Here we are 25 February 2020 and I have had a busy start to this decade! I often look back at trends in the audio transfer work that I do and without any question of doubt there is a definite upturn in the amount of Reel To Reel Tapes that I have been transferring going back to around October last year, I had at that time a very interesting audio transfer project for https://hrgb.org.uk/about-hrgb which involved transferring the magnetic tape archives of the Handbell ringers Great Britain, some of the recordings on Reel to Reel Tape were from the late 1960s as well recordings through the 1970s and 80s, this also included some audio cassette tapes, I recorded many hours of handbell sounds into a digital format and supplied the finished audio on a USB memory Stick so now in readiness they have safely stored in digital format their audio history for the new decade. As much of my work is generated by word of mouth, without question the bestform of advertising, I completed the Handbell ringers Of Great britain Project and with a recommendation from them I then undertook an audio transfer project for the Chagford Local History Society based here in Devon, this involved their own over 30 audio cassettes and a few Mini Disks all recorded in the late 1980s & early 1990s of villagers in around Chagford being interviewed about memories of their past in the locality they have their own website https://www.chagfordlocalhistorysociety.org.uk/ and has so many interesting topics relating to the village and I know some of the audio interviews will appear on the website in due course. The amount of reel to Reel Tapes out there must be vast as not a week goes by without customers asking about the audio transfer of tapes that they have. In most cases it is never known the actual running time of the reels as in the day there was a standard speed of 3.75 ips (inches per second) however many tape recorders of the 1960s & 70s did have variable speeds of recording and this is what makes it difficult to estimate until you actually put the tape on the deck, first check is to judge if the tape will run smoothly as many do have issues due to degrading over the time and I have to work out how it was recorded, speed, track selection before I can start the audio capturing. generally once up and running and the audio is playing okay I can then keep a watch on the tape recorder but at the same time do some editing etc on another file as it would not be very viable to just sit and listen to everything in real time, for instance I did recently some Capital Radio broadcasts of the late Kenny Everett and the tape was recorded in mono tracks two per side making a total of 8 hours of audio captured from just one 7 inch spool at 3.75 ips. A fair few customers now opt for a USB memory Stick to store the audio as it offers a great deal of flexibility, firstly you caneasily make a back up of the work on a PC or Laptop, you can produce a CD if you wish (providing you have a CD / DVd burner( and you can share the audio files to other family members electronically using programs like Drop Box or One Drive or send a smaller file by email attachment. Long Play vinyl records commonly known as LPs are still coming in for transfer to digital despite the vast amount of music on download through Apple Music, spotify to name but two there are so many LPs and of course 7 inch singles that have never been released in a digital format and can be transferred into a format that you can use. This has been a small insight into what goes on here at MK vinyl 2 CD based in the small seaside town of Exmouth, East Devon. Take care!