The process of converting and transferring Analog Vinyl, Shellac Records and Cassettes to CD.

After transfer and Audio Restoration the resulting CD can be made to your preferred file format. If you have an iPod, Creative Zen, iRiver, MP3 Player or similar then the finished CD can be supplied to suit, "lossless" or "lossy" compression at low or high bitrates - the choice is yours.
For example, the finished Cassette or Vinyl Transfer can be supplied in MP3, Flac, Musepack, Monkeys Audio, Ogg Vorbis, WMA, AIFF, Nero Digital/AAC, Wavepak or ALAC instead of normal Redbook Audio standard - but only one format.
If the finished tracks need to be in a sample rate other than 44.1kHz then a choice of 48, 88.2, 96 or 192kHz can be offered at 16 or 24-bit depth. Generally, transfers are done at 48kHz 24-bit and finalised to 44.1kHz 16-bit after editing.

INITIAL CHECKS.

All Vinyl, Shellac and Cassettes are carefully checked, visually on arrival. First of all to ensure no postal damage as occurred (see "Postage & Packing").

TRANSFER OF VINYL, SHELLAC AND CASSETTES TO PC..

Vinyl/Shellac: is transferred using a low noise accurate RIAA Phono Pre-amplifier. This is used to feed a further stage, when necessary, to modify the RIAA curve and gives me the option of 14 bass turnover curves and 11 treble roll-off equalisation curves in any combination.
The deck is ideal for the transfer of Vinyl and 78rpm Shellac Records as it has a wide range of speeds, excellent speed stability, low rumble, low wow and flutter and a useful low end speed of around 16rpm which can help redeem badly scratched records. To complete the package a pro quality firewire soundcard in conjunction with professional Software is more than capable of producing quality Audio Restoration and transfer to CD of any type of Record.
Have a listen!!!
This clip is from an early mono LP.
 ^{(Before Restoration)
 (After Restoration)}

Some Vinyl and Shellac Records have of course seen better days. It doesn't always mean that they can't be resurrected though.
This track taken from a 1954 Decca recording is deliberately chosen because of its difficulty. The overall noise and clicks etc. wouldn't be a problem normally but because the recording is of a solo piano at very low levels, it becomes a serious problem. If the track was high level Rock n' Roll, for example, many of the problems would be lost in the surrounding content.
The track is from a Decca LXT series recording which is in reasonable condition, for the year.
The title is "Liszt Recital #2" with Peter Katin on Piano. The tracks may take a few seconds to download.
 ^{(Before Restoration)
 (After Restoration)}

The next track is taken from a 1950 mono LP recording that was filthy. Initially I chanced an old Stylus onto the Record to see how bad it was, and it didn't disappoint. The stylus clogged up in around 10 seconds!!!
After cleaning the record three times it was going no further, still plenty of clicks and surface noise plus an added bonus of mains hum.
However under all the "mush" I could hear all the detail still there - just needed one separating from the other.
This fine Decca LXT recording from 1950 is Die Fledermaus by Johann Strauss - The Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra is conducted by Clemens Krauss  - 8mins.long so may take a few seconds to load.
 ^{(Before Restoration)
 (AfterRestoration)}

All vinyl Records are "wet" cleaned prior to transfer.All LPs'/45s' are cleaned before transfer - it's the only way to recover all the detail available in the recording. Secondly, I have no wish to damage my Stylii unecessarily. If cleaning is an issue then please don't send the LP.
The cleaning not only reduces the clicks and pops. It also makes a difference to the dynamics of the recovered track (if you really listen), reduces surface noise and any distortion present. As a consequence of cleaning, less overall processing is required. Shellac Records are assessed individually regarding appropriate cleaning.

Compact Cassettes:
The key to all Audio Restoration is in obtaining the best possible digital transfer from the source media. Two high-end decks, both capable of extracting all the available detail from all types of Cassette Tape are used.
Dolby "B", "C" and "S" noise reduction is catered for.

Cassette Tape limitations?
Regardless of which Cassette Deck is used and up to a point it doesn't matter whether its Sony, Yamaha, Tascam, Revox, Nakamichi, Tandberg etc., the result will only be as good as the  tape quality, the quality of the recording and the degradation of the tape.
The advantage in using a high quality deck is in being able to extract the best possible raw material to work from. - then the real work starts using Software - if the detail ain't there to start with, it ain't there when you finish!!!

Hiss can of course vary, depending upon the type and quality of the tape used - whether or not noise reduction is used etc.
There are also many other faults within tapes such as dropouts, phasing and glitches etc.
In this track I've restored a Vinyl 45rpm track from around 1954 and recorded it onto a 25 year old tape, to illustrate a couple of the problems.
(I have to make up the samples as all Commercial Cassette Tapes are still within Copyright restrictions).
 ^{(Before Restoration)
 (After Restoration)}
If required, I can also transfer normal or double speed 4-track Cassette tapes such as "portastudio" - 3.5inches/second (4.75cm/second) with or without dbx noise reduction using yet another Yamaha deck. You know all those demos. and homemade tapes you made during your mis-spent youth, dust 'em off and have a listen at CD quality?

Digital Processing: is always done in real-time, no batch processing, as I feel that this is the only way to get sufficient control and enable me to get the best from each track. Sure, I have pre-sets but even when using these I find that a bit of judicious fine tuning can be of benefit, sometimes from track to track.
All Vinyl Records and Cassette Tapes are initially recorded at a sample rate of 48kHz and 24-bit, which I find adequate in most cases, although 96kHz 24-bit transfers can be supplied if required..
During editing ASIO drivers are preferred to the standard Windows WDM drivers.
For editing I use a multitude of Direct-X and VST plug-ins coupled into a highly respected Wave Editor, which give me the options of de-clicking, de-noising, de-popping, de-scratching any LP, EP or 45 rpm Records or Cassettes. For example when de-clicking I find that "one size won't fit all". Many of the De-clickers available have very different characteristics in the way they operate, so I may use one or any combination of the five I have available.

Processing is kept to the minimum depending upon the faults within the source material - which means that you may not get a perfect pristine copy of the original, but you will get a much mproved version of the original - guaranteed!!!

Audio restoration can bring about dramatic improvements but has limitations. If done too aggressively then this will produce its own undesirable artefacts.
Audio enhancement can give noticeable improvements to the dynamic range, particularly with Cassette material.
Distortion from analogue or digital sources can be improved or removed, depending upon the severity.

If you have a look on the "Audio Restoration" page you will be able to see and hear a typical EP Track being taken through the various stages of audio restoration.
Listening to any audio material is subjective, so to that end, I prefer to assess the media take it to the limit, I think is feasible, and then send you a clip or clips, via e-mail, before continuing further.
After all, the sole purpose of the Record and Cassette Transfer Service I offer, is to achieve complete Customer satisfaction.

FINAL TRANSFER OF RECORD AND CASSETTES TO CD.

All CDs' are supplied with Track separation as standard i.e. there is no hidden extra charge for this part of the service.
CDs' are supplied of either Taiyo Yuden or Prodisc originals, both of which return very low C1 error rates. This gives me the necessary "burn" quality and confidence in their future longevity.
To further optimise the finished CD-R a Plextor PlexWriter PX-W4012 is used, offering the advantages of PoweRec 2 and VariRec options in a well respected dedicated CD-R Writer.
Normally your CD will be dithered back to 44.1kHZ at 16-bit normal audio CD playback standard, but I'm happy to discuss and supply any other formats, please contact me to discuss. For example, my personal preference for archiving media is Wavepack, Ogg Vorbis and sometimes MP3 at high quality VBR.