According to that thread, 680 old 78 records, from the 1920's - 30's, were copied onto 90-minute cassette tapes in the 1980's, then re-copied on mini-disc in 2000, and just recently put up on the internet. It took approximately 50 years for the first step, then 20 for the next jump in technology; - so in ten years is there going to be a jump to a new, yet to be invented, media that will require another massive "rollover" of everything that's on CD, MP3, SmartMedia, wav files, etc. ?? And, if so, what's the best format to be stockpiling stuff on now ?

The other thought that flitted through my mind was about the legal ramification of putting material like this up for free. Does that violate some kind of copyright ? Sort of like the Napster fiasco. Along those lines, I was also thinking of the Harry Smith Anthology of old time music, where Smith re-recorded old 78's on the then new LP vinyl record format in the mid 1950's - only about 25 years after the original material was issued. He was probably in violation of copyright, but, like this recent release of the 680 records, did old time music lovers a great service by preserving the material.

What are Mudcatters' thoughts on these technical, legal, and historical issues ?

It'll have to be something that's non-platform dependent if you know what I mean, and something that makes transferral easier.

Unfortunately as i don't deal with sound recordings much (I think we have about 2!!) I'm not too sure, but I'll look into it and get back to you.

It's a hard question to answer when you don't know the sorts of media involved as I'm not very musical...

I'll discuss it with me bloke English Jon and I'll see what I can come up with once I know the sorts of technology involved...

xxx

Sounds dull but it's actually quite interesting cos it's a bit more dynamic with constant change, life-cycles of recods and all that. You get to stay with the records from creation to destruction or trafserral to archive. But ideally I'd like to work somewhere small; a rural english village and be left to my own devices! I'd be a good community organiser!

But I'm a novice at the moment...

...we do have a good gypsy collection here in Liverpool and the Cunard shipping archive which is surprisingly entertaining!!

I've also found some sheet music in the gypsy collection which I'm going to try and photocopy for english jon and i'm sure he'll be able to let you know if it's good or not!! (I'm a bit unmusical but he's trying to get me to play the melodeon!)

What sorts of stuff are you interested in and I'll let you know what we have?

xxx

I'm somewhat interested in old films and their preservation. Of course they are being rolled over to video, DVD etc., which is why I was also musing about the old music and its method of preservation, other than oral.

Spaw

Very useful place that has lots of film and stuff of ship launches...

The problem is selling the stuff...you can always preserve the recording in one format specified by industry standards that's easily transferrable, but you'd still have to sell it in the most current...I think we should all stick with CD's and vinyl and be done with it personally!

To hell with technological innovation!

:)

xxxx

At least with books, no matter how old they get you can still read them, until the language changes too much, and the paper falls to bits. But there are people around here, serious music lovers, who haven't even got a turntable for LPs. An I haven't got a 78 turntable in working order.

There has to be some change in copyright law which means that if a copyright owner doesn't keep something in print or in the sound equivalent of that, other people have the right to reproduce the material, after some reasonable time limit. (Eighteen months or so maybe.) But I can't see any mechanism by which such a change in law can be achieved. I'd have thought that sitting on a copyright is some kind of interference with the right of free speech and analogous communication - maybe that is the best hope. In some country with honest judges, working with a sensible constitution. My, but wouldn't some people get mad...

I dread what that might cost, and the stuff I have isn't that old yet, but it's also not getting any younger. Has anyone done a cost analysis on just buying "re-issues" on commercial CD, as opposed to copying it yourself ?

And making a copy of your own record for your own personal use is probably legal in most places, even where they try to tell you it's not.

I've already got a pile of cassettes that aren't very well labeled and they drive me crazy when I'm trying to find a song I suddenly want to hear.

I've now done about a dozen CDs of material from the darker corners on my personal archives / Bush Music Club Archives / old records in collection / strange and wondrous sources.

I would say that I've spent up to 10 hours in recording, assessing, filtering, trimming, assembling and detailing the .wav files ... burning the necessary CR-Rs ... plus designing and printing covers, intrays and CD labels ... to reach a tidy, quasi-professional CD. Actually, the obscure folky stuff has taken longer than things I have prepared for commercial pressing and release.

This is a great thing for those who enjoy all this arcana ... but a slow and unprofitable way to rip off commercial tracks, despite the minuscule cost of CD-Rs today. My material will mostly drift toward The National Library of Australia's sound/film division ScreenSound, so I am working towards preservation of rare items ... and hoping like hell that all those great LPs get released on CD!

Regards,

Bob Bolton

Maybe Mudcat should start a project - set somebody up to record and release on CD all the stuff mouldering on our shelves, then sell or trade ??