sound restoration service, disc wire tape transfer to digital

DO TO A GIGANTIC INCREASE IN ORDERS OF ALL SORTS, WE HAVE AT PRESENT NO CAPACITY FOR RESTORATION SERVICES - SORRY

This includes LP, Home Recordings, Broadcast Transcriptions, Ediphone, Audograph disc records, Open Reel Tape, Cassette, Wire Recordings.

DVDs FROM VHS TAPES, PHOTOS, SLIDES AND OTHER SOURCES

"Thank you! All I can say is that if everyone gave as outstanding service as you just did this world would be a far better place"
"I couldn't believe you were able to get this back to me so quickly. I cannot thank you enough"
"I am so impressed with the work you did for me. Many thanks"
"Thank you again for all your help. I’m so glad we found you!"
"You made my day; and restored a small piece of history"
"Everything I've listened to sounds great!"
"Very nice job...thanks"

* Clean disc - Remove white scum growth from acetate discs with proprietary method - add $20.00.

* Basic analogue click and pop reduction with Esoteric Sound Surface Noise Reducer.

* It is state-of-the-art digital processing in three steop of background noise reduction with CEDAR DeClicker, DeCrackler, DeHisser: That is, clicks pops, continuous "frying bacon" noise, and hiss.

Wire recordings are a nightmare. The system was bad at a maximum. Most recorders were mechanically compromised and electrically sloppy designs. Sound quality was telephone. It has been possible to extract much more from the play of old wires, but only by one person, who recently retired and junked his equipment because no one wanted to pay for it. Transferring a wire is often damaging to the wire spool.

That aside, decent sound can often be extracted. The nightmare is playing them and not wrecking them. They are stiff stainless steel and often have small kinks that can catch on other portions of the wire and cause a spill of wire. Being able to record up to an hour, one is often tempted to walk away whilst transferring to digital, only to come back to a pile of many yards of spilled wire! Untangling the mess is extremely difficult to impossible. Added to the kinks can be splices. These often cause wire spills when using fast forward or rewind. One must stay there and watch with hand on the STOP lever.

So just trying to find out what, if anything, is on a spool requires one to spend up to an hour listening. Yes, often they set it on record and waited for baby to cry, or grandma to decide to speak. Yes, there is the possibility that just starting the wire into play will result in some recorded sounds, but Fast forward or RW can result in spills and loss of the extremely stiff and tangled wire. At that point it is best to just start the transfer, to be on the safe side, in the hopes that more is there.

We use a custom modified wire player with accurate playback equalization to transfer spools to digital. Wire recordings are very difficult to play, especially if they have splices. They often cause either jamming of the player or spillage during rewind. The wire is very stiff and easily kinks and/or tangles even in normal play and handling even under normal handling. So surprises can happen. The splices can come apart during play or the kinks can stop the process or the wire break. Spills of wire can occur. That can require us to splice the wire and continue. Hence the transfer process can be destructive in itself. Fortunately, the problems are usually after the transfer is completed. So, we do not guarantee that the wire spool will be as pristine as received. Please keep this in mind.

* Manual computer digital wave form reconstruction - (extremely poor sources may

* Sequence program segments, balance segment volumes and sound quality. Add track

Dependent upon condition of original disc or tape recordings and degree of restoration desired. $65.00/hour minimum, transferring time + restoring time. Simple CDs $70.00/disc, minimum for 1st disc. Clean disc - Remove white scum growth from acetate discs with proprietary method - add $20.00. Replace old falling apart splices - add $2.50/splice. Additional discs with labeling and packaging case - $7.00.

"thank you for your work making a CD from the wire recording. It sounds great!!"

Wire recordings are a different story. They often have significant problems. The wire is like a hair and very stiff. Splicing is tedious if needed. You have to try to tie a knot with the two stiff, slippery ends. The spool is 1 to 1.5 miles long! It was originally spooled in layers, so to speak. The head moves up and down as the spool rotates, producing even layers. It also does so when you rewind.

If the last user had a problem and broke the wire. They almost always tie a big bow-like knot. Those loose, floppy hang-outs then become covered with several layers whilst still protruding thru the additional layers. This will result in tangles and playback stopping. Often the recourse is to cut the wire to facilitate the untangling. Every splice is difficult, tedious, and time consuming. Every splice can be a problem with wire spools. More chances for them to catch and tangle the wire.

If the spool is very loose, then layers a few wire depths below can become loose and protruding for you to grasp. You need an end wire to start playing it. With a very loose spool. which loose wire end do you try to start the playback? If you grasp the wrong one, you may pull on wire beneath and things are turning into knots which will further tangle and stop the playback. If in desperation one attempts to cut cut the wire and try to go beyond a tangle, one will have to have to splice. All of this nightmare results in kinks wrong pulls, multilayers getting tangled, and all with an acupuncture-like stiff wire that is one and a half miles of tedious, and difficult work. Some wires are hopelessly so damaged.

Wire cost is $90.00/hour minimum, transferring time + restoring time. Simple CDs $100.00 minimum for 1st disc.

Recorders: Crown, Ampex, Technics, Sony, Tascam, Teak, Webster-Chicago wire recorder - modified to low noise, solid-state electronics.

Note: We have restored records with various physical damage, including large missing pieces. Similar restorations can be performed on old tape and wire recordings.

Home	Turntables	Arms and headshells	Cartridge Styli	Preamps Equalizers Electronics	Accessories	Noise Reduction	CD/DVD Media Software
Headphones Loudspeakers	Restoration Services	Specials Used	Reviews Links	PURCHASE HERE	Support	Balkan Records	Vintage Recordings