If you are using MIDI for the freezing part, I would also recommend (and I myself am) exporting the MIDI as .mid files.
This is one of the issues with much older projects that I have stored off. I cannot easily get the MIDI information out. The last I heard was that you can install Cubase SX 3, load the projects and export them. I am sorry, but in this day and age that is simply ridiculous. I got over 300 projects that needs to be done this way.
I would simply like to be able to easily extract the MIDI from old to new projects. Most things back in the day were MIDI anyways, and I am talking pre-Falcon (Atari) here, and audio was done separately. I now (30 years later) export all MIDI information from all project’s anymore, simply as a precautionary measure. (“Once shame on you, twice shame on me…”)
One thing to keep in mind that hard drives can fail if not occasionally ran.
All my backup hard drives are taken out & checked once or twice a year.
Also remember to use better quality, longer life span CD / DVD disks for backing up any important material or files.
As with mastering several years ago I also checked for any abnormally high C1, C2 errors after burning.
Hopefully I’m not stating the obvious, but I’ve seen people make the mistake of not keeping at least 2 copies on physically separate media … e.g. they copy the finished project to an external disk and then wipe the original – then the external disk fails …
Good point about the MIDI. Thanks for bringing it up.
@Soul Patch & MrSoundman,
Also great points regarding HDDs. Currently, I keep my projects on two drives, but one of them is the actual drive inside my computer. I probably need to get either another backup HDD or save the files in a few data Blu Ray disks. Has anyone used these for back up? Just wondering if they are as reliable as DVD disks.
I’ve used Blu Ray BD-R discs for backup, but other than checking for errors there’s not much any of us can do but wait a few decades to see how they last … or just blindly trust the manufacturers, who give a “lifetime” warranty (how long exactly, in years, is a “lifetime”? A lifetime of what … me or the disc?)
Another possible option (although it may seem bizarre at first) is flash memory … in the meantime it’s possible to get massive capacity flash drives and the lifetime doesn’t appear to be determined by age, but by the number of times it’s written to, so if you write to it only once while creating your permanent archive, it should (theoretically) last forever (barring massive solar flares, but we might all be fried then!)
I just stumbled into this thread, and it really makes very interesting reading.
Proposal:
1] Realise many musicians are KLUTZ at housework and may even spill coffee over the Steinway.
2] Forgive them
3] Automate the whole process in Cubase
The way I see it is a dialogue box with the ability to define various storage locations
Not just one destination, but a user definable list of URLS, cloud and local, even various storage formats.
When – 24 hrs, after project close, specific time date parameter, each time I eat a cheese sandwich - you get the idea - options.
Optional Directory size limits, with alerts when reached.
Most importantly the ability to user define in advance how many copies and, on consent , to either a] auto delete b] inform on next project open and offer delete/ignore/save button.
That is a great idea! Steinberg could even offer this as a separate software, with an SE version included in Cubase/Nuendo (similar to the other SE software they have). I would totally buy it based on easy of use and features.
If you are going to backup on DVD or other optical media, it might be a good practice to add some parity files. http://dvdisaster.net/en/index.html or http://www.quickpar.org.uk/
Im sure there are more out there, those are the common ones on Windows.
