I personally am kind of relieved.
I think that the thing that most people are missing, is that the real issue is not about the tape, but about the playback machines.
I work at an archive, and all I do all day is restore, preserve and digitise stuff on 1/4" analogue tape.
Obviously the fact that there's no more tape being made is not really a huge issue for us, as we don't record to it anymore.
The real issue is that very shortly Studer, (one of the largest tape machine manufacturers) is stopping ALL support for ALL of their tape machines. This includes making parts or full machines.
The machine sitting next to me right now (Studer A810) is running for at least 4-5 hours a day, and was already second hand when we got it. We have 10 or so machines in the same situation. These things don't just run for ever. They are extremely complex machines with many moving parts that just wear out after a while, and it's becoming very difficult to source replacement parts, not to mention people with the skills to keep them running properly or to do repairs.
I just hope that people copy their stuff to another medium before their machines stop working; which may be sooner than they think.
What use is a "warm" analogue recording medium if you can't record to it?
Does this mean that if I purchase a copy of Windows, and through a known Windows security flaw my PC contracts a virus (or similar) that destroys years of work, that I can sue Microsoft (or the store?) for loss of income...?
I wish it were that simple, but increasingly over the past years Australia has been turning more and more to the US for "guidance" and in return the US has had things to say on Australian policy on more than one occasion (including their preference for our current government over the opposition, in our recent elections).
The sad thing is that Australians seem to listen; we can't seem to think for ourselves anymore, and everything has to have the approval of the US.
It's just about to the point where the US elections were more important to us than our own.
It's be nice if our Government had the balls (or brains) to think on its own.
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Why don't they listen to Larry...
So all of this frequency response on either recording device is kinda wasted anyway...
I work at an archive, and all I do all day is restore, preserve and digitise stuff on 1/4" analogue tape. Obviously the fact that there's no more tape being made is not really a huge issue for us, as we don't record to it anymore.
The real issue is that very shortly Studer, (one of the largest tape machine manufacturers) is stopping ALL support for ALL of their tape machines. This includes making parts or full machines. The machine sitting next to me right now (Studer A810) is running for at least 4-5 hours a day, and was already second hand when we got it. We have 10 or so machines in the same situation. These things don't just run for ever. They are extremely complex machines with many moving parts that just wear out after a while, and it's becoming very difficult to source replacement parts, not to mention people with the skills to keep them running properly or to do repairs.
I just hope that people copy their stuff to another medium before their machines stop working; which may be sooner than they think. What use is a "warm" analogue recording medium if you can't record to it?
Does this mean that if I purchase a copy of Windows, and through a known Windows security flaw my PC contracts a virus (or similar) that destroys years of work, that I can sue Microsoft (or the store?) for loss of income...?
I wish it were that simple, but increasingly over the past years Australia has been turning more and more to the US for "guidance" and in return the US has had things to say on Australian policy on more than one occasion (including their preference for our current government over the opposition, in our recent elections). The sad thing is that Australians seem to listen; we can't seem to think for ourselves anymore, and everything has to have the approval of the US. It's just about to the point where the US elections were more important to us than our own. It's be nice if our Government had the balls (or brains) to think on its own.