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RE: OT: tape (was Cds)



Title: RE: OT: tape (was Cds)

>>Tapes from the 50's are still playable...most people say audio cds have a life of ten years, though cdr's are known to often go bad sooner. As discussed a few weeks ago, the best solution is to store digital stuff on hard drives.<<

there really isn't one simple answer to this. all recorded media has some flaw or other. tapes that have survived from the 40s & 50s are not unusual, but things went pear-shaped in the 70s & 80s when the manufacturers switched to synthetics instead of whale-derived oils & the effects became apparent round about the time we wanted to reissue all these recordings on cd....
& people (like me) who complain about the Fmax & bit-depth of cd being inadequate, well, we're still happy to have something that seems a little less vulnerable. even if it is a grainy snapshot of our precious audio.
in the final analysis, the best archive policy is proliferation. the more copies you have of something, scattered around on different formats & in different environments, the better the chance of recovering something one day.
there is a company now that has created a holographic storage device. the cost of the media is around the same as recordable cd or dvd. the drives are expensive at the moment, but I'm sure they'll be cheaper once the development costs are recouped.

http://www.inphase-technologies.com/

duncan.