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Is it the coolness factor? Is it the Ferrari club mentality? Is it the amount of music on tape? Is it ease of use?
Not really. The most overwhelming reason is that it's quality over quantity and the emotional reaction tape engenders. Or as the late Mike Spitz said, "nothing sounds like tape."
And this from ATR magnetics sort of sums it up: "Music is an intrinsic part of the human soul. It plays to our emotions, it talks to us, it calms us, it makes us rise to our greatest accomplishments and brings back our warmest memories." Daniel Levitan said much the same thing in his first book, This is Your Brain on Music when he asked the basic question why do even in the most primitive societies on earth have music?
Nothing Sounds Like Tape
Why does music recorded on analog tape sound so good?
To understand why, a professional tape recorder provides the most lifelike reproduction revolves around a couple of important factors. The key lies in the inherent technology of the tape itself. Audio tape in use during the 1950s and ’60s provided approximately 65,000,000 magnetic particles per second of recording a quarter inch format at 15 inches per second (ips) tape speed. Each magnetic oxide particle or groups of particles takes on either a north or south orientation after exiting the recording head. Starting to sound like digital bit stream? Well yes and no. However there is one huge difference between analog tape recordings and even the best digital recordings.
Resolution
The highest digital resolution today offers 4,608,000 bits switching per second. Not bad. Big improvement over the standard Red Book CD but it is not even close to sub-micron particle resolution of ATR Master Tape.
Random Particle Stacking
Quarter inch, two track ATR Master Tape running at 15 inches per second (ips) involves approximately 80,000,000 oriented and randomly stacked particles per track second. It’s not just the particle count but the random stacking that turns this super binary resolution into pure analog playback. This is why even a narrow track width recording still sounds so detailed despite the lower surface area.
Music is an intrinsic part of the human soul. It plays to our emotions, it talks to us, it calms us, it makes us rise to our greatest accomplishments and brings back our warmest memories. Why not record it on the best medium to achieve the best quality of sound?
For me--and I'm a rank newbie at this thing called tape compared to some of the veterans here--it's all about having one Armani suit compared to 10 Metropolitan suits. Yes, they are both suits and they both fit you but there is something more to the way that Armani suit fits the body and feels on you. It's much the same thing with tape. One finishes with a far more fulfilling after listening to one, much less a series of tapes, than any other musical medium. And after all, the difference between a good and great high-end system is that the former plays notes while the latter makes music. Emotional impact. That ill definable quality that eludes even the best of measurements.
Sure, many of us were frustrated with the paucity of music available when The Tape Project, to many cries of derision, was first launched ten years (and that software issue kept me from getting into tape for the longest time). But times have changed and we now have 22 companies recording and releasing both new and old recordings on 15 ips tape. Hopefully, that groundswell with continue and more labels will see fit to release music in this format. I strongly urge people to check out the work being done by Yarlung Records, Opus 3, Open Reel Records, and so many more nowadays. Make sure when you go to shows to plan to spend some after show time at one of Greg Beron's UHA tape parties. I guarantee you won't leave until he locks the place up!
Yes tape is expensive. But when you factor that high speed duped, two track with only one side of album back in 1958 ran $20, it's not out of the question. Put that $20 in the CPI multiply by two and the answer is that tape today would cost around $360. But tape is not exorbitant when you take into account that the blank tape (and reels) cost over $100 nowadays, licensing fees, maintenance, set up, artwork, etc., no one is getting rich selling tape.
Most of all, tape will make even a modest system sound like a million dollars. When I was in the studio, master tapes made the studio JBLs sound like the best high-end speaker one could imagine.
The one small fly in the ointment at the moment? The choice of musical genre. Yes, many classical and jazz recordings are currently available on tape but rock is far behind. And there's a good reason for that as the licensing fees for rock recordings is hideous (not to mention, these labels don't want to take their precious, old master tapes out of the vault and send them to just any Joe Blow for duplication). I believe more people would jump on the tape bandwagon if rock music--and after all it constitutes probably 60% of what is listened to today--had more representation. But it will happen. Right now I'm waiting on Horch House's newest Yello release on tape. And they will be issuing more. So stay tuned!
Not really. The most overwhelming reason is that it's quality over quantity and the emotional reaction tape engenders. Or as the late Mike Spitz said, "nothing sounds like tape."
And this from ATR magnetics sort of sums it up: "Music is an intrinsic part of the human soul. It plays to our emotions, it talks to us, it calms us, it makes us rise to our greatest accomplishments and brings back our warmest memories." Daniel Levitan said much the same thing in his first book, This is Your Brain on Music when he asked the basic question why do even in the most primitive societies on earth have music?
Nothing Sounds Like Tape
Why does music recorded on analog tape sound so good?
To understand why, a professional tape recorder provides the most lifelike reproduction revolves around a couple of important factors. The key lies in the inherent technology of the tape itself. Audio tape in use during the 1950s and ’60s provided approximately 65,000,000 magnetic particles per second of recording a quarter inch format at 15 inches per second (ips) tape speed. Each magnetic oxide particle or groups of particles takes on either a north or south orientation after exiting the recording head. Starting to sound like digital bit stream? Well yes and no. However there is one huge difference between analog tape recordings and even the best digital recordings.
Resolution
The highest digital resolution today offers 4,608,000 bits switching per second. Not bad. Big improvement over the standard Red Book CD but it is not even close to sub-micron particle resolution of ATR Master Tape.
Random Particle Stacking
Quarter inch, two track ATR Master Tape running at 15 inches per second (ips) involves approximately 80,000,000 oriented and randomly stacked particles per track second. It’s not just the particle count but the random stacking that turns this super binary resolution into pure analog playback. This is why even a narrow track width recording still sounds so detailed despite the lower surface area.
Music is an intrinsic part of the human soul. It plays to our emotions, it talks to us, it calms us, it makes us rise to our greatest accomplishments and brings back our warmest memories. Why not record it on the best medium to achieve the best quality of sound?
For me--and I'm a rank newbie at this thing called tape compared to some of the veterans here--it's all about having one Armani suit compared to 10 Metropolitan suits. Yes, they are both suits and they both fit you but there is something more to the way that Armani suit fits the body and feels on you. It's much the same thing with tape. One finishes with a far more fulfilling after listening to one, much less a series of tapes, than any other musical medium. And after all, the difference between a good and great high-end system is that the former plays notes while the latter makes music. Emotional impact. That ill definable quality that eludes even the best of measurements.
Sure, many of us were frustrated with the paucity of music available when The Tape Project, to many cries of derision, was first launched ten years (and that software issue kept me from getting into tape for the longest time). But times have changed and we now have 22 companies recording and releasing both new and old recordings on 15 ips tape. Hopefully, that groundswell with continue and more labels will see fit to release music in this format. I strongly urge people to check out the work being done by Yarlung Records, Opus 3, Open Reel Records, and so many more nowadays. Make sure when you go to shows to plan to spend some after show time at one of Greg Beron's UHA tape parties. I guarantee you won't leave until he locks the place up!
Yes tape is expensive. But when you factor that high speed duped, two track with only one side of album back in 1958 ran $20, it's not out of the question. Put that $20 in the CPI multiply by two and the answer is that tape today would cost around $360. But tape is not exorbitant when you take into account that the blank tape (and reels) cost over $100 nowadays, licensing fees, maintenance, set up, artwork, etc., no one is getting rich selling tape.
Most of all, tape will make even a modest system sound like a million dollars. When I was in the studio, master tapes made the studio JBLs sound like the best high-end speaker one could imagine.
The one small fly in the ointment at the moment? The choice of musical genre. Yes, many classical and jazz recordings are currently available on tape but rock is far behind. And there's a good reason for that as the licensing fees for rock recordings is hideous (not to mention, these labels don't want to take their precious, old master tapes out of the vault and send them to just any Joe Blow for duplication). I believe more people would jump on the tape bandwagon if rock music--and after all it constitutes probably 60% of what is listened to today--had more representation. But it will happen. Right now I'm waiting on Horch House's newest Yello release on tape. And they will be issuing more. So stay tuned!
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