British Library Sound Archive chooses Fostex

The British Library has purchased six Fostex FR-2 Field Memory Recorders to record events on location to add to the huge variety of material kept in its Sound Archive.
The Library is one of the greatest in the world, with over 150 million items. Three million items are added each year and the sound archive has recordings on media ranging from 19th century cylinders to the latest DVD formats.
The Fostex two-track 24bit /192Khz recorders, supplied by London-based pro-audio dealer Raper and Wayman, will be used for all the Library's outside recordings, from wildlife sounds to every new production in the National and Royal Court theatres.
One of the first dates the Sound Archive has lined up for the recorders is this year's WOMAD Festival, in Reading, as part of its remit to faithfully record all major productions around the UK.
Obviously, the sound archivists needed a recorder that was reliable, portable and easy to use.
Nigel Bewley, Operations Manager in the Sound Archive, explained why the British Library has decided to switch to solid state: “We currently do most of our outside recording on DAT recorders, which is a moribund technology. We looked at all the machines available on the market today and decided the FR-2 was the most suitable machine to meet our current needs.”
All the recordings will be archived to CDR or DVD, so a permanent record of every recording can be added to the huge catalogue.
The catalogue includes entries for almost two-and-a-half million recordings held in the Sound Archive and is updated daily. It is one of the largest catalogues of its kind anywhere in the world, covering both published and unpublished recordings in all genres from pop, jazz, classical and world music, to oral history, drama and literature, dialect, virtually every language and wildlife sounds.
(GB)