New 388s!

  • Thread starter Thread starter Mark7
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Hope I didn't make anybody mad. I was just thinking of what it would take for Tascam to be able to reintroduce the 388, and went with it. Then I thought to put it in article form and.. I fully intended to let everybody know it wasn't for real, but I couldn't resist seeing what kind of reaction it got first.
 
I think most of us knew it was a farce, even though there was an ounce of hope. One can always hope something like that actually happens...
 
I'm wondering if someday in the next five years some company will see a niche demand for an affordable multitrack tape recorder for home recording use. Some small player might come in to introduce one, if that ever happens, because it seems that the Big Names of tape recorders past aren't interested at all. I don't give it much of a chance of happening, but it's interesting to think about.
 
shedshrine said:
Hope I didn't make anybody mad.
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You rascal! :mad: ........... ;) You got my heart going there for a minute. :D The price kinda gave it away tho 'cause it would cost closer to 10K in today's dollars, unless it was "Made in China". :eek: Well written article tho.
 
Dear Tascam,
Could you at least make a limited production run of critical replacement parts?
headstacks, motors, and whatever else is hard to replace?
 
lo.fi.love said:
I'm wondering if someday in the next five years some company will see a niche demand for an affordable multitrack tape recorder for home recording use. Some small player might come in to introduce one, if that ever happens, because it seems that the Big Names of tape recorders past aren't interested at all. I don't give it much of a chance of happening, but it's interesting to think about.
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They would be thwarted by dwindling stocks of tape. I read somewhere that it would cost an insane amount of money to spin up a tape factory for what would always be a niche market.
 
diggy_dude said:
They would be thwarted by dwindling stocks of tape. I read somewhere that it would cost an insane amount of money to spin up a tape factory for what would always be a niche market.
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We read the same thread, it was reposted on this board. I think the idea of tape production sunsetting any time in the near future is pure speculation, but that's my opinion and it's not really part of this thread.
 
lo.fi.love said:
I'm wondering if someday in the next five years some company will see a niche demand for an affordable multitrack tape recorder for home recording use. Some small player might come in to introduce one, if that ever happens, because it seems that the Big Names of tape recorders past aren't interested at all. I don't give it much of a chance of happening, but it's interesting to think about.
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I think we've kinda debated this one before, but I ran across a few articles the other day about analog in the high end market, so it's alive and well with big name acts.

Made me think though, I bought a patch bay from a guy in Anaheim(?) he has(had? this was damn near 20 years ago) a small studio in one of those industrial parks, and I'm pretty sure his main machine was something like an MSR-16. Jodie Foster's Army was coming to record later that day. Some of the big players are using analog, and I think it stands to reason that the smaller studios, like that one, may want to offer that as well. I dunno, but I can see a niche market of spare parts for machines like ours. ATR seems to be able to make a living selling refurbed machines and +10 tape, so I'm guessing there is a market for at least spare parts for the mid grade machines as well. It can't be all that hard to make a tape head or a rubber belt, and I'm sure Tascam or Fostex would license the specs to whomever, it's easy money for them.
 
lo.fi.love said:
We read the same thread, it was reposted on this board. I think the idea of tape production sunsetting any time in the near future is pure speculation, but that's my opinion and it's not really part of this thread.
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Well, somehow ATR managed to do it, (although there's speculation they bought Quantegy's equipment at a garage sale) and talk about a niche market. Another case in point, is the 300B. Western Electric actually restarted production of tubes that cost $900 a pair.
 
When a larger amount of musicians realize how stupid it is to spend shitloads of cash on 50's and 60's guitars, fancy tube compressors and old condenser mics in order to record it on a computer then there'll maybe be new affordable multitrack recorders for sale.

Doesn't Otari still make a 2-track mastering machine?
 
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