondering what the best media was to archive audio recordings? I thought it might be minidiscs, but does anyone know of a better one? I figured DAT wasn't good because it's video equivelent, miniDV, is very unstable and doesn't really last. Thoughts?

 

AFAIK, the 35mm optical sound negative (usually contains the stereo analog track, Dolby Digital, Sony SDDS and DTS tracks) is often considered a key preservation element. Today, these silver-image negatives are usually recorded on polyester stock, so the long term keeping characteristics should be very good. Unless stored properly, magnetic media may show significant degradation within a few decades -- full coat magnetic film and tape from the 1960's and 1970's has been problematic for "vinegar syndrome" and "sticky-shed" if stored improperly.

[Jordan Brade]

AFAIK, the 35mm optical sound negative (usually contains the stereo analog track, Dolby Digital, Sony SDDS and DTS tracks) is often considered a key preservation element. Today, these silver-image negatives are usually recorded on polyester stock, so the long term keeping characteristics should be very good. Unless stored properly, magnetic media may show significant degradation within a few decades -- full coat magnetic film and tape from the 1960's and 1970's has been problematic for "vinegar syndrome" and "sticky-shed" if stored improperly.

 

 

How would one go about storing magnetic media properly?