Archiving/storage of tracks: .wav files or music cd?

[BluesForDan]

still in the process of getting as much information as possible for my project. Had a pro suggest saving my recordings as a .wav file versus just a music cd, but he didn't elaborate.

what is the difference? He said it would be more robust when I use newer and newer machines down the road to access the .wav files. What was he referring to?

Anybody? Beuller?

[chrisgraff]

music CD would be 16-bit files. Most projects these days use 24-bit.

.WAV is an industry standard file.

[BluesForDan]

music CD would be 16-bit files. Most projects these days use 24-bit.

.WAV is an industry standard file.

is there a bit-depth for .wav files? 24?

When I start a PT session, I have to choose before I start anything. If I'm going to back up to .wav, and convert later if I burn a copy of the audio, should I be setting my sessions to 24-bit?

[testing1two]

Audio CD's are designed for playback in consumer CD players which offers the following limitations:

1. Fixed bit depth and sample rate (16 bit/44.1khz)
2. Fixed as stereo interleaved files
3. Finalized for playback (additional formatting data the CD player needs)

If you want to archive of all the raw audio files in a PT session, you may as well create an archive copy of the entire session (which also saves session files, fade files, and plug-in settings). I like to keep a copy of the final bounce in a seperate folder on the same disk(s) as well.

[elambo]

It's much simpler than that, and in fact you don't need to make any decision on bit depth. If you're using ProTools, you'll be able to archive a session to DATA-CD using any kind of CD and an application that creates DATA-CDs, which most will do. We use Toast on a Mac. When you drag the session to the CD app, it will copy the entire session exactly as it exists on your hard drive, so when you want to restore an archived session, insert the CD and drag it from the CD to your hard drive. Easy. Depending on the size of your sessions, you can have as many PT session folder on a CD as the CD will allow.

If you do a lot of sessions, you may consider backing up to hard drive. We've been through all of the archiving apps, even the smart seeking-and-tracking apps which find every file ever associated with your session and copy them to the archive. After going through several like this, we're now back to the basic process of dragging session folders to an archive-specific hard drive. We make clones of each drive, keep one on-site and the other in another location in case of fire or flood or whatever. It's safe and easy.

[BluesForDan]

Audio CD's are designed for playback in consumer CD players which offers the following limitations:

1. Fixed bit depth and sample rate (16 bit/44.1khz)
2. Fixed as stereo interleaved files
3. Finalized for playback (additional formatting data the CD player needs)

If you want to archive of all the raw audio files in a PT session, you may as well create an archive copy of the entire session (which also saves session files, fade files, and plug-in settings). I like to keep a copy of the final bounce in a seperate folder on the same disk(s) as well.

Its beginning to make sense now. I had been chosing 16-bit for the sessions from the start, bcause I knew that the music cd, my ultimate destination, was only that much. I like the idea of archiving both raw data file and the finished product on the same disc. This also would allow me to save images of the source material cassette case inserts.

I'm not at the stage yet where I'll need to move hard drives full of sessions around. A thought did occur to me about using a flash drive, so I could work in PT on the computer that has it, and transfer to the computer with the DVR. That's for another thread.

heh heh, I like your sig line. So true.

[MichaelK]

I don't know what your engineer was referring to, specifically.

EDIT -

You should archive everything: all the session files and all mixdowns or masters. Not just the final mixes.

[jefesq]

2nd