PRESERVING MUSIC AND MEMORIES
There are many audiophiles...and vinyl and tape cassette collectors...and just plain folks that love records...who have old LP's...45 RPM records and numerous cassette tapes from decades ago that sound terrible with vinyl pops...hisses...surface noise and turntable hum. Our Audio Restoration and Preservation Service offers a solution which enables us to convert your precious and valuable vinyl records and cassette tapes to digital format and still maintain the "warm" vinyl sound of your original vinyl recordings. New software and preamp technology allow us to perform this task.
According to a Soundscan Report for 2010...vinyl was the BIGGEST selling music media of the year! Vinyl is making a huge comeback...and here's you chance to preserve your new...or original...investment...and maintain complete integrity of the actual record and jacket.
If you have personal cassette tapes or vinyl made by family or friends that you want to preserve and restore for future generations...this is a perfect way to insure they'll enjoy it.
We recommend and prefer the .wav format over M.p3 to convert your files. MP3 files have high compression and may not yield the desired final results. We will of course offer mp3 files for your project if you prefer.
REASONS TO CONVERT
PRESERVE YOUR VINYL AND CASSETTES. Every time you play your LP's and 45's...even the best stylus damages the grooves on your record. Records that are old...and in some cases...irreplaceable...need care to maintain their integrity well into the future. What better way to assure you'll always have them...than to digitize them? For those folks who still have tape decks and cassettes you can digitize them too...and prevent oxide buildup on the playback heads...and the chance old brittle tapes may even break while you play them. Why chance that...put them on CD or DVD too!
PRESERVE YOUR MEMORIES. If you have special family activities...musical or vocal performances...either on cassette tape or vinyl...we recommend transferring them into a digital format. You'll have them in a convenient format...and you won't run the risk of having a tape break or vinyl getting scratched. We'll also custom-label your media for you the way you want it.
WE "BABY-SIT" THE ENTIRE PROJECT. Perhaps you can get the job done cheaper...elsewhere...and perhaps it will be automated as well...but we prefer a human ear to do the job of noise elimination. We can also determine where many of these flaws are too by looking at the spectrogram and waveforms on our software to precisely see where the noise is. Old records will likely have cracks...pops...hisses...turntable hum...etc. After a digital copy is made...we go to work with a variety of software noise reduction programs to eliminate unwanted noise...but to keep the "warm analog sound" of vinyl. Want the noise and cracks on the finished product...NO problem...we can keep that on for you too! All recordings are done "flat"... with no EQ at all. Noise reduction and track separation are done in the second step of making your finished product. This part of the conversion is highly labor intensive...but well worth the investment!
"PERSONALIZE" YOUR RECORDINGS. How many times have you gone and bought one of your favorite LP's on CD...and found out it's been compromised? Songs...truncated before their proper finish...songs completely left off in the interest of "editing"...or added tracks you don't either need or want? You won't have to worry about those issues with us. We will "customize" your precious vinyl recordings the way you want. Wish to change the order of songs???...we can do that! Wish to make a "special collection" of several favorite LP tracks on one CD???...we can do that. That's the beauty of having us customize your project. We'll take care of it for you!
HISTORICAL VALUE...Recordings on cassettes found in time-capsules from years ago and other valuable public recordings can be converted and saved for future generations in a format that will not degrade over time.
STORE ON YOUR EXTERNAL HDD. If you have a large collection...or special collection...and really want to protect it...we can save your collection on your external Hard Disk Drive. External Hard Drives of 2 or 3 TB or larger are inexpensive now and can provide an excellent device to save your precious tracks. Pull your player up...and load your songs in...easy as that!
LABELING. After we complete the conversion project...we'll label all the tracks for you...complete with time and header.
COPIES. Family and friends sometimes "borrow" LP's or cassettes. Do they always come back in the same condition? Perhaps...or maybe not. Why not have us make a copy of their favorites...from your collection...for only a small additional fee. Everyone wins!
EQUIPMENT
With the advent of USB turntables there is much excitement about converting vinyl to digital format for those folks who wish to do it themselves. However feedback we are hearing indicates less than satisfactory results with such turntables as they do not offer the quality or stability of a vintage turntable and preamp such as we use in our process.
Our equipment includes a vintage Techniques SL-3200 Direct Drive Turntable and Shure M95ED Cartridge...both in excellent condition. We have maintained our original analog equipment in perfect condition over the past 30 years. We also use Audio-Technica mixers and preamps to covert and transfer the signal and several software packages to reduce...and in some cases almost completely eliminate...surface and other noise in those precious grooves. We then "normalize" the tracks to maintain the RIAA curve originally used in the recording process. Then your project is processed through a variety of noise reduction software for best results. Custom "curves"...other than standard RIAA are available at your request.
For cassette conversions we use a vintage Sony TCU WR510 Cassette Deck which has yielded excellent operational results and we have assisted customers to restore and convert this media as well. Enhancement of tapes is possible to some extent. The Dual Cassette option also allows us to make an additional cassette copy for you as well if desired. One customer had us convert a Karaoke project for a family member with excellent results.
We currently use a Dell E510 Computer and a 1TB Western Digital External HDD for external storage and backup for all of our projects. Additional equipment available in the Studio is a Dell Laptop with 500 GB of internal HDD and another 500 MB External HDD.
Feedback from our customers indicate a high level of satisfaction on our completed projects...especially for LP's and Tape's that are over 40 and even 50 years old.
CAUTIONARY NOTE:
If your records have deep skips or cracks in them...there is little or nothing we can do to avoid that during the transfer. We can reduce all but the severest of scratches on your vinyl. The success of each restoration will depend on the actual condition of your records and tapes at the time we do the work. If your original media has been neglected and are in very poor condition...we will do our very best to improve the sound and eliminate as much noise as possible...but in those conditions we can't guarantee 100% success.
PRICING EFFECTIVE DECEMBER 1, 2011
MINIMUM FEES:
LP's...$50.00 Each
Cassettes...$40.00 Each
CD and Cassette Copies...$10.00 Each
Fees includes...complete LP cleaning...vinyl transfer and digital copy...track separation...preservation...restoration...and label printing. The same standards apply for tape cassette recordings also...although there is little we can do to clean up your original tapes. Actual fee will depend on the amount of prep work...noise-reduction...and track separation involved.
We will be happy to discuss your custom conversion needs with you.
E-mail us at: service@marcopolomusic.biz
or
Call us at 207-856-6097.