DIGITAL ARCHIVING: WHY SHOULD YOU?

by James Darrell Laxamana

    

WHY DIGITIZE?

   

With the fast turn over of new technology these times, the move into the digital world is inevitable. Analogue and tape based equipments and media is on its way to extinction. The primary objective of digitizing today is to become ready and prepared for the extensive use of digital technology in the future and to preserve wealth of data stored in analogue sources. These data could be in the form of music, video, visual image, and even documents.

    

    

WHY ARCHIVE?

   

Analogue or magnetic tape-based media sources deteriorate in quality at a high rate due to susceptibility in humidity and temperature at which it is stored. Materials used to create the tapes also suffer from oxidation hence affecting the data stored on it. Leaving these analogue sources untouched will not help eliminate oxidation or deterioration. Digitizing now can help you save, archive, and preserve these valuable data or collection for future long-term use.

   

   

HOW TAPE-BASED MEDIA DETERIORATES

     

Tape deterioration can occur as a result of chemical reactions between the magnetic oxide, the binder, the lubricant, water vapor in the air, and particles of dirt from the air or from the tape head. An increase in temperature tends to act as a catalyst and speed up the deterioration process.

     

The conditions under which tapes are stored are therefore a significant factor which affects deterioration. Manufacturers recommend that tapes should be stored at a temperature of about 20 degrees Centigrade and relative humidity of 50%.

      

Tape-based media manufacturers also recommend that tapes and cartridges should be cleaned and re-tensioned at least once per year, and preferably twice.

     

There are three stages in the deterioration process:

     

STAGE 1 In stage one, there will be no obvious signs of deterioration, but when reading a tape the drive may detect some errors. Quite often the drive is able to correct the errors itself, and the user is unaware of any problems. Even as the errors become more severe and the drive is unable to correct them, the user will probably still be unaware that they exist - a few parity errors on a tape result in a few lost samples of data, but the user will almost certainly not realize this.
STAGE 2 In stage two, the deterioration process is greater and patches of tape will become "sticky". This results in the tape sticking to the recording head or the vacuum chamber as it is being read. Often there is an audible clicking sound as the tape is read, and it will find it necessary to clean the head more frequently. The number of parity errors and the amount of lost data will also increase, but it may still be insufficient for the user to realize that there is a problem.
STAGE 3 The third stage of the deterioration process is the most severe. The binding agent has decomposed completely and the oxide is "flaking" off the tape. There have been cases where large sections of oxide peel off the tape when it is read. Once this happens the data is lost irrecoverably, and the user certainly becomes aware of the problem. However, by then it is too late to do anything about it.

    

     

THE SOLUTION

   

Digital Archiving is the most intelligent move for backing-up old important records and data, usually those that are no longer being used on a regular basis, for safety storage for long-term use, for future restoration, and ease and faster accessibility of data. Digital Archiving is a very important process for safe-keeping analogue media data.

  

  

BENEFITS OF DIGITAL ARCHIVING

  

The recording process used to make analogue recordings using tape-based media introduces noise, wow, flutter, speed variations, and particularly tape hiss. Fortunately, with the converted digital audio data it is much easier and faster to access and manipulate audio recordings in terms of restoration, fixing drop outs, tape wow and flutter, editing, filter out unnecessary frequencies and noise, easy conversion across formats, remixing, and remastering among others.

  

Digital archives are commonly stored in compact disc-based media. Now with the invention of DVD, it is now possible to store large quantity of data. Use of these disc-based media consumes small storage space in libraries and can last for a long time when stored properly.

  

  

OUR EXPERTISE

  

Digital Archiving is just one of our many services, and we have been doing this since the late 1990s. Our expertise in the field merits us to handle EMI Philippines, Inc.’s library. EMI Philippines, which has one of the largest music publishing catalogues in the Philippines, has also assigned E-C Mix Records as its Recovery & Restoration Specialist as approved by its regional head office in Hong Kong and as recognized by its mother company EMI UK.

  

  

OUR SERVICE

  

We can help you digitally archive your masters from the following sources:

  

AUDIO

  • DAT (Digital Audio Tape)

  • Open Reel Tape (1/2-incher tape)

  • Multi-Track Tape (2-incher multi-track tape)

  • DA88 Multi-Track Tape (8mm, 8 track digital multi-track tape)

  

VISUAL

  • BetaMax tapes

  • VHS and VHS-C NTSC tapes

  • Video 8 and Hi-8 tapes

  • Mini DV tapes

  • Photo Archiving (SOON) (printed photos, negatives, positives)

  • Photo Memory Card (images from digital cameras in memory cards)

  

DAT and Open-Reel masters will be archived on Compact Disc or DVD media in standard audio disc or as wave files in ROM (Read-Only-Memory) disc formats.

  

Multi-Track masters will be transferred in computer based digital multi-track software and audio tracks will be consolidated and stored in DVD-ROM (Read-Only-Memory) format.

  

Video Tape masters can be transferred to VCD (Video Compact Disc) or DVD (Digital Video Disc). We highly recommend DVD for optimal quality.

 

Photos archived will be stored in CD-ROM discs.

 

  

Contact us now for more details, meeting requests and quotes. 

   

        

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