Play It Again, Paul, LLC, Vienna, VA (2025)

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.

Address

Vienna, VA
22181

Telephone

(703) 304-1143

Website

http://www.playitagainpaul.com/

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