Introduction
Be a part of the effort.
Follow the link to the Freebies!.
Preserve Our Corps Memories
(POCM) is a group of people who are organized to preserve
drum corps recordings and offer them as custom made historical CDs
or mp3s for download. The money raised is used either to purchase more recordings or is donated back into drum corps- to a needy corps or individual.
We are worried that the old media, vinyl and tape,
will wear out and the music will be lost forever. CDs offer better
protection but will not last forever. Most of us have had experience
with losing records or tapes, having them destroyed through carelessness,
or simply deteriorating because of old age. Some large collections
disappeared as the heirs didn't have a clue as to their interest
to a specialized group of fans and therefore they took the collection
to the dump.
 Mp3's, a computer file of compressed audio material,
will not deteriorate. We decided therefore to preserve our recordings
and store them in mp3 form.
We now have roughly 7500 full corps recordings, most
are field contests but some are indoor or outdoor concerts. They
are collected in a variety of ways: people send us mp3s, tapes,
albums, and CDs via mail. We trade music - any two recordings you
donate (assuming we don't have it or it is an upgrade of a recording
we already have) will be rewarded by a CD of 5 corps recordings
of your choice. We so far have been able to solve any exchange problem
that might arise.
All of these musical sources are then made into mp3s
and diligently checked for obnoxious noises like pops, crackles,
hangs, hisses, hum, and all of that rot. Creating a fade out at
the end of a recording is far more satisfactory than listening to
the stylus noisily lifted from the vinyl surface, Using a software
program, much of that extraneous sound is removed. Frequently the
difference between the sound of the source material and the final
product is remarkable if not unbelievable. Unfortunately sometimes
the source is bad and simply cannot be improved well enough to be
considered great. But...... as a sage person in our group wisely
stated, a recording that sounds like two cats fighting inside a
bag is better than no recording at all.
The final sound of an electronically "cleaned," "de-clicked,"
"restored," or, more eruditely, "digitally re-mastered" recordings
can rarely be predicted prior to actually examining the file electronically.
I mention this as some people are embarrassed about the quality
of their recordings and are reluctant to offer them as an addition
to the collection. What may sound originally like two cats fighting
in a bag may end up sounding like a contented cat having its back
petted while sitting on your lap.
The entire collection is duplicated on many computers
around the country so a crash, theft, or natural disaster will not
destroy the collection. We are serious about protecting what we
have laboriously collected. Some of you are familiar with Fleetwood's
tragic loss of all their master tapes in a fire and can well understand
our focus on having several identical collections spread about the
country on different hard drives.
Our bottom line concern is about those records squirreled
away in attics - the ones made by the obscure recording companies
that no longer exist and who did NOT make a permanent record of
their productions. It is extraordinary what is stuffed away. For
example, some people made home made records. There are 78 rpm records
galore (we have one dated 1940). There are reel to reel tapes and
eight track tapes. We have the capability of playing any of these
formats.
OldSopPlaya
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