US Recording Media: Seriously? LOL

  • Thread starter Thread starter Beck
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fgonza2 said:
BTW, any ideas on where to get 1" NOS ? something not sticky of course. Baking 1" is a pain. i am looking for some, but eBay doesn't seem to have much, any points will be appreciated.

Thanks
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yeh, 1 inch is harder to find than any other format in my experience. eBay is probably your best bet ... what kind of tape are you looking for? Quantegy 406 is still out there, but it's not particularly cheap ... still reasonable though (about $90/pancake I think).

EDIT: WOW -- I just saw that new 1" RMGI 468 and 911 are about $180 per reel! seriously, that is obscene ... I didn't realize it was that high. I just recently bought 2 reels of NOS 206 for about $30 shipped ... the guy listed it as 226 though, but the boxes showed the actual product:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/SCOTCH-3-M-...q8ZLcy41s%2BV6HZ7wBrY%3D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc

These are kinds of things you need to be on the hunt for. I have an okay stock of tape at the moment, so my strategy is to pick up something when I see a good deal. If the good deals dry up, or I need more tape, I'll pick up some of the last Quantegy 406 from 2007 or so that is still being sold new (not many folks are buying it seems) ... I have a couple reels of that now. Of course, most people don't want to track on the lower output tape like 206 and 406, but that's what I prefer for multi-track work. For mixdown, it's 202, which is even lower output ...

It's a buyer's market for most things right now. I've had a hard time selling gear lately, but have found some deals as a buyer.

tapes.webp

tuggie.webp
 
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thanks, where can i buy NOS 406 ?, i put an order on quantegy website, never got any response, so i had to file a paypal dispute to get my money back, who else is is selling 406 NOS ?
 
Beck said:
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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I would fire you on the spot if you tried to record for me with Baked tape. It's already shot.
 
The case price (4) for SM911 1" should be about $160 a reel when they get it here from France. -Jeff
 
So you're saying that old tape that you admittedly must bake is better than brand new RMGI tape? That's hilarious.
 
JeffAndersen said:
So you're saying that old tape that you admittedly must bake is better than brand new RMGI tape? That's hilarious.
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Not sure who that is directed at ...

While Beck's initial post may have been a bit emotionally charged :) ... I don't think you're doing your company or RMGI any favors by coming here and making fun of a segment of your consumer base, instead of trying to work with us or being diplomatic. I've personally bought RMGI tape, and have bought tape from your company in the past (I will not do so again). I've never baked a tape at all. If the tape is bad, I'll throw it away. Brand new RMGI 911 has been the most consistently problematic tape I've bought out of any I've used over the years! (aside from the ACTUAL bad tapes like ampex 456, scotch 226, etc. -- which I would not attempt to use).

In any case, no one here is saying baked tape is preferable to new tape. But there are lots of old tapes that do not need to be baked (in fact, baking will damage them). And yes, some of them perform and sound better than new tape. The idea of baking and re-using tape would be a desperate, cost-saving potential option. The question is: have we reached that point?

The concept of baking tape is really like this: some people would prefer to make due with bad tape (which is super cheap), or re-use tape than to pay premium prices for sub-par product. I personally would be willing to pay the price if RMGI offered a lower-output tape and the tape was more stable than it has been in my experience ... OR, I might buy some current 911 or 468 if the price was lower. That's my reality -- and that is the reality for a portion of your market.

That said, as can be seen in some recent threads, the well is bound to dry up sooner or later. So some of us will be forced to make new decisions.
 
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Here's a good question. What kind of owner/management/investor would involve themselves in a tape production venture to make a profit?

Here's a good answer. A bad owner, bad management, or bad investors.

I want tape, I want a lot of it. I want to buy a lot of different kinds of it, and I would surely like to use it all up. Im not the only one. Actually, in an ideal world, Im sure there are a lot of digital users that might go back to tape.

But until tape prices are at a point where, at a minimum, local studios begin buying and using it frequently for clients, you will never turn a profit off of tape in the long-term.

So, to wrap this up. You need the "reel" (haha) players in the game to start demanding your tape to make a real profit. How do you do that? Lower the prices.
 
As someone who is actually in a sound recording class this semester at college, my instructor sadly doesn't consider tape an option for professional applications, mostly due to price. Of course, the way he did the math was $300.00 for 15mins of recording time, which I guess is technically correct, but I wonder how many people out there would stick with 30ips anyway.
 
I don't bother with 30 ips on my MX-80....mostly doing Pop and Rock music.

Your instructor is obviously biased toward digital recording.
Actually, it is in the "pro" recording world that artists can easily afford $300 reels of tape if they choose to track to tape.
So who is he refering to when he says they can't afford tape?
 
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Exactly. Ive been to several big studios in the LA area over the last year or so, and they all support tape. When asked they say "our customers demand it".

Your instructor is not well educated on the material he is preaching.
 
JeffAndersen said:
So you're saying that old tape that you admittedly must bake is better than brand new RMGI tape? That's hilarious.
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No one has said that. You're too new here to have learned anything about what the members here understand about tape... the devil is in the details. We know the details and I've been discussing them here for a decade now. You're only showing how little you know about the details... the ins and outs of buying and using tape.

In case anyone has missed it over the years, this is how to buy audiotape:

First look for NOS from Quantegy, 3M/Scotch, BASF, AGFA, EMTEC, Maxell. Only then if you can't find what you need at the time you need it you may consider new product from RMGI or ATR. If you don't know what specific tapes to look for I'm not going to repeat it all here for the one thousandth time. Regular members have the advantage of knowing where to find the info here... and should know it pretty well by now.

Back in the day and still now for those who've always used tape, keeping up a well stocked tape closet was the norm. We always purchased tape in cases and didn't get to much of it for many years.

Again, tape is not like bread and milk, so manufacturers and vendors that present it like its perishable are either lying or they don't understand tape properties. "Factory fresh" means absolutely nothing! In fact, when/if you get really good at this tape thing you'll be able to narrow it down to certain favorite years and lots. And I'm not talking about simply avoiding sticky-shed here, but slight tweaks over the years that give the same model tape slightly different qualities. Even RMGI has changed since its introduction. That's just the way tape is.

Hammerstone said:
As someone who is actually in a sound recording class this semester at college, my instructor sadly doesn't consider tape an option for professional applications, mostly due to price. Of course, the way he did the math was $300.00 for 15mins of recording time, which I guess is technically correct, but I wonder how many people out there would stick with 30ips anyway.
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Yep, there are lots of "Teachers" like that out there these days. They have a very limited perspective, so get the basics from them and move on. They often have a curriculum spelled out for them and they can't stray far from it, and they depend on current text books that only treat analog briefly for historical perspective. These people typically know little more than their students.
 
miroslav said:
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.
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Miroslav I see what you're up to. Used tape going well for you?
 
There's always cheaper ways to to things. But do you want cheap or the best sounding? There's always some 4 track Portastudios on Ebay but who wants to master a recording on one of those? I know a lot of people who have dragged the old ATR or Studer out of the back room and are recording on tape again. They're not recording like they used to in most cases, but at least they're capturing on 2" and then dumping it to Protools for editing. It's pretty much the best of both worlds.
 
JeffAndersen said:
Miroslav I see what you're up to. Used tape going well for you?
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JeffAndersen, stop dumbing down the forum. There's room for differences of opinion, but we don't have time to have to bring people like you up to speed about what's going on in the tape world. Please ask the the admins to close your account and go somewhere else. Sorry, we just don't have time for your level of stupidity. Thanks and take care.
 
Beck said:
JeffAndersen, stop dumbing down the forum. There's room for differences of opinion, but we don't have time to have to bring people like you up to speed about what's going on in the tape world. Please ask the the admins to close your account and go somewhere else. Sorry, we just don't have time for your level of stupidity. Thanks and take care.
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Don't feed the troll, Beck.
 
Roozter said:
Don't feed the troll, Beck.
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Haha, yeah good advise, but he doesn't even read or respond to any of the trouble we have gone to correcting him. Sometimes there's a type of person who really should not be on these forums. They probably got here by accident. They were probably looking for homedecorating.com, which is next door down. But they were drunk or something and are just frustrated at how little they know about home decorating.

The mods need to take action and send these guys in the right direction. A nice note about some other site and topics that might interest them, and then ban them. On the other hand, the member might work for US Recording. Might explain why that company is so F&%ked up. :D
 
Beck said:
Haha, yeah good advise, but he doesn't even read or respond to any of the trouble we have gone to correcting him. Sometimes there's a type of person who really should not be on these forums. They probably got here by accident. They were probably looking for homedecorating.com, which is next door down. But they were drunk or something and are just frustrated at how little they know about home decorating.

The mods need to take action and send these guys in the right direction. A nice note about some other site and topics that might interest them, and then ban them. On the other hand, the member might work for US Recording. Might explain why that company is so F&%ked up. :D
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Id also appreciate If the mods could condense some of the 388 threads in to one. I mean they allowed someone to make about 6-7 threads for each problem with his one machine...
 
Id also appreciate If the mods could condense some of the 388 threads in to one. I mean they allowed someone to make about 6-7 threads for each problem with his one machine...
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Ooops! That would be me. Sorry about that. But the good thing is that all these little problems/solutions can be helpful for anyone owning a 388 and running into similar issues down the line. I've had a few guys say they had the same things happening already. And even if the questions might be simple, the answers from forum members are always enlightening and very interesting. That being said, if any of my questions should be in another place just let me know. I'm easy.
 
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