And for storage, the more places you keep the file on the better. It's good advice to follow the 3-2-1 rule:
* Maintain 3 copies of your data: This includes the original data and at least two copies.
* Use 2 different types of media for storage: Store your data on two distinct forms of media to enhance redundancy (e.g. a pendrive or external disk and a CD)
* Keep at least 1 copy off-site: To ensure data safety, have one backup copy stored in an off-site location, e.g. give a copy to a friend to conserve it for you.
Depends somewhat. What are you planning to record? Music or spoken voice or something else?
MP3 is a "lossy" format, but its so widely used that 20 or 30 years from now, mp3 decoders will still be available, and it's great for spoken voice.
If it's a piano performance or small instrumental group, things become much more complex. You'd need a quiet room that blocks out external trucks, sirens, aircraft noise, etc. You'd need good microphones and multiple tracks; maybe each instrument on its own track. And you'd want a lossless format like .WAV that's also long-lived.
And, what other folks said about multiple copies, multiple media, that all applies. Will drives for writable CDs or data DVDs still exist in 30 years? Probably. And there are "archival" optical disks (like data DVDs & CDs) that claim 100 year lifetimes.
Thumb drives and other flash media generally don't have warranties beyond 5 years. Longer than that, and the little pockets of charge start to leak and the data can become unreadable. So you'll need to make fresh copies of flash media every 5 years.
@ElwoodBlues See my reply to Uncalled4. I wanted to save some messages from my mother that are on voice mail. I also have cassette tapes of her playing the piano, but I don’t know if they’re still viable.
Back in the mid/late 2000's, I devised a way of recording music from the internet to cassette by using a cassette adapter, a dual cassette player and either a laptop or a wireless tablet.
What I did was plug the cord of the cassette adapter into the headphone jack of either a laptop or tablet, then go on to YouTube and search for the songs I wanted to record on cassette.
Then I would put the cassette adapter into the playback only unit of the cassette deck and a blank cassette into the record/playback unit.
If you can record on a computer at highest sample rate. Audacity is free and good. Then save as a Flac file. That's the best format to not lose anything in the compression. However you'll find they take up a fair bit of space. For burning cds I generally use WAV format then MP3 only for where space is premium or for streaming.
@bijouxbroussard Lol, right. I read the other comments after I responded. I assumed (sorry, my bad) that you wanted to record something like a future conversation.
Questions first: 1. What exactly are you recording and is sound quality a concern? 2. Where will you be playing it? 3. What is the duration of the recording?
The sad truth is that there is NO ultimate format. I believe the AES/EBU got together in Europe and came up with no answer.
Whatever you do, do not put your faith in disc-based formats like CD-R or RW or DVD-R. They are unstable AF. I haven't had many go bad, but when they do, you have zero. Nothing. Nada. No player will read them.
Here's what I would do. 1. Make or capture your recording. 2. Back it up immediately on computer/hard drive, and uplink to cloud storage so it lives in many places. 3. Email files and/or burn CD-Rs for listening only.
Cassette is lower-quality and a dead format, but it DOES last if stored correctly. Open-reel still exists, but after a while these tapes require baking(yes, baking) in a convection oven to become playable again.
Hard drives are not forever, either. You'll have to migrate from drive to drive every so often. Many people who made Pro Tools or other type recordings from 20 years ago are in for a surprise when they try to spin those drives up, not only because they have sat forever but also because PT is several incompatible versions down the line.
You're going to laugh, but the works of L. Ron Hubbard are being mastered to vinyl. To his followers, that is a viable format. It's unaffordable to most, and it still does not stop someone from dropping it on a floor and mortally scratching it.
@uncalled4 I discovered some phone messages from my mother on my voice mail (I listened to them at the time and saved them). I want to keep that access to my mother’s voice.
@bijouxbroussard I've done something similar. First, see if the files are downloadable or retrievable in some way. If not, you can make a speaker-to-mic recording and save it that way. Of course, the quality won't be optimal but it will be there.
Harddisks, CD ROMs, cellphone micro SDs. Whatever. Some players can even play the micro SD cards without additional devices. My Sony Blu-ray player can.
The key is multiple copies on different storage methods. Heck even on the old cassette tape.
