We offer great music recorded on a great format for your enjoyment at home.
A Tape Project album consists of two reels of tape, recorded at 15 IPS two track with the IEC1 EQ standard (formerly know as the CCIR EQ.) We don't encode the tapes with noise reduction such as Dolby or DBX. They are always recorded on new, unspliced tape. They are carefully made in our own facility.
The two reels are packaged in individual boxes, and the two boxes are held in a slipcase. There is a sheet of album art slipped in there too.
We originally decided that we would only reissue titles where the original master is on analog tape, and where we can get hold of the original master, and of course we think the music is great. This allowed for albums which might have started with a digital multi-track, then were mixed to an analog tape. But so far we have not released any that started from a digital multitrack, or that had any digital step in their production.
See an exception here.Our process starts with the original master tape, not from a copy (with one exception,
See this post. Also see
What Is A Master Tape? and
What Is The Provenance Of Our Tapes?) We evaluate the master tape carefully, and if it needs any restoration we do that first. Then we make a running master on one inch two track analog tape. If any level or EQ adjustments are needed, they are done at this stage, so they are baked in to the running master. This running master is copied to the customer tapes.
The entire process is all analog and real time.
This describes all of our releases that have a catalog number starting in TP. We have also released one album from a digital source, but it is in a separate series and the catalog number begins with DDA. We may do more of these, but they will always be in that separate series and clearly identified as such.
Since our albums are recorded two-track, they only play one direction. We provide our tapes "tails out," which means that you put your tape on the takeup side of your machine and rewind it before playing. We recommend you store them tails out after playing.
Our albums are guaranteed for quality, but that guarantee does not cover damage done by a tape machine with defects. So please make sure your machine is clean and in good repair. We specifically do not cover damage caused by using the tapes without both top and bottom flanges.