Capturing the magic of master tape

How exactly does Horch House translate an original analogue master tape into faithful copies on reel-to-reel tape and vinyl records?

We use a process that’s been meticulously researched and developed by our expert team of sound engineers, with input from some of the world’s leading specialists.

Our first step is to carefully assess the sound quality of the original master tape, which our experts do in great detail. The unfortunate fact is that tapes do tend to age over time, and most analogue masters are now between 30-80+ years old. What we’re looking to do, therefore, as an integral part of our copying process, is to restore the sound quality back to its original level. We want you to hear exactly what the first sound engineers heard (and indeed the musicians themselves), on the day that the original recording was made. This is in stark contrast to any kind of ‘remastering’, which we most definitely do not do! We’re not looking to ‘improve’ the recording in any way, but rather to return it as closely as possible to its full original beauty.

We call this our ‘soft refurbishing’ process.

Soft refurbishing: New life for much-loved masters

Csmastering sound engineer Christoph Stickel has a remarkable knowledge of the complex elements underpinning the sound quality of an analogue master tape, enabling him to assess, understand and restore a tape’s original quality and achieve the correct tonal balance according to whether it was recorded 30, 40 or 50 years ago.

Stickel will typically begin by making analogue and digital test copies of the original master, so that he can spend as many hours as needed to assess and refine sound quality and perfect his refurbishing strategy without ‘overworking’ the precious original studio master tape.

No mixing desks, sound processors, limiters or compressors are used in this process. It’s an entirely analogue approach, using only analogue tools. Fine adjustments are made by ear and by hand to our Studer playback and recording machines, tweaking, testing and re- tweaking to replicate the parameters that produced the original recording. Once the optimum settings have been found, additional test recordings are made and measurements taken, followed by a further refining process. Only when an absolutely optimal result has been achieved, will our ‘soft refurbished’ master tape copies be made from the precious original.

The sound quality is therefore fine-tuned without introducing any additional stages into the signal path, hence virtually nothing is lost while the original beauty and character of the original recording are fully regained.

Reel-to-Reel analogue master tape copies

The original analogue master tape is copied, in real time, from a Studer A80R to a small bank of just eight finely-tuned Studer top-of-range A80R master recorders. Our reel-to-reel tapes are the classic SM900 (and the LPR90, the long play version of SM900), the tape that has proven its worth and stood the test of time over several decades. The recording quality is constantly monitored throughout, using sound level meters to ensure the best signal to noise ratio.

Such high quality analogue recording equipment requires significant expertise to operate and maintain to optimum levels.

To ensure that every tape copied meets identically high standards, all of our Studer machines are checked daily using state-of-the-art measuring equipment, so that they remain in peak condition at all times with no exceptions. Our measuring equipment is also regularly tested and recalibrated.

This level of attention to quality enabling us to guarantee a consistently high level of quality across all Horch House products.

Any questions? Check out our FAQs or feel free to contact us at any time.