About the service
I take the tapes in person and start with an inventory. Every cassette and every reel gets a line: number, tape type, the words written on the box or the inlay, and the visible condition of the tape itself. I copy your handwriting as it is — "Grandmother's birthday, summer 1987" is worth more than any description I could invent, and I do not invent anything. We both sign the inventory, and the same sheet is used when I hand the originals back.
Then comes the inspection. I wind each tape slowly and look at it: shedding oxide, mould, old splices, a leader that has gone brittle. Shedding tape and sticky-shed syndrome need separate handling — such a reel is treated and dried before it goes anywhere near a machine, and never played "just to hear what is on it". If I see that a tape may not survive every pass, I tell you before the work starts, not after. Tape is not replaceable: a family recording has no second take, and an honest warning is the only thing I can offer instead of a guarantee.
Playback happens on a serviced deck with cleaned and demagnetised heads, azimuth set to the tape in front of me. Torn sections are spliced carefully, so that words are not lost at the joint. The capture itself is honest and unprocessed — first I record exactly what is on the tape, and only then, as a separate set of files, I do the soft cleanup: hiss and clicks reduced, levels evened out between pieces recorded years apart. Both versions stay with you, because a restored file is my reading of the recording and the raw one is the recording itself.
Important: I digitise only the client's own personal and family recordings. I do not duplicate other people's phonograms or copyright-protected albums, in any quantity, and I will say so plainly if such a tape turns up in the box.
— intake and return by signed inventory, with the box and inlay wording preserved;
— condition report per tape, with risks named before any playback;
— careful winding, splicing of torn sections, treatment for shedding and sticky tape;
— honest capture plus a separate gently cleaned version: hiss, clicks, uneven loudness;
— splitting into tracks by the pauses, titles taken from what is written on the inlay;
— folders arranged by year and by the people on the recording;
— a short catalogue as a bonus: what is on each file, how long, in what condition;
— two carriers handed over — a disc and a drive — plus the originals back in their boxes;
— your recordings are confidential and are never passed to anyone;
— ten days for a typical box of twenty tapes; larger archives by agreement, and I will tell you honestly that tape does not live forever, so the sooner it is read, the more of it is left to read.
Then comes the inspection. I wind each tape slowly and look at it: shedding oxide, mould, old splices, a leader that has gone brittle. Shedding tape and sticky-shed syndrome need separate handling — such a reel is treated and dried before it goes anywhere near a machine, and never played "just to hear what is on it". If I see that a tape may not survive every pass, I tell you before the work starts, not after. Tape is not replaceable: a family recording has no second take, and an honest warning is the only thing I can offer instead of a guarantee.
Playback happens on a serviced deck with cleaned and demagnetised heads, azimuth set to the tape in front of me. Torn sections are spliced carefully, so that words are not lost at the joint. The capture itself is honest and unprocessed — first I record exactly what is on the tape, and only then, as a separate set of files, I do the soft cleanup: hiss and clicks reduced, levels evened out between pieces recorded years apart. Both versions stay with you, because a restored file is my reading of the recording and the raw one is the recording itself.
Important: I digitise only the client's own personal and family recordings. I do not duplicate other people's phonograms or copyright-protected albums, in any quantity, and I will say so plainly if such a tape turns up in the box.
— intake and return by signed inventory, with the box and inlay wording preserved;
— condition report per tape, with risks named before any playback;
— careful winding, splicing of torn sections, treatment for shedding and sticky tape;
— honest capture plus a separate gently cleaned version: hiss, clicks, uneven loudness;
— splitting into tracks by the pauses, titles taken from what is written on the inlay;
— folders arranged by year and by the people on the recording;
— a short catalogue as a bonus: what is on each file, how long, in what condition;
— two carriers handed over — a disc and a drive — plus the originals back in their boxes;
— your recordings are confidential and are never passed to anyone;
— ten days for a typical box of twenty tapes; larger archives by agreement, and I will tell you honestly that tape does not live forever, so the sooner it is read, the more of it is left to read.
