Sound Archiving

This course, run in partnership with the School of Music and National Film and Sound Archive (NFSA), utilises both ANU School of Music facilities and specialist locations and equipment at the NFSA, to equip student with the theoretical and practical underpinning of audio preservation. Using the School of Music’s own tape archive of performances, recitals and events as source material, students will prepare these recordings as digital files for an open source, publicly accessible database. This course will introduce students to sound archiving, and explore the historical, philosophical and ethical implications of audio archiving, as well as preservation needs assessment and planning. Students will tour the NFSA , and the School of Music’s tape collection, and have the opportunity to gain hands-on, practical experience of equipment and processes such as analogue tape recorders and magnetic tape; tape machine technology and operation; the handling of tape, tape deterioration, maintenance and restoration techniques; the practicalities of digitisation: preparation, recording, software, editing, file creation, and metadata management and storage.