REEL TAPE DUB to CD
Save deteriorating originals.
Dub to a Disc NOW !
Especially popular for old family tapes !
Reel tape Restoration Transfer
This is the “best we can make it sound” transfer for reel tapes .
$2.47 per finished transfer minute with our engineer’s application of some of the best software noise reduction, EQ, & sonic enhancement & indexing of tracks. So you only pay for the part that’s actually restored.
Or you will be informed of our engineering of $25/quarter hour to apply for special cases.
Reel tape as-is dub
Reel Tape to CD Verbatim (as is) Dub: No EQ, level maximize only : $1.77 per minute of transferred tape • $30 minimum per tape.
Master Tape Transfer to Digital files
Output Format: CD, DVD, or your USB or Firewire Drive as .aiff or .bwav 24 bit @ 44.1 , 48 , 96 , or 192 khz
Standard mastering engineer Rate $25/quarter hour $25 minimum.
Formats accepted ; 1/4″ or 1/2″ Tape @ 30 , 15 , 7.5 ips , 3 3/4 ips, 1/2 track or 1/4 Track
Tapes with Dolby SR or A or dbx Noise Reduction is an addtlonal charge of $40 for setup & alignment.
We make transfers of Reel to Reel Tapes onto CD from excellent Studer, Otari & AKAI analog tape equipment so your tape can sound as good as possible.
About our Restoration Services
We offer many years of experience for the Improvement of Degraded or Poorly Recorded Audio.
With our software tools we can dramatically clean up recordings & transfer them to CD for permanent storage.
We have experience doing many types of audio media.
We have resurrected many family tapes and made relatives really happy.
We can digitally filter noise, lower hum, buzz,, hiss, clicks, pops, scratches, & other undesirable sounds.
We can reduce hum & noise so recordings of loved ones can be heard again.
While we can’t always turn lead to gold, we can make significant improvements in sound quality.
Restoration services requires constant supervision by the engineer. The rate may vary upon
the situation but is typically $25 per quarter hour. Order form for transfers..
Tape Baking
Tape deteriorates with age & humidity. It becomes sticky (sticktion) and can stop cold on our tape decks with a buildup of shedding gluey particles. It also can grow a surface of mold. We have seen many tapes with this white powder. The spores are really bad for you!
We can dry the tape out thru our careful process and make it playable for a one time transfer to a more permanent digital medium. Tape Baking $30.
Editing
Cutting out extra spots you don’t want. Gluing together those you do. Smooth the transitions etc.
Standard mastering engineer Rate $25/quarter hour $25 minimum. Call us to schedule a session so your supervision is heeded.
Details
Deposit
Required prior to doing any work. We take all major Cards.
Estimates
We would be happy to help you get an idea of a rough cost estimate in advance.
Once you give the approval for the start of any project if for some reason you have an upper limit on cost you MUST make it 100% clear before we start the work at all or you will be liable for all work completed before that time ! In other words please don’t make us do all the work and change your mind and not want pay the bill ‘cuz the restoration of Aunt Mildred took more work than anybody expected.
Rush Fee
+50%. We’ll work late but you gotta pay us.
Turnaround
Typical 5 working days. But bear with us – because we do such good work we’re popular
so your particular project could be a special one and take a little extra time.
Archiving
We do not archive your project in our computers but typically save the CD files for 30 days in case of makegoods.
Questions?
503-228-2223. Fax to 503-228-6819
Mail your projects to:
CDPDX
1150 N.W. 17th
Portland OR 97209
Do you have an old audio tape you want to send us?
Please read this! We provide this info as a service to those of you who find an old tape in a drawer that you think might be Grandpa.
The tape could be recorded with several different parameters.
Speed: This refers to the speed the recording was made at.: 1 7/8, 3 3/4, 7 1/2, 15, or 30 inches per second. The faster the better the fidelity. “The more tape real estate to magnetise = better signal to noise ratio.” Several speeds could be found any one tape in some cases.
Track Configuration: Quarter track (1/4 track) was 2 tracks in one direction, then you flipped the tape for 2 tracks in other direction. That’s how consumer decks got 2x play time out of tapes. All old tapes that you could buy in a record store were 1/4 track. The tape heads were stereo to play it depending on which side of the tape you played. Most all consumer decks of the late 60′s and 70′s were 1/4 track. Studios normally had half track ( 1/2 track ) decks meaning left took up half the tape & right took up the other. “The more tape real estate to magnetise = better signal to noise ratio.”
Don’t confuse 4 track with quarter track. 4 track might mean 4 discrete tracks or 4 channels like on a Tascam 488 cassette 4 tracker .
8 track refers to the old car stereo cartridges that had 4 stereo pairs of music so they could use less tape. These things had a lot of crosstalk and we not the best fidelity even tho they actually ran at 3 3/3ips. 8 track also could refer to the series of 20 year old Tascam & Otari 8 channel recorders that used 1/2″ reel tape. There’s still a lot of them floating around in budget studios, but digital has obsoleted them. They were used for recording bands rather than home or music playback purposes.
Size of the reel: 2″,3″, 5″, 7″, & 10 1/2″. reels.
Noise Reduction: If marked “dbx noise reduction” it needs to be decoded (or encoded if you are recording)
just like Dolby noise reduction is used for the same purpose. We must decode it otherwise it will sound weird. Reel tapes were encoded with dbx Type 1 quite commonly in the 70′s thru 90′s because it was a good inexpensive way to minimize tape hiss for small studios.
Some reels and cassettes were encoded with dbx Type 2 which is similar to dbx Type 1 but with limited bandwidth. But it makes a difference to us in what unit to use.If you need a tape transferred to CD we can do it CORRECTLY!
Condition of tape:
Many tapes that we get that are home recorded are all all over the place so we never know how much material is on them. There could be speed or head track variations, so we cant tell on old tape until we actually play them to estimate for how long they are or what shape they are in. Some play perfectly. Some need to be “dried out.” Tapes that physically squeek or squeel on our machines are symptomatic of the need to be dried, as the tape has deteriorated. This occurs when oxides stick to the deck’s magnetic heads & guides. The tape heads & guides then build up a dirty residue during playback. The result: distortion, and fuzzy sounding, inaudible audio, & squeel. If the tape has white power on it likely it’s mold. Not some leftovers from that party in 74.
We can get almost all tapes to play.
For commercial studio projects from the past when they used tape : Fancier studios encoded tapes with Dolby noise reduction. Dolby Type A was used a lot until Dolby SR came along in the early 80′s. Dolby SR was the best of the tape noise reduction schemes and only used in studios for master tapes.
Dolby also made Dolby Type B for cassettes which was the most popular .
Dolby Type C & Dolby S came along and was found only in expensive cassette decks.
Dolby B is the only one that can be played back without the tape sounding messed up.
We have all these decoders for playback of noise reduction formatted tapes. (Except Dolby S for cassette which just about nobody had.)
Estimate of cost: Many tapes that we get that are home recorded are all all over the place so we never know how much material is on them. There could be speed or head track variations, so we cant tell on old tape until we actually play them to estimate for how long they are or what shape they are in.
Information: We need to know what is written on the tape box ( length, title,etc.) and what you want to be transferred (if only part of the tape). The date of the recording is helpful.
503-228-2222 or 1-888-79-AUDIO
