tonyandkirsten.org

It’s been close to one year since I started my project to convert a large portion of Stonebrook’s vast tape library to digital format.  I’m not nearly as far as I expected I would be at this time when I first began, but things are going better than ever at this point.

I calculated today that I have close to 20% of the tape library accounted for (nearly 600 tapes) — in other words, tapes I have either converted to digital format or have decided to set aside and not add to the digital archive for various reasons. I have some where around 375-400 actual MP3 files of messages. That sounds good in one sense — but maybe not so much when you consider that it would take me four more years to finish at that rate.  Not what I was hoping for.

However, things seem a little more optimistic when you consider that out of the past 11.5 months, I was only actually actively working to digitize tapes for less than three months of that! If I could have kept up that rate the whole year (and if I chose to digitize the same percentage of tapes, which may not completely be the case) — I would have been mostly finished by now!

So what happened? After getting off to a quick start last summer, I took a break for close to a month while the Rock’s ministry kicked off for the fall and I did an issue of Daylights.  Then I got started again and only a few weeks later, had a terrible hard drive crash.  It was very discouraging and I had to take a few weeks off while we figured out what I lost and got a new hard drive (luckily, I had only lost a few dozen of my permanent lossless archive files, and none of the MP3s…so I can set aside all the ones that I need to re-do in the permanent archive format at the end after I have done everything else).

Needless to say, I learned my lesson about backing up frequently, and we purchased a DVD burner also to back-up the lossless archive files onto many DVDs.  I making quick progress again for a few weeks, when we came up with what seemed like a great idea — why not move the digitizing set-up into our bedroom on the main floor so I don’t have run up and down the stairs with Madeline all the time to check on the tapes? Great idea!

That idea took a little longer than expected to impliment. Tony and Gary built a special wooden rack to stand in the corner of the room, got a different computer all set-up to be dedicated to the tape tape digitizing process, modified slightly the cases of both tape decks so they could both be mounted in the rack to be used simultaneously, and got this whole thing put together (It’s affectionately known as “tape monster”).

I think it was sometime in late winter before it was all up and running (February maybe?). But, by that point I was so imersed in other things (busy with helping Mike and Jackie with their wedding plans, busy planning the Rock parents event, busy with Madeline, etc)…that I didn’t have the motivation and drive to figure out where I had left off and put it back into my routine.

I just got started again a couple weeks ago. The computer part of tape monster has still been having some issues.  I can’t use both tape decks at once yet, reliably. I am also not sure that I can multitask quite well enough to keep up with two tape decks, especially when only one of them automatically switches sides and relays to the second tape. I’ve also still been having problems with the computer crashing. Upgrading versions of audacity (the free software I use for the digitzing process) and exiting the program between each one or two tapes and then re-entering before continuing seems to help a lot. It isn’t as reliable as when we used “blackbox” (our fast main desktop computer) for the conversion process, but it is so much more convenient overall having it upstairs that I think it is worth it.

I guess we’ll see what the next year brings.  If this set-up continues to work well and we have no major life or technology issues that get in the way, I might actually be close to finishing by a year from now. I can actually convert 8-10 or more tapes per day without much problem (depending on tape and message length, and if I can pay close attention to when a message stops or not), and of course I am only actually digitizing half to two-thirds of the archives.
Meanwhile, if you want MP3 files of the tapes I have already converted, feel free to let me know — all of what I have done up to this point fits on two DVDs, and with the low price of blank discs these days, if you give me a couple bucks that is completely adequate to cover the cost.  (It’s better to email me if you are interested — kirsten SPLAT rockisu dot com — take out the SLPAT and put in “@”).