FAQ's
Compilation Questions
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Can you compile a CD from
multiple recordings? |
Yes. This is done
all the time. To calculate the cost, first figure the total cost of your CD
project. That is, are you going to do a straight transfer or do restoration as
well. Once you've made that decision, then to that price, you would add $2.75
for each song you will add to your compilation. This covers the extra time it
takes to pull from all the different sources.
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How many songs can I put on a
CD? |
This totally
depends on the total time (including space between songs), of all the songs you
want to add to a CD. If your project totals more than will fit on a single CD,
we will contact you and ask you how you wish to proceed. Options would include
removing some of the songs from your list or going to a second CD.
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Can I pull songs from both
records and tape? |
Yes. The cost is
the same as outlined above.
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Can I determine the order in
which the songs are sequenced on the final
CD? |
Absolutely. We
wouldn't have it any other way.
How
Many 78's or songs on a CD
The final CD will hold up
to 74 minutes of songs. When making a compilation CD of 78's, 45's or from
songs from different LP's, you will need to add up the total time of all the
songs and then determine how many CD's you will need.
If you want to
"guesstimate", figure approximately 10 songs for each CD. That's on the
conservative side so more than likely the final product will have more if need
be.
How
do I pay for my order?
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What payment methods
can I use? |
We accept Credit Cards (Visa, Master Card, American
Express), Money Orders and Checks and even Pay Pal. If sending a Money Order,
your package will ship upon receipt of the money order. Checks must clear before
we ship product.
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When is my credit card
actually charged? |
Your
credit card is only charged after we complete work, right before we ship your
order. Once the project is complete, we will send you a final invoice with instructions
on making payment.
Packaging
and Shipping
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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.
Please do not ship your records to us
in unprotected packaging. Avoid shipping valuable records in single-layer
packaging, such as record mailers.
Please - don't try to clean
your records.
Using conventional record cleaning products may well do damage to the disc. Alcohol-based
solutions are capable of breaking down the binders in shellac discs and may also
cause chemical break-down of the acetate disc surfaces found on privately
recorded and one-off discs. Audio-Restoration has all the tools and experience
to clean up your discs.
Packing 78s
78rpm discs are easily broken. Their shellac construction is virtually
guaranteed to break without proper packaging. If you do it right, they should
be fine.
The
disc itself should be protected on both sides, preferably by several sheets of
thick cardboard. By alternating the direction of the corrugation of the cardboard its
strength and resilience will be greatly improved. Cut the cardboard to squares a
little larger than the disc itself and tape these squares firmly around the
disc. The disc should be held tightly by the pressure alone of the cardboard
surrounding it - don't stick any tape onto the disc itself. If the disc has a
protective paper or card sleeve keep it inside this.
Next, this package should be further protected. I would recommend a big
box that you can place the disk package in without it touching the sides, and
then packing around the sides with bubble wrap, polystyrene packaging or
crumpled up newspaper, to create an extra layer of soft insulation between the
disc and the outside world and to make sure it doesn't rattle around.
When
you've finished, there should be no way the discs can be bent or dropped on
their edges. Remember, postal charges are based on weight, not size - the more
lightweight packaging around the records in a big box the
better!
Safety Issues
They will be
very, very safe. Your recordings will be handled with extreme care at our
studio. We clean each record carefully, and use only the best quality
cartridges on our turntables.
If you are in any way uncomfortable
about shipping, then we suggest you get a professional to pack your
recordings.
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How do you store my
recordings? |
Every day we handle many rare and hard to find recordings. Your
recordings will be returned to their original shipping container once
duplicated and then stored in our secure storage area until your project is
finished.
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Will transferring and/or
restoring damage my original
recordings? |
Our
process does not alter the original recording in any way. You will actually
receive your record back cleaner than when you sent it. Normally, we only play
your recording one time and it would only be played again if there was a problem
with the initial transfer to digital. Even in this case, we would generally only
play the "problem" section again.
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Will my original tapes be
erased? |
No.
They will be returned to you upon completion of your project.
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Will I get my original recordings
back? |
Absolutely!
Restoration
Issues
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Can all types of
problems be fixed? |
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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:
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Unplayable disks: Please do not send disks that are cracked, warped, or otherwise
unplayable.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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".
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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.
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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.
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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. |
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Can you remove every
pop and click? |
No. There are many thousands of pops and clicks on each recording. When
we restore a record we have to decide how severe the pops and clicks are, and
how much correction to apply to the music with our software. See Trade-offs
above.
"Hand removal" of pops and clicks is not possible at our standard
pricing. If you know that certain songs/tracks require extra restoration work,
please let us know and we will do the work on a hourly basis.
Privacy
Policy / Copyright
Issues
PRIVACY
POLICY
Audio-Restorations.com values its customers and respects privacy. All
customer information is considered confidential. We do not release information
to third parties. We do not place "cookies" or hidden files on our client's
computers. And we do not use email or mailing addresses for solicitation
purposes. Our audio restoration services are intended for individuals who have
purchased audio recordings (vinyl records or tapes) and wish to transfer them to
compact disc (CD).
COPYRIGHT
Copyright laws allow
individuals who have purchased audio recorded music in one format to transfer it
to a different format as long as it is for personal use and is not
re-sold.
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