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Author Topic: Mag Tape is Dead? Quantegy Closes. Jeff Stricker Master Film Handler Posts: 481 From: Calumet, Mi USA Registered: Nov 1999 posted 01-04-2005 06:11 AM                     Bing Crosby was a big proponent of magnetic tape recording. The story goes that he didn't want to produce his radio show live anymore (prefering to spend more time on the golf course). Disk recordings were deemed too low quality for major program origination. Thus the push towards much higher quality magnetic tape. I believe Bing was the first performer to get the network to allow a taped brodcast of a major network radio program.  |  IP: Logged Scott Norwood Film God Posts: 8146 From: Boston, MA. USA (1774.21 miles northeast of Dallas) Registered: Jun 99 posted 01-04-2005 07:06 AM                        Very sad news, both for the employees affected and for the format. Hopefully, someone will buy out the manufacturing equipment cheaply and re-start production. Supposedly, there's some company in India that still manufactures tape, though the quality may be dubious. I have a hard time believing that there is not a big market for tape--many (most?) big-budget rock/pop recordings are still done on analog tape, and Nagras are still used for some film sound work (usually as a backup to DAT, though). New tape machines are still being made--Nagra sells them, and Otari still makes the MX-5050; Tascam might still have a 1/4" machine, too. As far as I know, the Library of Congress continues to use 1/4" oxide tape for archiving sound recordings (perhaps this has changed--does anyone know?). The 3M magnetic products division made some good stuff--back when people actually used floppy disks, theirs were among the best. They also had 16mm and 35mm mag fullcoat. Is anyone other than FPC still manufacturing mag film now? I am somewhat inclined to believe that the Quantagy/Ampex fiasco was the result of bad management (as evidenced by their lack of notice and care for the employees), and not the result of a lack of market for their products.  |  IP: Logged Edward Jurich Master Film Handler Posts: 305 From: Las Vegas USA Registered: Jul 2003 posted 01-05-2005 04:26 PM                     quote: Leo Enticknap even a cheap PC and sound card can equal the performance of the seriously expensive 1/4" decks Not by my ears, distortion on PC audio is pretty high in some cases were analog tape would sound great. I know single tone distortion specs on digital audio may be low and fine if you want to listen to tones. But with complex audio waveform there is distortion when digital compression is set in, it's that edge that sometimes sounds like shattering glass.  |  IP: Logged Luciano Brigite Master Film Handler Posts: 277 From: Sao Paulo, SP, Brazil Registered: Jan 2002 posted 01-07-2005 09:11 PM                     After reading AAron's post about the 3M and Maxell tapes, it's indeed a sad thing for everyone that still uses and likes reel to reel tapes.It makes me wonder what a lot of recording studios will do to serve their clients that insists in having their sessions recorded and mixed in this format.I'm almost sure a solution for it will show up sometime in the future,if not then for those who likes it I think it's better go out and do some tape-hunt...(some places that deals with used audio stuff will have lots of tapes for sale at very low prices,many will be in good condition and with luck,a few never recorded reels will be found among them)  |  IP: Logged Aaron Sisemore Flaming Ribs beat Reeses Peanut Butter Cups any day! Posts: 3061 From: Rockwall TX USA Registered: Sep 1999 posted 01-07-2005 11:27 PM                     quote: Luciano Brigite It makes me wonder what a lot of recording studios will do to serve their clients that insists in having their sessions recorded and mixed in this format. Many studios have quite large stockpiles of tape (and from what I have seen it is almost all BASF/EMTEC, as the Q'gy tapes are still iffy binder-wise and do not store well for long periods). I am sure something will happen that gets new-manufacture analog tape to the masses again very soon. -Aaron  |  IP: Logged Aaron Sisemore Flaming Ribs beat Reeses Peanut Butter Cups any day! Posts: 3061 From: Rockwall TX USA Registered: Sep 1999 posted 01-09-2005 02:22 PM                     Another update on the Quantegy saga: Original article with pic can be found at ATR Services, Inc. The Future of Analog Tape? Thursday, January 6, 2005 It has been widely reported on the Internet that Quantegy, Inc. has shut its doors and ceased production during a temporary lay-off. We have received hundreds of calls and emails looking for more information. At this point it is hard to separate fact from rumor, but this is what we know to be true as of today: 1) Quantegy has indeed shut its doors and temporarily laid off most of its staff pending restructuring. 2) Quantegy has NOT filed for Chapter 11 as was reported in several news articles. It may still be a possibility, but no record of any bankruptcy is on federal record for Quantegy, Inc. 3) Plans are in place to restructure the Opelika facility and continue to produce the profitable tape lines and hard drives, possibly under a new brand name. 4) Last year, Quantegy audio tape sales alone topped 14M, with total sales of about 30M. It is our belief that the Opelika facility will be producing product in the near future, but what kind and how much is still undetermined. The tremendous response to this news in the recording community has only reinforced the fact that analog recording is still very much alive and that there is still an incredible demand for analog tape. ATR Services has been quietly working on a new line of analog tape for the past year. We are currently in the R&D stages of production, and hope to have wide-scale beta testing in place by the summer. Be assured that analog tape will continue to be made no matter what the outcome of the Quantegy restructuring but please be patient, as we will not have any news on formulation or format until we are further along in the testing process. Thank you to all of the clients, colleagues and friends who have offered your support and commitment to analog recording during the last few days. Happy New Year and get back to making music! The ATR team From what I have been hearing, the ATR product might be using the BASF/EMTEC 911 formulation. More on the Q'gy saga can also be found here at the SH.tv forums ... -Aaron  |  IP: Logged

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