Latest Posts

If planning to get a large collection of photos scanned through a media transfer company, there’s some easy guidelines you should follow and some things to look out for. For big scanning jobs, it’s not always practical to get it done yourself, as it could take quite a while to get through all of them, especially if you have a deadline to meet. Bulk photo scanning can be for a number of different things like your company would like all original photographs scanned and indexed so they can be disposed of to save space, you want to complete a personal project which requires the photos to be in a digital format first.

If the photos are important to you, it’s wise to find a business that specializes in photo scanning. A local company would be the safest option for the protection and safety of your images. But what can you do to prevent your photos from being possibly ruined or a poor scanning job?

There are a number of things you can do to try to avoid this, some common sense and we also offer some tips and advice for you to try out as well.

When you contact the company, which is actually best to do by phone to get a better feel for who you’re going to be dealing with, ask questions about the service such as:

What quality do you scan at? Most places will scan your photos at somewhere between 300 and 600 DPI. Be careful they are not scanning at too low of a resolution, as it will create poor quality digital images. Most modern flatbed scanners are capable of cleaner, higher resolution scans than compared to earlier models or document scanners.

What type of scanners do you guys use? This is an important question to ask as it will give you insight into how the final product will look. For the best quality, we recommend going with a company that scans all of your photos with dedicated flatbed scanners. Flatbed scanners don’t pull the photo through the machine like document scanners do. Pulling the photo through the scanner can result in RGB streaking throughout the image, faded colors, and even damaged photos.

How long will the process take? If the turnaround time is important to you, be sure to ask how long it will take to get your final images. Some companies have long turnaround times due to the massive volume they receive on a daily basis, and could even take months to get your images back. Typically, local companies can work with you on your turnaround time by providing a rush service, or getting it done in the time you specify.

What does the photo scanning process involve? Make sure you know what kind of service you’ll receive from the company you choose. Will they crop/rotate your photos? Are your photos cleaned of dust prior to scanning? Do they come on a DVD?

What you’re looking for are detailed answers to these questions, and if they don’t know the answer to any of these questions, it might be best to look elsewhere! If they give you detailed answers plus even a little more information about what you’re asking, this is always a good sign that the person there knows what they’re talking about.

Another tip is to actually visit the place where the work is done if possible so you can meet the staff and possibly witness for yourself the process going on. Don’t think that this is rude or too forward; they should welcome you with open arms for a quick tour if they are a reputable company who are confident in what they do.

Looking for photo scanning services? Check out our local stores below! Photo scanning San Diego Photo scanning Orange County Photo scanning Los Angeles Photo scanning Denver

Recently, our Orange County store misplaced a Reel to Reel Power Cord for their Teac Reel to Reel audio deck.

In the past, we had fashioned our own cables, as a quick search for a replacement reel to reel power cord or cable reveals that any site listing the model number for this particular unit wants over $35.

While $35 isn’t going to break the bank here, we try to save money when we can so we can keep our prices low. In the past, our equipment manager Bryan modified some extension cords for this use, but this typically requires a trip to Frys. Let’s be honest, if we let him go to Fry’s, we may have to send in a search party to get him back out again. So after some looking around, we found a nice power cord on Amazon. You can get the same one through this link here: Prime HC100608 8-Feet Iron Heater and Appliance Extension Cord, Black

The key thing about this model is that it fits nicely into the opening of the reel to reel deck. There will only be a slight modification needed to make it fit right, so if you shave off the little tabs on either side with a sharp knife or razor like this:

it’ll fit just fine, and there will still be a protective plastic sheath to protect you and your equipment from electrical arcs. Now we’re back in business doing our reel to reel to CD and MP3 transfers!

Apparently it will also work on these models: Teac-Tascam models for sure; 33-4, A-1500, A-1500W, A-1230, A-1250, A-1250S, A-2050, A-2300S, A-2300SD, A-2300SR, A-2300SX, A-2340, A-2340SX, A-2520, A-3300S, 3300SR, A3300SX, A-3300SX, A-3340, A-4000S, A-4010, A-4010S, A4010SU, AR-40S, AR-60, A-6010, A-6010S. Pioneer models for sure; Pioneer RT-1010, RT-1010L, RT-1011, RT-1011L, RT-1020, RT-1020H, RT-1020L, RT-1050, RT-1050H RT-1050L. Many Sony R2R’s including TC-530 / TC530, TC-540 / TC540, TC-630/ TC630, TC-651 / TC651, TC-850 / TC850. Some Sansui Receivers & Reel to Reels. Also will fit some Elka Organs / Keyboards such as the Panther. Also will fit the Organ King II amp by “Amplifier Corporation of America”.

Vinyl records, while not the most durable forms of media in the world, are still collected and played today because of their unique sound when in good condition. Over the years, records can deteriorate quite a bit, and if played on a turntable in this condition, could produce loud pops and clicks over your speakers. In years past, this problem was extremely difficult, if not impossible, to eliminate completely. However, with modern digital audio and audio editing programs, learning how to remove pop and clicks and other unwanted sounds from your recording is as easy as ever. For this example I will be using a free to donwload audio editing program called Audacity.

You can download Audacity for yourself (Windows / Mac) from the following site: https://audacity.sourceforge.net/download/

Before you can edit the audio, you first need to digitize the LP to the computer. This can be easily accomplished by taking your record through our Vinyl Record to CD service, digitizing your audio as raw WAV, as well as having a copy of your record on a 100-year archival CD. You could also do the transfer from home by purchasing a new USB turntable from Amazon, which connects right into the back of your computer and allows you to record right from Audacity.

Once your LP has been digitized in WAV format, it’s now time to edit out the unwanted pops and clicks. From the file menu in Audacity, select Open, and find the WAV file of your LP that you wish to edit. Once it’s loaded up on the timeline, you should see something like this:

If you notice, you’ll see long veritcal lines throughout the song. These peaks are the actual pops and clicks that are heard in the recording. We need to attempt to remove these vertical lines from the recording to make it sound much more clean at louder volumes.

To remove pop/clicks from the entire recording, you can do this by pressing CTRL-A, or select all from the edit menu. Once the track is selected, click on Effect->Click removal.

Usually, I’ve found that the default threshold values work fine most of the time, but feel free to play around wih them a bit to get the sound you desire. When you set the threshold, you can preview it before applying. When finished, press OK and the filter will now be applied to the whole track.

Keep in mind that this fix will not work for EVERY situation, but should work for the vast majority of audio with popping and clicking noises throughout.

Vinyl records, while not the most durable forms of media in the world, are still collected and played today because of their unique sound when in good condition. Over the years, records can deteriorate quite a bit, and if played on a turntable in this condition, could produce loud pops and clicks over your speakers. In years past, this problem was extremely difficult, if not impossible, to eliminate completely. However, with modern digital audio and audio editing programs, removing these unwanted sounds from your recording is as easy as ever. For this example I will be using a free to donwload audio editing program called Audacity.
You can download Audacity for yourself (Windows / Mac) from the following site: https://audacity.sourceforge.net/download/
Before you can edit the audio, you first need to digitize the LP to the computer. This can be easily accomplished by taking your record through our Vinyl Record to CD service, digitizing your audio as raw WAV, as well as having a copy of your record on a 100-year archival CD. You could also do the transfer from home by purchasing a new USB turntable from Amazon, which connects right into the back of your computer and allows you to record right from Audacity.
Once your LP has been digitized in WAV format, it’s now time to edit out the unwanted pops and clicks. From the file menu in Audacity, select Open, and find the WAV file of your LP that you wish to edit. Once it’s loaded up on the timeline, you should see something like this:
If you notice, you’ll see long veritcal lines throughout the song. These peaks are the actual pops and clicks that are heard in the recording. We need to attempt to remove these vertical lines from the recording to make it sound much more clean at louder volumes.
To remove pop/clicks from the entire recording, you can do this by pressing CTRL-A, or select all from the edit menu. Once the track is selected, click on Effect->Click removal.
Usually, I’ve found that the default threshold values work fine most of the time, but feel free to play around wih them a bit to get the sound you desire. When you set the threshold, you can preview it before applying. When finished, press OK and the filter will now be applied to the whole track.
Keep in mind that this fix will not work for EVERY situation, but should work for the vast majority of audio with popping and clicking noises throughout.