The End of Analog Recording?

The buzz around school for the past two days has been that Quantegy, the world's only producer of analog tape, has closed their doors due to lack of profitability. The recording business has already been moving away from analog recording for the past two decades with the introduction of Radar, Pro Tools and affordable computer hard drives. Some instructors at school feel that this might signal the actual end of analog recording as we know it. There is literally no tape to be had in Nashville. My school's supplier is completely sold out of tape and one of the instructors was driving from store to store this afternoon trying to purchase as much tape as he could find!

Although I prefer digital recording because it is much easier to work with the raw material and edit it during post production, I don't really want to see analog recording go away. But supply and demand will dictate any decision to keep Quantegy around. In the music business there are many people who prefer to record on analog tape and then transfer into the digital domain for editing because there is a certain quality to analog recordings that can't be entirely matched in digital yet. I feel that the niche demand by these people will entice someone to buy Quantegy's business and continue to produce analog tape. However, the cost will be higher and thus make the already scarce analog recording business even more cost prohibitive and smaller. But it does indeed make an interesting time to be studying recording. We could literally be witnessing the end of analog recording forever.