BR backup & long-time storage methods for songs

[Satchwood]

Hey everyone,  I've been thinking about backing up my songs that I've created on my MBR.  I've copied the Roland folders of each SD card onto my laptop (at least 5 Gig of data).

But, what is the best way to backup my songs in case my computer hard drive fails?  Also, hopefully some day I'll upgrade to a new mega-track recorder...

Is the Roland format good enough, or should I convert all the tracks to Wave files for each and every song, and then burn them to DVDs?  Is mp3 good enough?  Burn CD's for all my friends?

I'm curious what method all of you recording musicians out there use....?

[hank987]

Satch,
          You could use just a simple USB stick or a drive to backup your data of course and give it to a buddy for safekeeping. I personally use an offsite backup. There are plenty out there like Carbonite, Mozy. I use a company called Idrive. For 50$ a year you can backup 150G worth of data offsite. The price is about the same range as the others but I like the software for ease of use and reliability. They have a larger company which I use for my customers (IT guy) so I feel pretty confident in the software and company. As far as the format I guess it comes down to quality. I think mp3 is good enough for me but a lot of lossless users feel different than I do.

[64Guitars]

Hey everyone,  I've been thinking about backing up my songs that I've created on my MBR.  I've copied the Roland folders of each SD card onto my laptop (at least 5 Gig of data).

But, what is the best way to backup my songs in case my computer hard drive fails?  Also, hopefully some day I'll upgrade to a new mega-track recorder...

I'd recommend an external USB hard drive. They're fairly inexpensive and easy to use. But most importantly, they're much less prone to failure than the main hard drive in your computer. That's because your computer's hard drive is being accessed constantly by the operating system. But the external drive would only be accessed when you backup or restore a song. Less usage means less chance of failure. And, if you get a new computer, you don't have to worry about transferring your songs from your old computer to the new one. Just plug the external hard drive into the new computer and all of your data is instantly accessible. There are lots of USB 2.0 external hard drives available. But I'd recommend the newer USB 3.0 drives that are now available. They might cost a bit more but they're much faster. Of course, they'll only work at USB 2.0 speeds if your computer doesn't support USB 3.0. If you have a desktop computer, you can get an inexpensive add-on card to give it USB 3.0 ports. I don't know if there's a USB 3.0 solution for laptops, but it would be good to have a USB 3.0 drive anyway so that you can make use of the extra speed when you buy your next laptop.

You can also backup songs from the external hard drive to DVDs for additional safety.

Is the Roland format good enough, or should I convert all the tracks to Wave files for each and every song, and then burn them to DVDs?  Is mp3 good enough?  Burn CD's for all my friends?

You should always backup the entire Roland folder. For convenience, it's also a good idea to keep WAV and/or MP3 files. Unlike the files from the Roland folder, you can listen to WAV and MP3 files directly on your computer, or load them into Audacity or some other DAW. But you shouldn't only keep WAV or MP3 files instead of the Roland folder. You need the Roland folder to properly restore the individual tracks, drum arrangements, and settings of your song at the highest fidelity. Keeping the WAV and MP3 files is optional. It's convenient to have them, but they can always be created later from the Roland folder using the BR Wave Converter software.

[64Guitars]

I use a company called Idrive. For 50$ a year you can backup 150G worth of data offsite.

Or use Microsoft's SkyDrive which offers 25GB of storage for free!

[launched]

Online backup is good - Mozy is probably the most ubiquitous (And arguably the most reliable now as Carbonite/Promise Technology had lost the data of thousands of customers)

Like 64 said, there are free options like SkyDrive and Google.

If you do use online backup, You should still back up your files occasionally to removable media, such as a USB hard drive/memory stick.

In addition to backing up , I also organize my song folders by renaming them, so they are easier to manage with BR Explorer. The MBR will only read up to SONG0099.BR0 I think, so when I get to that point I'll break it up alphabetically.

BR Explorer will read and list the song names under directories named \ROLAND\BR0. So if you had more than 100 songs you could do this:

A\ROLAND\BR0
B\ROLAND\BR0

This is how plan to do it if I have more than 100 song folders. Unless somebody has a better option.

[64Guitars]

The MBR will only read up to SONG0099.BR0 I think, so when I get to that point I'll break it up alphabetically.

I haven't seen anything to suggest that the Micro BR treats folder names any differently than the other BRs. So any folder names from SONG0000.BR0 to SONG9999.BR0 should be valid.

[launched]

The MBR will only read up to SONG0099.BR0 I think, so when I get to that point I'll break it up alphabetically.

I haven't seen anything to suggest that the Micro BR treats folder names any differently than the other BRs. So any folder names from SONG0000.BR0 to SONG9999.BR0 should be valid.

You know, I didn't word that right. I meant to say that the Micro BR can only hold 100 songs. Never tried it but that's the limit the manual says.

I don't see how it's possible to fit that many full songs on the MBR anyway. 

[Satchwood]

Hey thanks for the tips Hank, Launched, and 64Guitars!! 

I think I'm going to start with an 8 or 16 Gbyte flash drive (kind of like the portability), and then I'll check out some external hard drives for like around 50 bucks. 

I'm also checking into offsite and web storage ~ may as well populate the web

[s.w.goatlips]

The good thing about external hard drives is the amount of space. I got one last week at what I consider to be a reasonable price ($131.00 au) and it is 1 terrabyte. That's pretty big. And it is quite cute looking and easily portable.

[dwardzala]

For every song I have recorded and mixed, I have burned all the original tracks and all the mixdown versions to CD.  USB drives are too easy to lose and I don't trust an external hard drive any more than the one in my machine.