(January 10, 2008)
Of approximately 300 Cassette tapes of Fr. Aloysius talking in different environments we have about 100 digitalized and copied onto audio CD's. Originally we used a two-step process: First, copying the Cassettes into DVDs and then in an entirely separate step, converting to Digital and saving the conversions on an external hard drive. Some have observed that the two-step process is unnecessary. Each step requires a real time running of the Cassette with the sound being recorded.
Free software is available from the Internet. Alternatively there are people in most cities who for a fee do this process and who advertise for it. It is not necessary to run the voice on the Cassette twice -- once onto the DVD and then from the DVD to the hard-drive. This essentially doubles the time to convert to Digital.
There is a site to download the conversion software (
www.audacity.com). It is vital to master the process first to see how we could get help in converting.
There are also several people who advertise on the Internet for services converting Cassette to Digial. There are prices as low as $6.00 per Cassette and the same prorate price for reels (We have about 25 reel to reel recordings). There are others who will copy more cheaply.
The WAV format (the default selection on Audacity) essentlly copies the Cassette without compression. It is necessary to copy in real time no matter what format is selected. At one hour per cassette tape it will take roughly 300 hours of playing cassettes.
Copying the cassettes directly to a hard drive is the correct way to do it, particularly for the bulky WAV format. Either a Hard Disk could be sent to the Company or they would provide for the Hard Disk and charge for it. The MP3 format (used by iPOD) substantially compresses the files, and this seems to be the direction things are going. It is easy to copy from WAV format to MP3 and vice-versa. Probably four computers would be used running at the same time each individually copying a Cassette in real time. At one hour per cassette it would be 4 cassetes per hour and the company would take about 3 weeks to complete the job.
If the Cassettes are in digital form they can be manipulated, such as making a separate file or files for subject matter (ie., Sermons on a particular topic). The immediate possiblity is to totally digitalize all of Fr. Aloysius oral record in WAV format. The recordings can be copied in MP3 format and would probably fit onto DVDs. These would eventually be evidence of Fr. Aloysius' orthodoxy in preaching, his zeal for spreading the fiath, and heroic virtue.
This step requires the process to be mastered before we reasonably proceed. After having copied a number of Cassettes we'll probably be able to spot common problems with the Cassettes. At this point we will be able to teach one or more persons to copy the Cassettes on our computer or theirs. The digitalized Cassetes can be attached via email back to us. We may borrow or obtain 3 or 4 computers, one for each quiet room, so that one person can be having as many as 4 cassettes being copied at the same time.