8 tracks on 2 inches

[johnbilben]

Is there a tape machine in existence that records 8 tracks on 2 inches?I've seen plenty on a half inch and I've seen the an MCI 8 track on 1 inch and the studer A-80 8 track on 1 inch but i've never seen one on 2 inches. Im not looking to purchase one or anything im just kind of interested to know if one exists.

 

[jpmorris]

Is there a tape machine in existence that records 8 tracks on 2 inches?I've seen plenty on a half inch and I've seen the an MCI 8 track on 1 inch and the studer A-80 8 track on 1 inch but i've never seen one on 2 inches. Im not looking to purchase one or anything im just kind of interested to know if one exists.

ATR make one. It costs a fortune.
http://atrservice.com/atr108c/

 

[johnbilben]

do you know how much it costs?

 

[jpmorris]

do you know how much it costs?

According to their pricelist, it was $30'000. That was four years ago, mind.

 

[jjones1700]

Holy mother of God!!!!! So for the running price of a Surburban SUV you could have an 8 track machine? Yeow. Time to sell the kids.

I think I would have to pass.

 

[jpmorris]

Holy mother of God!!!!! So for the running price of a Surburban SUV you could have an 8 track machine? Yeow. Time to sell the kids.
I think I would have to pass.

These are technically 9-track machines, since they have a dedicated timecode channel as well. 9 tracks for the price of 8! Bargain!

Also, you can buy them in pairs so you can lock them together and have the equivalent of a 4" 16-track machine. But they didn't want to say how much it cost.

 

[avieth]

An experienced shopper could easily haggle it down to $10,000.

 

[ethyrvalve]

The legendary Studer J37s used at Abbey Road were 1" 4 tracks so that kinda track real estate isn't unprecedented. I read that the Beatles tapes on that format have remarkably low tape hiss (they used CCIR/IEC eq curves too--so that may have helped).