I have been composing and recording since 1980 and since January 2015 I commenced the big restore project to reconstruct everything done since 1980.  There was much work lost or stolen over the decades in regards multitrack masters however I was always lucky enough to have maintained at least cassette mixdowns of everything.  This allowed me to re-record from scratch any multitrack composition that was missing.  In some cases loosing only a few original performances by the original artists such as Vocalists, Guitarists, Chapman Stickests and Keyboardists.  Below is an account of the restoration, remixing and remastering processes undertaken to complete this three year task.

 
SOURCE MEDIA and TECHNOLOGY METHODS TRACKS ARCHIVED
Tascam 244 4-track Portastudio (early to mid 1980's).

 Computers included a Sorcerer and a Yamaha CX5.

  • Restore each track from original 4 track cassette
  • Double the speed and raise pitch by an octave
  • Remix/Remaster in Reason / Scope.
 7 Each individual audio track to STEMS Archive.

 
  • Stereo Cassette Mixdown restoration.
  • Rerecorded in Cubase and/or Reason
 44 Stereo mixdown remastered through Scope.
Tascam 38 1/2 inch 8 track and RAM Micro Mixer (mid 1980's - early 1990's). 

Computers included an Atari ST512.

  • Stereo Cassette Mixdown restoration.
  • Rerecorded in Cubase and/or Reason.
 50 Stereo mixdown remastered through Scope. 
Voyetra Digital Orchestrator Pro (early to mid 1990's). 

Computers included early Intel Pentiums.
  • Extract Digital Audio Track by Track
  • Extract MIDI
  • Import Audio and MIDI into Reason and Remix/Remaster.
 85 Extracted DOP Audio Tracks to STEMS Archive.

Extracted MIDI files split into tracks and archived with Reason project
Cubase SL and Cubase Pro 8.5 (late 1990's to 2015).

 Computers included late Pentiums to modern i7 Intel.

  • Render In Place MIDI VSTi to new Audio tracks.
  • Save each MIDI track individually.
  • Normalise and convert all tracks to 96KHz
  • Export Audio tracks.
  • Import Audio and MIDI into Reason and Remix/Remaster.
 		 261 Each individual audio track to STEMS Archive.
Tascam CDA-500 Direct from stereo cassette (1980 onwards).

  • No additional processing - interviews, spoken word, jams, live performances and reviews etc.
 75 Archived as is.