Mass Productions

04/25/2026

Marine scientists in Australia heard about our discovery and recovery of the earliest known sound recordings of whales on audograph records from 1949. They also have whale recordings and specifically want to work with us. So now we can officially say we have customers around the world 😊. Woods hole oceanographic institute is hoping the discovery helps to encourage other scientists to dig into their archives of sound recordings of whales on obsolete media and digitize them so everyone can share the data. It’s very exciting to be at the center of what is becoming a global project 😊

04/18/2026

I just got off the phone with Jessica Rains, who is the daughter of Actor Claude Rains. Claude was in many movies in the 1930's and 1940s, such as Casablanca, "Little John" in Robin Hood, and The invisible Man. She has sound recordings of him telling his life story that is going to be used in a documentary. Boston University has cassette copies that are not very good, so I offered to transfer the original tapes for her and possibly use Ai to enhance them 😊

03/11/2026

Can we recover this episode for our client? The strange looking tape on the left is the Umatic master from the 1980's, which seems to have something on the surface of the tape or extreme wear. The VHS tape on the right is the ONLY copy of the Umatic master, and it's infested with mold! Which one can be recovered? Stay tuned!

02/20/2026

We recently recovered some 16mm film from the 1950's that unfortunately was badly damaged in a flood! It was amazing there was any image left at all!

02/20/2026

We are receiving a lot of VHS tapes lately that are infested with mold! It's getting worse every year. Even tapes that have been stored in dry and cool conditions are getting moldy. Do NOT assume your tapes are "fine". Mold spores can migrate from objects stored in the same area. Once the mold takes hold, it will embed itself into the oxide and cause permanent damage. If it damages the control track on the bottom edge, the video will be an unstable mess! So...CHECK YOUR TAPES! Mass Productions has effective custom built cleaning decks that safely removes the mold before playback for digitizing.

02/15/2026

Mass Productions and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution discover the oldest known sound recording of Whale song from 1949! The WHOI archives found the recordings on Audograph records ( blue flexible plastic ) and was curious as to what they might be. The notes mentioned SOFAR listening station in Bermuda. Since we have been digitizing audio reels as old as 1953 of whale songs from SOFAR, it seemed very possible that the scientists at the time may have inadvertently captured the sounds of whales without knowing what they were at the time. The notes on the record sleeves say "Fish Noises" and "Unknown Marine sounds", so we were all excited. We did a test transfer of some of the records and...we were right! Now we are busy recovering over 200 of these records for Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.

01/25/2026

Mass Productions now offers speech to text transcriptions from Films, Videotapes, and Audiotapes that we digitize. The transcriptions can be provided as word files, subtitles in video files, or as .SRT files you upload to YouTube along with the video.

12/25/2025

Merry Christmas from Cape Cod 🎁😊

11/25/2025

CLIR recordings at risk is offering another cycle of grants for AV digitization. Applications are due by February 24, 2026. If you are interested in applying for funding, please put together a detailed inventory spreadsheet and contact us soon for an estimate. We have completed many CLIR funded AV digitization projects, and can help you plan. Don't wait until the last minute! The more care and details put on your application, the greater the chances your project will be funded.

Recordings at Risk is a national regranting program administered by CLIR to support the preservation of rare and unique audio, audiovisual, and other time-based media of high scholarly value through digital reformatting.

09/01/2025

40 years ago today, about 1:30 AM, Bob Ballard and his team aboard the Knorr, finally found the wreck of the Titanic. Mass Productions may have digitized all the video footage of the 1985 discovery of the Titanic, and the first dive to it in 1986. Being top secret, we can neither confirm or deny that we did it ;)