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Do you remember how cool it was when you received your first Sony Walkman to play audio cassette tapes? Or how about later when you received a giant boom box that played audio cassettes that also featured an AM/FM radio? When this compact media from yesteryear was introduced in the U.S. in November 1963, it was considered groundbreaking due to its size, convenience, portability, ease of use, and affordability – especially compared to reel-to-reel tapes.
Today, cassettes may seem like a groovy artifact from yesteryear, but they rode a wave of popularity through the 1980s. When compact discs (CDs) were introduced, cassette tapes were relegated to bargain bins and mostly disappeared. If you still have cassette tapes and discarded the players decades ago, no worries. ScanCafe can transform your groovy memories into digital files you can listen to and enjoy for years to come.
If you’re looking for an audio cassette converter service, you’ve come to the right place. ScanCafe offers award-winning, highly rated, and trusted services. We love transferring fragile music memories into digital formats you can listen to without the hassle of fast forward and rewind. And when we transfer audio cassette to digital, we never outsource your precious musical memories to other labs. All services are performed at our state-of-the-art processing facility in Indianapolis and delivered back to you in 3 to 4 weeks.
At ScanCafe, we go above and beyond to ensure the safety of your cassette tapes. From the moment your package arrives to when we send the originals back to you, we not only weigh the content, but also track it with video surveillance. We appreciate how important musical memories are to our customers, so we go the extra mile to protect them, door to door.
At ScanCafe, the process we use to transfer cassette tape to digital closely mirrors how we transfer film. With cassette tapes, we use a state-of-the-art deck to capture the sound of both sides of the tape from beginning to end to a .wav file, so we never miss a beat. Since we don’t perform any post processing on the files, we don’t offer track separation.
All you need to do is ship your audio cassette tapes to us and we’ll take care of the rest for you.
Your audio cassette tapes will be digitized at our Indianapolis lab, with a 3-4 week turnaround time.
The end result is memories safely transferred from audio cassette tapes to a .WAV file and your choice of digital download for cloud storage or USB drive.
In addition to appreciating the highest quality conversion services, ScanCafe customers love our flexible delivery options. We make it easy to download sound files to your computer or any device connected to the internet. You can choose from the following delivery options:
Our standard delivery method is a digital download with a link that remains active for 30 days from the time of "Checkout". If you choose our standard method and wish to continue downloading content after 30 days, you must contact our customer service team prior to this date at [email protected] or call us at (866) 234-3909. Otherwise, our servers will automatically delete content after 30 days. Also, please keep in mind that the reactivated link is only valid for 7 days.
Generally, a small 3" audio reel is 150ft, a medium 5" reel is 600ft, and a large 7" reel is 1200ft. If there is audio signal recorded to both Sides 1 and 2, the length is effectively doubled, which is often the case.
That depends on the original inches-per-second (IPS) setting. Most tape was recorded at 3 3/4 IPS or 1 7/8 IPS. We digitize at 7 1/2 IPS, and the final digital audio file is anywhere from a few minutes to over an hour.
We run every audio reel through our reel-to-reel machine twice to check both sides for a signal. We capture at mono unless otherwise noted on the box or by the customer. We set the proper playback speed during post-processing, remove any dead space, and amplify any relatively quiet portions. The customer will receive a WAV file from us for each reel they sent that has a signal.
Note: Any issues inherent to the original recording (background noise, mic too far from source, etc.) or poor condition (stretched tape, flaking metal, etc.) are often out of the scope of our editing process.
We will record both sides of the cassette and label the files A and B, you will only be charged for one tape though.
