Introducing the Selenophon

This one I had never seen before. Thanks to Jeff Berman, who generously gave me some old radio-related magazines, I learned about the Selenophon, which is essentially a variable-density paper-strip player (and thus can be called a direct descendant of Léon Scott's 1860 phonoautograph). Built in Austria, it may also be considered a precursor of the later (and much-malighned) 8-track cartridge, since it also carries eight (mono) tracks per side, for a total of 16. Note also the news announcement about the long-playing (LP) record, running at 33 1/3 rpm.

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Archives

There is a nice new article in the Cleveland Plain Dealer about the archives at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum, headed by good pal Andy Leach. Andy and I used to work together in Chicago's Center for Black Music Research, and he is the nicest guy, as well as a heck of a pedal-steel player (he can be heard in my CD). Way to go Andy! You just may have the most fun job in the field.

Wow & Flutter

Last week-end we went to Wow & Flutter, a performance by Andrew Schneider at the Chocolate Factory in Long Island City. I could not resist the name. After so many years trying to minimize it (and finally getting rid of it in digital --unless you count jitter as a form of flutter), I seek it! The piece was more related to distortions of memory than about our woes with tape. The review in the New York Times is pretty accurate.(Incidentally, I just read about a homemade wow & flutter meter --for the advanced hobbyist).

Speaking of flutter, I am a big fan of Jamie Howarth' s Plangent Processes, which digitally removes extremely small flutter artifacts inherent in the mechanical nature of tape recordings (bearings, idlers, etc). It is probably the only restoration process I have ever heard that created a marked improvement without any side effects.

Digital doomsday

There is a new article on the possible loss of digital information in New Scientist. It naturally focuses on scientific data and seems to strike a good balance between alarm and acceptance. The issues affect us all, but in the end it does seem a bit short-sighted when compared to the incredibly vast amount of information that has already been lost through the centuries (or even decades: interestingly enough, a lot of the information on, say, natural remedies that was commonplace two generations ago is quite obscure these days).

What we need to accept is that civilizations and cultures change and with them there is always a change in priorities, which inevitable implies losses. But the article makes a good point in that the amount of energy needed to keep digital data current is very large. When I hear of efforts to keep our audio heritage digitally alive for generations and generations, I cannot help but be a bit skeptic.

Digital preservation is to analog preservation what a car is to a bicycle: yes, theoretically you can get much farther (without wear), but you need much more energy to get there.

Audio Preservation Class at Long Island U

I will be teaching the Audio Preservation class in the Fall at Palmer School's NYU campus. If you are a library student interested in learning all about audio preservation (but were afraid to ask), contact Alice Flynn at alice.flynn@liu.edu. I will be posting more details as I fine-tune the syllabus.

Interview in Spanish journal

The latest issue of the official journal from Spain's Asociación Española de Documentación Musical (AEDOM) starts with an interview with yours truly. It was fun to wax philosophical about the issues facing the profession. I predict that most of our audiovisual heritage will be lost, and it is up to us to actively choose what we save.

AEDOM is part of the International Association of Music Libraries (IAML). The interview appears to be only in print, but you can contact AEDOM if you are interested.

ARSC NY Chapter tomorrow

Join us for the free monthly ARSC NY Chapter meeting on Thursday, Feb 18 at the fabulous ARChive of Contemporary Music --Marcos

ARSC New York Chapter

February 2010 Meeting
Thursday, 2/18/10
ARChive of Contemporary Music

54 White St., Tribeca, New York

GUEST SPEAKERS

• Sam Stephenson, director of the Jazz Loft Project at the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University


• Christopher Lacinak of AudioVisual Preservation Solutions.

THE JAZZ LOFT PROJECT
From 1957 to 1965 legendary photographer W. Eugene Smith made approximately 4,000 hours of recordings on 1,741 reel-to-reel tapes and nearly 40,000 photographs in a loft building in Manhattan's wholesale flower district where major jazz musicians of the day gathered and played their music. Smith's work has remained in archives until now. The Jazz Loft Project is dedicated to uncovering the stories behind this legendary moment in American cultural history.


Sam Stephenson is a writer and director of the Jazz Loft Project at the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University. His book, The Jazz Loft Project: The Photographs and Tapes of W. Eugene Smith from 821 Sixth Avenue, 1957-1965, was published by Alfred A. Knopf in November 2009. He has been studying the life and work of Smith for thirteen years, authoring two additional books about him. His biography of Smith, Picture Paradise, is forthcoming from Farrar, Straus and Giroux.


Christopher Lacinak has consulted on a broad range of preservation and access topics for moving image and sound collections and organizations. Some of his past and current clients include the Library of Congress, Stanford University and the Image Permanence Institute. Chris is a former Vice President and Chief Technology Officer at VidiPax, a well-established magnetic media preservation reformatting facility, and is an Adjunct Professor at New York University's Moving Image Archiving and Preservation Masters Degree program. Chris continues to remain active and chair committees in relevant and standards forming organizations such as the Audio Engineering Society, Association of Moving Image Archivists and the International Organization for Standardization. Chris is well known for his work in developing high efficiency reformatting systems, quality control systems, metadata standards, assessment, prioritization and workflow design.

AudioVisual Preservation Solutions is a consulting firm that provides effectiveindividualized solutions for collections of moving image and sound regardless of size, variety of formats, or budget range.

DIRECTIONS

SUBWAY: Take #1 to Franklin St; A,C,E and the N,Q,R,W to Canal Street at Broadway, or #6 to Canal at Lafayette. White Street is three blocks South of Canal Street and one block North of Franklin Street, between W. Broadway and Broadway

Meeting from 7:00 PM to 9:00 PM~ doors (and refreshments) at 6:30 ~voluntary contributions to help defray our expenses are welcome!

SAVE THE DATES OF OUR REMAINING PROGRAMS THIS SEASON
3/18/10 Elizabeth Davis of Columbia University will be joined by a representative of New World Records to discuss support for the recording of music by American composers4/22/10 Legendary Jazz producer George Avakian will be interviewed by Dan Morgenstern of Rutgers University's Institute of Jazz Studies
(29 May and June to be announced)

All ARSC NY Chapter meetings are free and open to the public.
To join ARSC, visit http://www.arsc-audio.org