Tape Transfer

"How much will it cost?"

Is a question that invariably comes after.

"Can you fix my machine?"

In short, giving a quotation is impossible so it must be appreciated why one cannot be provided.

Using a motoring analogy, a tape machine is like a vintage car and whether it's a production-line family saloon or an exotic Italian sports model, all will have issues to a greater of lesser degree.

With the odd exception, the last open-reel machines were made in the early 1990's, so even the youngest ones are now over a quarter of a century old. From then, to the resurgence of interest a few years ago, if they weren't scrapped, many were just left as is, usually in far less than ideal storage conditions.

The fact that a machine hasn't been used in a few years is in itself an issue. Leave a vintage car in the garage, unused for the same amount of time, will mean, at the very least, rubber will perish and lubrication oil will dry out. Tape machines are electro-mechanical devices, a synergy of mechanics, electronics and physics. They will suffer the same degradation as that car.

To give you an indication of what to expect, cost-wise, here are a few examples based on past projects:

Don't forget to factor in repair time as well. Maintaining these machines is not like booking your family-car in for it's service. I can guarantee is that you will not receive it back, fully serviced, the next day (or even the one after that!). Current workload aside, sometimes it can take months to source hard to find parts and, even then, these could require further refurbishment work.

Whilst the proceeding may sound all gloom-and-doom, it is not meant to be. It's an exercise in managin

Since Reel Resilience repairs tape machines, it was a natural progression to offer a "tape-baking" and transfer service for the tapes that play on them.

"Hi Iain. Just thought I would let you know my sister was delighted with the tapes. We listened together with my cousin, who was also on them, as was her Mum, Dad and Grandad.

Thanks once again" Jacqueline R - Derbyshire

So now we do.

The service entails:

Baking the tape (if the make requires it) and storing it in a sealed bag with a silica gel packet. If the tape was originally packed in a cardboard box this is stored separately.
The tape is played on a professional machine, adjusted for the correct speed, audio level, stereo balance and phase and recorded to an PC using a industry standard audio editor application.
The resultant 16bit 48kHz digital WAV files is delivered to you via an FTP service.

Rates: Priced per reel per side (or play through), excluding the cost of baking, from:

5" spools (or smaller): £20.00 each
7" spools: £24.00 each
10.5" spools: £36.00 each

Transfer to CD £20.00 each

Note: The CD will be supplied in a paper sleeve and will not be printed.

Baking of tapes suffering from "Sticky Shed Syndrome": £10/reel or £20 up to four reels

Note: Tape baking is only a temporary fix, at best six months under good storage conditions, after that the tape will have absorbed moisture to the point it will start top effect the binder again.

All prices x VAT and delivery charges if applicable.

To enquire about giving a second-life to your treasured tapes, please contact us via the Enquiry/Book A Repair page, listing the number of tapes you have and their spool diameters.