Silent Way Audio Archiving and Collection Management

Face it, you are never going to do it. You've always meant to sort through that hidden collection of audio in your warehouse, closet, milk crate or hard drive. You started a few times, but it's such a daunting task. Somewhere in that pile are irreplaceable recordings of your band's early demo, a first show, or master tapes from the great unfinished album.

Silent Way's chief audio engineer, Tony Brooke, has spent decades engineering hundreds of live multitrack recordings and studio projects. Now his experience is available to protect, preserve, digitize and monetize your recordings. Tony's extensive discography, long list of clients, production experience, and proficiency with a wide range of equipment bring essential technical knowledge to your archival project. As a current candidate for a masters degree in library and information science, he brings professional archival skills as well. In short, you are assured that technical and organizational decisions will be sound.

Located in San Francisco, Silent Way serves all of Northern California, including the greater Bay Area (Oakland, Berkeley, San Jose, Marin) and Sacramento. For all-digital archiving projects, other locations can be served. Call (415) 826-2888 to discuss your asset management needs.

If your collection holds analog formats, the clock is ticking. Tape from certain eras need urgent attention, and should be converted to the digital domain before it breaks down. Analog formats include: 2-inch tape, 1-inch, 1/2-inch, 1/4-inch, cassette, 12-inch 33+1/3rpm LP, 7-inch 45rpm single, 78rpm record, 8-track tape, SVHS, VHS, Betamax, microcassette, etc. Within these formats there is a wide variety of track counts (mono, stereo, multitrack) and noise reduction systems (Dolby A, Dolby B, Dolby C, Dolby SR, DBX, etc) to plan for.

Digital audio is not immortal, despite a popular misconception. No matter the storage medium and backup strategy, digital audio is in jeopardy. Despite its current popularity, a hard drive is clearly not a long-term storage solution. Physical storage formats for digital audio include hard drives of various formats, CD, MP3CD, DVD, DAT, MiniDisc (MD), RADAR, DTRS (16 bit), DTRS (24 bit), ADAT type I (16 bit), ADAT type II (20 bit), DASH, etc. Don't forget LaserDisc, which seemed digital but was partially analog. Tape-based digital formats face some of the same worries as analog tape. Digital file formats include broadcast wav, wav, sdII, aiff, mp3, aac, mp4, flac, ogg, QuickTime, Flash, Windows Media (WMA), RealAudio, etc. Multitrack audio session formats (which in turn point to the aforementioned audio file formats) include Pro Tools, Logic, Digital Performer, AAF, OMF, etc.

But it's more than just identification, conversion and preservation of the media. The information about the audio (metadata) is essential, so documentation is extremely important. Silent Way takes great pride in detailed documentation, archival integrity and future-proofing media. This is an essential part of every archiving job.

Once your collection is preserved and catalogued, you can easily tap into it for re-releases, licensing, publishing, publicity and museum access. These revenue streams will likely pay for the cost of archiving.

• Access to a wide variety of playback equipment (which you don't pay for if you don't need).
  
  
• An engineer experienced with every possible equipment configuration and recording methodology.
  
  
• For live recordings, a familiarity with every concert venue in the Bay Area, plus more elsewhere.
  
  
• For studio recordings, a familiarity with every major studio in the Bay Area.
  
  
• A deep tie with the music scene for historical context.
  
  
• Industry connections to track down information and connect the dots.
  
  

Bottom line: Your archival project will meet the utmost standards.

A word from Tony Brooke about the importance of archiving:

"Since 1993, I have worked primarily as an audio recording engineer, creating a large amount of analog and digital audio (hundreds of projects resulting in over 70 releases for over 400 artists and clients). A significant aspect of my work has been to document, store and preserve media and metadata.

Now I am turning my focus towards preserving audio, sorting collections and making the best use of what might otherwise be lost.

For the past eighteen years, I have developed forward-thinking, detailed delivery methods for audio and documentation, preparing for the likelihood that recordings might not be accessed for years. To keep each project's information with the audio data, I developed The Ultimate Track Sheet, which stores comprehensive metadata (technical parameters, titles, storage requirements, technician credits) about an audio recording.

Every professional audio or video recording is a time capsule, which is in danger of being lost as soon as it is created. The diversity and scale of recorded media available to the public today is unprecedented. But that is just the tip of the iceberg. For every major label album or studio movie, there are hundreds of independent releases, thousands of unreleased projects, and many times more amateur media. With few standards for preservation, much of this faces extinction.

In our personal lives, a similar story emerges. In today's socially networked, always-recording world, everything has become a time capsule floating in the river of our "overshared" lives. But this deluge isn't archived. Thus our photos, videos, art, music, genealogical research and stories could be washed away.

Previous generations passed along written and oral histories to preserve generational lore. But this tradition faded years before the current world wherein everything is recorded. That gap MUST be bridged, bringing pre-digital history forward. Today's stories must also be archived carefully. These distinct eras need attention to build a continuous historical flow.

On a personal note, I spend my free time categorizing everything including my vast music collection (17,000+ digital assets categorized into 67 custom genres, plus thousands more analog recordings in a dozen formats), family photos and videos (14,000), and our family tree (941 individuals).

As you can tell I care deeply about preservation. It is our responsibility as ancestors of future generations to give them their past by preserving ours."