Transferring audiotaped speech to CDs

[Harriet Ottenheimer]

While we're on the subject, does anyone know of a source for buying a good
reel-to-reel tape recorder, preferably half-track, like the old Uhers?

Harriet Ottenheimer
Kansas State University

Shana Walton wrote:

> yall --
>
> I read Celso's note and have lived through everything he's written. Just
> to add my two cents:
> We are now in the process of transferring all (several hundred hours) of
> audio tape recordings in our oral history collection to digital
> preservation. Barbara Johnstone is correct in writing that paper is
> better than digital, but it doesn't preserve sound. After investigation,
> we are using CD Roms and hard drives. Nothing is permanent. Hard drives
> are easier to migrate your data from one format to another when they
> start becoming obsolete. Hard drives, however, do not sit on shelves as
> well as CD Roms. The best digital preservation is DVD. We are moving
> selected things to DVD as soon as we can get the money together and then
> putting it on a "juke box." DVD burning is expensive.
>
> We do all the CD Rom burning in house and it's no big deal. The whole
> set up cost us money for the sound card (SoundBlaster Live! Platinum --
> anything under that is not fancy enough to do much manipulation), the
> sound editing software (We're using SoundForge), the CD burner (We have
> a Hewlett Packard), and the burning software (We're using both Adaptec
> and Nero Burning Rom (because they have different strengths). I have a
> list somewhere of all the sound cards and their comparative strengths
> and weaknesses that I used when comparison shopping. We decided since we
> were dealing with voice quality that we didn't need the fanciest thing
> on the market.