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Re: [ARSCLIST] Wire recorders

This is a very interesting and important topic. In doing any sort of
preservation (film, video, audio) one must weigh the amount of time and
money spent making preservation copies against current resources and
backlog, and frankly, the importance of the material and the nature of the
content. I always try to keep in the back of my mind that every minute or
dollar spent on one project means another project waits.

Some formats are clearly off limits to non-experts (2" quad video comes to
mind) but there aren't that many. Having not worked much with wire, I don't
know if it should be left to experts only, but it would be easy to find
people or companies that charge for restoration or transfer with less
experience than amateurs or hobbyists or even me. Just like getting your
car repaired, I think everything rests in the reputation and the
recommendations your receive from others.

We often do things in-house which could be done better by someone with more
specialized knowledge, better equipment, or more experience. But depending
on the content, it may not even be desirable to pay for the best transfer
possible. With millions of hours of deteriorating audio, not everything is
worth spending $100+ an hour on. We often use students to transfer open
reel tape and cassettes of oral histories, speeches, lectures etc. Do you
really need an expert to transfer an oral history, when students can
accomplish the same thing for 1/2 the cost, though they may not always do
it perfectly? They aren't going to transfer our lacquer disks of the CBS
Symphony, but we can get a lot done with non-specialist technicians trained
in-house.

Lastly, it is too bad that there isn't a grant program like the National
Film Preservation Foundation where an organization could apply for small
preservation grants, like for Eric's wires. We have many projects like this
that we'd like to send out for transfer (and could employ half of ARSC's
membership with transfer work), but it just isn't worth the trouble to
apply for a federal grant for project that would cost a couple thousand
dollars to transfer.

David Seubert
UCSB

At 09:56 AM 7/16/2004 -0400, you wrote:
Eric:

I agree with your definition of a professional, as someone who works with
wires daily, or at least with regularity, on mechanically
reliable/well-tuned equipment. However, it is important to understand that
we are in a profession where cost is not regulated. I was recently
reviewing a video preservation grant, and found very large differences in
the cost that vendors were charging.

On one hand, it can be argued that a "well-known" company can stand on its
reputation and should charge whatever they choose, but on the other hand
lets recognize that their are many brilliant engineers working out of
their home and are willing to charge a lower fee. I believe that we need
to fight the urge to just believe a company's own PR and to really give
these "cottage-type" engineers an opportunity to prove that they can do
the work.

I am not saying that we should trust everyone that says they can do a
preservation service, but we should at least give these engineers the
opportunity to prove it by either a demonstration or even better, asking
who they have performed the service for and then contacting those folks to
find out how the transfer really turned out.


"These opinions are only my own, and do not necessarilly reflects any one
elses."

Lance Watsky
Preservation & Media Specialist
The Georgia Archives
5800 Jonesboro Road
Morrow, GA 30260
678-364-3764 (phone)
678-364-3860 (fax)
lwatsky@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
www.GeorgiaArchives.org




-----Original Message-----
From: Association for Recorded Sound Discussion List
[mailto:ARSCLIST@xxxxxxx]On Behalf Of Eric Jacobs
Sent: Thursday, July 15, 2004 8:11 PM
To: ARSCLIST@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] Wire recorders


The use of amateur services is not so much about the
quality of the sound, but whether the entire asset
(the wire) might be lost in an unfortunate "tangle".

I know that no one can guarantee that a wire won't
accidentally be destroyed, but the probability of
success is probably higher (even if marginally so) when
done by a professional.  In this case, I'll define
"professional" as someone who works with wires
daily, or at least with regularity, on mechanically
reliable/well-tuned equipment.

But I wholeheartedly agree that budget issues frequently
get in the way of preserving historically valuable
audio assets, and even more so when it comes to making
them accessible.  This is sadly a truism across the entire
spectrum of historical preservation, not just audio.
And certainly a challenge to everyone in this forum.

Eric Jacobs
The Audio Archive


---- Original message ----
>Date: Thu, 15 Jul 2004 18:30:27 EDT
>From: Mwcpc6@xxxxxxx
>Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] Wire recorders
>To: ARSCLIST@xxxxxxxxxxxx
>
>   In a message dated 7/15/2004 3:36:50 PM Eastern
>   Standard Time, alex.hartov@xxxxxxxxxxxxx writes:
>
>     I acknowledge all the recommendations to go with a
>     pro for doing the
>     transfer.  I am quite sure it's worth the
>     expenditure and would not
>     quibble about that.  Unfortunately, I do not have
>     a budget for that &
>     so will table the project for now.
>
>   *****************
>
>   I see this a lot nowadays. I have several
>   mechanically functioning wire recorders and in the
>   past have made transfers without restoring the
>   amplifiers simply connecting the head directly to an
>   amplifier's phono input. People have beeh quite
>   happy with the result. Some of these have been of
>   local interest and, with the permission of the
>   originators, copies have been donated to local
>   museum archives.  In some cases I have retained the
>   original wires so professional restorations could be
>   done if desired.
>
>   However, since the Internet has made it possible, I
>   have felt it ethical to inform a person asking, that
>   professional services are available and I provide
>   references, perhaps to some of those on this list.
>   Now, when I ask, perhaps months later, about the
>   wires (or discs or tapes) I get a response like the
>   one above.
>
>   Not that it applies in this case, but if a person
>   has 50+ year old recordings that he has made
>   himself, it is quite unlikely that he is really
>   going to get around to funding professional
>   processing of the work and equally unlikely that the
>   executor of his estate will have any idea of what
>   they are.
>
>   Whenever I see the advice that, if it is worth
>   doing; it is worth doing "right" I wonder how much
>   is being lost just because there isn't the funding
>   for proper professional restoration work.  Perhaps
>   it might be worth suggesting that an improvised,
>   amateur transfer be made, if only as a proof or work
>   print, to preserve and evaluate the material, if
>   nothing better is immediately practical.
>
>   Mike Csontos

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