By Tom Mulhern
Recordings are difficult to search for when you use traditional means, such as relying solely on a written record. Applying web technology, including web-friendly audio formatting, basic HTML, and a web browser (Netscape Communicator or Microsoft Internet Explorer), we recordists can make our lives more organized and our tracks easier to find. Using web technology lets us leave "audio sticky notes" that we can audition during our searches, which really helps when we’re trying to locate that unnamed or vaguely named work in progress we started a while back.
Whether you’ve only worked in one medium, or a variety (1/4" and/or 1/2" reel-to-reel tapes, 4- or 8-channel cassettes, 2-channel cassettes, DATs, MDs, and CDs, etc.), you probably don’t remember everything you’ve recorded, let alone where it’s all stashed. Maybe your track sheets give you some clues about what tracks you laid down when, what instruments you recorded, etc. But that’s a big "maybe." Few people outside of pro studios are meticulous about labeling their tapes or writing track sheets.
How do you get started? First, assign a number or name to each track and to each piece of media (tape, disc, etc.); be sure to write it on the media. Second, do rough mixes and save some excerpts as .WAV files. No, .WAV files aren't as compact as mp3s, but they are easy to make and can be played back through any browser, without a plug-in. Make them just long enough to tickle your memory. Third, create an HTML page to save on your drive. You don’t need to be an accomplished web coder to build a page to organize your music, nor do you need fancy software. You can use just about any text editor (NotePad, SimpleText, etc.). Put together a web page and use hyperlinks to call up .WAV files. Even better, in a single HTML document, you can make links to excerpts of your music and to track sheets or other notes. For example, it could look like this:
"Singing In The Snow" Take 1, June 10, 2001
Synopsis: First pass with 12-string acoustic guitar and bassoon.
Audio
Notes
"Singing In The Snow" Take 2, June 11, 2001
Synopsis:Bob Smith added tambourine while I played harmonica.
Audio
Notes
The "Audio" hyperlink for each song could call up its own WAV file for playback through your computer, while the "Notes" file for each could call up an HTML document containing your notes (including the name or number of the tape, CD, etc., where the audio resides). In fact, if you have a scanner, you could save chord charts or miking diagrams as JPEG or GIF graphics files and hyperlink to those, too. You can even save tuning references (recording of each open string of a guitar, for example) so that you can tune other instruments to the track later, should there be any discrepancy.
Here’s what the HTML for the example looks like:
<html>
<head>
<title>My Tracks, 2000</title>
</head>
<body>
<center><h1>My Tracks, 2000</h1></center>
<h3>"Singing In The Snow" Take 1, June 10, 2000</h3>
<p><b>Synopsis:</b> This was the first time using 12-string acoustic guitar and bassoon together.<br>
<a href="yourtunehere.wav">Audio</a><br>
<a href="yourtexthere.htm">Notes</a></p>
<h3>"Singing In The Snow" Take 2, June 11, 2000</h3>
<p><b>Synopsis:</b> Bob Smith contributed the rowdy bongos while I played harmonica.<br>
<a href="yourtunehere2.wav">Audio</a><br>
<a href="yourtexthere2.htm">Notes</a></p>
</body>
</html>
Save this file with a name like index.htm. Where a link says "yourtunehere.wav", insert the name of your .WAV file; don’t forget the ".wav" extension. Where it says, "yourtexthere.htm", insert the name of your HTML file holding your notes. Don’t forget the ".htm" suffix if it’s an HTML file, and use .gif or .jpg as the suffix if your document is in a graphics format. Here's all you need in a basic HTML file for your notes:
<html>
<head>
<title>Notes For Song X</title>
</head>
<body>
<center><h1>Notes For Song X</h1></center>
<pre>Put your text here</pre>
</body>
</html>
Save the file with a name like songnotes.htm, and use that name in a link from your index file.
Where do you store all of these files? If you don't have a lot of samples indexed, you can save them in a folder (directory) on your hard drive. If you have a lot (more than, say, 100 recordings), burn a CD-ROM with the HTML, .WAV, and other files. A blank CD costs just one or two dollars and can hold 650 megabytes of data (74 minutes of stereo CD-quality audio). Otherwise, save your indexes on other capacious storage media, such as Zip or Jaz cartridges. Remember, though, that CDs tend to be more durable, as well as cheaper.
With a little effort, you can make your audio easy to find and easy to get to, and you don’t have to be a propeller-head to make web tools work for you.