Creating an Audio Archive

[Mike Stranks]

This isn't strictly 'Windows Music' so if Mods want to shift it somewhere else that's fine by me.


I've been asked to archive an extensive catalogue of speech-only recordings held by a local charity. The talks are currently held on audio CDs and the charity would like to make them available via the web to anyone who wants to listen.

Transferring, cleaning and archiving the recordings to a compact format is no problem... it's my bread and butter. I estimate that it will be about 300-500 recordings, but I've been told it can be a drip-feed exercise.

I'm giving some thought as to how to make the archive easily accessible - and searchable - so that people can hunt by, f'r instance, Date, Topic, Speaker. I don't want to load the archive onto the charity's website... it's commercial and I don't want to incur costs or other overheads for them.

Current thinking is to load the audio into, say, Googledrive where the recordings can be pretty compact as they're speech only. Using a standard naming convention would mean, theoretically a user can just search the G-Drive and find what they're looking for. But most users will not be that computer-literate and will baulk at anything they see as too 'techy'.

So any thoughts - including software recommendations - as to how to make the archive available and easily searchable and playable on selection? Naturally, it goes without saying that this needs to be implemented for 'free' or at minimal cost...

[James Perrett]

There's a whole industry devoted to this sort of thing though I'm not very well up on the cataloguing side of things. Try looking around

https://www.arsc-audio.org/index.php

and

https://www.iasa-web.org/

and in particular

https://www.iasa-web.org/tc04/audio-preservation

for a start.

[zenguitar]

I was chatting with Eddy Deegan this afternoon about something he's working on for accessing media online.

Might well be worth having a conversation with him Mike.

Andy

[Mike Stranks]

I was chatting with Eddy Deegan this afternoon about something he's working on for accessing media online.

Might well be worth having a conversation with him Mike.

Andy

Might well do that Andy - particularly as his IT skills are much, much better than mine!

But it won't be for a few days as we have family with us for half-term....

Cheers!

[The Elf]

Might be worth putting all the audio on a NAS running Plex server. Access to users can be controlled from there and users can make use of any of Plex's search and sorting tools - and Plex is free to use.

Tags can be managed using something like the free MP3Tag utility.

It's very simple to do - all my audio is on a Synology NAS and available to me on any device that can run the Plex client - which is almost anything: laptop, phone, iPad, Android... even my new Steam Deck.

Happy to help.

[The Elf]

Oh, and the PlexAmp app (available to most devices), which is specifically designed to provide audio only from Plex, runs on in-car systems too, which may, or may not, be an important benefit for your audience. It requires very little of the consumer to get it working.

[Mike Stranks]

Thanks Paul

That's an approach I hadn't considered...

I shall pursue and peruse!

M

[Eddy Deegan]

I was chatting with Eddy Deegan this afternoon about something he's working on for accessing media online.

Mike, I have been working on a side-project which this is relevant to as I'm creating my own personal replacement for SoundCloud but it's more about the visualisation/look 'n feel aspect of audio on the web currently. The searching/tagging capabilities will come but are a ways off at present as I'm currently working on the player/visualisation aspects.

When it's working as I'd like I'll be open-sourcing it but obviously hosting is a different challenge altogether and the solution would require a host with MySQL and PHP capabilities as well as the storage space to hold the audio.

That said, if you need a reliable host to put the content on in the short term then, as they are a charity, I would happily provide that to your client at no charge but it would be on the deegan.org domain.

In short I can offer your client free hosting of large amounts of data on my domain. Higher-level functionality in terms of audio-related search/tagging is on my roadmap but not available until my 'SoundCloud alternative' is working as I'd like which may take weeks or months but will be running in some form by July 2023.

If raw online storage is something you think would be useful in the short term, let me know but I think Elf's Plex suggestion is a good one.

[Mike Stranks]

In haste...

Thanks Eddy; that's very kind and generous of you.

Storage won't be the issue though... the key dilemma is ease of remote access to a mainly elderly constituency with little techy awareness, techy-phobic and a wide range of 'access' devices... Asking them to load or download any software would probably be a turn-off for them - and the charity...

... I'm trying various 'access' options on a test-bed in between family excursions and keeping my 3-year-old grandson amused this week!

Progress report in due course...

Thanks again Eddy.

[Eddy Deegan]

[sonics]

My first thought was to use a web template with audio blog posts. You can then use tagging tools to provide a simple search, plus related posts. Pretty easy...

Audio files can be local, SoundCloud, whatever.

[Mike Stranks]

Well on my way with the 'proof of concept' to demo in a couple of weeks time...

Transparency, portability and ease of use is key... so after a lot of faffing about and blind alleys, I'm now making progress with a combination of Excel, an app called 'Awesome Table', a Weebly website ('cos I know Weebly well) and YouTube...

Good so far and all at zero cost... not all chickens are yet hatched so....

[Mike Stranks]

Back of the net!.... Back of the net!

[Eddy Deegan]

Well done Mike

[The Elf]

[Mike Stranks]

Thanks guys!

Putting all self-congratulations aside - although even Mrs S was impressed! - 'Awesome Tables' really is a powerful app, especially as it's free for basic (but by no means rudimentary) use.

The company's own documentation leaves something to be desired, but using it in conjunction with third-party videos has enabled me to work my way through to the desired result.

As someone who has never had to get into relational database programming or HTML, this gave me sufficient hand-holding to achieve my desired outcome. Recommended!

[The Elf]

That's quite a journey you've been on! Relational databases are a closed shop to most people. That you've managed to negotiate a way through is impressive.

I would offer just one nugget of caution... Setting up any web service is one thing - maintaining it is another. Just be sure that that task is not going to be onerous, and that the next imcumbent has sufficient documentation to make sensible decisions.

[Mike Stranks]

Good call Mr Elf!

I looked at several products that would have assisted me in creating what I wanted. I settled on 'Awesome Tables', because:

*It's free!
*You build your searchable table and the search parameters on a step by step basis.
*It really holds your hand about the HTML that has to go into website headers and at the appropriate place on the webpage
* It has permanent links back to the spreadsheet. Change the spreadsheet, republish the website and bingo, the changes are reflected. (I know this works as I've been updating the 'proof of concept' website throughout today.)

I've just finished the User Guide which will be an intrinsic part of the website. It's a 'How to search for an item' tutorial... searches can be by Talk Name, Speaker Name - or part thereof in each case - and by Talk Category.

I shall be maintaining this website as I build the archive... it'll just be a case of adding a new line to the spreadsheet each time I load a new audio file. The Archive will be totally self-contained and be accessed by a hyperlink from within the standard website: 'Click here to access our audio Archive' or words to that effect.