Other Formats:
What about videos? 78s? Reels tapes? For Videos, click Here ?

Logistics:
How do I pay for my order
Packaging and Shipping
Safety Issues
Restoration Problems and Issues
Privacy Policy / Copyright Issues
I have some other Questions
Can I pay by check?
How long does this take?
What about other countries? APOs?
Can I make/sell copies of my new CDs/MP3s?
This cassette/record is irreplaceable! I can't risk mailing it!

Privacy/Guarantees/Copyright:
Is this legal?
Do you listen to my tape/record?
Do you keep a copy of my audio?
What if my cassette/record is damaged?

CDs:
A strange title comes up when I put the CD into my computer. Huh?

MP3:
How do I load my MP3s into iTunes?

Cassettes:
I'm not sure how long my tape is...
I only want the second song from side A and...
What if my cassette is broken or breaks on you?
How is it split up into tracks?
Do you offer cassette transcription to Word or PDF?

Records:
My record is scratched and skips. Can you fix it?
Can you put 2+ short records onto one CD?
How is it split up into tracks?
I only want the second song from side A and...
Do you do hiss/pop/noise filtering?

Other Formats

What about videos? 78s? Reels?
Cassettes and vinyl LPs and 45s are all we do. However, our sister company, Audio-Restorations does everything else.

Logistics

Can I pay by check?
You bet. After you place your order, just make a check out to "Audio-Restorations" for the final amount (including return shipping), and pack it with your cassettes or records.

How long does this take?
Most of the start-to-finish turnaround time consists of the you-to-us and us-back-to-you shipping steps. W e do our best to get your product out in a timely manner. Much depends on our current work load. Typically it's just a few days.

What about other countries? APOs?
APOs (US military bases) are fine.

As for foreign countries, we can only handle Canada.

However, even if you're in Timbuktu, you can still use our service! You can ship things to us from anywhere, so that's no problem. The only trick is to use a friend or family member in the USA as the ship-to address, and then nicely ask them to bounce it to you. A bit of a hassle, but it works.

Can I make/sell copies of my new CDs/MP3s?
If it's copyrighted material, unless you own it, the answer is no. Fair Use lets you make a digital backup of an analog recording for yourself, but not distribute more copies.  

This cassette/record is irreplaceable! I can't risk mailing it!
It's natural to not want to hand over your tapes or records to strangers. The good news, is that we've never lhad a custmer loose their materials in transit. Once it reaches us, it's not going anywhere except back to you.

We suggest you use Fedex or UPS. Go to a nearby Fedex-Kinko's or UPS Store, pile up your tapes or records on the counter, give them our mailing address and they'll take care of it. You can even get a thousand dollars of insurance for about ten bucks extra.

If you're using US Mail, then tag each and every item with a return-address sticker. That way, if your box breaks open en route, they'll still be able to return them to you.

 Privacy/Guarnatees/Copyright

Is this legal?
Yes. Fair Use lets you make a digital backup of an analog recording that you already own.

Do you listen to my tape/record?
As a rule, no. We do hear little snippets of sound while placing track points and cleaning the sound up, but no one will ever sit down and listen to the whole recording.

Do you keep a copy of my audio?
Yes, for 30 days. It lets us make copies if you need more later. More importantly, it also lets us reconstruct your order if something happens in the mail.

What if my cassette/record is damaged?
We' will fix yout tape at no cost if it breaks while we are transferring it.

 CDs

A strange title comes up when I put the CD into my computer. Huh?
Most computer audio programs (like iTunes and Windows Media Player, mainly) look up a CDs track titles on CDDB, an internet database of CD info.

So when one puts in a store-bought Beatles CD and the computer says "She Loves You Yeah Yeah Yeah," that track title was not read from the CD itself, but was rather looked up in that CDDB database.

This CDDB track info is indexed by the lengths of a CDs tracks. This means that if a CD we make for you has the same number of tracks, and with the exact same lengths, as that Beatles CD, then you'll see "She Loves You Yeah Yeah Yeah" when you play it too, whether it's the Rolling Stones or Books on Tape.

This only happens with about one of every thousand CDs we make, and it's not like the CD sounds wrong. It just means that when importing into iTunes, say, you'll have to "override" the defaults and type in the track titles yourself.

 MP3

How do I load my MP3s into iTunes?
Each MP3 disc comes with the following instructions:
1) Start the iTunes program.
2) iTunes -> Preferences...
3) "Advanced" tab.
4) Check the box "Copy files to iTunes Music folder when adding to library."
5) Drag MP3 files (or the whole disc) directly into your iTunes playlist! Whammo!

 Cassettes

I'm not sure how long my tape is...
If you don't know, then just pick the shortest time. We will make adjustments here..

I only want the second song from side A and...
Sorry, that's not how our service works. We do the whole tape, all or nothing, and only trim off the silences at the start and end of each side. Similarly, we are unable to combine multiple tapes onto a single CD.

What if my cassette is broken ?
We can fix it! See cassette repairs

A "break" is any mechanical reason why your tape won't play all the way through. The fix is always the same: taking the reels out, splicing together any breaks in the tape and installing the reels into a new plastic tape case. The most common "breaks" are:

1: The "pressure pad," that tiny rectangle of felt or styrofoam near the bottom face that pushes down on the the tape against the deck's play head, often falls off. The tape will sometimes play, but the sound will be so muffled and crappy that you won't want it.

2: Sometimes, over the years, the layers of tape in the reels get stuck to each other. This is usually fixed in the "exercising" step, where we fast-forward and rewind it before playing. If that doesn't do the trick, though, then the decks won't have enough power to pull the tape through and quit. Our decks are especially wussy power-wise, actually, because we don't want to hurt anything, but that means that this problem can come up for us even though it doesn't happen for you at home.

3: A teensy bit of adhesive connects either end of the brown magnetic tape to the plastic leader strips that are hooked to the sprockets. Sometimes that adhesive fails, and the magnetic tape and leader become detatched.

How is it split up into tracks?
If it's a spoken word tape like a lecture or audiobook then you'll get two big tracks, one for each side. For music tapes with clear breaks between songs, though, we use a special computer program to find the track points by hand.

For tapes containing live performances, DJ sets or other content where the songs blend together, we can't always guarantee our track-seperation to be perfect, but we can try our best. Let us know if you prefer to have us attempt to track them, or to create one track for each side.

Do you offer cassette transcription to Word or PDF?
We don't do cassette transcription, but our friends at Casting Words do! They do a great job and their prices and turnaround are very competitive.

 Records

My record is scratched and skips. Can you fix it?
If a thorough cleaning will fix it, then you're all set. Otherwise, well, you're not. If it's a forward-skip, then that two-second piece of audio will be missing from the CD. If it's a back-skip, then we won't be able to transfer that particular song.

Can you put 2+ short records onto one CD?
For 45s, yes, this is what we do. We compile the songs onto however many CDs are required.

For LPs, though, no, we do the whole thing, all or nothing. Also, we won't put two LPs together onto one CD.

How is it split up into tracks?
We use a special computer program to find the track points by hand.

I only want the second song from side A and...
Nope nope, we do the whole thing, all or nothing.

Do you do hiss/pop/noise filtering?
You bet! It works really well.

Between the record cleaning and our super-fancy digital click and pop reduction algorithm, your records will be sounding better in your CD player or computer than they did on the turntable.

What payment methods can I use?

When is my credit card actually charged?

Can you help me with packing my recordings?

• The average LP size just short of 13 inches square.
• Most LP's fit in a 13 wide x13 deep box
• Average height of 20 LP's (in jackets): just short of 3 inches
• Average weight of 20 LP's (in jackets): about 10 pounds (less for more "modern" LP's, more for older LP's)
• If you ship by UPS, you can track your package as it proceeds to us. You can also insure it.
  
  

Are my recordings safe?

How do you store my recordings?

Will transferring and/or restoring damage my original recordings?

Will my original tapes be erased?

Will I get my original recordings back?

Can all types of problems be fixed?

No.  Listed below are some of the limitations.  We want our customers to be informed.  Please familiarize yourself with these limitations and write or call us if you have any questions.  The quality of our work is 100% guaranteed, but this guarantee does not apply to defects that are impossible to fix, such as those described below:
	Unplayable disks:    Please do not send disks that are cracked, warped, or otherwise unplayable.
	Off-center hole:  Some LP's have the center hole slightly off-center.  These records will play with the pitch varying slightly at each revolution.
	Skips:    If the record "skips" on your machine, it may "skip" on our machines.  If the needle skips forward we will continue processing.  If the record skips in place we will push the needle gently into the next groove.  We will repeat this a few times until the needle will track again.  Some discontinuity may be noticed.  We may not detect if the needle has skipped only a few times and then continued.  If any of these conditions are not acceptable, please do not submit records that skip.
	Severe scratches:  We routinely eliminate 50,000 to 100,000 clicks, pops and scratches per record.  Most clicks are completely eliminated, however, if the scratch is very severe (the underlying music is gone for a considerable amount of time) there will be a trace of a "pop" in the restored version.
	Distortion:   There are many types of distortion and possible causes: over modulation at recording, defective microphones or recording equipment, faulty stamping or quality control when the record was pressed, playing the record with a worn needle or with improper tracking force.  A distortion becomes part of the sound.  The computer and filtering software can not detect what is distorted and what is not. Therefore, if your source recording is distorted, the restored copy will also be distorted only the sound will be "cleaner".
	Trade-offs:  1)  Intense computer processing of very degraded signals may result in music that sounds somewhat muted.  It is a much more enjoyable experience to listen to a clean sounding recording, but somewhat muted, as opposed to a recording with severe hiss, crackles and pops.  2)  There are cases when a recording sounds clean for the most part, and needs a less drastic approach in restoration in order to preserve the "liveliness" of the original recording.   In this case it is more desirable to apply less severe processing, which may leave some occasional imperfections more audible.  We would like our customers to be aware of these trade-offs.
	No pause between tracks: Please note that there must be few seconds of actual pause (silence) between the songs in order for us to be able to accurately assign tracks.  If the original material does not contain a few seconds of silence between the songs, and timings are not provided we will try to guess where the tracks should begin, but may not exactly match the tracks of the original.   This happens frequently with "live recording" albums, medleys, opera and sometimes with compilation tapes.  If our "guessing" is not acceptable, please do not submit recordings without a few seconds of silence between songs.
	Inferior quality home or commercial recording: Some customers prefer to record their vinyl or shellac records onto a cassette, and send us the cassette for processing.   Please be aware that if the cassette is recorded with inferior equipment (noisy turntable or cassette recorder) the resulting CD will also be of inferior quality.   It is impossible to make a perfect CD out of a technically inferior recording.   This also applies to inferior commercial recordings (recordings with metallic, tiny sound, recordings with bad sibilants, recordings badly mixed).  We can not create frequencies that have never been recorded and can not re-mix a recording since we do not have the multi-track master.

Can you remove every pop and click?