US Recording Media: Seriously? LOL

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Beck

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Never imagined having to call them out like I would tapeandtape. We're on our own boys! The prices and the claims are really just too much. Firstly I was hoping the acquisition of RMGI by Pyral in France would get prices on the way to being more reasonable, but that's not happening. US Recording Media prices here are just plain ridiculous. And the suggestion that "Freshness" has anything to do with it is a hoot.

http://usrecordingmedia.com/retabycasa.html

You're still better off finding new-old-stock BASF/EMTEC or AGFA. It's better tape than RMGI and it costs much less. Tape is not like bread or hamburger... it doesn't go bad like that. This blurb reads like a Kroger bakery ad. :p 30-year-old tape of this kind is as good as the day it was made. The people at US Recording Media should know that. The question: Is about a hundred bucks for half-inch reel of tape too much? Abso-F'ing-lutely!!! And ATR has always been out there from day one. I have no use for them. Never buy newly manufactured tape again! And you don't have to.
 
Beck said:
Never imagined having to call them out like I would tapeandtape. We're on our own boys! The prices and the claims are really just too much. Firstly I was hoping the acquisition of RMGI by Pyral in France would get prices on the way to being more reasonable, but that's not happening. US Recording Media prices here are just plain ridiculous. And the suggestion that "Freshness" has anything to do with it is a hoot.

1/2" Open Reel Analog Recording Tape

You're still better off finding new-old-stock BASF/EMTEC or AGFA. It's better tape than RMGI and it costs much less. Tape is not like bread or hamburger... it doesn't go bad like that. This blurb reads like a Kroger bakery ad. :p 30-year-old tape of this kind is as good as the day it was made. The people at US Recording Media should know that. The question: Is about a hundred bucks for half-inch reel of tape too much? Abso-F'ing-lutely!!! And ATR has always been out there from day one. I have no use for them. Never buy newly manufactured tape again! And you don't have to.
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Tape in the last 7 years has been $75 for 1/4" $85 for 1/2" RMGI,Quantegy or ATR so it's expensive isn't everything?You just pass he higher costs on to the customer,won't use anything but fresh tape.Have tried the other stuff... no thanks.
 
FAST996 said:
Tape in the last 7 years has been $75 for 1/4" $85 for 1/2" RMGI,Quantegy or ATR so it's expensive isn't everything?You just pass he higher costs on to the customer,won't use anything but fresh tape.Have tried the other stuff... no thanks.
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First off you have to know something about tape. If you can't navigate the plentiful new-old-stock tape market then you don't. I know what the prices have been and you are incorrect. They just keep going up... ridiculously up! You can't do this tape thing casually. I have so much good tape that I pass on deals all the time. When/if I run low I'll take a 30-year-old reel of Scotch 206/207 over any new anything. Or BASF SM911, 468, etc. New tape now days from these ripoff artists is only an option for people who don't know they have other options.
 
I have a few cases of original EMTEC and even the older BASF labled 911, and it's better than the fresh stuff made today by RMGI...and I tried RMGI, not bad, but not BASF/EMTEC.
 
miroslav said:
At about $100/reel....that IS pretty crazy!
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Yep, it's suddenly gone that way like its made with gold instead of rust. Definitely count me out. I would bake bad tape to reuse before I would pay that much for tape... and of course I don't recommend doing that and I don't have to do that. I'm just sayin'. ;)
 
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miroslav said:
I have a few cases of original EMTEC and even the older BASF labled 911, and it's better than the fresh stuff made today by RMGI...and I tried RMGI, not bad, but not BASF/EMTEC.
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That's been my experience as well. All I have now in SM911 and SM468 is NOS BASF/EMTEC. And still plenty of Quantegy 456. I even have some very old NOS AGFA PEM 468 in 1/4", which I like for mixdown.
 
I'm not really getting this sentiment, I'm afraid. Cost of materials are going up. Prices continuously increase due to inflation. Machines are getting rarer, and demand is going down (and going on a 'hunger strike' only makes that worse) - obviously tape is going to get more expensive. At the end of the day, these firms do have to make a profit, and we're not in a particularly healthy economy.

When I start buying tape off ebay again it's going to be because I have no other choice. And that's not going to be a good day. Partly because there isn't much on ebay in the first place, and secondly because when there is NO new tape being made because people aren't buying it, the price on ebay is not going to be cheap. Even now, 1" tape on ebay is only marginally cheaper than new so why take that risk?
 
The moral of the story is if you wait until just you and ten other guys are the only ones buying tape, yeah, it's going to be expensive....so stock up now (if you haven't already done so).
I have enough 1/4", 1/2" and 2" tape to roll with for at least 10 years....and I'm always looking for a good deal to supplement my stock.

If you are buying 1-2 reels per year....then you will see prices go way up between purchases.

The flip side is that as tape/reel use drops (as it is dramatically and proportionally every year)....all the people selling tape will have less of a market to sell to, so less demand = lower prices. The tape companies that want to cover their profit margin by simply doubling/tripling their prices will not last very long....so again, stock up.
 
jpmorris said:
I'm not really getting this sentiment, I'm afraid. Cost of materials are going up. Prices continuously increase due to inflation. Machines are getting rarer, and demand is going down (and going on a 'hunger strike' only makes that worse) - obviously tape is going to get more expensive. At the end of the day, these firms do have to make a profit, and we're not in a particularly healthy economy.

When I start buying tape off ebay again it's going to be because I have no other choice. And that's not going to be a good day. Partly because there isn't much on ebay in the first place, and secondly because when there is NO new tape being made because people aren't buying it, the price on ebay is not going to be cheap. Even now, 1" tape on ebay is only marginally cheaper than new so why take that risk?
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Hmmm... well if there is one thing for people to get from me even having any kind of online presence at all it should be how to navigate the tape market... and NOS tape is the first place one should look. The tape manufactures encourage flag waving, patriotism, supporting the home team... whatever you want to call it, but they give nothing in return but overpriced product. It was the extortion after the tape crisis of 2005 that set this pattern of failure in the first place. The ever-shrinking market was caused in large part by greed. Tape never had to go up that much.

Let the current tape manufacturers fail and give someone else a chance to make an honest living at it. They need to get out of the way. They are obstructionists at this point. In the mean time tape is plentiful on eBay and other aftermarkets... if you know how to search for it. But shoot, I run across it all the time and I'm not even looking.. I have plenty.

This is the way to shop... and you get higher quality tape.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/SCOTCH-3M-2...D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

Look after your own bottom line and the market will sort itself out. If you follow tape companies like its a "Cause" you only hurt your fellow tape enthusiasts.
 
Tape costs have gone up 100% in the last seven years. That's because tape makers have followed a "Panic" marketing model. If grocery stores did this we would always be shopping under the threat of an impending blizzard or hurricane. Tape buyers have basically said, "OMG, we'll pay anything!" Tape companies have accommodated by saying, "Ok cool, then we'll charge anything!" ;)
 
Beck said:
Let the current tape manufacturers fail and give someone else a chance to make an honest living at it. They need to get out of the way. They are obstructionists at this point. In the mean time tape is plentiful on eBay and other aftermarkets... if you know how to search for it. But shoot, I run across it all the time and I'm not even looking.. I have plenty.
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I think a lot depends on your location. No doubt that in the US it's easier and cheaper to get hold of. Here, the closest NOS I can find reliably in a 1" format is 406 and that is not what the machine is really intended for (though I have been buying it in case of emergency, I will admit).

Look after your own bottom line and the market will sort itself out. If you follow tape companies like its a "Cause" you only hurt your fellow tape enthusiasts.
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This is true - I'm just worried the message you're sending to 'the market' is that tape isn't a viable business proposition and that there is no market for any.

That and the attitude feels uncomfortably like "I'm fine - screw you guys!" :P
 
...

I stocked up on a fair amount of new or NOS reel tape years ago, but it's not all new or any uniform type or brand. Got a lot of Quantegy and 3M, a few one-offs here & there of Emtec. 1/4", 1/2" and 1". Some of my new tape might be sticky era or sticky prone. So far it's not been an issue. My tape is kept in a cool/dry storage condition. I also have lots of used tape that's fine. The irony is maybe that my 1/2" legacy recordings from the 80s are all on sticky era Ampex.

I stocked up on a ridiculous amount of Type II cassettes, all new and of various name brands.

Since those waves of buying, some of which were many years ago, maybe over a decade, I've seen supplies and suppliers drying up & prices have become unreasonable. I used to go to Ametec in Hollywood in the 80s and get 1/2" 456 for $40/reel.

I guess that makes me sound old!
:spank::eek:;)

PS: the picture below is titled "about half of my cassette collection".
 

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I gave up on US Recording Media after they explained to me that they didn't--and wouldn't--carry RMGI's SM900 1/4" in standard 10.5" metal reels because they said the boxes were unbranded and their customers wouldn't like that. Um...what???? :confused:

So instead I got some from Full Compass who had it in stock, didn't give any guff about, and lo and behold the boxes and flanges were both adorned with RMGI stickers including a spine label with the pertinent batch numbers and whathaveyou...AND it was a little cheaper. The SM900 sounds quite nice as a mixdown tape but it deteriorated surprisingly quickly on my very carefully calibrated MCI JH-110A machine. I'm sure the fixed dancer arm on that machine doesn't help any but other tapes held up better.

I gave up on ATR a while back after having major shedding problems with every reel I tried (including warranty claim tape...uhhh...uh-oh). The head honcho there is very friendly but seemed only too happy to pretend these shedding problems don't exist...but after talking to a bunch of peoiple...they exist. My experiences were not isolated coincidences. What a bummer, ATR *should* be the best tape out there, but with the reliability problems on top of the high prices, forget it.

The most reliable tape I've used is still NOS Quantegy GP9. It's not my favorite sonically (has a certain color to it, not as clean as ATR or SM900 and a little different than 499, 456 flavors--I like it but there's others I like better for some things)...also the slitting isn't exactly ace, and also as with other +9 tapes you have to run a little excess oxide off virgin reels with a few passes back and forth, but after that it's run really clean and stable for me. The key here is that it's been consistent for me--I know what to expect with it--and it's stood up to many many passes in long, tough multitracking session for me.
 
(1/2") I just looked around, and Fullcompass is up there too . Splicit was/is charging $89 a reel w/ a 3 reel min. I was paying about $43 for 456 about 20 years ago. I'm assuming that everyone is also making 150% as much as they were 20 years ago:p

. :wtf:
 
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briank said:
The most reliable tape I've used is still NOS Quantegy GP9. It's not my favorite sonically (has a certain color to it....
....and a little different than 499.....
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I've not tried GP9, but have thought about it. Right now I'm using 499 exclusively on my 2" MX-80, I probably have about 30 reels of that in stock, and I also have about 10 reels of 996, which I have not used on any recordings, but I figured I would stock up a decent amount, that way at some point I can recalibrate for the 996 (I know I can probably use it in place of the 499 without doing that, but I would still recal anyway).

What's the "color" of GP9 compared to 499?

I would like to try 456 on the MX-80, but I only have a few reels of that, since I stopped getting it once it went out of production, and I don't want to take chances with any NOS stock in quantity.

On my 1/4" mixdown deck (MX5050 BIII) I use EMTEC/BASF 911 and/or 468, which I have a nice pile of....and I also have a pile of 1/2" EMTEC/BASF 911 and some 468, but I haven't tracked on my 1/2 Fostex G16-C since since I got the MX-80. I'm still on the fence about unloading the Fostex or the 1/2" tape...but at some point I will make a decisions, since I wouldn't want to just let it "dry-rot" for years without any use. Electronics need to be juiced up regularly. I love the eBay listings when the guys says, "It worked great 15 years ago, but I haven't powered it up since". :D

briank said:
... also as with other +9 tapes you have to run a little excess oxide off virgin reels with a few passes back and forth, but after that it's run really clean and stable for me.
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Yeah...when I first came across that on my deck, I was a bit concerned, but then saw that was the "norm" and that there was nothign really wrong with the tape.

What did Beck say....that they use to call 499 "Rusty" because of the rusty powder deposits you would get at the guides in FF/RW during the initial passes. :D
 
Blue Jinn said:
(1/2") I just looked around, and Fullcompass is up there too . Splicit was/is charging $89 a reel w/ a 3 reel min. I was paying about $43 for 456 about 20 years ago. I'm assuming that everyone is also making 150% as much as they were 20 years ago:p

. :wtf:
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You know...don't be too scared of trying some used reels, as long as the seller seems honest and you know what you are buying. Certain formulations last for years and years as long as they are not abused with extremely bad storage.
I've picked up some nice used reels of 2" tape, and I'm not paying more than $30/reel....so even if it ends up being bad tape, it's not a major loss. I've only come across a couple of reels that are not usable, but most have been fine and just needed a few passes and a couple of clean wipes of the tape with a lint-less tissue....though I know some folks don't want to be bothered with that and want to just pop a fresh reel and go....but you end up paying for that much, much more.
 
Interesting thing is we were paying less for tape in 2004 than in 1994. It was trending down. Even places that sold 1/2" Quantegy 456 at list for $49.95, like ZZSounds and Musicians Friend were within reason. But the thing is you could get it somewhere else, like US Recording Media and several other places for as little as $36.00 per reel. So looking at those street prices you can see just how out of hand it has become.

At first the folks at RMGI said a 10% to 15% increase was all that was needed to keep tape in stock and keep the company profitable. But after Quantegy bit the dust a second time and RMGI was the only game in town they immediately started following Al Capone's playbook. It was good tape at maybe $60.00 per reel for half-inch, but then if you'll pay $60.00 you'll pay $80.00 and then $100.00... and then sacrifice your first born. And that's what they know.
 
Beck said:
Hmmm... well if there is one thing for people to get from me even having any kind of online presence at all it should be how to navigate the tape market... and NOS tape is the first place one should look. The tape manufactures encourage flag waving, patriotism, supporting the home team... whatever you want to call it, but they give nothing in return but overpriced product. It was the extortion after the tape crisis of 2005 that set this pattern of failure in the first place. The ever-shrinking market was caused in large part by greed. Tape never had to go up that much.

Let the current tape manufacturers fail and give someone else a chance to make an honest living at it. They need to get out of the way. They are obstructionists at this point. In the mean time tape is plentiful on eBay and other aftermarkets... if you know how to search for it. But shoot, I run across it all the time and I'm not even looking.. I have plenty.
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Good points here, Quantegy and RMGI really did fuck us over 8 years ago, but the thing is, I'm not ready to see RMGI fail, because I'm not sure that anything WILL replace them.

It's kind of the same thing I have with Kodak (and Fuji) right now, sort of a "use it or lose it" attitude. And really if I had the resources to stock up a few freezers full of Tri-X, Portra, Velvia, Acros, etc. I totally would, but only for a rainy day. I'll stock up on NOS tape (got a dozen 7" reels of Scotch 229 right now, and a few Ampex 642), but man, I DO want to support ATR and RMGI, because I'd rather have them around than nothing at all, and I'm not ready to trust that there will be someone ready to fill their shoes if/when they fail. That being said, I don't have the resources to buy new tape at the moment because it's too damn expensive...
 
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