Is Analog (tape recording) Dead?

[jcx]

today's wall st journal had a front page article on the closing of the last analog reel-to-reel master tape manufacturer


http://slashdot.org/articles/05/01/0...&tid=188&tid=1


http://www.audioasylum.com/forums/ta...ages/1656.html

[SY]

To paraphrase Frank Zappa, no it's not dead, but it's beginning to smell funny.

If there's a demand there and people are willing to pony up significant money, some small coating/slitting operators will no doubt make limited-quantity batches of tape.

[studiotech]

At Full Sail we still teach analogue tape machine calibration, and will continue to do so for at least the next few years on both 2" and 1/4" machines. Granted, more and more productions these days use digital, many major label releases use a combination of tape and digital, so there is still a need for tape and good working machines.

At the studio where I work at, we still use the Studer quite a bit for multitracking and the Ampex ATR102 very often at mixdown time. Good news for my wallet since I am the "cal guy"

Greg

[purplepeople]

I understand that a Nagra will still fetch some good money.

:)ensen.

[jrhilton]

I don't think it's dead, almost every large studio has a Studer 24 track in it, if you want to use a Sony DASH (in my personal opinion and experience the best multitrack recorder ever made) you usually have to pay a lot extra. DASH recorders sound great, especially with 24bit converters, but I still have to say 24 track analogue just has the edge, especially when recording drums! I think analogue tape recording will go on longer than people think. There are still a lot of 4 track and 8 track recorders out there that are in everyday operation, particularly in smaller or home studios. And it's still very easy to get hold of tape be it 1/4", ½” or 2". I can remember people saying that with the introduction of Sony's 3324 DASH machines in 1980 that analogue 24 track’s days were numbered, and would very soon be a thing of the past especially with Sony’s promise then to develop a 48 track version, but they still seem to be going strong.....One of the reasons I think is the high quality of the actual machines themselves, an old Ampex or Studer machine from the 1980’s can still give the best digital media of today a run for it’s money, now that really does say something about the quality of the machines and the studio engineers calibration skills.

Talking about tape, I thought BASF themselves still manufactured their “900” tape. I admit I’m a bit out of touch now but I wasn't aware that it had actually been discontinued.