[Five]

I agree, it is confusing. then there's the old technology like that digital beta thing, I think it was called PCM (not PCM WAV!! ).

As for masters, let's set the record straight here.

A master is a master is a master. It is the original media used by the taper. In the case of studio outtakes it is the original analog/digital mixdown reel that is the master. So this and only this gets the (m). The exception is FM. With FM, there's two kinds of masters (yes, wtf, but that's the way it is): (a) the first media used to store a mixdown recorded by a radio station itself, and then there's (b) the original media used by a taper. MD is not allowed for taping FM, so that leaves CASS, ANA (which often means open reel, but also states "unknown analog media"), DAT, soundcard > WAV, CDR from a standalone burner. So, something could be FM > Sony Receiver > Aiwa AD-F810 3-Head Cassette Deck (recording) > CASS(m) > Aiwa AD-F810 (transfer) > Audiophile2496 soundcard > Adobe Audition v1.5 (recording, tracking and cutting) > FLAC frontend v1.1.2a (verify enabled, level 6) > FLAC

now if you burned that to a CDR, then it would be CDR(0), e.g.: FM > Sony Receiver > Aiwa AD-F810 3-Head Cassette Deck (recording) > CASS(m) > Aiwa AD-F810 (transfer) > Audiophile2496 soundcard > Adobe Audition v1.5 (recording, tracking and cutting) > FLAC frontend v1.1.2a (verify enabled, level 6) > FLAC > EAC v0.95 beta 2 (write offset corrected) > CDR(0)

but nobody really does this without keeping the original data as a backup, right? So you usually wont see a lineage like that last one I posted show up re-extracted to FLAC. The only way this would be if the CDR could be extracted with no errors whatsoever to the point where SHNtool cmp, st5s et al. are all identical to the original FLACs. So this means, its important to read & write with your offsets corrected. The funniest thing is, after a couple hours spent trying to get your computer to make a perfectly accurate audio cdr until you finally succeed gives you a distrust for the audio CDR format. So when I've got a real technophobic friend who's computer illiterate (we all know one), I'll burn him/her a CDR(0) and tell them that if they meet somebody who wants to trade anything similar to send them to me 'cause I might be able to help to trade for a couple more. Then when it comes to that trade, I try to get talking FLAC as soon as possible, altho sometimes I end up getting audio cdrs anyways (oldschool). Most ppl will take the FLACs so long as there's a computer in their house. I'll tell them about foobar2k & flac frontend then they're pretty much okay.

So, in the case of Studio Reel > DAT(1) > CDR(0) > EAC (secure, offsets corrected) > FLAC The CDR becomes 0 providing it is a digital dump, however if it is analog then it becomes CDR(1) which is also confusing because then it looks like maybe there's been two audio CDRs instead of one. It's confusing as hell. The best solution to this is to make mention of how the heck it got from DAT > CDR, like the tapers elite who always list their equipment in a cryptic stew of abbreviated company names and model numbers (jargon).

There's also the Source/Transfer method of writing lineage, where the "source" describes the recording process and the "transfer" describes the encoding process. This format is used almost exclusively by tapers and imo is the best of all.

So when I get a show I will examine the audio closely and add to the lineage only things I am 99% certain about, and often make notes about the pervious lineage (as it was written) at the bottom with the date included. And of course .st5 with all things lossless audio.

Oh, come to think of it a pressed wwo cdr (not silver!) could be considered to be CDR(m) but to make it clear it is best to write it like this "wwo pressed CDR(m)"

okay I'm really rambling now does anybody really read posts like this?