title: Developing an approach for archiving Digital Audio Workstation projects: A pilot study
creators: Michael Brown Valerie Love
abstract: This paper concerns a current pilot study relating to contemporary popular music created on digital audio workstation (DAW) software, being undertaken at the Alexander Turnbull Library (part of the National Library of New Zealand Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa). For the pilot we have collaborated with New Zealand music artist Luke Rowell to archive the production components for two albums. The study addresses the reality that, where music production once involved physical media such as magnetic tape, for the last 25 years it has largely shifted to the digital domain. While preserving the final musical product released to the public remains technically straight-forward, documenting the processes which artists now employ in digital production is far more challenging.<br />This paper will begin with some background about Luke Rowell’s music, then consider DAW software and the archival challenges it presents. We will then cover the approaches taken by the Library and our progress to date.<br />
keywords: digital audio workstation music archiving