VO-BB - 19 YEARS OLD!

[anthonyVO]

What keeps me afloat during downtimes are the weekly nightclub radio spots that I produce (and on occasion voice), but 2 years later, and I'm choking on hundreds and hundreds of mp3's of these spots.

I started to store some away from the studio by taking the files home and dumping them on my home PC, but now even THAT is "running low" on space.

Two questions:

1. Do you use a certain naming convention or filing system for keeping your produced spots organized and easily accessible if requested?
   
2. What storage/archival hardware are you using? I need to store these puppies somewhere (especially the concert/nightclub spots from 2004-2005) and free up precious space.
   

-Anthony

NOTE: My home PC has only USB 2.0 - it DOES NOT have firewire - running XP Pro SP2 AMD Athlon 1.6GHz w/ 224MB RAM. My studio PC is a MAC g4 w/ Firewire/USB running OS9 (733MHz) w/ 1GB RAM - Just in case this info helps.

[Deirdre]

Anthony-

I back off everything onto data DVDs by using Toast.
The tracking software I use is called DiskTracker (don't know if its Mac only-- sorry!!).
The names for the files can include a 6-digit creation date
070906
Or
What I do is keep completed things in folders that are dated by month and year.
AuditionsApr06
NUApr06
PBSJMay065

Stuff like that.
I can send you screenshots of my hierarchy if you want.
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DBCooperVO.com

[Bruce]

I burn entire sessions (if they're worth keeping) onto CD or DVD. If it's truly precious (i.e. my demo sessions) I'll burn two. I only go back to a saved file maybe once or twice a year, but it's worth it when the client has to have it.

For all the individual spots and such, I just go alphabetical in some fashion with the client/sponsor name, and for the date every file has a creation date and last modified date attached to it so they're pretty easy to track. Of course all of this back up sits just 10 feet away from my 'puter, so in case of a big fire I'm SOL. Hmmm.

At least my long haired cat doesn't hang around candles.

Ever chased a cat that was on fire? Did that once in my college days. They're freaked out already because they're on fire, and then here you are chasing them around with a towel and a large glass of water.

B.


P.S. The cat was OK in the end. We had to shave all the stinky burnt fur off of him. Ever tried to shave a cat? A story for another time.
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VO-BB Member #31 Enlisted June, 2005

I'm not a Zoo, but over the years I've played one on radio/TV. .

[glittlefield]

Lately, I've been offloading airchecks and other projects to hard drives that I remove from the machine and put away. I've read a few articles about (and actually experienced) the degradation of CD data over a period of years so I'm really paranoid about these things. I'm considering looking into external USB drives for backup purposes.
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Greg Littlefield
VO-BB Member #59

[SoundsGreat-Elaine Singer]

I'm thinking of getting a USB HD as well. Is there any way to tell if the USB ports on my computer are 1.0 or 2.0? Does it matter - other than speed issues, that is?
_________________
Elaine
The Youthful Mature Voice (Emeritus)
Senectitude is not for the faint of heart.

[Deirdre]

You should be able to call up System Specs somehow and see what your USB speed/version is.
On a Mac it's called "System Profiler".
_________________
DBCooperVO.com

[glittlefield]

Obviously, PCs are too cool too make it easy. Best I can come up with is to look in the Device Manager, but a better guess would be that if your machine was made in the last 3 or 4 years, it should have v.2.0 on it.

And yeah, the only real issue is speed.
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Greg Littlefield
VO-BB Member #59

[anthonyVO]

Thanks for that program name (DiskTracker), db - maybe I'll just get a couple of huge firewire drives for backup and archives only and use that program - that way, I don't have to use my home PC for that.

My naming convention is abbreviated client name into 3 letters, then time (10,30, or 60), followed by date (year FIRST, because the computer can list it better that way by automatically sorting it chronologically - otherwise, I might have a July 5th spot from two different years listed next to each other and I don't want that), and finally the revision number - for example a :30 radio spot for ABC company, done today would be ABC_30_2006-07-09-1.mp3, the next revision would ABC_30_2006-07-09-2.mp3

Now I'll get an additional USB drive for my home PC for backing THAT up as well.

I guess there's ALWAYS more than one way to do things when it comes to tech - but this is definitely something that I need to get more organized.

-Anthony

[COURVO]

Greg, Elaine, et al,

I've bought into the USB 2.0 HD storage thing. S'great! I can take it anywhere I want. It's about the size of a 3X5 photograph, and about 3/4" thick.
Greg's right...anything made in the last coupla years is 2.0...even if your computer only takes 1.0, it still works fine, just not as fast.

Mine's a Western Digital 80 Gig....got it at Fry's Electronics for about $129, but I'm sure you can do better than that by now.

Courvo
_________________
Dave Courvoisier - Las Vegas, NV
http://www.CourVO.com
CourVO@CourVO.com
Courvo's "Voice Acting in Vegas" Blog: http://www.CourVO.biz
on your phone at courvo.mobi
702.610.6288
"I'm not a news anchor, but I play one on TV."

[anthonyVO]

yeah - much better deal now

The problem I'm having is twofold - the storage is ONE thing, but being able to call upon the files is very important - since I get alot of requests to do "that thing you did for so-and-so club" or annual concerts come up and I like to refer to what I did for them the previous year. So, the program db recommended sounds like it's right on target for the studio.

-Anthony

[tackerman]

I've got a 200 gig hard drive in one of these.



Works really well.