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Re: [ARSCLIST] Fred Layn's post on the Studer list re: Quantegy
Hi, Duane,
The answer is a big "I don't know." I'm not sure anyone does.
Here is what I think I know:
Hanny in Hong Kong is making 1/4-inch tape for Radio Shack (or was, I heard
RS blew it all out last year).
JAI in India is making red-oxide 1/4-inch tape for utility purposes. I
heard from an Indian correspondent in the film biz that the Nagra users
bought gray market Maxell tape (which now has been out of production for a
year or so).
Emtec/BASF is gone--I just heard in that Fred Layn post that two of the
coating lines were purchased by the investors to set up in the Netherlands.
That was the first time I had heard that. Much of the plant was scrapped as
I understood it.
3M and Ampex funneled into Quantegy, and that is the subject of the present
discussion. Who knows.
Mike Spitz of ATR Services is considering starting up some tape manufacture.
Spitz was quoted in one message of only making 1/2, 1-, and 2-inch.
I don't know what (if anything) will come out of the Netherlands.
I don't hold much hope, especially after watching Emtec flail.
I think we CAN have high-quality recorded sound with digital. I'm doing a
lot of tape transfers at 88.2/24 and it's sounding very, very good.
I also think the CD vs LP comparison was loaded against the CD because many
CDs in the first wave were not professionally mastered like their LP
counterparts and were made from dubious (to say the least)
multiple-generation-down analog copies.
I think digital can sound very, very good. I think a lot of what we have
out there doesn't, but it's not the medium's fault. One of the reasons I
bought my first ReVox A77 in 1970 or 1971 was so that I could record music.
The tapes I made on that sounded better than some of the vinyl I was
getting. Of course, the musicianship on the poorer-sounding vinyl was far
superior to what I had access to.
I have a 1/2-track 7.5 in/s pre-recorded, commercial copy of Gaite
Parisienne with Arthur Fiedler and the Boston Pops. I bought it on eBay a
year or two ago. While it is not quite as good sounding as the CD reissue,
I think, in general, home quality went down from the time that was released
to consumers...in 1956. LPs were often below that. Certainly 1/4-track tape
and cassettes rarely matched 2-track 7.5 in/s as a distribution medium.
Certainly 15 and 30 in/s 2- and 3-track sounds much better (the Gaite
Parisienne was a 3-track 15 in/s 1/2-inch master IIRC).
Anyway, I don't think it's the end of civilization. I think there is much
more wrong with the music output today than just going digital--like
"making it louder than the last release" You can't turn either digital or
analog up to 13--we all know that the knob only goes to 11 <smile>.
Cheers,
Richard
At 11:02 PM 1/11/2005 -0600, you wrote:
Hi Richard,
I'm a bit slow on the uptake at times so please near with me. Will 1/4"
material be available from Europe? Will wider widths be available from Europe?
Is this yet a continuation of the effort to make digital sound reproduction
the ONLY option. I am not alone in believing this will thus be the end of
high quality sound reproduction. If you've ever heard direct to lacquer
playback or the sound quality of analog master tape, you could never look
upon current digital formats as an equal to fine quality analog reproduction.
Must we stand by & watch the demise of high quality recorded sound for the
sake of convenience? The history of recorded sound makes it clear that
sound quality was never a driving force. Are we to accept this mandate?
When there is a growing market for analog gear among the young because they
can HEAR the difference, can not we be a part of making sure this
technology survives at least until a true equal is ready to take it's place?
Analog recording has never captured the entirety of live music & digital
methods are a poor second at best. Why do we bow out of the effort to
insure the quality of our archives whether personal or professional?
My 16 year old is an armature international piano finalist, now guitar
player [too much hard rock for this dinosaur], has recently taken up
harmonica & will start playing double base at school next session. He
listens to digital music all the time, but he doesn't need me to lecture
him about analog sound... HIS choice for a major Chanukah was a turntable!!
We cannot allow analog tape to disappear, regardless of the cost. Just one
person's thoughts. My business be damned, its about the music, period!
Regards,
Duane Goldman
At 02:54 PM 1/11/2005 -0500, you wrote:
Fred Layn just posted on the Studer List some interesting news. I think
this answers the question about reformatting audio archives to 1/4-inch,
and was the news that some people were wondering about.
--He just talked to Steve Smith who had retired from Quantegy October 1
--Smith continued as a consultant until December
--There were cash flow problems due to the decline of videotape sales
and insufficient funds to pay for raw materials.
--DuPont had stopped making 1.5 mil basefilm
--Flanges had quadrupled in price in the last six years
--Oxide manufacturers weren't real interested in supplying small
quantities of audio oxides
--Apparently Ampex sold 250,000 reels of two-inch in 1992. Quantegy
sold 2,500 in 2004.
--Investors apparently bought two coating lines from Emtec and are
planning to manufacture in the Netherlands.
--"Quantegy will not rise again."
------
h. duane goldman, ph.d. | P.O. Box 37066 St. Louis, MO 63141
lagniappe chem. ltd. | (314) 205 1388 voice/fax
"for the sound you thought you bought" | http://discdoc.com