Magnetic Resonance Library

Start with the leader

Every pass needs a guide roller

Magnetic Recovery Liaisons

Dedicated liaisons across each phase of asset recovery and archival preservation.

EKS — Files in and out
EDK — Tape Handling – Archival
AGK — Cuttings – QC
APK — Audio
One Pass Recovery — Capturing full signal integrity off the medium before physical wear sets in

Held to azimuth

Calibration
& experimentation

The reproduction library provides the known reference signals that every transfer and measurement is aligned against.

Calibration — Aligned against decades of managing playback infrastructure and massive media catalogs for Canada’s largest theatre, TV, and radio operations.
Experimentation — Transport alignment, custom tape machine engineering, and continuous playback optimization built on lifelong hands-on tape transport expertise.

A big collection wants a good counter

Handling
large catalogs

Recovery is only half of it. Every recording is catalogued as it comes off the tape, and the catalog is what makes a collection searchable.

Voice — speech located and attributed, male and female
Dialect — identified per speaker
Music — sections found and described
Delivered as CSV — every event on a timeline

Example output
start	end	type	detail
00:00:00.000	00:00:12.400	music	instrumental
00:00:12.400	00:01:48.900	speech	female
00:01:48.900	00:02:31.250	speech	male
00:02:31.250	00:04:07.000	music	vocal

Straight off the head

AI-based
transcription

Automated speech-to-text and timecoded metadata operating directly on raw transfers to make massive collections searchable and interactive.

CSV with Timecode — Complete transcriptions exported with precise start/end timestamps and confidence scores
Custom HTML Player — Interactive web player with embedded sound files and synchronized playout markers for instant navigation
Speaker Diarization — Automatic voice attribution separating and identifying individual speakers across the timeline

However it was spooled

Tape Disc Disk Spool Pressing File Video Dictaphone Cell phone Email Surveillance footage

Whatever it came in on —
better audio comes out.

Forensic workflow available. Where a recording has to stand up to scrutiny, the transfer is documented end to end — the original captured unaltered, every step logged, and the chain of custody kept intact.

Stereo
IEC 4-track, 2 channels

0.6 mm tracks, 3.73 mm across the group. L and R forward on 1 and 2; flip the shell and 3 and 4 run back the other way. The everyday cassette.

Audio + cue
ANSI 2-track, 2 channels

Two 1.5 mm tracks on a 3.66 mm group — audio with a cue track above it (drawn hollow) carrying index marks rather than programme. Dictation and logging machines.

Quad
IEC 4-track, 4 channels

The same four 0.6 mm lanes as stereo, but all four run one way at once: four discrete channels in a single pass, no flip.

Four-track
TASCAM 4-track, 4 channels

Portastudio geometry: 0.5 mm tracks on a 1.0 mm pitch, wider guard bands than IEC, all four in one direction and usually at double speed. The B side of the shell is not a side.

Three + cue
TASCAM 4-track, 3 channels

Same 0.5 mm lanes: a cue track at the top (drawn hollow), a lane left clear as a guard, and the stereo pair below it.

Eight-track
TASCAM 8-track, 8 channels

Eight tracks across 3.81 mm on a 0.476 mm pitch, all one direction — the 238 Syncaset end of the range. Lanes this narrow make azimuth matter more here than anywhere else on cassette.

Cassette tape is 3.81 mm (0.150″) wide and tracks are numbered top to bottom. Hover or tab to a layout for its dimensions, or take the whole set as CSV.

Twelve transports, never in a pinch

Cassette
⅛-inch

A compact cassette holds two recordings in one shell, one running in each direction. Both sides are captured — the flip is part of the pass, not an afterthought.

Two directions — side A and side B, both taken
Twelve at a time — transports running in parallel
New-old-stock transports — a sealed deck opened for your tape, so the first head ever to touch it is unworn. When a run of stock is gone, the replacement is matched to the same spec and verified against a reference tape before it touches your recording
Keep the deck — add $100 and the transport that played your tape ships to you

24sides per load

The heavy lifting is the lifter’s

¼-inch tape

The bias tone sits under everything on the tape. We read it back on playback instead of filtering it away — it tells us which machine laid the recording down, and how fast it was running.

One pass every track laid down in a single run

Mono
full track

Full track 0.238″ on 0.246″ tape. One direction.

Stereo
two tracks

Two tracks, one direction. Ampex 0.075″, Euro ~0.10″. Centre-track timecode was used on this format.

Three‑track
three tracks

Three tracks, one direction. Outside the NAB set: widths vary with the machine, so we measure the tape rather than assume.

Four‑track
four tracks

0.043″ tracks on 0.134″ centres (NAB), all four in the same direction. Quad: 1/2/3/4 = LF/LR/RF/RR.

Eight‑track
eight tracks

0.021″ per track, all in the same direction. Stereo: 1/5, 2/6, 3/7, 4/8. Quad: 1/3/5/7 and 2/4/6/8.

Two passes the reel is flipped and run again

Half‑track
both directions

0.082″ per track (NAB), two directions — one mono programme each way, the reel flipped between them.

Quarter-track
two tracks each way

0.043″ tracks on 0.134″ centres (NAB), two directions. Stereo: 1/3 side A, 4/2 side B. Mono: 1, 4, 3, 2.

Tape is 0.246″ wide and tracks are numbered top to bottom. Hover or tab to a format for its dimensions.

Consider us your head shield

½-inch tape

Our half-inch transport runs a 16-track head across the full width of the tape. Every lane is captured simultaneously — allowing 2, 3, 4, 8, or 16-track formats to be extracted faithfully, if not perfectly, on playback.

Whatever you have, we can try and help — but we can 100% guide you.

Two‑track
stereo master

Three‑track
three tracks

Four‑track
four tracks

Eight‑track
eight tracks

Sixteen-track
sixteen tracks

Wide-track iron, frame-locked

2-inch tape

24-track masters and 16-track 2-inch transfers from 15 to 30 ips with Dolby SR. Machine synchronization links reels frame-accurately — combining twin 24-track machines for 23 + 23 (46 audio tracks), or locking 16-track and 24-track machines for 23 + 15 (38 audio tracks).

24‑track
24 tracks on 2" tape

24 tracks across 2-inch tape in a single pass. Captured at 15 to 30 ips with full bandwidth and headroom.

16‑track
16 tracks on 2" tape

16 tracks across 2-inch tape in a single pass at 15 to 30 ips with Dolby SR noise reduction.

24 + 24 Sync
46 audio tracks (4" combined width)

Synchronizing two 24-track machines yields 23 + 23 = 46 audio tracks across 4" of combined tape width (using 1 track per machine for SMPTE timecode lock).

16 + 24 Sync
38 audio tracks (4" combined width)

Synchronizing 16-track and 24-track machines yields 23 + 15 = 38 audio tracks across 4" of combined tape width with timecode lock.

2-inch magnetic tape is 2.000″ (50.8 mm) wide and tracks are numbered top to bottom. Synchronized dual-reel transfers span 4.000″ (101.6 mm) total width. Hover or tab to a layout for details.

No wow, no flutter

Pressings & lathe transfers

Pressed records and one-off lacquers alike, played at the speed they were actually cut at — and in the direction they were actually cut in.

Stylus in the groove — front view

Stylus — a new stylus can be cut to suit your discs where the groove calls for it, at additional cost.

Let’s take this up

Start a recovery

Tell us what you have and how much of it. We will come back with a plan, a turnaround and a price before anything is played.

The reference we align to

Jay McKnight and the
Magnetic Reference Laboratory

Every honest transfer begins with a known reference. From 1972, Magnetic Reference Laboratory made the calibration tapes that gave the industry one, and John G. “Jay” McKnight — co-founder, president, and the author of much of the standards work behind them — spent a career making the measurement mean something. Our machines are lined up against MRL tapes. Without that reference, nothing we claim about a transfer would be checkable.

We are not them. This project has no affiliation with, endorsement from, or connection to Magnetic Reference Laboratory, and nothing here should be read as speaking for Jay McKnight or his work. MRL is still making calibration tapes, more than fifty years on. If you need a reference tape, go to them: mrltapes.com

John G. “Jay” McKnight · 1931–2022