Re: archiving methods

[sine@zerocrossing.net]

I totally agree.  If something is worth keeping to you (or someone else) it
will be far better to transfer an intact digital copy to a new medium than 
it
would be to take a brittle tape and force it to loose yet another 
generation.
The stuff that doesn't make it to the new medium... well you lose it.  Is 
that
so bad?  Do we need everything?  More often than not, I trash a loop after 
I'm
done playing.  If I saved every loop I ever made, I'd  have so much it 
would be
totally unwieldy, and it would end up like having nothing.

I forget his name, but I love to quote one of the first developers of the
"Hypertext" concept.  He had (has?) a condition where he retained a perfect
memory about everything and it was slowly driving him insane.  He said, (I
paraphrase) "Remembering everything is curiously similar to forgetting
everything."

Mark Sottilaro

Lance Chance wrote:

> Dear Gentle Loopers,
>
> I'm a librarian with a special interest in archival methodology and the
> question that you are discussing is one of the most heated topics in the
> field.   I have to say that I must fall towards the digitization side of 
>the
> fence.   While it is true that digital media is subject to a state of
> obsolescence that is more inextricable than that of magnetic tape or
> (particularly) vinyl,  one has to wonder whether or not one is really 
>going
> to be forced to fashion a phonograph needle "MacGyver-style" in some
> post-apocalyptic era (without software converters or cd-burners) to get 
>at
> one's seminal work.  In the case of magnetic tape, our collection 
>contains
> some 1000+ reels of field recordings that are turning to dust as we 
>speak.
> Unless you plan to put your tape in cold storage, fugitaboutit.   
>Firstly,
> batch conversion is a much easier process than actually rerecording the
> original material in an effort to keep pace with tape degradation.
> Secondly,  sound degradation is certainly going to occur with each
> generation.   Thirdly, a digital image is not going to degrade as you 
>access
> it, unlike either tape or phonograph.
>
> Couldn't help poking my nose in that one.
>
> lance