Come use our studio services on the 8th floor at 599 11th Ave! Read more about the equipment available at each of our workstations further down on this page. Fill out the accompanying interest forms to book a time to use the stations. Please contact the Studio Manager, Davis Erin Anderson, with any comments or questions: deanderson@metro.org.
Book a session in our recording booth here
Rent out our mobile audio recording kit here
Read more about our audio recording booth and mobile kit
Review our audio documentation
Read more about our digitization services and scanning equipment
We also have two desktop computers available with software for image, audio, and video post-processing.
In March of 2017, we opened our new 8,000 square foot studio called 599 on the west side of midtown Manhattan. 599 is an architectural and programmatic instantiation of a digital library in physical space: we offer tools and resources that empower our members to read, write, and participate on the web. More specifically, our activities are focused on the digitization, description, and presentation of cultural heritage materials. 599 makes the labor and the communities associated with archiving and preservation visible, legible, and accessible; the space itself is a platform for action so that participants can organize to create their own community narratives.
Pricing:
Our 5 x 7 foot VocalBooth Recording Studio and Sound Isolation Booth is a stand-alone, pop-up recording studio that filters out outside noise and improves sound quality of recordings. Equipped with ventilation, outlets, lighting, cable ports, and foam wrapped walls, it is perfect for recording podcasts, voice-overs, and oral histories.
Available equipment includes:
2 Electro-Voice RE20 Microphones: These are industry standard dynamic cardioid microphones, with internal pop filters and an internal shock mount.
MOTU 4 pre Digital Audio Interface: For monitoring your microphones, adjusting levels, and helping you record directly onto the computer using the software of your choice. Each microphone records onto a separate track. Comes with CueMix software.
Reaper: Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) for audio recording, editing, and mixing.
Yamaha HS5 speakers: Industry standard stereo speakers that let you play back your recordings and mixes on an ideal sonic platform.
ARTcessories HeadAmp 4: Head amp for 4 sets of headphones.
We also have a mobile kit! Our audio-kit-in-a-backpack has everything you need to record quality audio on the go. You can use this kit in the field, at home, or wherever your audio ventures take you. It is perfect for recording oral histories, podcasts, voice-overs, and interviews.
– Equipment – This kit comes fully equipped with the following:
– Rates – We are providing access to this equipment free of charge. We require a $15 deposit at the time of booking, which you will get back when you return the equipment.
Pricing:
The Epson Perfection V600 Photo Scanner and Epson Expression 11000XL Photo Scanner create preservation grade image files of archival and library material with our state of the art flatbed scanners.
The Epson V600 is a scanning solution for medium format material up to 8.5 x 11.7”, with a maximum resolution of 6400 x 9600 dpi. Our Epson 11000XL features a 2400 x 4800 dpi optical resolution and a 48-bit color depth. The scanner can handle original material as large as 12.0 x 17.0”.
The scanners allow you the ability to digitize a range of archival material, including photographs, manuscript material, documents, pamphlets and newsletters.
Both scanners also boast the capability to digitize a range of transmissive material and come with a range of transparency units for film scanning. The V600 allows scanning of four 35mm mounted slides, or 12 negatives and it handles medium format film up to 6 x 22cm. The 11000XL features 4 film holders for an easy way to scan 35mm negatives, mounted slides, 120 and 220 medium format transparencies, and 4.0 x 5.0” film. Additionally the transparency unit can be used without film holders to scan non-standard sizes as large as 12.2 x 16.5”.
Equipped with Epson’s Silverfast imaging software for better color management and more granular setting options than the built-in Epson software, our flatbed scanning solutions mean you can produce preservation quality image files, with the ability to create access derivatives at our post processing station.
Canon EOS Rebel T5 DSLR Camera with Macro Lens Our Canon EF-S 60mm f/2.8 Macro USM Lens is perfect for object digitization. Have a collection of pin badges, campaign ribbons or medals? Using our tripod and Canon camera with macro lens, you can create high quality, detailed images of small objects in your collection.
Using the macro lens coupled with our Porta-Trace 10 x 12” LED lightbox, you also have the capability to digitize a set of lantern slides or oversize glass plate negatives that do not fit on our flatbed scanners. Using Photoshop at our post processing station to invert the negatives to positives, you will have a set of web ready images to expand access to your collections.
Adobe Creative Cloud Software for post-processing of images. Batch edit with Adobe Bridge or Photoshop, create a range of derivatives to suit your needs or work on individual images to crop, resize or manage color and tone.
Pricing:
At METRO’s transfer station you can migrate your unstable audio and video media to digital, preservation-level files. Our rack is unique in that it supports audio-to-digital video transfer, digital-to-digital video transfer, and audio transfer. The transfer rack and workflows were built and created by the XFR Collective as part of their partnership with METRO.
The rack in METRO’s studio has decks that can handle the following formats:
You will need to determine which AV formats you have and make sure they do not display signs of mold or sticky-shed syndrome before you come in for an appointment. If you have any questions please email mschwartz@metro.org or xfrcollective@gmail.com.
Read the full AV Transfer Station workflow and documentation.
The Forensic Recovery of Evidence Device (FRED) securely acquires data directly from IDE/EIDE/ATA/SATA/ATAPI/SAS/Firewire/USB hard drives and storage devices, as well as Blu-Ray, CD-ROM, DVD-ROM, Compact Flash, Micro Drives, Smart Media, Memory Stick, Memory Stick Pro, xD Cards, Secure Digital Media and Multimedia Cards. FRED uses FTK Imager and EnCase for analyzing and processing forensic disk captures.
Both the Born-digital and the Digital Forensics workstations come equipped with hardware write blockers: IDE/SATA/SAS/USB 3.0/2.0/Firewire IEEE 1394b, PCIe.
The born-digital workstation is a Windows 7 (64-bit) CPU with a 3.7 GHz Intel Xeon processor, 32 GB RAM, and a 2TB SATA hard drive. It comes equipped with BitCurator, an open-source suite of digital forensics tools, and ePADD, an open-source software package that supports archival processes around the appraisal, ingest, processing, discovery, and delivery of email archives. The following legacy media drives are available to recover archival data:
Pricing:
We have a Graphtec CE6000 vinyl plotter that is available for our members to make high quality, professional decals for exhibits, displays, and countless other uses. You can learn more about how to use the vinyl plotter here.