Topic: Archiving: Do You Save Your Raw Master File, Just the FLACs, or Both?

[stevetoney]

For archiving my masters, I've been saving my raw 24bit master along with the FLAC files of the final 24 bit master and then back both up on a separate harddrive which I store in an off-site location.  I don't save the 16bit versions since they're derivatives from the 24bit master anyway and can be re-created later if need be.

It occurred to me today that after several years of using this practice, I don't think I've ever once gone back to my raw master file and re-used it for any reason.  I've used the FLACs (mostly to make 16bit versions for burning CDs), but not the raw master. 

When I originally saved the raw master, I had the idea that I should keep the raw master in case I ever wanted to re-master the show.

Now since half of my archive space is being taken up by these raw masters, I'm wondering if it's a waste of harddrive space to save the original raw master since I have all the FLACs in two places anyway.  If I needed to, I could re-build an un-cut version of the show, but of course it wouldn't always be the same as the raw master although I try not to do too much post-processing to my shows. 

I'd probably still keep all of my M/S raw masters (where one channel is the mid and the other is the side), since those can't be reverse engineered very easily.

Anybody else have strong feelings one way or the other about keeping their raw masters? 

If you keep them, are you like me in that you never use them?

[fuzzypants]

granted I have no where near as many masters as most of you do what I've done is kept the master wavs and burn them to dvd then put the dvds in box then in my closet..nothing fancy but it keeps them off site on something that hopefully will stand the test of time.

[yug du nord]

Keep the raw....  takes up space.... but??  If you trash anything, I'd trash everything but the raw master.  Keep something to listen to that's a finished product....  but keep the raw!  That's my opinion.

[Javier Cinakowski]

If I don't do anything more than normalizing and track splitting, I see no need to keep the orignal one track master.  If I eq'ed and otherwise tweeked with the show then yes, I would keep the master...

[imgoinmad]

hard drives are cheap

[stevetoney]

granted I have no where near as many masters as most of you do what I've done is kept the master wavs and burn them to dvd then put the dvds in box then in my closet..nothing fancy but it keeps them off site on something that hopefully will stand the test of time.

Fuzzy...unfortunately, DVD media can be amongst the most expensive and least reliable forms of long term storage.  I've got MANY DVDs and CDRs failing to read after less than 5 years...many only 1 or 2 years old. 

[fuzzypants]

Fuzzy...unfortunately, DVD media can be amongst the most expensive and least reliable forms of long term storage.  I've got MANY DVDs and CDRs failing to read after less than 5 years...many only 1 or 2 years old.

really? welp guess I'm saving up for another HD lol

thanks for the heads up

[stevetoney]

Fuzzy...unfortunately, DVD media can be amongst the most expensive and least reliable forms of long term storage.  I've got MANY DVDs and CDRs failing to read after less than 5 years...many only 1 or 2 years old.

really? welp guess I'm saving up for another HD lol

thanks for the heads up

Yup...thats really what you want to do.  Two hard drives with info backed up from one to the other is considered one of the best ways to do it.  When one of the drives starts acting up, time to get a third drive and just keep that cycle going. 

If I'm not mistaken, the problem with DVDR and CDR is that, over time, the 'burn' kinda seeps so that the tracks on the disc can't be read reliably.  I have no idea if this is what happens, but in my mind I see it kinda like an aging tatoo that loses it's crispness on the edges.

Some people use the logic that hard media is more reliable than harddrives because harddrives fail.  Well, it's true that harddrives fail, but the thing you should NEVER do is rely on a single harddrive to keep your important data.  Redundant storage is the answer to reliability.  I go the extra step and keep the second drive in a separate location in case of catastrophe such as fire or flood.  Then monthly or so, I'll synch my two drives. 

Like I said, first clue that one of my drives is going on the fritz (which hasn't happened yet) I'll be out there buying a new harddrive.

[fuzzypants]

never thought of it like that thanks for the heads up..now to wait a month for black friday

[Gordon]

I flac the untracked edited mater (not raw) and burn them to dvd.   as for regular archiving I keep 24 and 16 bit flacs on 2 different harddrives and I burn those to dvd as well.  I need to get a fire and waterproof safe to store them all in (drives and dvds).

[twatts (pants are so over-rated...)]

My workflow:

Convert raw master to 16/44 with Audacity and save new 16/44 file.
FLAC raw master.
Burn raw master FLAC with text, FFP, and WAV MD5 to DVDR.
Copy raw master FLAC with text, FFP, and WAV MD5 to external HDD.
Open new 16/44 file in CDWave, cut tracks and save.
Flac new 16/44 tracks.
Burn new 16/44 FLACs with text, FFP, and WAV MD5 to DVDR.
Copy new 16/44 FLACs with text, FFP, and WAV MD5 to external HDD.
Seed to BT.ETREE.ORG as appropriate.

Terry

[danlynch]

I back up all the raw wav files on a DVD, then back up the flacs, 24bit untracked and 16bit untracked files on another DVD.  I had a 320 GB drive, and its almost full but that's mostly recent stuff.  There's not enough room to store everything on one external drive.

I have gone back and retrieved old raw files when I felt that something needed a serious improvement in post-production. 

[bhtoque]

I've got 2TB of RAID for my recordings. I don't keep anything backed up on optical media. Some stuff I burn audio cd's of, but those are disposable in my mind. I usually listen once or twice and give them away.

As far as what to keep, unless I do a lot of processing or a multi-track recording, the original 24/96 files get erased once I've checked the tracked 24/96.

I use Soundforge to join and then put marks into the original file. I save the tracks in 24/96 then resample and dither to 16/44.1 (mostly just so I can seed) then save the tracks again for the lo-rez version. I MD5 both sets of wav's, then flac it all then make a 2nd md5 for the flacs. Once that's done the raw files get canned.

It is also important to me to keep the file structure organized. Each band has it's own directory, with sub directories for each show date. For each show the folder has the flacs, wav and flac md5's and a txt file, then a sub folder with the 16 bit fileset.

JAson

[meatballs]

i stash all of my recordings (24/48) as raw masters on an external H.D. (Terra) -- Staples on sale for $120.00!

I don't know what else to do with them -- they live quietly in their own cave as 24/48 raw masters.

sometimes -- I don't even listen to them

[Belexes]

hard drives are cheap

Agreed.  I don't even FLAC my masters. I keep 'em raw and archive them to a hard drive.