TP-028, Nat Adderley's Work Song is now available

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Topics - USR

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Raw Tape / Availability of Open Reel Tape and Needful Things
« on: March 23, 2013, 08:33:22 AM »
Hello!

There's a lot of questions about the future of open reel recording. When someone asks "How many years will there be tape available?" there's no good answer.  It could all go away in ten years, five years, or next year. I don't know. The real problem lies in the volume of tape being sold. As the volume shrinks there's more and more pressure on the tape makers to increase their prices because the chemicals and film they need to buy is constantly going up. When the prices go up on the tape, less people buy it and the cycle continues. 

We narrowly averted a real problem last year when the one place that makes USA flanges decided to not make them anymore. This is the same place that ATR and RMGI get their flanges. After a lot of pressure they decided to continue making them (Paul S knows who we're talking about) but the prices went waaaay up. Luckily we can still get quality alloy flanges or we'll end up all learning how to use pancakes.

The last we heard from RMGI, and this is what they told us, Pyral in France is gearing up to make SM900 for the first time in quite a while and their LPR35 stock is actually in production. This is a good sign for tape users.  ATR tape has spotty availability due to lack of supply. I guess that's better than making pallets of tape that sit there, but the ATR tape is very good.

What do you think is the years left in people actually recording onto tape?

USR


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