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Re: [ARSCLIST] Triage, heroic efforts, and economics

And I must sadly agree that Peter is correct in his assessment of the situation regarding finding experienced engineers who have the knowledge and fortitude to take on some of the more challenging restoration and preservation tasks that come along in the course of dealing with old, damaged, and obsolete material.

Despite that ready availability of information on the internet, I am astonished at the lack of knowledge displayed by some of those who are engaged in the field of "audio restoration". And I'm not talking about the "do it yourself" home enthusiast with a Teac tape deck and a Dell laptop. I mean staff who are engaged at commercial facilities and institutions.

This is not a criticism, but merely an observation. It has been confirmed by what I have seen pass through our facility after someone else has attempted a "restoration" of a recording. Although we don't always know the direct cause of the damage, it was apparent in some situations that someone took an approach that turned what may have been a usable tape, film or disk into something that would have little chance of being salvaged.

Case in point: We recently had a job come to us that consisted of a number of reels of 17.5mm magnetic film. The material had previously been sent to another facility engaged in "restoration" work (name withheld to protect the not-so-innocent, and avoid nasty libel suits!). The facility in question stated that "there was no recorded material on the film". Not only were they dead wrong, but also apparently damaged the sprockets in the process (the institution that submitted the material claimed that it was in good condition when originally inspected). So now what could have been a fairly straightforward project turns into a time consuming and expensive restoration, all because someone didn't understand what they were doing. I wish I could say that this was the exception, but sadly it is not. I think that Peter and a few others will no doubt have similar stories.

These kinds of sad stories will continue unless there is a concerted effort on the part of institutions and archives to raise the funds necessary to train staff in the evaluation and processes involved in dealing with various recorded materials, as well as attracting some of the few people we still have left with us that understand the details of the many recorded mediums that we now have (I'm talking about those that don't exist on a hard drive) While there have been some great papers published on the subject, we have a long, long way to go in implementing the recommendations they contain.

In the meantime, those with the critical knowledge that should be passed along are being lost to us at an astonishing rate. I can count at least 20 engineers I have known in my lifetime whom I would consider to be exceptionally talented and knowledgeable who are now gone. In many cases, their knowledge has not been passed along (Howard Tremaine being the one major exception. Thank you Howard for your foresight). I know that there are hours of recordings and other material in the AES archives that should be transcribed, edited, and disseminated, but there are no funds.

Back to what Mike originally said, given the current state of affairs, I must say that I'm not holding my breath for any attention to be lavished on the problem at the federal or state funding level anytime soon. (Beyond what already is being done at NARA and the LOC)

Sorry for the long post... 'nuff said.

Scott D. Smith
Chicago Audio Works, Inc.


Peter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:

While I agree with most of what Peter Copeland says below, I sadly must
disagree with his assumption that "Future restoration processes should
inevitably be better than present-day ones."

I am on a number of technical commissions that are involved in writing
preservation standards dealing with magnetic tape and, having passed my 50th
birthday, I am the youngest active member on these commissions.  To me, the
greatest danger we face in the preservation of much of our recorded material
is the rapid obsolescence of qualified technical personnel.  Just consider
that we may soon be facing a new generation of technicians that have heard
most of their music on iPods.

I do encourage all my clients to retain their originals, but I feel that a
good capture/transfer from legacy (non-automated) formats is much more
likely to be accomplished today with competent and EXPERIENCED personnel
than in the future.  Whatever new technical "toys" are developed, you still
need to get the material off the old, curled, warped, shedding...tape BEFORE
you can feed it into any kind of signal processor.  Where is the new
generation that gives a #%*@ about doing the hard work required coming from?

Peter Brothers
President
SPECS BROS., LLC
(973)777-5055
www.specsbros.com

Restoration and Disaster Recovery Service Since 1983





-----Original Message-----
From: Association for Recorded Sound Discussion List
[mailto:ARSCLIST@xxxxxxx]On Behalf Of Copeland, Peter
Sent: Tuesday, May 16, 2006 10:42 AM
To: ARSCLIST@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] Triage, heroic efforts, and economics


Dear All,
   As usual, I am coming to this listserv nearly three weeks late, but
in my opinion there are three points which have not so far been
mentioned, and which should be considered during this debate.
(1) When preservation copying occurs, there may inevitably be losses
and/or distortions of the original sound (however you define those
terms)! In my opinion, it is vital to document the technical processes
used, either by copying a calibration disc (or tape, or cassette, etc.
etc. etc), or by incorporating a rigorous description of the copying
process itself and any assumptions about the original medium.
(2) Future restoration processes should inevitably be better than
present-day ones. So, keep the originals, so future archivists may have
another attempt!
(3) Likewise, do a bibliographic record of the way the *original* was
documented.
Peter Copeland
Former Conservation Manager,
British Library Sound Archive.

-----Original Message-----
From: Association for Recorded Sound Discussion List
[mailto:ARSCLIST@xxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Mike Richter
Sent: 03 May 2006 15:41
To: ARSCLIST@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] Triage, heroic efforts, and economics

Robert Hodge wrote:


Hello,
My response will be twofold and very easy to document.
1-Preserve what funding can be acquired for first.
2- Then, preserve, using my own time and resources, what I consider to


be important. I gain much satisfaction out of doing that .


At least sound recordings don't require the large financial outlay


that motion picture films require.


Bob Hodge


It is a pleasure to see reality sneaking into this discussion. <G>

Preservation depends critically on funding. Those among us looking at
non-renewing grants feel that in a way that we independent types do not.

(I've been living on insurance for nearly twenty years now - not very
well but without "gainful employment".)

Given limited resources of time, money and environment (space,
equipment), one must trade off preservation quality and quantity. The
finished product has a similar tradeoff. Each balance between quality of

preservation and quantity has its place; in my opinion, there is no
fault to find with either high-rate, large bit-depth copies or low-rate,

shallow catalogues. Each has its place.

Over the last few years, I have produced a couple of dozen CD-ROMs for
distribution (and a thousand more for my own purposes). Each has of the
order of forty hours of audio in a volume of what I call an Audio
Encyclopedia. Each provides an overview of a topic rather in the style
of the old Book of Knowledge; each stands with respect to the source
recordings much as the catalogue of an exhibition of paintings does to
the exhibition itself.

The most recent disc in the series offers the complete recordings of
Titta Ruffo in both easy-listening and high-rate versions. The
convenience of a single, cross-indexed disc more than compensates for
limited sound quality for the purpose of this compendium. It is the
purpose that drives the tradeoff which in turn dictates the resources to

be applied.

None of which should surprise anyone on this list.

Mike
--
mrichter@xxxxxxx
http://www.mrichter.com/

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