frequently asked questions

Good question. The term is sometimes misused or misinterpreted, so it’s worth getting clear on what’s what.

When an album is recorded, whether in the studio or on stage, it will either be a multi-track recording using several microphones and/or different sessions to record each individual element separately (instruments, vocals), or a live or semi-live recording in which one or several microphones capture the performance as a whole. The recording engineers will then bring the various elements together, editing and mixing them to achieve the desired sound and to remove unwanted noise, culminating in the album’s first final arrangement. This is the original studio master tape, of which there will be not just one, but several: each of these is considered an ‘original master’.

This original master is then used as the ‘blueprint’ for all subsequent copies, pressings, remasterings, etc. But of course with each subsequent treatment, something of the original information and hence sound quality is lost. Which is why nothing sounds quite like the original studio master tape. It’s the original source of the album in its completed state

The quality of any digital recording, regardless of resolution levels, can never match that of analogue due to the simple fact that music, or sound, is not digital! In recording music digitally, you’re basically sampling a highly complex collection of sound-waves and approximating them into a series of ones and zeros. In doing so, by definition you’re losing a great deal of information right from the start. In contrast, a good quality analogue recording is actually capturing the complete waveforms, so you’re getting the full information.

The final quality of any subsequent tape/record/CD/digital file will of course depend on a whole host of additional factors, from production processes and format to playback systems, each of which will result in some small degree of loss of, or interference with, the original information. Which is why, when it comes to recorded music, nothing can better an original analogue master tape. It contains more information than any other source, or than anything subsequently derived from that source.

That’s a long conversation probably best kept for a winter’s night over a bottle of good brandy! Very briefly, analogue recording was the norm until the early 1980s, around which point most recording studios moved over to digital. Why? A host of reasons. The technology was there. Recording engineers perceived greater scope for sound manipulation. Digital files on hard drives don’t degrade over time as physical tapes do. The music market was booming and hence moving away from artisan quality to mass production. And of course the old favourite – cost.

Analogue recordings are time-consuming and expensive, requiring a host of high-quality equipment plus teams of experts to operate and maintain it. In contrast, a basic digital recording can be made by one person and a computer.

Fast-forward to the present day and we find that the continuing rise in digital recording and playback formats is, at the same time, spurring a renewed debate over sound quality and hence a rediscovery of all things analogue. So we’re starting to see one or two recording artists and a couple of small, independent record labels beginning to make analogue recordings again. Watch this space!

Absolutely not! Why mess with the best? The whole point of what we do lies in capturing the magic of the original analogue master tape in its purest, most faithful form possible.

‘Remastering’ can be compared to using computer software to edit an original photograph. The benefits are that you can remove unwanted marks or noise, clean things up, remove distortion and boost clarity. The downside is that in doing so, you often lose the natural essence of the original and the result can seem rather synthetic, lacking in real life character.

The unfortunate fact is that tapes, like photographs, do tend to age over time, and most analogue masters are now between 30-80+ years old.

So what we undertake a painstaking ‘soft refurbishing’ process, which is key to recapturing the original quality of a master tape.

We believe that they’re as close as it’s possible to get – not simply to the master tape in its current condition, but to that master tape’s original condition. Thanks to our detailed 'soft refurbishing’ process, our master tape copies could, in a sense, now be considered as better than the current originals because they’ve been lovingly restored to deliver the same sound quality that the originals had on the day they were first recorded.

Some are, some aren’t. You’ll find quite a few for sale online that most definitely aren’t! Not only are these illegal, they’re also denying artists their rightful earnings while making a tidy profit for someone else.

All Horch House master tape copies are fully authorised, licensed and approved by the relevant record label/music publisher.

Two reasons. First, the cost of blank virgin reel-to-reel tapes is high at around 50 euros and a single album typically requires two tapes. Second, the cost of production is much higher, as tapes are being copied in real time, in small, hand-managed batches, using the highest quality equipment operated and maintained by highly qualified experts.

But when you consider the result in terms of the vastly superior sound quality that’s possible on reel-to-reel tape, then it becomes a question of not just cost, but value.

In short, audio tape is the only format that can record and play back pure, natural sound in its whole and original state. Every other format requires some form of interference with the original audio signal. In the case of vinyl records, the full original sound waves have to be equalised and compressed into more compact waveforms, otherwise it wouldn’t be physically possible to create a workable record groove. In the case of digital, the waveforms are sampled rather than captured in their entirety.

Audio tape is therefore the only format which allows the listener to hear a recording exactly the way the original artist and producer intended it to sound, before it was altered to fit on a vinyl record, sampled for a CD or squashed down to MP3 size. It delivers a far richer analogue sound with stunning musicality and the full dynamic range, because it still contains every last detail of the original audio signal.

All Horch House reel-to-reel tapes are shipped with an information sheet on tape care. Handling your hand-made Horch House master tape copy:

Dear Music Friends,

Thank you for purchasing your high-quality master tape copy. You’ve received a hand-made product produced on the best and perfectly maintained STUDER tape recorder.

Please follow some important guidelines to ensure that this product will bring you joy for a long time.

The tapes are delivered ‘tail out’. This means that you need to rewind the tapes to the start before playing them. You can tell this by the yellow lead tape that marks the end of the tape and the red/white one that marks the start of the tape. This form of storage reduces the ‘pre-echoes’ caused by the copy effect. Always store your tapes ‘tail out’.

If you do not play your master tape copy very often, we recommend rewinding it once per year to prevent copy effects.

A master tape copy should only be played back on well-maintained tape recorders. It is very important to clean the tape-conducting elements and to demagnetise the device according to its respective service manual. This should be done every time before you play a master tape copy. It will ensure that you can enjoy your master tape copies for a long time.

Perfect storage of your master tape copies is important for a long lifetime. Please make sure that your tapes are stored wound back (‘tail out’) and upright in the plastic bag and the box. A climate around 20 degrees celsius and with a relative humidity of 50% is best. Of course this is not possible in our apartments and houses. Find a good place that comes as close as possible to these conditions.

At the time of writing, there are (to our knowledge) no companies that currently manufacture reel-to-reel machines. There’s certainly a market for them, but for now it’s a second hand market, serving both professional studio and home use.

At Horch House, we use machines from Swiss experts Studer, who pioneered many key developments in the audio industry and who remain world leaders in audio engineering. We also rate Revox and Stellavox.

Whichever brand you choose, we’d recommend learning about the different types of analogue tape machines and their various features before investing in a reel-to-reel deck. We’d also recommend finding a source of high quality technical support. These analogue machines are mechanically intricate and their optimum performance depends on good maintenance. Any second hand machine will have been subject to both age and usage and so some parts are likely to have deteriorated and may need repair or replacement. In fact, unless specifically stated otherwise, most used machines will require some maintenance or repair to get them back to their optimum specifications. The chances of finding replacement parts for older machines will tend to be better with the more common brands.