The Weekly Archivist interview: acetate restoration in the SABC Radio Archives

Joseph Lobeko
SABC Radio Archives

Joseph Lobeko looks after the sound restoration of our acetate collection. He has been with the SABC Radio Archives for 13 years. Previously he helped with requests for the Radio Programme Sales department at the SABC, as well as looking after the collection of our daily radio feeds for archival storage.

The SABC Radio Archives has archivists who specialize in specific areas/languages of expertise with regards the audio collections being kept in the Archives. There are also archivists who focus on requests, and we have an archivist who focuses on sound restoration. This is part of the weekly interviews that will try to pose the same questions to each of the archivists.

Joseph, please tell us a little bit about your life and work history.

I grew up in a village called Morokweng, some kilometers from Vryburg (North-West). That is where I started my elementary-education up until my matriculation level. With a matric certificate I became involved with the SABC through a studio-production internship course which, I think, formed an exit level for me to the SABC Sound-Archives. Upon arrival here in the Sound Archives I have acquired a Bursary-funded National-Diploma (in archival studies) in 2006, and from there registered for a BA Communication Science (with more focus in Anthropology). It is still in progress and I am busy with the second level.
 
Please tell us about a normal day in your studio. What material do you give priority to?


I have just moved into a new field of sound restoration, so at the moment I am still trying to settle and make it my home. I am still working in order and not in priority yet (if, at all, there is a contrast between the two).

Tell us more about your collection and the scope of material you need to preserve.

The audio material comprises of a lot of old days dramas recorded in cassettes (stored in closed-movable-steel shelves) dating back to the 40’s and a lot of old days acetate-records dating back to the 30’s (stored in open-grounded-steel shelves)

Do you struggle with technical difficulties, and if so, what?

As I have said, this is a new field for me, technical difficulties will always emerge, but obviously my basic technical-competency that I have gained previously will mitigate that. There is a helpful hand from Marius (sound engineer), who is quite knowledgeable and has been involved in that field.

If you have an anecdote about a specific piece of interesting audio material, please share it with us.

A drama I listened to caught my attention. The drama epitomizes a man from Namibia called Lubbi, who has footed all the way from his own country to come and look for better life in South-African mines. What catches my attention is Lubbi’s courage and determination to work against all odds to reach his personal goals. I can’t relate the whole story but listening to it you pick up a man’s multiple courageous qualities which elevated him from zero to hero. It is a very emotional piece of work. 

Tell us why you enjoy doing the work that you do.

It is educational.


Related posts
The weekly archivist interview: Sound engineer in the Radio Archives
The weekly archivist interview: Ikwekwezi FM
The weekly archivist interview: Music archivist
The weekly archivist interview: News and actuality
The weekly archivist interview: Sport archivist
The weekly archivist interview: Channel Africa collection

Questions and post by Karen du Toit, Afrikaans Archivist in the SABC Radio Archives.

Restoration or destruction in the audio archives

Report about a meeting with British Library’s expert on audio and historical recordings, Will Prentice.

Marius Oosthuizen, our recent Sound Engineer in the SABC Radio Archives, had a meeting with Will Prentice, and gives his views on ten years of research and conversations and actual experience working in this field.

“We are not doing sound restoration, we are destroying historical recordings, legacy material and important radio broadcasts!”

Harsh quote! Let me explain: Experience has showed us that in the last ten years software developers around the world have written algorithms for small software programmes that run with software audio packages on windows platforms. These windows audio programmes are aimed at the consumer market, especially the garage band types, and the noise reduction and audio restoration side of it is inferior when it comes to historical recordings. 

Although these audio programmes and various plug-INS that are available as free download or as cheap as $30 a shot, and they are presented as audio restoration software, they are not!
If a person or an organization like archives or libraries is serious about preserving legacy material, they will not do audio processing on material for preservation purposes. Will Prentice, for instance, adhere to the same practice of no sound processing on audio files, and I agree with him. The audio should be recorded as good as possible at the highest bit rates and kept as is with all the good and the bad on the file.

The cleaning part of the audio only comes into play where a specific broadcaster or client wants to use the audio and needs the clicks and crackles to be taken out. Restoration is specifically driven towards a certain goal, but not for archiving purposes. Software and hardware for audio restoration are developing very fast. Algorithms for audio restoration are getting better and it would be advisable to keep a piece of audio as near to its original for later restoration with better equipment and software if the need arrives.

To all audio archivists and -librarians and would-be sound restoration engineers, do NOT do restoration! Do preservation!

What have you encountered in your audio restoration endeavors for heritage preservation?
Do you agree with this principle of keeping sound restoration to the minimum?

Post dictated to Karen du Toit, Afrikaans Archivist in the SABC Radio Archives.

Related post:
The Weekly Archivist Interview: Sound Engineer in the Radio Archives

The Weekly Archivist interview: Sound Engineer in the Radio Archives

Marius Oosthuizen
Sound Engineer: SABC Radio Archives

The SABC Radio Archives has seven Archivists who specialize in specific areas/languages of expertise with regards the audio collections being kept in the Archives. There are also Archivists who focus on requests, and we have a Sound Engineer as well that assists us with technical issues. This is part of the weekly interviews that will try to pose the same questions to each of the Archivists.

Marius Oosthuizen is the sound engineer, who also looks after our acetate collection for sound restoration. He has been with the SABC Radio Archives for 10 years, and he will be leaving us shortly.

Marius, please tell us a little bit about your life and career. (Where you grew up, where and what you studied and your work experience before you joined the SABC Radio Archives)

I grew up in Vanderbijlpark, not too far from the Vaal River. I still have a very soft spot for rivers and willow trees. I did some studies at The Teaching College in Potchefstroom and did my military service in the SAP where I joined the video unit and I made training videos. I learnt the craft of video making from Will Roberts, the well-known actor. From there I joined the SABC. I worked in Radio Productions for 9 years. I worked on my own as a freelancer for five years, and rejoined the Radio Archives since 2000 as an archivist in restoration. At the end of April I will be leaving the SABC to pursue a career as the Audio and Video Department Manager for the University of Monash.

Please tell us about a normal day in your studio. What material do you give priority to?

I give priority to the legacy collection, the acetates. The careful handling, cleaning process and the dubbing of these discs and CD mastering.
A part of my day also consists of helping with requests, as well as technical assistance with sound related problems.

Tell us more about your collection and the scope of material you need to preserve.

The acetate collection: the recordings go back to the 1920s. Most of these recordings were done on metal disc covered with Schalleck acetate mixtures.

If you have an anecdote about a specific piece of interesting audio material, please share it with us.

I have found that it is an incredible audio history on those shelves that need to be preserved for future generations.

Tell us why you enjoyed doing the work that you did.

Audio was not only a work for me, but an interest and a hobby as well. I enjoyed reading and exploring into audio and audio practices, especially pertaining to audio restoration.

Related posts:
The Weekly Archivist interview: Ikwekwezi FM
The Weekly Archivist interview: Music archivist
The Weekly Archivist interview: News and Actuality
The Weekly Archivist interview: Sport archivist
The Weekly Archivist interview: Channel Africa collection

Questions and blog post by Karen du Toit, Afrikaans Archivist in SABC Radio Archives.

Report about the British Library Audiovisual Archiving Training Workshop at the SABC

The British Library has received support from the World Collections Programme to run a course on sound and audiovisual archiving in South Africa. Participants for the programme were drawn from the SABC Regional branches and from broadcast archives in other southern African countries.
                    - (Dr Janet Topp Fargion, Lead Curator, World and Traditional Music of the British Library)

Report by Elizabeth Mate, Archivist, SABC Radio Archives, who had the privilege to attend the workshop.

The British Library Audiovisual Archiving Training Workshop started from the 28th 0f March to the 1st of April 2011, in the M5 studio of the SABC. 

The first two days was with Will Prentice (Head of Technical Services, Sound and Vision) where we focused on the brief history of analogue audio and a few processes of digitization. He spoke about the qualities of audio (mav, mp3, vma) whereby he advised us, as archivists to always consider the original. In this case it will be wav, for it is not compressed like mp3 which throws out a lot of data.  We were showed how to clean the tape and cassette machines and how to demagnetize the machines. He said it was a standard thing for every archivist before recording and cataloguing material every day.  We spoke about the actual storage areas of audio. It was agreed that space is a very huge problem for all archives.  We spoke about things which can be of great damage to our work such as air conditioning and water.  We also spoke about LP’s, CD’s reel-to-reel tapes and different types of analogue carriers.  We were shown how to adjust the pitch of sound on the cassette play back.

The last session was with Andrew Pearson (Maintenance Repair & Design Engineer, Sound and Vision), who did the introduction to video archiving. He showed us how many times a film move for us to see one picture. We focused on the qualities of video/film; and how colour was added to the black and white films.  He showed us how to adjust the video recorder to get the right colour of different colours on the bars of the TV monitor. We also spoke about sound adjustment; high light means brightness, and other distorting pitches. We dealt with video cassettes, their durability, and the processes it takes when bringing it to digitization. We were even taught how to open a video tape and fix the tape. We also touched on the use of Wavelab. It is a very important tool when it comes to transferring audio from both analogue audio carriers and digital ones.

During the Workshop, we were also advised that technicians from the Technical departments must not just phase away or throw away broadcasting equipment. They must work together with archivists to know what type of audio carriers still needed to be used.

We were advised that materials or audio which are on analogue carriers must be converted or transferred to digital carriers before equipments using these carriers are phased out.  The equipment is being phased out because it is no longer being manufactured.

I think the SABC is on the right track by introducing digitization in its audio and audiovisual archives.

Related post:
British Library Audiovisual Archiving Training Workshop

The Weekly Archivist interview: Ikwekwezi FM

Peter Raseroka
SABC Radio Archives

The SABC Radio Archives has archivists who focus specifically on a specific radio station and/or an indigenous language. This is part of a series of weekly interviews where they will all answer the same questions addressed to them.

It is a way of getting a better understanding of what we as archivists do, as well as getting a better insight into the scope of our collections in the SABC Media Libraries.

The Archivist answering the questions this week is Peter Raseroka. He is the archivist for Ikwekwezi FM (http://www.ikwekwezifm.co.za/portal/site/ikwekwezifm )

Peter, please tell us a little bit about your life. (Where you grew up, where and what you studied and your work experience before you joined the SABC Radio Archives)

 I have been with the Radio Sound Archives for 21 and 8 month years. The other10 years was working in the Record Library as a log typist, tapes clerk and music compiler for Radio Sesotho by then, now being call Lesedi FM.  I never worked for any other companies except the SABC from 1979, but did work as a restaurant assistant for some time, also at the SABC.
I was born in Johannnesburg, but grew up at Pretoria rural area call Winterveldt .
I matriculated at Tswaing High School in 1978.
I came back to Johannesburg in 1978 and my first employer was at SABC as a restaurant assistant. Four months down the line I was promoted to be a messenger. 
In the afternoons I was attending class of General Office Management with Management College at Johannesburg between 1979 and 1980. 
After completing my course in April 1980, I was promoted to the Record Library and my job description was as a typist clerk. In between 1983 to 1989 I was working as tape clerk and music compiler for Radio Sesotho .
In 2004 and 2005 I completed my Ministry course with South Africa – Extension Bible School at Roodepoort.
At the moment I am busy with my Archival Studies National Diploma with Unisa and I hope this is my final year.

Please tell us about a normal day in your studio. What material do you work with? Tell us more about the collection you focus on and the scope of material you need to preserve.

As an archivist my job mainly is to see that all the important programs of  Ikwekwezi FM from speech, education, religious, music, documentary, features, youth, and sports programs are catalogued and preserved in a good and safe place for re-broadcast and re-use by SABC management, ICASA, researchers, historians, education people, learners, government officials and the public at large.

Do you struggle with technical difficulties, and if so, what?

When talking about technical difficulties, to sum it up, it needs someone to learn it everyday because technology is far ahead of us. However, if I pick up any problem, I consult with those who have the expertise or skills of technology around SABC.
There is a saying in Afrikaans: “Agteros kom ook in die kraal” (the last one eventually also gets things done!)

If you have an anecdote about a specific piece of interesting audio material, please share it with us.
My most interesting story was from the Serial Drama call “Ngiyi Induna lapha” about an Induna, “a foreman” by the name of Sibiya who was too jealous and selfish.  He didn’t want other employees to share cigarettes with his white boss “Umlungu”. He is the only one who does that because cigarettes are not for black people; they are supposed to smoke BB covered with a brown paper. He is the only one to share with “Umlungu” because he is a foreman “Induna”. It is a very funny story!

Tell us why you enjoy doing the work that you do. 

I enjoy doing the archival job because I learn and get informed on a daily basis. Radio is a medium of information and I am very fortunate to work directly with it.

Related posts:

The weekly archivist interview: Music archivist
The weekly archivist interview: news and actuality
The weekly archivist interview: sport archivist

Questions and post by Karen du Toit, Afrikaans Archivist in the SABC Radio Archives.