Description
THIS ARCHIVAL EDITION OF THE ORIGINAL 1972 AUDIO RECORDINGS IN MP3 FORMAT IS LARGELY UNEDITED OR UNENHANCED. THIS COLLECTION CONTAINS ALL OF PRABHUPADA'S 1972 CLASSES, MORNING WALKS, ROOM CONVERSATIONS, PRESS CONFERENCES, LECTURES, ARRIVAL ADDRESSES, INTERVIEWS, AND MORE, ALL EXTRACTED FROM THE ORIGINAL MEDIA (REELS AND CASSETTES.) THIS COLLECTION CONTAINS NEW MATERIAL AS WELL AS PREVIOUSLY RELEASED MATERIAL.
The MP3 Archival Edition is a direct copy of the original recording with very minor, if any, audio-quality enhancements to remove or reduce artificially induced sounds, such as excessive tape hiss, or raise the volumes of recordings made at very low levels. These recordings are not remastered, so they ARE NOT sonically cleaned up or edited like the previous releases, but reflect the "as is" nature of the both good and poor original recordings.
The transcripts for these audio files can be found in the 2013 VedaBase.
About the archiving process
A lot of work goes into releasing the audio for a particular year that is playable, transcribed, and authenticated, with nothing censored or cut. First each recording is transferred to digital files. This can be a delicate and tedious operation. The tapes are old and sometimes brittle and fragile. Such techniques as baking a tape (yes, literally baking it) are used to prepare the recordings for digital conversion.
Each tape is then transcribed and sorted according to it contents. Not all the tapes in the Bhaktivedanta Archive collection are originals. Some are duplicates, and some are hybrids, made by devotees who spliced and merged different recordings together. Often the original reels or cassettes are poorly labeled, wrongly labeled, or not labeled at all. So frequently it can take several steps to determine which recordings are the "real" originals.
Then the transcriptions are proofread and corrected. The date and place for each recording is verified. (This often involves detective work.) Finally the master recordings are converted from BWF (broadcast wave format) to MP3 for your use. After all of those steps, you have a particular years audio: playable, transcribed, and authenticated.
PRODUCT DETAILS
One 16GB flash drive. Approximately 1.5" x .5". 387 files, 237 hours.
Interface Options: Hi-Speed USB 2.0 & Standard USB 1.1
Compatibility: PC/MAC/LINUX compatible
Operation System: Windows 7/Vista/XP/2000/ME/98/95 and Mac OS 8.6 or above.