Play It Again, Paul, LLC

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Vienna, VA
Play It Again, Paul, LLC

We convert records; reel-to-reel tapes; and Compact, DAT, Mini- and Micro- Cassettes to digital format. Quality is enhanced by noise reduction.

Serving Northern VA, we provide free pick-up & delivery. Rediscover the joy of listening to your old music and preserve your original media. Play It Again, Paul, LLC will convert your LP, 45, and 78 records; reel-to-reel tapes; and Compact, DAT, Mini-, and Micro- Cassettes to digital format, providing you with music CDs, MP3 files, or high resolution WAV files. We can enhance your recordings throu

gh noise reduction and waveform editing. We serve Northern Virginia and provide free pick-up and delivery.

07/04/2024

𝐌𝐎𝐑𝐄 𝑼𝑵𝑪𝑶𝑴𝑴𝑶𝑵 𝑴𝑬𝑫𝑰𝑨
One of the things I like about my audio conversion business is that from time to time I encounter items that I never knew existed and then figure out what to do with them. Recent examples include flexible 78s and records that track from the label to the rim. Accordingly, I’ve updated my blog article "Uncommon Media” (www.playitagainpaul.com/uncommon-media) to revise and expand the section on Nitrocellulose Lacquer (“Acetate”) Records and to add the new sections More 78 Variations and Vertical-Cut 78 Records.

The strangest item, one of several records I recently digitized and pictured below, appears to have a cement base with a thin wax layer into which the grooves were cut. The record company used these for commercial releases in 1905, and I suspect that leftover blanks were subsequently used for small custom jobs. The pictured record was recorded in 1938. As can be seen, the wax layer has degenerated and fallen off in several places, taking the music with it. I was able to capture music on both sides where the wax layer was still intact.

I hope you find the article interesting, and I invite your comments, suggestions, Likes, Shares, and Follows.

10/19/2023

View the film’s trailer here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7i0xYUCST4

On August 8, 1947, ABC’s 𝘌𝘷𝘦𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘌𝘥𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 newscast included a story of a plane crash in China, one that claimed the life of Barbara Stephens. ABC transcribed 𝘌𝘷𝘦𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘌𝘥𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 onto a pair of 78 records and gave them to Stephens’ family, and they were eventually handed down to her nephew. When I met him last July, he had been working on a film documenting Ms. Stephens life in China and the events surrounding her death, and he engaged Play It Again, Paul to digitize the 78s in the hopes that the news story appeared on one of the records. It did.

I’ll be attending an invitation-only premiere of the film next month, mostly because I was affected by my customer’s interest and enthusiasm, but also because he was kind enough to include Play It Again, Paul in the credits. You may view the film’s trailer using the link above.

07/25/2023

𝐌𝐲 𝐆𝐫𝐨𝐰𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐅𝐚𝐦𝐢𝐥𝐲

Play It Again, Paul, LLC (www.playitagainpaul.com) continues to expand the number of magnetic tape formats that we can convert to digital. In the last two years, Digital Audio Tape (DAT), Mini-Cassettes, and “pancake” tapes have been welcomed into our existing family of 10.5”, 7”, 5”, and 3” reel-to-reel tapes, Compact Cassettes, and Microcassettes (in addition to 33-1/3, 45, and 78 rpm records and audio files). This is celebrated in the “family portrait” array in the image.

06/30/2023

𝑹𝑬𝑬𝑳-𝑻𝑶-𝑹𝑬𝑬𝑳 𝑻𝑨𝑷𝑬 𝑰𝑵𝑪𝑼𝑩𝑨𝑻𝑰𝑶𝑵 𝑳𝑶𝑮

Now that I have an incubator for dehydrating tapes suffering from coating deterioration, I’ve begun a log of my incubation activities. The procedures and results from the first batch are described in my article “Reel-to-Reel Tape Incubation Log” (www.playitagainpaul.com/r2r-tape-incubation-log), and I will update it when I encounter additional customer tapes requiring remediation. As always, I invite your comments, suggestions, Likes, Shares, and Follows.

About the images: First image: Sticky thick binder splinters that accumulated on a strip of material during a test for “Sticky-Shed Syndrome.” Second image: Test of the same tape after incubation.

05/05/2023

𝗔𝗡𝗦𝗪𝗘𝗥𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝗠𝗔𝗖𝗛𝗜𝗡𝗘 𝗖𝗔𝗦𝗦𝗘𝗧𝗧𝗘𝗦

Before digital answering machines and voice mail, there were answering machines that used magnetic tape, usually Compact Cassettes or Microcassettes. While converting incoming message cassettes is straightforward, digitizing outgoing message cassettes (i.e., those with the greeting message) can prove to be challenging. They usually employ a looped tape rather than a reel-to-reel configuration typically found in cassettes. My article “Answering Machine Cassettes” (www.playitagainpaul.com/answering-machine-cassettes) describes what I have encountered with such media and how I addressed the challenges. As always, I invite your comments, suggestions, Likes, Shares, and Follows.

About the images: The inside of an outgoing message cassette with a looped tape.

10/31/2022

𝗠𝗔𝗚𝗡𝗘𝗧𝗜𝗖 𝗧𝗔𝗣𝗘 𝗗𝗘𝗧𝗘𝗥𝗜𝗢𝗥𝗔𝗧𝗜𝗢𝗡, 𝗣𝗔𝗥𝗧 𝟮: 𝗖𝗢𝗔𝗧𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝗗𝗘𝗧𝗘𝗥𝗜𝗢𝗥𝗔𝗧𝗜𝗢𝗡

Magnetic tapes will deteriorate over time, some faster and worse than others. My article “Magnetic Tape Deterioration, Part 2: Coating Deterioration” (www.playitagainpaul.com/coating-deterioration) describes what can happen with the “binder” and “back coating” and what remediation might be employed. As always, I invite your comments, suggestions, Likes, Shares, and Follows.

About the images: Sticky residue (first image) and thick binder splinters (second image) that accumulated on a strip of material during a test for “Sticky-Shed Syndrome.” Playing a tape shedding this residue can damage both the tape and the tape deck.

09/29/2022

𝗠𝗔𝗚𝗡𝗘𝗧𝗜𝗖 𝗧𝗔𝗣𝗘 𝗗𝗘𝗧𝗘𝗥𝗜𝗢𝗥𝗔𝗧𝗜𝗢𝗡, 𝗣𝗔𝗥𝗧 𝟭 — 𝗠𝗔𝗚𝗡𝗘𝗧𝗜𝗭𝗔𝗧𝗜𝗢𝗡 & 𝗕𝗔𝗦𝗘 𝗗𝗔𝗠𝗔𝗚𝗘

Magnetic tapes will deteriorate over time, some faster and worse than others. My article “Magnetic Tape Deterioration, Part 1 — Magnetization & Base Damage” (www.playitagainpaul.com/magnetization-and-base-damage) describes these two types of damage and their causes and offers recommendations for preserving audio tapes. Part 2 will describe deterioration in tapes’ coatings. As always, I invite your comments, suggestions, Likes, Shares, and Follows.

About the image: Spectrogram showing noise that gradually increases in frequency following a progressive speed change, indicating its cause as environmental magnetization during storage rather than noise occurring at the time of recording.

08/02/2022

𝘿𝙞𝙜𝙞𝙩𝙖𝙡 𝘼𝙪𝙙𝙞𝙤 𝙏𝙖𝙥𝙚

The early popularity of cassette recorders like Sony’s Walkman validated the market for personal, portable music devices capable of recording analogue audio. As digital audio gained traction, personal portable devices could play CDs but not record. Digital Audio Tape (DAT) was envisioned to fill that gap.

My blog article “Digital Audio Tape” (www.playitagainpaul.com/digital-audio-tape) describes the technology used in DAT devices, where they succeeded and failed, their eventual demise, and three classes of DAT recorders. As always, I invite your comments, Likes, and Shares.

About the image: Denon DTR-80P and Sony PCM-M1 personal portable DAT recorders bracketing a Sony Walkman cassette player.

07/01/2022

𝙒𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝘿𝙤𝙚𝙨 𝘾𝙖𝙨𝙨𝙚𝙩𝙩𝙚 𝙉𝙤𝙞𝙨𝙚 𝙇𝙤𝙤𝙠 𝙇𝙞𝙠𝙚?

Having converted about 100 commercially produced cassettes to digital, a recurring pattern of noise appearing in a system-at-rest state (everything powered up but before playing the cassette), the leader, blank tape, and the music became blatantly obvious. My blog article “What Does Cassette Noise Look Like?” (www.playitagainpaul.com/cassette-noise) describes the noise characteristics in the pattern and the steps I take to remove the noise. As always, I invite your comments, Likes, and Shares.

About the image: Spectogram of system, leader, tape, and music frequencies depicting noise that carries into the music.

06/11/2022

𝗔𝗻𝗼𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿 𝗙𝗶𝗿𝘀𝘁 — 𝗖𝗮𝗽𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗔𝘂𝗱𝗶𝗼 𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝗮 𝗗𝗶𝗴𝗶𝘁𝗮𝗹 𝗠𝘂𝘀𝗶𝗰 𝗥𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗿𝗱𝗲𝗿

Digital music recorders have some popularity among musicians, but they’re definitely outside the mainstream of legacy music media. When I received a request to capture four songs that were stored on this Boss BR-600, I couldn’t resist the challenge. Although the unit is capable of outputting a WAV or AIFF file to a computer, compatibility with Windows operating systems ended at Windows 2000 and ME (and maybe XP). Fortunately, I could patch the unit’s Line-Out jacks directly to my sound card and capture the stored songs as if they had come from a record or tape. Adjusting several faders to achieve a satisfactory mix was also a first for me. Overall, a fun project!

05/31/2022

𝙐𝙉𝘾𝙊𝙈𝙈𝙊𝙉 𝙈𝙀𝘿𝙄𝘼

Play It Again, Paul, LLC has added a Mini-Cassette recorder to the collection of devices for converting legacy media to digital format. The device, appearing in the image along with one of its cassettes, joins my turntable, reel-to-reel deck, cassette deck, and Microcassette recorder (not to be confused with the Mini-Cassette recorder—they’re different). Astonishingly, these devices and their cassettes are still being produced 55 years after they first appeared!

I have updated the Mini-Cassette and Microcassette sections of my blog article “Uncommon Media” (www.playitagainpaul.com/uncommon-media). I hope you find it interesting, and I invite your comments, suggestions, Likes, Shares, and Follows.

02/01/2022

𝗣𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗮𝗸𝗲 𝗧𝗮𝗽𝗲𝘀

In addition to open reel tapes, cassettes, 8-tracks, et al., tape also comes in a form known as a “pancake,” which is a length of tape wrapped around a hub with nothing but the tightness of the wind to keep it together. Pancakes require delicate handling lest they fall apart, especially if the wind is loose.

My blog article “Pancake Tapes” (www.playitagainpaul.com/pancake-tapes) describes what happened when I discovered that a half dozen tapes were pancakes rather than 10.5” open reel tapes that I expected. The challenge was further complicated by the pancake’s “DIN” hubs, which won’t attach to spindles found on American tape players.

About the images: A pancake tape with a DIN hub; a deliberately mishandled pancake.

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Vienna, VA
22181

Telephone

(703) 304-1143

Website

http://www.playitagainpaul.com/

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