TAPE RESTORATION AND DIGITALIZATION

Restoration

Over time, certain magnetic tapes degrade and become sticky (sticky-shed syndrome), leading to playback issues on tape machines. This causes wow and flutter, and can sometimes completely jam the transport.

These tapes must first be restored to make them usable. We stabilize them in specialized tape-baking ovens, ensuring perfect tape travel and optimal playback of the original audio.

Fortunately, not all tapes systematically suffer from this issue.

Tape transfers and digitalization

This process involves transferring analog tapes (both professional and consumer formats) to computers and digital storage media using high-quality converters.

The audio is converted into digital files that can be played back on any modern system or software.

This allows you to recover, duplicate, and rework original recordings that were thought to be lost forever.

Our inventory of tape machines allows us to playback the following tape formats:

• 1/4-inch (6.35 mm): stereo, 4-track, all tape speeds (1.875 – 3.75 – 7.5 – 15 – 30 ips)
• 1/2-inch (12.7 mm): 4-track, 8-track, 16-track
• 1 inch (2.54 cm): 4-track, 6-track, 8-track, 16-track
• 2 inches (5.08 cm): 16-track, 24-track
• DAT, analog audio cassettes, Hi8 8-track digital cassettes

Dolby A or DBX decoding available.

(Our machines are regularly serviced and calibrated using alignment tapes)