I am someone who uses a Mac for processing wildlife sounds, but who has no
knowledge of metadata, nor what I would do with it, in archiving wildlife
sounds.=20
I have a smallish archive of my own sounds that I hope will outlive me
because it is so simple.
The sounds are on audio CD, and the written information is on a hard copy
printout kept in a folder with the CDs. You don't need a computer to find
the sound!!
This is how I go about my archiving. Any sounds that I think have some
potential use or interest are transferred onto audio CDs, with backup
copies, plus another copy made for my own use saved as Peak data files.
I'm a low-budget person, so I am using an AppleWorks (free) spreadsheet tha=
t
I have set up into columns, with species name, date, time, location, field
tape number, temperature, recording equipment, behaviour & comments, and in
bold type, the CD number and track number onto which the recording has been
archived. Each bird species has a code number so that I can sort the entir=
e
spreadsheet into taxonomic order. I can also use the "find" command to fin=
d
anything in particular.
When this spreadsheet is printed out as a hard copy onto real sheets of
paper, with bird species grouped in taxonomic order, it is then very easy t=
o
run through and find a wanted species and the relevant CD.
I am reckoning that the audio CD format will last for a long time yet, and
if Appleworks software ever fails then there is still a hard copy of all th=
e
written information.
When I label my Peak files I might have:
01.WWAG.C25.030204.5.45P
which translates as
number 1 track on the CD, Willie Wagtail, Field tape C25, recording made on
3rd Febuary 2004 at 5.45pm. Each CD is labelled by number and my initials
e.g. VP.CD.008.
Habitat recordings are listed as habitat recordings, plus I will have a
separate listing for each of the prominent species on that recording.
Each CD has a contents list printed on the back cover. On some tracks I
have retained spoken information about species behaviour, if it is relevant=
.
This is all a bit primitive compared to what you guys are doing, but it doe=
s
work and maybe others might be interested. All of us should try to archive
our recordings, no matter what our resources.
If anyone sees some major flaw in my system, please let me know!
Vicki Powys
Australia
on 30/3/04 7:30 AM, Walter Knapp at wrote:
> From: Lang Elliott <>
>>
>> Let's talk about file naming conventions.
>>
>> There are so many different options. The big collections such as MLNS (L=
ab
>> or Ornithology) and BLB (Borror Lab of Bioacoutics) simply give each
>> recording a number based on when the recording was archived. That number=
is
>> tied to a relational database. Numbers can generally reflect when a
>> recording was made (=3D low numbers were made in the beginning of one's
>> recording career, while the highest numbers are more recent recordings)=
.
>> The advantage of using a simple numerical system is that filenames will
>> always be quite short. Who among us would ever exceed 99999 recordings i=
n
>> their collection?
>>
>> One can also name recordings by date. For instance, "950612_1" could mea=
n
>> this is the first recording made in 1995 on May 12. The reason to place =
the
>> 95 first is that if all recordings were stored in one place, they'd all =
line
>> up by date, which could be useful.
>
> I do use the year, but don't get into the exact date. I start year, then
> a letter that indicates what it is (A=3Daudio, P=3Dphoto etc.) followed b=
y,
> in the case of audio a disk number and track number. I'm a optimist and
> my system will allow for up to 999 disks per year with up to 999 tracks
> each. I do add the 3 letter suffix, mostly because it looks like the OS
> folks will never learn to handle that without messing up the filename.
> The Mac OS could handle that, the OSX imitation mac cannot get it right.
> My names, therefore, track in order.
>
> The simple index number would be ok by me, but it takes little filename
> space to do a name that provides more info.
>
>> In cases where one's recordings may end up in another collection, it mig=
ht
>> be important to add a recordist identifier at the end, such as the follo=
wing
>> for Lang Elliott: "950612_1_LE". But now we're running well beyond the
>> 8-digit limit mentioned by Marty. But is the 8-digit limit important the=
se
>> days?
>
> The 8-digit limit is essentially obsolete. I'd not worry about staying
> within it. That said, I find the use of long descriptive filenames
> shortsighted. Disk and folder contents displays really can't handle
> those well. It's better to stick to reasonable lengths that will fit in
> standard contents displays given in a readable font size.
>
> It's one of my pet peeves that when windows folks were freed from the
> 8.3 convention that they started naming things with whole paragraph long
> names.
>
>> Not worrying about the length of a file's name allows for an animals
>> complete common name to be used: "scarlet tanager_1". But this gets a li=
ttle
>> unweildy at times: "Greater Angle-winged Katydid_1". The nice thing abou=
t
>> using a common name (or a scientific name) is that content is immediatel=
y
>> apparent from the file name itself.
>>
>> But then what does one do with soundscapes, or mixed choruses? Maybe "mi=
xed
>> chorus_1" or "soundscape_1".
>
> It works poorly, particularly with frogs, where I might have 8 different
> species calling, plus a few birds and lots of insects. And, even after
> I've named the file might discover another call in the recording.
>
> Also when you use very long names and the file display truncates them,
> it typically cuts off the end data, which is often critical. Say you
> have a hundred Greater Angle-winged Katydid recordings and the file
> display gives you Greater Angle-winged Katy...
>
> Walt
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> "Microphones are not ears,
> Loudspeakers are not birds,
> A listening room is not nature."
> Klas Strandberg
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
>
>
>
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