Processus d'archivage de la collection

Step 1:
Before being able to play a tape, it is necessary to determine a number of things about the tape itself. On what type of machine was it recorded? What make is the tape? What were the recording levels? What tape speed was it recorded at?

Step 2:
Is it possible to determine just from looking at the tape if the composer has respected the recording levels recommended by the tape manufacturer? Has the composer perhaps been too prudent with the levels, causing the quietest passages to be partially masked by tape noise? Or, on the contrary, have the limits of the analogue systems been surpassed, causing distortion that ruins the mix?

Step 3:
It is important to be aware of the specific limits of any digital system in order to create a transfer that is as comfortable and detailed as possible.

Step 4:
With analogue recording, tape noise (tape hiss) is unavoidable, but because it was ubiquitous, listeners in the “analogue era” became accustomed to it and the ear “filtered it out”. For listeners today, the rarity of the phenomenon has made listeners much more aware of the intrusiveness of tape noise. It is imperative to attempt to correct it.

Step 5:
Why master? Presentation of the general concept and the different applications according to musical genre, economic context, etc.

Étape 6 :
Discussion sur les résolutions audionumériques actuelles… et futures; formats d’encodage, réalités de la distribution en ligne.