Match the recording to the audio price list
Transfer Audio lists an audio cassette of up to 60 minutes at £6.00 and one over 60 minutes at £12.00. Micro cassettes have the same published duration bands and prices. Mini cassettes and Grundig Stenorette cassettes are each listed at £6.00, without a duration band specified in those entries. These are audio prices; they do not provide a VHS quotation.
For quarter-inch audio reels, the published figures are £20.00 for up to 60 minutes, £25.00 for up to 120 minutes and £30.00 for up to 180 minutes. Before budgeting for a collection, ask how recorded running time is measured and confirm the total, including any applicable tax, delivery or storage charges. A tape's printed capacity may be different from the amount actually recorded.
A Kirkcaldy handover or a postal order
The business says its audio transfer work is carried out at its Kirkcaldy, Fife office and that it serves the whole UK, although most work comes from Scotland. Its contact page welcomes personal handovers from local customers and also accepts tapes sent by Royal Mail or courier. The choice can therefore depend on how comfortable you feel posting irreplaceable originals.
Published hours are 09:00 to 16:00 Monday to Friday and 09:00 to 13:00 Saturday, with Sunday closed. Transfer Audio advises contacting it before arriving because it makes a daily postal run. It also offers arranged collection through Royal Mail or DPD for an additional charge; this requires access to a printer for the supplied parcel label. Confirm the arrangements before packing or travelling.
Identify voices before sending the tapes
Make a short inventory with one identifier per cassette or reel, copying any handwritten labels exactly. Add what you know separately: who is speaking, the likely occasion and whether a date is certain or approximate. A relative may recognise a voice or remember why a recording was made even when the label says very little.
Keep cases and labels together, and photograph them before handover. Tell the converter about broken shells, loose tape, mould or previous playback trouble, and ask whether inspection or repair is possible. Do not repeatedly play a suspect tape simply to calculate its length. Agree how originals will be returned and ask for an estimated completion date when placing the order.
Choose delivery around how you will listen
Transfer Audio says created digital files can be supplied on a USB drive or through a digital download link. Those are delivery choices, rather than a specification of the audio file type. Ask which format you will receive, whether tracks are separated and how the files will be named. For a download, establish how long the link remains available; for USB, check any charge and compatibility with your device.
Once received, listen to the beginnings and endings and sample quieter passages. Compare the files against your inventory and check both sides of a cassette where relevant. Save a second copy somewhere separate from the delivery device, retain the original tapes and keep your notes with the recordings. Contact the converter promptly if material appears missing or a file will not open.
Connect recordings with the family's visual history
An old concert recording might belong alongside photographs of the performers or a home video from the same year. Memrial is a separate private family archive for digital photos and home videos after conversion, not a tape converter or part of Transfer Audio. Keep your audio master copies safely backed up while using the archive to organise related visual memories and invite relatives to add comments and stories.
Timeline accepts exact or approximate dates, helping the family find memories by year without inventing a precise date for an uncertain occasion. Memrial includes 2.0 GB of free storage shared across an archive, with no card needed. Choose what to upload with that allowance in mind.
Let relatives add context and watch together
For an uploaded home video, Memrial's Live Watch Parties synchronise playback for relatives nearby or far away. The host controls play, pause and seeking, with voice and text chat so someone can identify a person or explain a scene. The free allowance is three hours per month with up to six participants.
For a family reunion, Event Memories provides a secure occasion contribution link. Contributors sign in but do not need archive membership; their photos and videos go into the event album. Closing the link keeps the collected memories. It is a practical way to gather present-day photographs alongside the older visual history relatives have helped identify.