Transferring audiotaped speech to CDs

[Richard J. Senghas]

>I would like to copy a very large data set of audio taped speech onto CDs
>for permanent archival storage, so that the data can be used by others
>(naturally occurring conversations among one social network of Mexican
>families in Chicago and their rancho in Mexico over about an 8 year
>period). I understand that magnetic tapes, even if unused, can deteriorate
>over time, so it's best to get the data onto CDs. I have a computer that
>can record onto CDs, but I have no idea how to get what's on the audiotapes
>onto the computer or the CD. Can anyone advise me on this? Thanks.
>

I have a similar concern with transferring many many hours of videotape data
(VHS, 8mm Hi8, and now MiniDV formats) to CD-ROM, DV-ROM, or true DVD discs.
Anyone got a streamlined operation for this? I hesitate to ask, but has
anyone seen pricing on archival services to do this?

Responding directly to Marcia's audio issues (which I share, but with a
smaller corpus, I'd guess): I know that most computers now have (at least
optional) audio-input that could be used to capture analog sound to a
digital file using any number of software packages. Most solutions I've seen
so far have been extremely time consuming, require a lot of monitoring, and
are really just kludges based on one-off models of copying or original
recording. What I think we'd each really appreciate are solutions involving
batch processing that could easily be done as a background task while we
attend to our oh-so many other tasks.

-Richard

======================================================================
Richard J Senghas, Asst. Professor       | Sonoma State University
Department of Anthropology/Linguistics   | 1801 East Cotati Avenue
Coordinator, Linguistics & TESL Programs | Rohnert Park, CA 94928-3609
Richard.Senghas at sonoma.edu               | 707-664-3920 (fax)