Abstract: A pre-mastering, optical recorder and a logging workstation both receive and condition an analog signal. Both the recorder and the workstation then digitize the conditioned signal storing the digitized data thus obtained in a buffer, preferably either a large RAM or a hard disk. When the digitized data occupies more than a pre-established fraction of the buffer, both the recorder and the workstation further compress the data to recover buffer space thereby permitting recording to continue. The recorder also pre-masters the data for recording onto optical-recording media using an optical-disk recorder included in the recorder. Instead of an optical-disk recorder, the workstation includes a network interface circuit that interfaces the workstation with a network thereby permitting the logger to transmit data via the network for recording either to a pre-mastering, optical recorder, or to a digital logger recorder.