New production analog tape machine?

[Blue Jinn]

Slightly veering off topic, but I think this piece suffers as others have said from an overabundance of audiophoolery. As far as the costs of a new "prosumer" machine, that's been debated before as well. However, the new production Mellotron is perhaps worth comparing. The price is not that much more than what a Mellotron cost in 1974'ish, and if adjusted for inflation is probably quite a bit cheaper. They are primarily hand made as well and BTW they have tube electronics....

There is no way I could have afforded the gear I have now, if I bought it new then, especially factoring in inflation. It also makes me wonder what the target market was for the "prosumer" gear. I don't think it was my basement, so much as it was the smaller studio, recording the b or c-list bands of the day. What I don't really know is the status of that market today. It seems to be trendy right now to record on tape by A list bands, so it would seem that trend would eventually work its way through the market.

I also tend to think that any new production recorder will likely come from some giant factory in Shanghai, with lots of SMD components.

 

[Lt. Bob]

I never said they did anything for microphonics, I said they did something for tubes affected by vibration

.

^^^^^ this ^^^^^^^

and they do.

 

[lonewhitefly]

yes, i tend to agree ...

the cost of open reel tape machines has always been very high when new. in the '50s-'60s, you basically couldn't buy a studio/multitrack machine unless you were in business and could recoup your investment -- they cost more than a new car, and in some cases, more than a house. they were usually leased, the studio owners paid over the course of several months/years, and recouped their investment along the way.

home units had smaller track counts and ran at lower speeds.

into the '70s, as technology progressed, Teac almost single-handedly changed the game with the 3340, which was basically a souped-up consumer deck modified to handle semi-pro studio requirements. And newer studio machines with more intuitive features and more tracks available opened the used market for the older machines.

so "project" or "demo" studios would probably have an older used Ampex or Scully if they didn't have a new Teac deck.

the Teac 80-8 was kind of the first real "budget" studio deck ... they were still VERY expensive ($3,500 in '77; adjusted for inflation, that is about $13,000 in todays money).

basically, there is no way for a decent quality, cheap recorder to be made unless it is made in very large numbers ... unlikely with the average musician having access to a multitrack recorder with infinite tracks that he can carry around with him.

 

[stevieb]

Wow. This thread got pissy fast and stayed that way.

I'm outta here.

 

[sweetbeats]

Wow. This thread got pissy fast and stayed that way.

I'm outta here.

But...But...you were never in.

Seems to me that part of the beauty of an open public forum is being able to express the pissy to the glowing.

 

[sweetbeats]

I'm a bit chocked about the prices of both this new/rebuilt machine as well as the MX5050. Have they always (inflation, cost of living, what have you) been so expensive?
Or is the price so high because there's more expenses per unit when the demand is so relatively small?

I was only wondering what a good prosumer multitrack would cost if they did produce any.

My Ampex MM-1000 in today's dollars as outfitted would be over $200,000. $35,000 in 1969.

 

[briank]

Yeah, I think our MCI JH-110 8-track machine would have cost 10-12k in early/mid 1980s dollars. JH24s went for $30k+ in the late '70s-mid '80s depending on heads and were a less costly alternative to Studer/Ampex machines. Pro decks were never cheap, and recording budgets (and the resulting studio revenues) were apparently a helluva lot different then!

MX5050s were extremely common in the broadcast industry up until pretty recently, plenty of bucks to spend there.