Yes, Rob, that makes perfect sense. It would be great to have an app that
would work something like BreezeBrowsers downloader pro and would be cross
platform. There are a few applications that will allow for metadata editing
but they are hugely expensive.
Most of the recorders are saving Broadcast wav files. With this set
structure there certainly must be a way to access all of the bext chunk data
slots in an easy and inexpensive way.
Wil Hershberger
<http://www.natureimagesandsounds.com/> Nature Images and Sounds, LLC
Hedgesville, WV
<http://www.songsofinsects.com/> The Songs of Insects
<http://cricketman.blogspot.com/> My Blog
From:
On Behalf Of Rob Danielson
Sent: Wednesday, April 21, 2010 11:37 AM
To:
Subject: Re: [Nature Recordists] from metadata to archiving (was Some
prescient words from Murray Schafer
At 5:21 PM +1000 4/21/10, Paul Jacobson wrote:
>
>On 21/04/2010, at 10:34 AM, Dan Dugan wrote:
>
>> Cameras are leading the way with metadata. A photo file from my
>>Canon Digital Rebel comes with at least 18 items of metadata
>>embedded--not only date and time, but lens type, exposure values,
>>etc. My iPhone photos come with GPS coordinates. Unfortunately,
>>there is less demand (no mass market?) for audio recorders
>>including metadata.
>
>Hi Dan,
>
>iXML looks promising in this regard. see:
><http://www.ixml.info/>http://www.ixml.info/
>
>The "Notes" keyword allows free form text to be entered and is
>probably the most useful section for entering information about
>location, rig, etc. Sound Devices have support for this in v2.0+
>firmware.
>
>Support is becoming increasingly widespread and is slightly more
>extensive than the compatibility list would indicate. For example
>Soundminer and Wave Editor include iXML metadata editing
>capabilities and I noticed that the tascam HD-P82, and Sonosax
>recorders ( SX-R4 and MiniR82 ) include iXML metadata support. The
>hardware supporting iXML tends to confirm your observation that
>audio metadata is aimed squarely at the pro end of the market,
>rather than mass market.
>
>The GPS_COORDINATES custom keyword has been registered but
>unfortunately there is no indication of which developer intends to
>implement this.
>
>cheers
>Paul
>
Hi Paul, Dan, Charles et al--
I'm very interested in these issues.
Prompted by the insights of Ian Rawes, who works at the British
Library Sound Archive, I'm imagining a software approach that would
effectively make a recordist into an "archivist" every time he/she
logs a recording (in recognition that there are many boxes of tapes,
discs and hard drives at museums and historical societies waiting for
archivists to dive into,..)
Heres one, possible way to see the software as "auto-archiving:"
Lets say we have a recorder that grabs GPS and time and sets aside
chunks for additional data. (Not essential, but the system would
accommodate this).
Lets say there's a free or cheap, cross-platform sound editing/mixing
app** (not just logging or library app) that accepts
recorder-produced data and allows one to add notes, photos, sync'd
weather info, species and other key data AS ONE LOGS and creates
short audio excerpts. (One can use the same app to create rich
records from field recordings with out metadata initially).
Lets say the same editor will export all of this app-consolidated
data in format "X." (Possibly, xml with links to the media and all
other indexed data).
Next, one needs a free or very cheap cross-platform database
application to import data "X" and create RECORDS or pages that
display this info in an organized format with links to the media and
robust relational searching. It also enables one to update and
correct records and add more categories both temporarily and
permanently.
It seems to me that if we work backwards from the Database, one can
make a powerful, personal library that one has the option to place
on-line and be linked with others of similar ilk. The same system
could retain/link commercial interests and/or non profit interests.
**Reaper (cross-platform $50) will import metadata and allow one to
add notes and export excel compatible log sheets. One of the
Extension developers for Reaper lives here in Wisconsin, but he needs
to know what database the info is going into,..
Obviously, I'm favoring a system that a beginning recordist can use
with little expense and with community support so the numbers of
users can grow and abilities maintained over time. Make sense to
anyone? Rob D.
--
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