Research Guides
The Vera Project Archive: Organizing a Treasure Trove of Local Seattle Music
Ben Dulken
Honors 394 Final Paper
6/6/2012
Introduction
The Vera Project is a small music and arts center located in the Queen Anne neighborhood of Seattle. It serves as both a venue for local and alternative music acts, as well as a community center which offers several music and art oriented educational programs. Over the ten years during which it has been an active venue, some of the biggest names in alternative and indie music have crossed the Vera Project stage, including The Shins, Modest Mouse, and Band of Horses. The Vera Project also actively promotes up and coming local acts and remains very closely tied to the local Seattle music scene. The Vera Project maintains an active recording studio and keeps audio engineers on staff to provide affordable studio recording services for local artists. The result of all of this exciting musical activity is a very large database of music, including both live shows and studio sessions, which are stored on three hard drives in the Vera Project recording studio. Over the years, several different audio engineers have contributed material to the hard drives, and due to the lack of a common protocol for entry and cataloging, the items in the database are poorly organized. Here I describe my efforts to normalize the syntax of the archive and to help the Vera Project develop methods to ensure better organization of archival materials in the future. Furthermore, I will also touch on the possibility of ultimately making the contents of the Vera Project archive available to the public via the Puget Sounds archive at the University of Washington.
History of the Vera Project
The Vera Project was founded in 2001 by James Keblas, Shannon Stewart and Kate Becker. According to Jeff McNulty, the current Education Coordinator at Vera, the Vera Project arose out of a movement in the late 1990s to repeal the Teen Dance Ordinance (TDO). The TDO was implemented in 1985 and placed strict limits on teen dances in the Seattle area (Chan). It stipulated that dances may only admit individuals who were 15-20 years old to underage shows, and that those younger must be accompanied by a parent and those older must be accompanying a youth under 18. The TDO also required that each show hold $1,000,000 in liability insurance. This ordinance established what many felt to be unnecessarily strict guidelines on age limits, and also effectively excluded small venues from holding shows, due to the prohibitively expensive insurance requirements. Though this ordinance was only enforced for dances, what a “dance” constituted was never legally defined, and thus police could effectively break up any event at which any dancing was taking place. Because several musical genres which were popular in Seattle, such as Grunge, Punk, and Hip Hop, relied on dancing as a core aspect of the musical experience, Seattle residents often had to seek out their favorite musical acts in venues outside of the city.
By the late 90s, many young music fans were tired of the draconian TDO and began to organize in opposition to the ordinance. JAMPAC, a political action committee set up by Krist Novoselic of Nirvana, lobbied relentlessly from 1995 to 2000 to the City Council to repeal TDO (Chan). After a replacement ordinance for the TDO was vetoed by Mayor Paul Schell in 2000, JAMPAC filed a suit against the city of Seattle claiming that the TDO infringed on first amendment rights of free expression. However, this claim was rejected in the courts. It was not until Mayor Schell was voted out of his position in the aftermath of the WTO Riots that the TDO was finally repealed. When Mayor Greg Nichols took the reins he resubmitted the replacement dance ordinance, which was known as the All Ages Dance Ordinance, and it was passed in 2002. It was as a result of this energy of organized political and social action which had infused the Seattle music community that the Vera Project was founded.
The founders envisioned the Vera Project as a place where young people of all ages could come to create social change, to contribute to their community, to be educated in the audio and visual arts, and of course, to listen (and dance to) great music (McNulty). The concept of the Vera Project is loosely based on the Vera Club in Groningen, Netherlands. Not only does the Vera Project hold excellent shows in an exciting and intimate venue, but it also has silk screening classes for those interested in creating poster art, and audio engineering classes for individuals who want to learn how to record music. The Vera Project is not only a musical venue, it is also a school and community center - an exciting cultural and artistic haven for young people who are seeking to express themselves in new and exciting ways.
The Vera Project Archive
Clearly, the ambitions of the Vera Project are wide ranging in scope, and over the years the activities of Vera have produced a vast amount of material. The musical collections of the Vera Project include live recordings as well as studio sessions and mixdowns of studio recordings. The collection consists of both digitized and hard-copy materials. The digitized portion of the collection consists of 1.966 terabytes of recorded music, divided onto three hard drives. The first drive, which has been termed “Studio Backups and Mixdowns”, contains mostly mixdowns of live shows, with a small smattering of various studio recordings. The other two drives, collectively called the “Vera Studio Back Ups”, contain almost exclusively studio recordings, which have been or are in the process of being edited and finalized by the audio engineers. The Vera Project also has an entire box full of Digital Audio Tapes (DATs), which contain other live shows. The Vera Project also has approximately 75% of their collection of live recordings backed up to DVD.
Efforts to Normalize and Organize the Archive
My goal in working with these materials was three-fold. First, I planned to go through the archive and normalize naming conventions for all of the entries which had already been archived. Secondly, I wanted to search the internal Vera Project archive to seek out the data which was missing file names, such as the dates of live performances. Finally, I sought to improve the archival process at the Vera Project by providing the audio engineering staff with standardized protocols for archiving music on the hard drives to ensure that the archive remained organized in the future.
I began identifying the naming conventions which were already in use and assessing their consistency and effectiveness at creating a well-organized musical archive. In my efforts to normalize the naming conventions, I focused on the parent folders (those which lie at the highest level of the file structure), because in an archive those are the files for which people will be searching. Once inside the parent folder, the volume of information is not as substantial, and minor variations in syntax do not interfere as significantly with the ability to find a file. In the Vera Studio Backups archive, I found that the most dominantly used folder syntax included three pieces of information: the name of the band, the date of the performance, and the initials of the sound engineer which added the folder to the database.
In establishing a standardized file syntax, I considered the recommendations for an effective file identifier system provided by the International Association of Sound and Audiovisual Archives, the most relevant of which are shown below.
4.4.1.1 Uniqueness, the naming scheme must be unique within the context of the organisation’s digital resources and, if necessary, globally unique.
4.4.1.2 There should be a commitment to persistence; an organisation must have a commitment to maintain the association of the current location of the resource with the persistent identifier.
4.4.1.3 An identifier system will be more effective if it is able to accommodate the special requirements of different types of material or collections.
4.4.1.4 Although not absolutely critical, and not essential for machine generated persistent identifiers, a system will generally be more successful if it is easy to understand and apply, and if it lends itself to short and easy to use citations. (ISS)
Based on these requirements I decided to utilize a naming syntax which was already quite prevalent in the archive. The naming convention was as follows: (Band Name – Date (MM-DD-YYYY) - Audio Engineer Initials – Any specialized information ). This syntax was chosen for several reasons. 1) It is simple (ISS 4.4.1.4) 2) It allows for significantly unique citations (ISS 4.4.1.1) 3) It can accommodate special requirements (ISS 4.4.1.3). 4) A large number of the pieces in the archive already utilized this syntax. Thus, I decided to move forward with this convention, and implement it across the entire archive.
For the Vera Studio Backups, approximately 70% of the files had all of the necessary information, and required only minor changes to the date formatting to match the convention which I had established. In contrast, for the live recordings, only about 25% of the files had all of the required information. This discrepancy in the completeness of the file information of the studio and live recordings, I believe can be attributed to the nature in which studio and live recordings are collected and added to the database. Studio recordings are added to the database immediately after they are made. In fact, when working with a Pro Tools studio recording, the folder is usually created before any music has actually been recorded, in anticipation of the files which are to be subsequently recorded. Thus, the audio engineer can readily obtain all of the information necessary to accurately name and organize the folder, because the naming and cataloging process occurs concurrently with the recording process. Furthermore, in a studio recording, there is arguably more motivation for the sound engineer to be conscientious with respect to the naming and arrangement of their files, due to the financial obligation to the musical artist to not lose their files, and to generate an excellent recording. In contrast, for live shows, there is no financial obligation to accurately store and catalog the recording for the sake of the musical artist, because the live recordings are not meant to be redistributed, and are only occasionally dispersed to the artists. Furthermore, in the case of the Vera Project, the live shows are not recorded directly into Pro Tools, but are rather stored on DATs. The live recording must be digitized and mixed down at a date after their actual recording. Often times, several months or even years can pass between the time that a DAT of a live recording is generated to when it is finally uploaded to the hard drive. This time gap leaves a large window in which information could be lost or obscured, making it less likely that all of that information will be available when the recording finally enters the archive.
In order to address this dearth of identifying information from which the live recording archive was suffering, I sought to find some of the missing information using the internal database which the employees of the Vera Project use to track sales and events. Every time an event takes place at the Vera Project, an entry for that event is added to an online database on the website SalesForce.com. In this database entry, the Vera Project employees can record how much money was made from the event, how many people attended, etc. Using this database, I searched for shows which I found in the archive that were missing dates or attribution to a specific recording engineer. In several instances, I was able to find the missing information by locating the original SalesForce entry associated with a specific show. However, in altering the contents of the archive, I had to be absolutely sure that the show that I had found in the SalesForce database corresponded to the archival entry. Thus, if bands played several times at the Vera Project and the dates were missing for all of the shows, I was unable to accurately associate the dates with the correct show. Quandaries like these highlight the importance of establishing a standardized protocol for properly labeling and attributing archival entries when they are first entered into the archive, to avoid the obfuscation of information which often results from the passage of time.
Therefore, in order to ensure that future archival entries were labeled properly upon their initial addition to the archive, I established protocols for entering live shows and studio recordings into the archive. My intention is that the sound engineers will utilize these standardized protocols to eliminate discrepancies in the formatting styles amongst themselves, and to ensure that the archive remains organized. I established two different protocols to be used by the sound engineers, one to be used for the transfer of live shows from DATs to the hard drives, and the other to be used for generating archival entries for studio recordings. In addition to establishing standardized naming conventions and reminding the engineers where to store the files and to include all of the necessary information in the archival entry, the protocols also describe how the files should be backed up to DVD. Due to storage limitations, only the live recordings are backed up by storing duplicate copies on DVDs, using the program Toast to compress them. In backing up the live recordings, .wav files are used to maximize the sound quality. Though using .mp3 files to back up the archive could allow for material to be backed up on a single DVD, the quality of the backup would be significantly degraded (Nadal). Furthermore, in addition to establishing standardized archival entry protocols, I also included a recommendation to adopt a color convention which one of the audio engineers had been using, which provides a visual representation of the state in the mixdown and mastering process in which an archival entry is currently at. This color coding, though not essential for a well-organized archive, will help the audio engineers to streamline the mixdown and mastering process.
In my analysis and normalization of the Vera Project archive, I also considered the difficulties that they were having in generating duplicate copies of their archive. Due to insufficient funding, the Vera Project was only able to afford enough hard drives to store single copies of the live and studio recordings. A significant proportion of the live recordings are backed up to DVD using the compression program Toast, but there are still some that remain unduplicated. Quite surprisingly, none of the studio recordings are backed up in a duplicate form. This leaves the studio collection extremely vulnerable to a drive failure, especially considering that editing of the studio recording occurs off of the hard drives, meaning that they are almost constantly in use. If a drive is used frequently, its projected lifetime is significantly reduced. Thus, the Vera Project must absolutely address this vulnerability soon, lest they be subjected to a catastrophic drive failure. I provided the Vera Project with a cost analysis of different solutions to this storage problem. The most obvious solution would be to purchase two more hard drives which would cost approximately $300.00. Alternatively, they could backup their archive to DVD, which would only run them about $80.00, but which would also be very labor intensive. Another option would be to back-up to DVD temporarily and wait for the price of the new state-of-the-art solid state hard drives to come down to a reasonable range. Purchasing a single solid state drive could provide a reliable backup for up to 30-40 years. However, at the current prices, purchasing a solid state drive would not be cost effective.
The final result of these efforts was a report which I provided to Jeffery McNulty, the Education Coordinator, which he was going to forward on to the audio committee at the Vera Project. The report included the updated file and naming conventions, as well as standardized protocols for uploading items onto the drive in the future to ensure that the archive remains organized. Finally, the report also includes a discussion of the problems of duplicate storage which the Vera Project is currently suffering from, and a cost analysis of different solutions which could address this massive vulnerability of the Vera Project collection to a catastrophic drive failure. I hope that this report will be able to inform the future archival activities of the Vera Project and help them navigate their existing collection.
Future Public Access to the Vera Project Archive
I was also interested in my work with the Vera Project this quarter to assess the possibility of potentially integrating the Vera Project archive with the growing Puget Sounds archive at the University of Washington. Recently, the Crocodile, another local music venue in Seattle, made a substantial contribution of live shows to the Puget Sounds collection, and I was interested to assess the feasibility of a similar contribution form the Vera Project. During my interview with Jeffery McNulty, he said that he definitely wants the Vera Project Archive to be available to the public to listen to, but that the shows would have to be released to the public in a very controlled fashion. He says, “I want people to be able to hear it, and know that exist. I don’t want people to be able to buy it.” Mr. McNulty informed me that though the bands who perform at the Vera Project sign a licensing agreement that allows the Vera Project to use the live recordings in a limited fashion, he said that there is still a line they cannot cross. He says, “I want people to be able to hear it in a way that makes the record labels happy.” To him, that means that the people who have access to the music should be able to listen to the music, but not download it. He reminded me that the main mission at the Vera Project is to serve bands and the community, not to make money. The last thing Mr. McNulty wants is to become embroiled in a lawsuit which could hurt the Vera Project and its relationship with the bands that cross their stage. However, this mission of distributing the archive to the public without having the ability to download its contents is consistent with the practices of the Puget Sounds Collection. For music which is available on the Puget Sounds Collection, it is only possible to listen to the music in the browser, and is impossible to download. Thus, by contributing some of their collection to the Puget Sounds Collection, the Vera Project could make some of their live shows available for public consumption via an archive in which the contents are secure from piracy. Furthermore, the contents of the Vera Project archive could be an interesting and valuable addition to the Puget Sounds Collection. Some of the biggest bands to come out of the northwest region crossed the Vera Project state early in their career, including the Shins, Modest Mouse, Band of Horses, and many others. Adding previously unheard performances from high profile artists such as these could attract traffic to the Puget Sounds Collection and increase listenership. Additionally, making a contribution of music to the Puget Sounds Collection would also help alleviate the vulnerability the Vera Project is experiencing as a result of their lack of permanent digital storage space. By contributing their recordings to the Puget Sounds Collection, they would effectively be creating a duplicate copy of those recordings, which could be accessed in case of a catastrophic drive failure. The potential for a fruitful exchange of material between the Vera Project and the Puget Sounds Collection is excellent, but it would require a significant amount of work to make it a reality. In the future, someone (maybe a student in this class next year) should more carefully analyze the copyright and licensing status of the contents of the Vera Project Archive to verify the legality of donating that music to a public archive. This would be the next step in making the transferal of music from the Vera Project to the Puget Sounds Collection a reality.
Conclusion
In summary, this report describes my efforts to organize the musical archives of the Vera Project, a small music venue and community center in Queen Anne. First, I established a standardized file syntax and updated all of the parent files in the archive to reflect these conventions. Then, for files which were missing pieces of information, I used an internal sales record to find the missing information and link it to recordings in the archive. Finally, I established protocols for entry of music into the archive for the audio engineers of the Vera Project to use in the future to ensure that the organization of the archive is maintained. Additionally, the Vera Project is also suffering from severe vulnerability to a catastrophic drive failure. They do not have enough backup space to generate duplicate digital copies of any of their studio recordings, and thus a hard drive crash could potentially result in the loss of up to half of the entire Vera Project archive. To help them address this problem, I provided the Vera Project with a cost analysis of various solutions to this storage problem, and recommend they act on one of those solutions immediately to mitigate their vulnerability. The end product of my work at the Vera Project was a comprehensive report which included a description of the contents on each of the drives, the standardized protocols for archiving new pieces, and the cost analysis for expanding the backup storage space.
Furthermore, the Vera Project Archive could also be an exciting addition to the Puget Sounds Collection at the University of Washignton. According to Jeffery McNulty, they have obtained licensing rights to use the recordings from their live shows in a limited fashion. Furthermore, there are exciting early recording from high profile Seattle artists which could attract significant traffic to the Puget Sounds Collection. However, the licensing relationship between the Vera Project and their performers must be more thoroughly analyzed before an exchange of material can be made. This could be an avenue for further research on the Vera Project, in lieu of ultimately making a significant portion of the Vera Project Archive available to the public.
References
Chan, Sharon Pian. “Initially hailed, city dance law doesn't mean much these days.” The Seattle Times. April 7, 2006.
IASA. The IASA Cataloging Rules.” http://www.iasa-web.org/icat/icat001.htm (Accessed: 6/5/12)
McNulty, Jeffery. Personal Interview. 5/15/2012
Nadal, Jacob. 2012. "Digital Preservation: Audio and Video Formats." http://infopeople.org/training/audio-and-video-formats (Accessed: 6/5/12)