Media

Grooved Media

Grooved media can be taken to mean any kind of disc record, of any diameter, speed, or groove shape. Cellulose nitrate coated metal discs, more commonly called 'acetates', have been used to carry sound for the last sixty years by both professional studios and home recording enthusiasts.

The oldest acetates may well show advanced signs of degradation. Indeed, they may even look unplayable because of lamination cracks, peeling and/or mould attack. Shellac Pressings should also be regarded as vulnerable and not just because of their fragility. Many were produced in limited numbers and those remaining are often the only copies of a long since destroyed originals.

Taped Media

Old and vulnerable tape recordings are those with oxide on quarter-inch wide backings such as paper, 'acetate', 'mylar', etc., wound on reels or as pancakes. After more than four decades from new, quarter-inch tapes made in the 1950's and 1960's will have developed irreversible degradations. Backings become brittle and wrinkled and fail to 'hug-the-heads' properly. Gums which once bonded the iron-oxide to the base have probably all but dried out. Splices too will have dried exposing numbers of 'edits' to be repaired before a non-stop playback can be accomplished. Sound Transfers handle a wide range of tape speeds and sizes. Full, half and four track tapes can be transferred from reels or plates up to 26.5cm diameter with NAB, AEG or ciné hubs and tape speeds from 2.38cm/s to 76.2cm/s.