audio transfer & digital Archiving

Here at Brixton Hill Studios, we can transfer your music collection to the format of your choice. Your entire music collection no longer need collect dust on shelves at home.

You may have a large collection of music just languishing on formats you can no longer conveniently play, Vinyl, Cassette, CD, Open Reel Tape. 

You may have recording sessions on what was the cutting edge technology of the day. However finding studios or using these at home for listening, review or working on them further can be prohibitively expensive. That’s if you can find suitable equipment for playback. 

Some formats can be problematic to preserve making archiving essential for future use. Here at Brixton Hill Studios, our engineers will take your original formats, be it 2” tape, DAT or MiniDisc, transfer the programme material and restore as required to modern digital formats for use with current DAWs and music software.

At Brixton Hill Studios we are able to preserve your music in the most up to date and convenient formats ensuring your music stands the test of time. Be it a retrospective re-release of your back catalogue or consolidating your music collection we can assist you in preserving your musical legacy.

Don’t let your collection succumb to the march of time, contact us today and find out how best we can conserve your music.

Professional, Consumer and Pro-sumer formats transferred:

Don’t see what you need? Get in touch, we can help

2” 24 Track

All transfers are made via our 24 track 3M M79 machine. Originally housed in Eel Pie Island, the studio of Pete Townshend (The Who) it has been lovingly restored by the legendary Clive Kavan who regularly services all of our machines. Keen eyed film buffs may even recognise our M79 from the recent Queen Biopic Bohemian Rhapsody.
 

Our engineers will repair any splices and breakages if required and transferred material will be restored digitally before being transferred to you.  Should you require more detailed work this can be arranged separately.

Alternatively, if you wish us just to transfer the raw material please let us know at time of booking. 
 
Upon inspection, should your tapes display symptoms of sticky shed syndrome then they shall be baked before transfer takes place. In some cases tape may need to be cleaned manually, in which case further cost may be incurred.
 
The 3M can run at 15ips or 30ips with either a CCIR (IEC1) or NAB (IEC2) EQ curve.  If you require a different set up please contact us with your requirements.

1” 8 Track

All transfers are made via our 8 track Studer A80 mk2 which has been modified with mk4 electronics. Formerly owned by the BBC it has been lovingly restored by the legendary Clive Kavan who also regularly services all of our machines.
 
Our engineers will repair any splices and breakages if required and transferred material will be restored digitally before being transferred to you.  Should you require more detailed work this can be arranged separately. Alternatively if you wish us just to transfer the raw material please let us know at time of booking. 
 
Upon inspection, should your tape displays symptoms of sticky shed syndrome then they shall be baked before transfer takes place. In some cases tape may need to be cleaned manually in which case further cost may be incurred.
 
The Studer can run at 7 1/2ips or 15ips with either a CCIR (IEC1) or NAB (IEC2) EQ curve. If you require a different set up please contact us with your requirements.

1/4" 2 Track Stereo

All transfers are made via our Studer B62 mk2 formerly owned by the BBC and regularly serviced by  Clive Kavan.
 
Our engineers will repair any splices and breakages if required and transferred material will be restored digitally before being transferred to you.  Should you require more detailed work this can be arranged separately. Alternatively if you wish us just to transfer the raw material just let us know at time of booking. 
Upon inspection, should your tape display symptoms of sticky shed syndrome then they shall be baked before transfer takes place. In some cases tape may need to be cleaned manually in which case further cost may be incurred.
 
The Studer can run at 7 1/2ips or 15ips with either a CCIR (IEC1) or NAB (IEC2) EQ curve.  If you require a different set up please contact us with your requirements.

Stereo DAT Tape

All transfers are made via our Tascam DA 20 DAT recorders of which there are two. The transfer process is closely monitored at all times by our engineers, should there be any need for alteration or calibration in the transfer. 
 
Prior to transfer each tape is closely inspected for mould or signs of substandard storage, DAT tape is incredibly fragile and there may be some instances of dropouts or glitches.

In some cases the material may not be salvageable at all, in which case the transfer session will be terminated. 

Once transferred to digital format, there is the possibility that any dropouts and glitches in the original media can be partially addressed or fixed depending on the situation. Should you require more detailed work this can be arranged separately. If you just wish to transfer the raw material please let us know at time of booking. 

8 Track ADAT

All transfers are made via our Alesis ADAT recorder, ADAT tape is the same S-VHS tape as used by consumer VCRs. Some common tapes used with ALESIS ADAT multi-track machines include: Quantegy DM 42 HHB ADAT45 HHB ADAT60 BASF DA 40 QUANTEGY ADAT 42C ADAT 60. You will always see the ADAT logo on tapes designed specifically for ADAT machines.

ADAT tape is usually much more robust than its smaller brother, however problems may present upon playback due to tracking issues, overplay and extensive over-recording of the tape. ADAT playback is around 4 times the speed of normal VHS, so heavily used tapes may also have damage to the transport. As always our engineers will closely monitor the transfer process, should the need arise for adjustments to be made during transfer.

If required transferred material will be restored digitally before being transferred to you.  Should you require more detailed work this can be arranged separately. Alternatively if you wish us just to transfer the raw material please let us know at time of booking.

Stereo MiniDisc

All transfers are made via our Sony MDS JE330 & JE470 MiniDisc Players, we are able to transfer both SP MiniDisc 80 minutes or LP MiniDisc >5 Hours.

MiniDisc is a magneto-optical disc-based storage device, using ATRAC audio data compression. Production of the format ceased in 2013 rendering the format obsolete, consequently playback of your MDs is becoming more difficult leaving a wealth of music unplayable. 

MiniDisc is now considered to have a lower bitrate than modern digital recording. As such our engineers have the ability to run your media through analogue signal paths, thus restoring some fullness and warmth to the original media.

Should you require more detailed work this can be arranged separately. Alternatively if you wish us just to transfer the raw material please let us know at time of booking.

Compact Cassette

All transfers are made via our Yamaha Natural Sound KX393 cassette deck, we are able to transfer type 1 (normal) type 2 (chrome dioxide) & type 4 (metal).

Our cassette tape transfer machines currently facilitate Dolby noise reduction systems B, C & SR, as well as MPX noise reduction. We are currently unable to transfer tapes recorded with Dolby SR & Dolby HX companding. 

Compact Cassette uses magnetic tape and as such is susceptible to the same problems most other formats of tape are. Storing tapes near magnetic sources, storing tapes in sub optimal climate conditions and repeated play of compact cassette tapes, can all result in problems with the material stored on the tape. Our engineers here at Brixton Hill studios make sure all tape heads are kept meticulously clean and correctly biased for the type of tape supplied. 

Should your cassette tapes need cleaning or or further audio processing, our engineers are perfectly equipped with the most up to date outboard and digital technology. We can make sure that the sound transferred to digital formats is fully optimised for your listening and archiving purposes.  

Should you require more detailed work this can be arranged separately. Alternatively if you wish us just to transfer the raw material please let us know at time of booking.

Vinyl and 78 RPM records

All transfers are made via our Garrard 301 Transcription Deck, Neumark ProTT 2 & Technics SL1200 decks. We are able to transfer 7/10/12” vinyl with playback speeds of 33/45/78rpm.

Once received our engineers will inspect and meticulously clean each record, taking care to preserve it from any damage. Even the cleanest looking disk once cleaned will reproduce better quality audio.

Once transferred to digital format we are able to digitally clean up any unwanted noise, reduce noise floor and EQ your music so as to ensure the best representation of the original material. Should you require more detailed work this can be arranged separately. Alternatively if you wish us just to transfer the raw material please let us know at time of booking.

Compact Disc

All transfers are made via our Pioneer CDJ850. CD to digital format transfer services take the hassle out digitising your entire music collection. Our engineers will transfer your music to the highest digital format, with a choice of either FLAC or Apple lossless encoding. Popular formats we are able to transfer to include WAV, AIFF & Mp3 (320kb/s). 

Disc cleaning and scratch repair services may be available, please contact our team for further information.