Reel-to-Reel to Digital Transfer

Reel-to-reel tape was the gold standard of audio recording from the 1950s through to the 1980s. Open-reel recorders were used in professional studios, by the BBC, and by serious music enthusiasts who wanted the highest fidelity available at the time. If you have reel-to-reel tapes, they may contain anything from family voice recordings and home music sessions to professional masters, radio broadcasts, and spoken-word archives.

The open-reel format comes in a wide range of configurations. Tape widths range from quarter-inch (most common for consumer and semi-professional use) up to one-inch and two-inch for professional multitrack studio recordings. Tape speeds vary too: 1⅞, 3¾, 7½, and 15 inches per second are all common, and the correct speed must be identified to play the recording back at the right pitch. Track configurations include full-track mono, half-track stereo, quarter-track stereo, and various multitrack layouts. Getting any of these wrong produces garbled, thin, or mono-sounding audio.

The tapes themselves can suffer from sticky-shed syndrome, where the binder holding the magnetic particles absorbs moisture and becomes gummy. When this happens, the tape squeals and sheds oxide during playback, potentially destroying the recording. We test for this before any playback and, where necessary, bake the tapes at controlled temperatures to temporarily re-stabilise the binder, a well-established archival technique that allows the tape to be played safely.

We use Revox and Studer open-reel machines that are regularly serviced and calibrated. Playback speed is verified, azimuth and bias are set correctly, and the audio is captured at 24-bit/96kHz, well beyond CD quality, to preserve every detail the tape holds. You receive both high-resolution WAV files for archival and MP3s for everyday listening.