Analog loyalists are in a funk. Quantegy Inc. have shut down their manufacturing plant leaving audio engineers scrambling to hoard as much tape as they can.
Quantegy Inc., is more than likely the last company in the world that still manufactures high quality reel-to-reel magnetic tape. NASA even uses the tape on its space shuttles to record information ranging from pressure to temperature.
Reel-to-reel recording has been outmoded over the years by digital recording. "People in the music industry say that as few as 5% of albums are recorded and mixed using audio tape."
If anyone's in need, though, apparently Steve Albini has the hookup. Jeff Tweedy found himself in a bind and phoned Herr Albini. Albini's Electrical Audio Recording is one of the last major studios in the country that soley uses magnetic tape recording. He heard that Quantegy was closing its plant and began securing through normal means around "65 reels, enough to make ten albums." He also started looking through unconvevtional means and ended up scoring almost 2,000 reels of 2-inch magentic tape. He bought 100 reels and is keeping hush-hush about who the supplier is. He doesn't want some big-wig competitor hoarding in on the remaining supply.
Now, Stevie has 500 reels of tape and he volunteered two reels of tape as "a professional courtesy" to the Wilco chaps. But, he says, "I don't want to go into business supplying tape to people."
Quotes and sources from the Wall Street Journal
