Extra Prep - Audio

Repairs

We can repair most types of cassette breakages, including snapped tape, and missing pressure pads.

Repairs that require us opening the shell are priced at $44. This includes most tape snaps, broken leaders, broken reels.

If we need to replace a missing pressure pad, that will usually be $22.

We don't get involved where there are small orphaned pieces of tape. It's not always possible to know where they go (especially if there are multiple pieces) or to get them the right way around, or in the right order.

We may opt not to repair a tape where:

• upon opening the tape it "explodes" our of the shell, due to deterioration

• where is has swollen up inside the shell & it pressing against the insides of the shell casing. The only possibility here would be to place into 2 shells, digitise both & join together digitally. This would need to be quoted on.

• where the tape is twisted. If we were to take this on, it would need to be charged out at hourly rates, as where the twist occurred, and how far through hand unwinding the reel before we locate the spot/s where this occurred, is very time consuming & not able to be known in advance.

Tape Breakages: Tapes can be brittle or degraded at this age. Some may not be transferrable at all due to problems like:

• de-lamination (the oxide comes away from the plastic tape base)
• hydrolysis problems (tape path stiction/friction, tape squealing, aka "sticky shed syndrome"),
• stretched tape,
• deformation (the tape deforms in a ruffle-like, sprung-open state & can neither be effectively played nor rewound), and
• brittle-ness of the tape

Where we can repair tape breakage, or failed tape splices, we will repair one instance of breakage per tape side at no charge. Beyond that we charge $7.70 per repair. If we encounter more than one splice failure/breakage we will pause the job & seek instruction.

Tape Speed Changes: We record tapes at the tape speed determined to be correct at the beginning of each side of the tape. Our decks are maintained to be dead accurate on playback speed, but many domestic decks of the past were not, so there may be instances where the recordings we transfer for you are not reproduced exactly at true "Concert C" pitch, or where voices may not sound exactly as you're used to hearing them, or in fact at the exact correct pitch. This can be dealt with in post production editing if needed.

Depending on the habits of the original recordist, a tape may be one consistent speed throughout, or may change speed once or twice. In some cases many speed changes can occur. If a tape exhibits multiple playback speeds throughout its length, then digital editing will be required to correct this. Once again, editing is not included in our transfer service.

Our approach to this problem is that the client first takes home the digitised versions of the tapes & then notes if/where any speed changes occur. This is so they are not paying labour charges for us to sit & listen intently through long tapes checking for the possible occurrence of speed changes, something that would cost more than most people would be happy to pay. We won't be held responsible for any instances of incorrect speeds occurring within the transfer. We undertake, as part of the transfer/conversion process only to get the playback speed correct at the start of each side of each tape. The client, or a family member, may be able to adjust this in software such as the free Audacity program, or we can correct this for you. Extra editing charges would apply for this, as it falls outside the scope of our offered transfer service, which is basically to clean your tapes so they play back at their best, and to migrate your audio from tape to a digital format (mp3 or WAV files on USB).

Single Sided/Double Sided: If it is unknown whether or not there is material on both sides, the only way we'll know for sure is to play through & record both sides. "Both sides" rates above apply whether the reverse side has material or is blank. If the entire tape is blank we will issue a $10 part credit, because all the cleaning work & the play through labour is the same, regardless.

Audio Enhancement/Restoration Services: For reel-to-reel formats, because of the content length can vary so greatly, we offer enhancement/restoration at hourly edit rates. Click here for further information.