crevin Posted February 25, 2007 Report Share Posted February 25, 2007 Hi, I'm recording bird sounds on a Hi-MD mzh700. I was wondering-- where should I store my recordings? They are about an hour long, and I've been putting them in .wav format after importing through Sonicstage.Since the file sizes are often near 1 GB or so (an hour long in the best quality recording), I don't want to clog up my computer hard drive (only 40 GB). Also, I want to reuse the 1 GB minidiscs so I don't have to go buy more of them (almost 6 bucks a piece!). Any suggestions? Should I buy 3-4 GB DVD RW's and store them there? Or is there a way to compress and/or convert the .wav format for storage purposes, and then convert back to .wav should I ever want to listen to them again? I am afraid if I store the files in like LP2 stereo format that the sound quality will be messed up if I convert to .wav down the road.Thanks for any ideas. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sparky191 Posted February 26, 2007 Report Share Posted February 26, 2007 What you are looking for is lossless compression. Do some googling on that. Lots of debate on which format is best. Also if you are going to use CD/DVD looking into the best brands. Some fade quicker than others. I'd advise investing in a big HD aswell, just in case. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sparky191 Posted February 26, 2007 Report Share Posted February 26, 2007 If your DVD-RAM drive fails, you'll have to buy another one to get your data. Whereas with a more popular format or HD you can access it much easier. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sparky191 Posted February 26, 2007 Report Share Posted February 26, 2007 (edited) So what you're saying is buy a DVD-RAM and a couple of DVD-RAM drives? How does the cost per mb of DVD-RAM, HiMD compare to Hard Disks? Edited February 26, 2007 by Sparky191 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
minidix Posted February 26, 2007 Report Share Posted February 26, 2007 What you are looking for is lossless compression. Do some googling on that. Lots of debate on which format is best. Also if you are going to use CD/DVD looking into the best brands. Some fade quicker than others. I'd advise investing in a big HD aswell, just in case.It's a shame Sony gave use the ultimate recording tool, the RH1, but without ATRAC lossless RECORDING (or, at least for playback, a REAL Atrac Lossless format). The problem of the lossless archiving cold be a problem no more. Maybe for the next generation Hi-MD. And, why not, hardware playback support for other codecs like AAC and WMA (which both have a lossless option) ... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rayzray Posted February 26, 2007 Report Share Posted February 26, 2007 (edited) So what you're saying is buy a DVD-RAM and a couple of DVD-RAM drives? How does the cost per mb of DVD-RAM, HiMD compare to Hard Disks?i (rayzray) buy DVD-RAM discs (Panasonic) for $12.95 for 5 discs;; they are GREAT!!!! they rarely go on sale..i use them for collecting music off the music stations ;; then erase and start over..i save my most sacred stuff on them;; but,, i think you HAVE to use the same Brand Recorder/Player to play them back;; once i used another brand Recorder and it made me "format" it and i LOST what was on the disc!!!!!!oh,, and if i were you; i'd buy a FEW same brand recorders and players;; enough to last your lifetime..i have 12 Panasonic Recorders now;; enough to last (my) lifetime;; and more..!!late edit]] what's nice is that you can store music in PCM quality;; and DOWN to the lows Edited February 26, 2007 by rayzray Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crevin Posted February 27, 2007 Author Report Share Posted February 27, 2007 what od you mean 'recorders'? what is a panasonic recorder? im looking for something I can store my files on... like cds or a hard drive...any other ideas? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
greenmachine Posted February 27, 2007 Report Share Posted February 27, 2007 Recordings on analog media tend to cease slowly over time, whereas digital media tends to behave much more unpredictable and lose all data at once (more or less). If your data is important to you, make several copies on different media, regardless of what format you choose in the end and check them from time to time. Personally i compress my valuable live recordings (irreplaceable data) to flac and store them on two different harddisks as well as one copy to DVD-R (and reuse the HiMD disks). For replaceable data such as CD/DVD rips, one copy should be sufficient. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sparky191 Posted February 27, 2007 Report Share Posted February 27, 2007 (edited) Do some googling on "backup strategies". Might give you some ideas. http://free-backup.info/separation-is-crit...p-strategy.htmlI reckon you should go with FLAC and backup onto an external HD and DVDR's. The HD is handy because it alllows you to have the files all in one place for easy access. DVDR could form your long term backup. You can add more drives as you like. You can also store them on HiMD. I don't think I would keep them on HiMD. But I'm not that sentimental about MD/HiMD or like disc swapping. As with greenmachine I recycle my HiMD for recordings. Edited February 27, 2007 by Sparky191 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1kyle Posted February 28, 2007 Report Share Posted February 28, 2007 (edited) Do some googling on "backup strategies". Might give you some ideas. http://free-backup.info/separation-is-crit...p-strategy.htmlI reckon you should go with FLAC and backup onto an external HD and DVDR's. The HD is handy because it alllows you to have the files all in one place for easy access. DVDR could form your long term backup. You can add more drives as you like. You can also store them on HiMD. I don't think I would keep them on HiMD. But I'm not that sentimental about MD/HiMD or like disc swapping. As with greenmachine I recycle my HiMD for recordings.1) Disk storage these days (even for impecunious students) is incredibly cheap. For example in PC WORLD in the UK (not either the cheapest place on the planet to buy stuff, nor the cheapest store) a 300 GB disk costs less than 60 GBP (90 EUR) INCLUDING VAT. 2 of these drives will probably store more music than you are ever likely to have on MD collections.2) Use any LOSSLESS format --it really doesn't matter as you can convert the lossless format to any "playable" format you care to name. Most computers now are fast enough to do the conversions without a problem and without taking a lot of time.3) enjoy.(OT -- however at the current time DVD-RAM storage is definitely the most reliable of current DVD-Read /Write formats. -- Blu-Ray is still too new and expensive to play around with at the moment).DVD+RW / DVD-RW have too many "Unpredictable Errors" to reliably use these media for many read / write cycles. The Spec specifies around 1,000 but usually will be much less.DVD-RAM is guaranteed to have more than 250,000 REad Write Cycles and is guaranteed to have a life of around 200 years --although not being that type of Engineer I've no idea of how they test this stuff, - Google on DVD-RAM will give you a host of info,Cheers-K Edited February 28, 2007 by 1kyle Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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