Archiving - transferring older analog video and audio tapes to various digital formats and medias. We use state of the art converters and spend a great deal of time on preparing tapes to be archived. We have years of experience with cleaning, baking, lubricating and other preservation techniques. Logging and documenting is also a large segment of this service

Mastering - we offer both analog and digital mastering chains, specializing in the projects that need a "great deal of work"

Conversion - Most of our clients want their masters also converted to different formats, internet compressed files for downloads, encrypted files for copyright control and high bit rate files for new super CD/ DVD formats.

Custom Burned CDs - We burn CD-R's from master computer files for Twin/Tone Records’ back catalog and will offer the same service to others later in the year.

Pricing - We quote a rate of $200 per hour for our services, but to be honest, all our jobs are bid and quoted before we start. We start out with a 24 -32 hour "baking" cycle with 80% of the tapes we convert to help return the tape to a stable condition... obviously we can't charge by the hour for that.

As of the summer of 2003 our standard routine seems to be:

• log all tapes, starting a chain of tracking all files created from the tapes
• examine tapes and make sure they are packed flat, determine if tapes need to be baked
• following our research on the best temp and time for various tape stocks, bake the tapes and allow them to cool down for the proper amount of time.
• choose which tape deck is best for the transfer, tweak the machine (electronically and head alignment) for best playback, and start the actual conversion.
• if the project is in good to great condition we convert to 24 bit 96K master files which are stored on portable external hard drives or burned to DVD's. We also create a data file that can be used for standard music CDs (16 bit 44.1K). These files are also added to the hard drive and/ or burned as music CDs. For tapes that aren't in great condition, we sometime skip the 24 bit 96K conversions and just go with the 16 bit 44.1 standard CD conversion.
• depending on the quantity of transfers (how many songs/ albums) we deliver the hard drive and the master CD's back to the client. In most cases we also convert all the master files into MP3 or ACC compressed files for reference and web use.
• final price for the projects we have been doing lately have averaged around $100 per album for clients with a large number of albums to transfer.... around $150 per project for a small number of albums.

Most of our clients also have us do some minor "mastering" after the conversions. We can clean up the sound by:

• adding back some of the high end that may have been lost from the master tape
• adding a little compression (or a lot if asked) to match what vinyl mastering did to the project
• remove and repair any tape glitches and noises that need to be dealt with.

We also have equipment to transfer off vinyl records. We have a professional "disc washer" which washes, lightly scrubs, and vacuums them dry. We do a 24 bit 96K conversion and then use a digital work station to clean up "pops and clicks" and noises... in most cases the end results sounds like the transfer was made from the master production tape and not off of vinyl.

The bottom line is give Paul a call at 612-396-4584 (or e-mail him) and give him a feel for what you have and what you want... he will put together a quote and a time table for you...