Audio tapes and discs are now obsolete and they often deteriorate unnoticed. Maintaining playback equipment in top condition, for numerous formats, gets more difficult rapidly, routine transfer will end soon. The only way to preserve these sounds in the long term, and to keep them accessible for future generations, is their digitization or conversion to files, digital archiving, data integrity verification and long-term migration. Many institutions have already secured all or part of their valuable inventory, but due to negligence a substantial quantity of audio content might be lost.
The technical guidelines of relevant organizations are followed and surpassed, e.g. IASA (International Association of Sound Archives), ARSC (Association for Recorded Sound Collections), EBU (European Broadcast Union), LOC (The Library of Congress), AES (Audio Engineering Society), SMPTE (Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers).
Credits (excerpt):
- Salzburger Festspiele (Salzburg Festival, various labels, more than 1500 CDs)
- Wiener Staatsoper (Vienna State Opera, various labels, more than 500 CDs)
- 150 Years Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra (Deutsche Grammophon, 12 CDs)
- Johann Strauß Edition Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra (Deutsche Grammophon, 11 CDs)
- Birgit Nilsson - The Great Live Recordings (Sony Music, 22 of 31 CDs)
- Soundtrack for the movie "Comedian Harmonists", music restored from worn original shellacs
- Soundtrack for the 1962 movie "Der Rosenkavalier"
(Vienna Philharmonic, Schwarzkopf, Karajan, director Paul Czinner), music restored from original magnetic film
- Digitization of the archives of Universal Music, EMI Music, Sony BMG Ariola, Wiener Staatsoper (Vienna State Opera),
Salzburger Festspiele (Salzburg Festival)
Our works have been published on these labels (excerpt):
EMI Music, EMI Classics, Capitol, Sony Music, BMG Classics, Reverso, RCA Victor, Bluebird, Universal Music, Deutsche Grammophon, Decca, Amadeo, Teldec, Chesky Records, Andante, Naïve Classique, Altus Music, Platz, Oehms Classics, ASV, Col Legno, Orfeo International Music, Decca, Hitsquad, Solo Musica, TDK Media, Belvedere Edition, Arthaus Musik
Our services include ...
Transfer of analog tapes:
- Clean, scan for edits and physical damages
- Flood rescue, mold decontamination and removal
- Detection and repair of sticky edits, bad edits, detached edits
- Individual playback machine alignment for best audio quality, mono compatibility and treble stability,
for each tape, or for each segment of tape
- Correct appication of playback equalization, also for historical and non-standard tapes
- Transfer with timecode, in sync to digital samplerate
- Transfer with film sound pilottone (Neopilot, FM-Pilot), in sync to digital clock
- Assessment and documentation of the audio quality, description of flaws and other noteworthy incidents,
as necessary for subsequent restoration and publication
More than 35 analog tape machines with different features and paramters available:
- Tape widths - 0.15, 0.25, 0.5, 1, 2 in, as well as historical tape widths
- Tape speeds - 15/32, 15/16, 1 7/8, 3 3/4, 7 1/2, 15, 30 in/s, = 1.9, 2.38, 4.75, 9.5, 19, 38, 76 cm/s, as well as non-standard and historical
speeds
- Track layouts - full track, half track, Butterfly stereo, quarter track, 4-track, 8-track, 16-track, 24-track, pilottone
- Musicassette - 15/16, 1 7/8, 3 3/4 in / s, = 2.38, 4.75, 9.5 cm/s, 2-track, 3-track, 4-track
- 14 different compander systems for correct decoding - Dolby A, B, C, S, SR, Telcom C4, dbx, ...
- Rescue the content of deteriorated or unplayable tapes
- Use of our proprietary methodes
- Use of our proprietary huge database for tape types
- Use of precision measurement systems
Transfer of analog discs, LPs, Singles, Shellacs or other historical discs
- Individual determination of best stylus
- Use of precision measurement microscopes for analysing groove geometry
- Assessment and documentation of the audio quality, description of flaws and other noteworthy incidents,
as required for subsequent restoration and publication
Transfer of audio CDs, CDRs, CDRWs to files
- Transfer of Premaster CDs, listening
copies, pressed CDs, damaged CDs and DDP-Masters
- Use of modified CD-players and software for error flag indication to ensure files are free from playback errors
- Assessment and documentation of the audio quality, description of flaws and other noteworthy incidents,
as required for subsequent restoration and publication
Transfer of obsolete digital audio tapes or media to digital files
- Transfer of DAU / Digital Audio U-matic cassettes (first CD-Mastering / CD-Premastering format)
encoded with Sony PCM 1600 / PCM 1610 / PCM 1630,
using Sony PCM 1630 processor and 3x Sony DMR 2000 DAU U-matic playback machines NTSC
- Transfer of tapes coded with Sony processors PCM-F1, PCM 701, PCM 601, PCM 501,
on DAU U-matic NTSC cassettes, or Sony Betamax NTSC / PAL cassettes
- Transfer of DAT cassettes at standard 44.1 kHz and 48 kHz, 16Bit,
and 32 kHz long play, plus high resolution 44.1 kHz and 48 kHz, 24 Bit recordings
- Transfer of DTRS cassettes (Tascam, Sony), 8 tracks at DA 88 standard 44.1 kHz and 48 kHz, 16Bit,
8 / 4 / 2 tracks at DA 98 HR high resolution 44.1 kHz, 48 kHz, 88.2 kHz, 96 kHz, 172,4 kHz and 192 kHz, 24 Bit,
16 / 24 track multi-cassette recordings with sync to absolute time or timecode
- Individual adjustment of tracking for best results, where available
- Use of playback error flag indication to ensure files free from playback errors, for most formats
- Assessment and documentation of the audio quality, description of flaws and other noteworthy incidents,
as required for subsequent restoration and publication on TV, radio, CD, download, streaming
- Transfer of certain Exabyte archiving formats, e. g. Sonic Solutions archive tapes
- Transfer of certain DLT and LTO streamer tape archiving formats
Conversion of digital audio file formats
- Convert obsolete or unusual file formats, more than 200 file formats supported
- Detect and remove obsolete digital emphasis (CD, DAT)
- Convert sampling rates
- Convert from polyphonic (single file) to monophonic (separate files per audio track) format, and vice versa
- Change audio channel / track order
- Extract tracks from polyphonic multitrack files
- Rescue digital files with incorrect, broken or missing file header
Expert assessment of archives
- Determine archiving conditions
- Determine type and technical status of media
- Assessment of audio content, including genres
- Check for completeness, missing tapes, missing parts, unusable or erased passages
- Written expertise on the status of the archive
- Archive risk management
Mass storage service
- File storage with periodic check for file integrity, without repeated listening
Advice and training
- Advice for archiving of analog and digital media, optimized for different media types
- Advice for archiving of digital content
- Training of archive employees
- Supervision of operation
High Resolution, Specialties
- Sampling rates PCM 44,1 kHz, 48 kHz, 88,2 kHz, 96 kHz, 176,4 kHz, 192 kHz, 352,8 kHz, 384 kHz
- DXD (352.8 kHz), DSD64 (2.8 MHz), DSD128 (5.6 MHz), DSD256 (11.3 MHz)
- We get the maximum audio quality out of the media or source, analog or digital
- With multiple versions, we can determine what is a copy, the original or the best version
- Determinig non-documented compander systems by ear (Dolby A, B, C, S, SR, Telcom, dbx, ...)
- Adjustment of companders by ear for correct decoding, when alignment tones are missing or incorrectly documented
- Re-sync asynchronous or drifting audio to picture
- Restoration of mechanically or chemically degraded and defective material
- Cleaning, disaster recovery, removal of mold, mildew, fungus with special consideration for later playability
- In numerous cases we did achieve almost impossible recovery results
Second step - restoration and optimization of sound
- Repair distorted or clipped recordings
- Remove or reducing clicks, crackling, hiss
- Remove or reduce interfering tones, print through, cough sounds or other unwanted sounds
- Correction of dropouts, changes in panorama, etc.
- Compensation for imperfect recording or deteriorated content
- Restore dynamics of bad recordings or compressed audio
- Remove digital Emphasis / Pre-Emphasis
Third step - world-class Mastering
- Mastering for different applications, e.g. download, streaming, CD, broadcast, cinema, High-End, special requirements,
according to standards by Dolby, THX, DCI (Digital Cinema Initiatives), SMPTE, ITU, EBU, ARD, ZDF, ORF, Arte, ...
- "Apple Digital Masters" provider (former iTunes), certified by Apple Music
- Creation of an Album from several mixes that can be listened to without any adjustments by the listener
- Matching loudness and subjective impression of sound by ear
- Correction of any imperfections, applying pauses, crossfades and fade outs
- Over the decades we developed skills to detect and to cancel out unwanted gain riding manually
- With flawed recordings, we are able to re-create the sound of the original performance as close as possible
- Mastering for movies in a calibrated cinema listening environment
- Loudness normalization for broadcast according to EBU R 128, ITU and ATSC
- Loudness normalization with additional requirements, e.g LRA, True Peak, Momentary or Short Term values
- Mastering with low, medium, high or original dynamics
- Performed by an experienced Grammy-nominated and multi-award winning music producer