Digital Audio: Playing For Keeps

I can rattle on all day about the finer points of building a high-quality digital audio library. In fact, I probably will.

For now, however, let's get down to basics. Follow these suggestions, and you can avoid many of the mistakes that turn good intentions -- and countless hours of hard work -- into an audiophile train wreck:

1. Always keep secure audio archive backups.
2. A lossy archive is a lost cause.
3. Don't normalize -- analyze.
4. Avoid DRM like the plague it is.
5. Whenever possible, avoid proprietary audio formats.
6. Don't assume that all CD ripping tools are alike.
7. Tag audio files as carefully and thoroughly as possible.
8. Invest in a quality PC sound card.
9. Never transcode lossy audio formats.

I'll cover each of these points in detail in separate posts. Today, however, let's start at the top of the list.

Back it up -- or give it up.

There's a word to describe people who spend countless hours ripping, tagging, and organizing a digital music archive without making regular backups: fools.

That's harsh, but it's the truth. It's one thing to load your iPod with a bunch of quick-and-dirty MP3 rips. It's quite another to move your entire music library to a permanent, carefully maintained digital archive. The latter is a project that can take months or even years to complete -- and a power surge, malware attack, or hardware glitch can put you back at square one in the blink of an eye.

Devising and sticking to a regular backup plan is an essential step for any digital music archivist. Don't plan to do it later; do it now, before you rip another CD or tag another file. Get some quality backup software, learn how to use it, and configure it to back up your audio library (and preferably all of your digital data) on a regular basis.

How often you schedule backups is up to you. Think about how often you update your library, consider how much work you stand to lose, and then plan accordingly.

Once you get this far, you're halfway home -- but only halfway. The other half of your backup scheme should include a practical, effective disaster-recovery plan.

If something awful happened to your computer -- a robbery, for example, or perhaps a fire or natural disaster -- could you still restore digital audio archive? That's what "disaster recovery" means, and it's the reason why system backups are only as secure as the place you store them.

Some people upload their backups to a secure remote server; others copy their backups to removable hard drives, DVD, or other portable media and then store them in a fireproof safe or stash them at a remote location. There are lots of ways to do the job; pick one and stick with it religiously.

My own backup plan involves three lines of defense against a data-loss disaster. First, I store my archive on redundant sets of hard disks. This setup is known as a mirrored RAID; if one disk set fails, the other set still holds an identical, intact copy of the same content.

Second, I back up my archive to a completely separate computer system. Finally -- and perhaps most important -- I back up changes to my archive once a month to DVDs that I keep in a fire- and waterproof safe.

It's not a cheap set of backup solutions, but at least I'm buying some serious peace of mind. There are other, often much less expensive, ways to do the job -- what matters is that you put together a plan that meets your needs and then stick to it religiously.

NEXT TIME: Why a lossy audio formats are a lost cause.