Need advice about reel to reel tapes found in an attic

I was contacted re: some masters I had, and they wanted to have the tapes archived to digital, at their expense, I just supply the reel. The studio they wished to employ was equipped with a full track head so I figured it wouldn't be a bad idea, even if only for my own use since I only have 2tr heads it might be good to have a proper digital transfer better than what I was capable of. Still managed to make the worst sounding transfers I could imagine; and only supplied them as 16/44.1 as well. Waste of time but luckily not my money. Lots of so called professionals out there who apparently can't give professional results or don't know what they're doing.

 

It appears you're located in the UK, I'd be willing to help out if I could however I could see shipping costs adding up very quickly between there and the US. No matter where you choose to have these taken care of, you may want to first do the ones that are most likely to have anything of value, and then decide from there if you'd like to go through with the rest of the collection.


The easiest way to figure out which, if any tapes are of value- organize the tapes by speed. Immediately make note of and separate anything that's marked as being recorded at 15ips (or 38cm/s) or 30ips. These are basically guaranteed to have been used in a professional and non-home/personal setting. How many do you have recorded at these speeds?

 

By professionals I mean transfer houses that make their living transferring tapes and other media, I think all the ones mentioned in this thread are pretty good, they will generally have a selection of fully maintained and functioning machines and qualified staff whereas studios might have a single machine which hasn't been used for a while, someone I dealt with a couple of years ago went through half a dozen studios before he finally got his DAT tape transferred, the same problem, they didn't know they had a problem with their machines until they needed them.

 

Thank you everyone for replying to my request, We have a lot to go through, and many links to look at, and offers of help, Plus it has also been requested that i try and do an album of all the tapes for everyone to see, For me to do this ill have to go to where they are kept in storage for safe keeping, and then its trying to create an album also, but i shall try my best to do this, and maybe if all is well be ready by weekend,
many thanks
amanda

 

Please keep us posted on your developments...?

 

How come no one is mentioning the fact that Air Studio's was owned by George Martin and the poster shows an Air Studio's tape with all Beatles song titles? Mmmmm, do you really think that's a tape recorded from records? I think not.
This on the ultimate Beatles fan forum.

 

IIRC, The Beatles never recorded at AIR, so why a tape with Beatles's song on it?

 

Couldn't Martin have made a copy for evaluation or perhaps even a copy of outtakes that he may have been working on at the time? Remember he had full access.

 

I have to admit that when I saw which studio it was this whole thread became even more interesting and the Martin connection does make those Beatles tapes somewhat intriguing.

 

Yep, and weren't a few songs remixed in the 70's? Strawberry Fields comes to mind

 

I thought Air opened after GM had finished working with The Beatles. Any Beatles tapes would never be allowed out of Abbey Road.

 

Yeah, that was my point, but of course is possible that he could have made copies for evaluation (as Tommy said); maybe for a Beatles-related project we don't know about. Who knows...

 

Do you believe the original owner of the tapes would have thrown out tapes recorded by George Martin from Beatles' mixes?

 

You're assuming the owner intended to throw out anything or even leave the premises of the building in the first place. **** happens.

 

I'm not assuming anything the OP stated that the owner of the tapes gave them to her son to keep or throw out.

 

So here we have it! The OP sparked interest with the thread and has also provoked a possible "market" for his find as some posters have expressed interest in buying. It is time the OP selects a few tapes and has them listened to and copied. I am sure we all appreciate the mystery but now that he has opened this rabbit hole it is time for him to shed more light on what is in it.

 

I joined this forum for help and information on our reel to reel tapes and if they have any value and if so what? and a lot of members here have been very very helpful giving myself this information and steering me in the correct direction, I have NEVER asked anyone here to purchase any of them or tried to sell them, I submitted photos to show what we have, and at the moment thats all i am able to do till i hear them

 

For the record our client told us to do what we want with them inc selling them, they are my sons property and what he decides after we have heard them is an area i shall support him in, wether selling them, storing them for another 40+ years or another option, but atm its hearing them, and knowing excatly what is on them,what we have planned now, and we shall take it from there.
Many Thanks

 

For the record, no negative inference or criticism was meant. Clearly so many of us would like to know what is on those reels. Thanks to you for moving forward to finding out. Another audio adventure in the making. PLEASE keep us posted on what you find.

 

The tape that's pictures with Beatles songs written on it has no other information on it. No studio, producer, client, no date, etc. It's basically blank except for the song titles. It's probably not a tape recorded from records but it could be just a dub of the songs from other tape sources which could be nothing more than what was already released. Or it could be dubs of some takes that we've never heard before. Who knows. But right now it's not something that everyone is going to get ultra excited about just yet. Did they even record at that studio?

 

I shall do RiCat and thank you, i have already informed my son that members here would like to hear what we have, and until we do hear the reels we are none the wiser either, I have made a choice of what reels to take to listen to, we may have something we may have nothing, at least we shall know soon
many thanks

 

Let us know how it turns out.

 

Looking at the images I think AIR studios dumped some surplus, possibly damaged tapes in boxes which may or may not bear any relationship to what is on the tapes inside, and some R2R fan in the late 1970s or early 80s bought them for cheap and dubbed his fave Beatles. Bony M etc. songs onto them, reusing the boxes. I am amazed that this molehill still has people seeing it as a mountain.

 

The tapes came from a former employee of Air who worked as an engineer and producer, the OP hasn't named him, but his name may be on some of the boxes, so although the chances are there are no "lost" Beatles recording in the collection, there's always a chance and much of the other music could be very interesting in it's own right.

 

The don't need to have the holy grail of lost tracks like carnival of light or anything like that. Even if they're just dubs of "common" masters, Beatles or otherwise, they would be worth a very significant amount of money. Just because a familiar recording is heard on the tape doesn't mean it's completely worthless - depending on where it came from of course.