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WNYC Preservation

WNYC Preservation and Archive Process

Name That Tune: Determining Audio Formats

The first rule in archiving audio involves determining playback formats. While everyone is familiar with the CD, LP, cassette, and the 8-track, there have been numerous other audio formats since Thomas Edison first reproduced sound on a strip of tin foil in 1877. These include cylinders, discs, wire, film and tape made of a wide variety of substances: wax, shellac, acetate, vinyl and polyester, to name a few.

The archivist must determine the proper playback medium in order to listen to and preserve historic recordings. Discs and cylinders have grooves of varying size; tape formats also have variables of speed, track configuration and tape thickness. Recordings may be damaged by playback if you're using the wrong equipment or equipment that is not properly adjusted. Older acetate tape will simply snap or break easily.

Quality Control: Assessing Condition and Quantity of Audio Materials

With so much undocumented audio, it takes an experienced hand - or preservation specialist, as they're known in the business - to assess the condition and quantity of historic recordings. The specialist has to inspect the tape to determine things like tape curl, splicing, and any mildew collected on discs due to improper storage.

Labeling is a crucial aspect of this process, particularly where playback speed is concerned. Depending on the label and date of manufacture, for instance, many early shellac recordings are not 78's at all but run as slow as 70 rpm (revolutions per minute) or as fast as 80 rpm. And, unless clearly identified by labeling, the amount of taped material can only be determined through playback. Playing determines the proper speed and track configuration.

Once audio formats have been clearly identified, their condition assessed and inventoried, a plan and budget for restoration, cleaning, and transferring to more stable media can be drawn up.

A Clean Sweep: Restoration and Cleaning

Unlike paper and photographs, audio recordings need contemporary hardware to draw as much of the audio signal as possible from the old medium when transferring it to a more stable format. Restoration of a disc or tape is key to an accurate reproduction of the original material. For example, stiff tape can be made to relax and the grit-laden grooves of vintage shellac recordings can be cleaned to allow the stylus an unimpeded track to follow from start to finish.

Various techniques are used in restoration, which depend on the condition of the original disc or tape. Acetate discs, for example, are notorious for exhibiting a greasy white overcoat that signals a breakdown in the nitrocellulose acetate and requires a cleaning.

Old tape that has been spliced must be carefully evaluated before transferring. Tape suffering from a breakdown of the binder that holds the oxide particles to the paper, acetate or polyester tape backing may squeal mercilessly as it passes over the metal tape guides and heads of the playback recorder, leaving a sticky residue. Hence the phrase, "sticky shed syndrome." Treating the tape with the careful use of a convection oven has proven successful in allowing for a smooth transfer of audio material to safer media.

Vinyl records require equal care. Distilled water is useful when removing foreign material from vinyl, and some transcription discs but could be disastrous if used on anything other than a slightly damp piece of velvet on a plastic coated paper or cardboard-based disc.

Archival Transfers

Another aspect of an archivist's job involves transferring recordings between formats. While anyone with some simple computer software can download and burn digital audio files these days, copying the contents of an historic format--and retaining as much of the original signal as possible--is a far more complex process. This is based on cleaning, stylus selection, and the proper playback equalization settings. The resulting preservation transfer is then a baseline from which all subsequent copies are made.

The size of a disc groove will vary depending largely on when the disc was made. Some early aluminum and acetate "insta-cuts" discs require a 6.0 mil stylus while some stereo LPs can use a stylus as small as 0.5 mil. The range in between, while difficult to see with the naked eye, represents a world of difference to the ear.

Sometimes an engineer may decide that a singer will sound better if the frequencies on the high end of her voice receive less emphasis while the frequencies on the low end of her voice are given more emphasis. By altering specific frequencies, the engineer is said to be applying equalization. Before the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) adopted the RCA Victor standard for disc recording in 1956, studio engineers often equalized or modified the original recording signals to fit within a standard set by the individual record label or broadcast transcription disc cutter. Sometimes these standards vary from year to year even within the same company.

Depending on the condition of the disc and the quality of the recording, it may also have additional surface or undesirable noise. Although there are exceptions, it is generally not acceptable for preservationists to use signal processing equipment to enhance or alter the preservation transfer because signal processing can be very subjective, varying from engineer to engineer and the type of processing equipment used. Again, the preservation transfer is a baseline from which copies can be made. These copies may incorporate signal processing that will alter and enhance the original recording.

Beyond any necessary cleaning and restoration work, properly calibrated playback and record tape recorders are critical. WNYC's equipment is regularly calibrated by a certified broadcast engineer to comply with the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) standard recording and playback of magnetic tape. The NAB standard for recording and playback is an accepted standard by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI).

Preservation Formats

In the United States, the Audio Engineering Society and the Association of Recorded Sound Collections have established accepted preservation formats. These standards are employed by the Library of Congress, the National Archives, and other major American collections. While preservation masters are made on reel-to-reel tape, user reference copies are often produced simultaneously on recordable CD, cassette, or digital audio tape (DAT). DAT, however, is strictly a production media and not for long-term storage. The long-term shelf life of CDs also remains a topic subject to much debate.

At this writing, the National Recording Preservation Board and the Library of Congress, along with the International Association of Sound and Audiovisual Archives (IASA) and the Association of Recorded Sound Collections (ARSC) have agreed that the new archive standard for long term digital storage should be at sampling rate of at least 96 kHz with 24 bit resolution. WNYC has applied to several leading federal and state granting agencies for funds to take the WNYC Archives to this next digital step with our older recordings.