1. We start the conversion process by brushing and vaccuuming each record album with an anti-static cleaning brush. Not applicable for cassette tapes obviously.

    

2. We listen to sample tracks on your record album or cassette tape to determine the extent of noise and hiss, and begin to formulate our noise reduction plan.

    

3. We use high-quality Technics turntables and Sony tape decks run through a pre-amplifer.

    

4. We play the record album or cassette tape through a full-duplex, low-noise, full-bandwidth sound card, and sample the audio digitally using 32-bit resolution.

    

5. We view sample waveforms from the source record or tape using professional audio mixing/editing software, determine optimal recording levels, and begin to record.

    

6. We record each side of the record album or cassette tape, which results in a huge .wav file.

    

7. We normalize the audio across all tracks on the CD to ensure the audio plays at proper volume (especially important for MP3 transfers).

    

8. We start the noise reduction process by running an automated routine to remove album clicks and pops. We set the parameters of this process by manually assessing the noise level of your source, and in some cases, run multiple passes to remove as much noise as possible. In other words, more agressive noise reduction is used for more noisy records.

    

9. We complete the noise reduction process by taking a few samples of "non-pop" noise (such as hiss) from between a few tracks. We then program our noise reduction software to look for that noise signature and remove it from the waveform. Click on this thumbnail to see what a typical noise signature looks like.

    

    

    

    

    

10. For the custom noise reduction process, we take out the big pops manually, zooming in on each one and carefully filling them in. We also select the "silent" passages between each track, and replace whatever noise is remaining with absolute zero silence. For custom noise reduction, we also equalize the waveform in order to give the music a little more bass or punch up the vocals (if needed).

     

     

     

     

11. We convert the 32-bit file to 16-bit for CD or MP3 recording, then change the sampling to 44,1KHz.

     

12. We add CD or MP3 track points at the start of each song, then save each song as its own .wav file. We convert to MP3 if requested.

     

13. We burn the CD or MP3!!

     

Convert old records albums and cassette tapes to CD or MP3 files you'll use everyday!