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Your cassette tapes hold music, speeches, interviews, family recordings, and personal memories that deserve to be heard again. Scan5 converts your audio cassettes to crystal-clear digital files — MP3 or WAV — so every word and every note is preserved for the future.
Consumer cassette players introduce wow and flutter, azimuth misalignment, and noise that degrades the quality of your recording. At Scan5, we use professional-grade cassette decks with calibrated heads, real-time monitoring, and professional audio capture interfaces — ensuring the highest possible fidelity from each tape.
Every tape is played back and monitored in real-time by our audio technicians. We adjust azimuth alignment, playback speed, and signal levels for each individual tape to extract the best quality from your recording, whatever its condition.
Introduced by Philips in 1963, the compact audio cassette became one of the most versatile recording media in history. Affordable, portable, and easy to use, cassettes captured personal mixtapes, voicemail recordings, interviews, live performances, music demos, and family conversations throughout the 1970s, 80s, and 90s.
We transfer standard audio cassettes (Type I/Type II/Type IV), microcassettes, and cassettes in any condition. Whether you have one cherished tape or a box of 50, Scan5 handles them all with professional care and consistent quality.
We deliver your digitized cassette recordings in the format that best fits how you'll use and store them.
High-quality compressed audio files, convenient for streaming, sharing, and listening on any device. Ideal for music and spoken word recordings you want to enjoy on the go.
CD-quality (44.1 kHz / 16-bit) or higher uncompressed audio — the best choice for archiving and for any recording you might want to edit or remaster in the future.
24-bit / 48kHz or higher — exceeding CD quality for the most demanding archival and professional use cases. Captures every nuance of the original recording.
Old cassettes can have tangled tape, broken shells, and degraded oxide — all of which affect playback. We address these issues before transferring.
We repair tangled or creased tape, replace cracked or broken cassette shells, and address sticky shed syndrome before playback — protecting both your tape and our equipment.
We offer noise reduction to minimize tape hiss, hum, and static — as well as editing to remove blank sections and separate your recording into individual tracks.
Once your cassettes are digitized, choose how you'd like to store and listen to your recordings.
From personal mixtapes to oral history archives, we've digitized audio cassettes for Chicago families and institutions.
Mixtapes, voicemails, family conversations, music demos, and personal journals — we preserve every kind of cassette recording with care.
Libraries, universities, and oral history projects trust us to digitize large cassette collections with professional quality and careful handling.
We understand how personal your memories are, and we treat them with the utmost care. Your photos, tapes, and videos are always secure with us, and we never share them with third parties. Your physical items are kept safe in our climate controlled inventory room at our office building with 24/7 monitoring.
We digitize standard compact audio cassettes (Type I, II, and IV), microcassettes, and mini-cassettes. We handle both sides of each tape and support 4-track cassettes. Contact us if you have a specialty format.
Audio cassette tape degrades over time — the magnetic particles that hold your recording literally fall off the tape surface, causing dropouts, distortion, and loss of high frequencies. Most tapes recorded in the 1970s–90s are already showing signs of degradation. Digitizing now preserves what's left before further loss occurs.
WAV is the best choice for long-term preservation — it's uncompressed and captures everything the tape recorded. MP3 is more convenient for everyday listening and sharing. Many customers choose to receive both: a WAV archive and an MP3 for daily use.
Yes. We repair tangled or creased tape by carefully rewinding and splicing where needed. We also replace cracked or broken cassette shells. Tapes with sticky shed syndrome (a squealing sound when played) can be treated before transfer in many cases.
Yes. We offer noise reduction processing to reduce tape hiss, hum, and static. This is applied carefully to preserve the quality of the original recording while removing unwanted noise. Contact us for details on our audio cleanup services.
Drop off at our Chicago studio (4001 N Ravenswood Ave Suite 502-B), schedule a courier pickup, or ship your tapes to us with a prepaid UPS label we'll provide on request. Standard cassettes ship safely in a padded envelope or small box.
Most projects are completed within 1–2 weeks depending on the number of tapes. Because cassettes must play back in real time, a 90-minute tape takes 90 minutes to transfer. Rush service may be available — contact us to discuss your timeline.
Yes. Volume discounts are available. Our audio cassette digitizing starts at $20 per tape with discounts for larger orders. Contact us with your tape count for a custom quote.
Don't let another year go by with your recordings stuck on deteriorating tape. Let Scan5 bring them back to life.
