On Thu, Jan 06, 2005 at 12:08:55AM -0500, Jeff Coulter wrote:
>
> On Wed, 5 Jan 2005, Bob Snyder wrote:
>
> >
> > An item on slashdot reports that the last manufacturer of professional
> > quality reel-to-reel tape has closed their doors. The article is here:
> >
> >
> i'm not buying it.
> nothing mentioned at mixonline, sound on sound, or tape op.
> it seems to me this would be turning up on industry sites
> that actually had SOMETHING to do with the recording industry.
>
> so without any confirmation, speculation regarding the future
> of mellotron tapes is unwarranted and premature [IMHO, that is].
>
A couple things:
1) the Quantegy closing is real. ProsoundWeb.com has a number of discussion
groups talking about it, including folks that have been in contact
with Quantegy.
2) The closing of Quantegy has the most impact on people using 2" or 1"
tape for multitrack recorders. There are still other companies making
smaller format tape (1/4" and 1/2" and of course cassette).
3) There is talk of a company (or possibly more than one) producing new
2" tape to a better quality spec than Quantegy has been doing the
past few years.
4) It was my understanding that, at least for the Mellotron UK folks,
they had their own source of tape that was identical/came from the
original tape stock used in years past (EMI? - memory failing now).
If you own/operate a 2" multitrack, it may be difficult in the short term
to get ahold of new blank 2" reels. In the long run, who knows?