Accepted media
Formats
If it is on this table we can play it. If it is not, write anyway - we may know who in the region can, and we would rather point you somewhere useful than take a job we cannot finish properly.
Magnetic tape, open reel
| Width | Track layout | Speeds | Max reel | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1/4 in | full-track, half-track, quarter-track | 1 7/8 – 15 ips | 10.5 in | Our everyday work. Both directions of a quarter-track tape are captured in one pass set. |
| 1/4 in | two-track with centre timecode | 7 1/2, 15 ips | 10.5 in | Timecode is transferred as a fourth file; we do not strip it. |
| 1/2 in | four-track | 7 1/2, 15 ips | 10.5 in | One head block only, so 1/2 in jobs are booked for Tuesdays. |
| 1/8 in | cartridge and sound-on-sound decks | 1 7/8, 3 3/4 ips | - | Case by case; send a photo of the shell first. |
Acetate-base tape is handled dry and slowly. We do not bake acetate - baking is for polyester tape with a sticky binder, and applying it to acetate makes the curl worse. If a reel arrives with vinegar smell we transfer it ahead of its place in the queue and tell you why.
Compact cassette
| Type | Bias / EQ | Speeds | Noise reduction decoded |
|---|---|---|---|
| Type I ferric | normal, 120 µs | 1 7/8 ips | none, or single-band compander |
| Type II chrome / cobalt | high, 70 µs | 1 7/8 ips | none, or single-band compander |
| Type IV metal | metal, 70 µs | 1 7/8 ips | none |
| Dictation and logging | normal | 15/16 ips | none |
Half-speed logging cassettes - forty-five minutes a side, usually from a meeting room or a police dispatch desk - come out dull and need the top end lifted by a known amount rather than by taste. We publish the correction we used in the log so a later engineer can undo it.
Magnetic wire
Wire recordings are the oldest thing we take in regularly: 0.004 in stainless wire running at 24 inches per second, usually on a 1 1/4 in spool holding about an hour. Two risks dominate. The wire tangles if it is spooled under tension after sixty years of relaxation, and the original machines run on paper-wound motors that are not worth risking. We transfer wire on a rebuilt transport with a tension arm and a modern head amplifier, at 24-bit / 192 kHz so the reconstruction work later is not limited by our sample rate.
Tangled wire
A bird's nest is not a lost recording, but it is an hour of untangling per inch of damage and we bill that time. If the spool rattles when you shake it, mention that in your email - loose wire inside the case is the usual cause and it changes the estimate.
Instantaneous discs
| Diameter | Speed | Groove | Stylus sizes tried |
|---|---|---|---|
| 7 in | 78, 33 1/3 rpm | coarse and microgroove | 2.3, 2.8, 3.5 mil |
| 10 in | 78, 33 1/3 rpm | coarse | 2.8, 3.5 mil |
| 12 in | 78, 33 1/3 rpm | coarse and microgroove | 2.3, 2.8, 3.5 mil |
| 16 in | 33 1/3 rpm | coarse, inside start common | 2.8, 3.5 mil |
Every disc side gets at least two passes with different styli, and we keep whichever tracks the groove wall with less breakup. The discarded pass is listed in the log with a one-line reason, because «we chose 2.8 mil» is only useful if you know what 3.5 mil sounded like.
Digital carriers
- DAT - 44.1 and 48 kHz, 16-bit. Transferred over a digital connection with error counts logged per tape; a tape that throws uncorrectable blocks gets a second attempt on the other transport before we call it.
- MiniDisc - transferred as analogue out of a service-mode deck, because the compressed data stream is not recoverable without the original codec and we will not pretend otherwise.
- CD-R, audio - ripped with retries and compared across two drives; a disc that does not agree with itself is returned with the mismatch list.
What we turn away
Video of any kind, 8-track cartridges with crumbled pressure pads (we send those to a specialist two hours east), and anything still under an active legal dispute. We also decline work where the owner wants «it to sound modern» - that is production, not transfer, and there are better studios for it than a room with two tape decks and a disc lathe we never use for cutting.