Tape Project-Any reason so many tapes are showing


Why are so many Tape Project tapes showing up for sale on A-gon? So far I have seen at least three full lots of tapes appear up for sale, and remainder of subscriptions are also being offered.

My reason for not joining is because of the amount of tapes I would need to purchase with music that I am not interested in.

I dont think it's the quality of the music/tape transfer. I did purchase four tapes from a fellow goner and played them on my Studer A-810 with excellent results. The Studer needs to be re-calibrated and the Tape Project tapes still sounded incredible. So from my own experience these are first class master tapes.
I personally feel the Studer A-810 is the only way to go if you want to get the most benefit from Tape Project. Unless of course you are in the position to purchase an Ampex 102.

Is it economics that these tapes and subscriptions are starting to show up for sale or is it that maybe the tapes are not all that big of a deal sound/quality for the money?

Curious as to what others are feeling about Tape Project?

Ed
apachef1

Showing 2 responses by mikelavigne

A transfer of Miles/Blue in Blu-Ray is in progress. It will blow away the mix tape.

you are kidding, right?

there are many dozens of analog-digital threads (many of which i've been involved with) and the world does not need another one. OTOH when you are speaking of a digital copy of an analog tape being better than an Lp or master tape dub there is just no basis for that. Blue Ray of KOB might be pretty good, but no better (or maybe not as good) as the SACD of KOB.

i have a 15ips 1/4" master dub of KOB (not sure exactly how many generations removed from the master it might be). but it's better than the 45rpm reissue, which is way better than the SACD.

one must be drinking lots of PCM koolaid to assume the Blue Ray is going to be all that great.

i have a high rez server with 20+ high rez 176/24 and 192/24 files. i like them and they are a solid improvement over the redbook; but generally they don't measure up to SACD to my ears.

getting back to the question at hand; i agree that RTR in general, and the Tape Project Tapes in particular are not yet 'easy' and 'mainstream'. OTOH they do offer an audiophile fully licensed master dubs that will be the best sounding recordings they will ever hear. and to get more tapes (and more mainstream tapes) to the marketplace first intenders will have to support it. i like every one of the tapes so far once i listen to them. it's great music.

clearly it does not work in everyone's listening culture.

i think there are many more people getting into tapes than getting out of them. that is all that is needed.
Ed,

i think you are not alone in your perspective on Jazz titles. there are 'rock' guys who want more classic Rock, Jazz guys like you, and hard core Classical guys......personally i like e'm all and actually look forward to expanding my musical hoizons. there is no wrong perspectives on music choices. and people moving in and out of tapes is normal.....and that happens for many different reasons.

the following is a quote from DocB (Dan Schmalle) from the Tape Project Forum.

I'm not a member over there so I'll add my comments here and folks can take them there if they wish. Three sets of tapes is 1.5% of our total licensed production capability of 200 copies (of which we don't have very many Series One titles left available). I don't think that is a particularly significant fraction in terms of being able to determine why the tapes are being sold. The simple fact is the economic crunch affected a lot of folks - though we seem to be coming out of that and subscriptions are really up lately. Earlier in the year we had very remorseful calls from a few Charter subscribers who were in financial straights and who could not renew for Series Two, and I can imagine those same folks might be the ones who were selling their Series One tapes.

so the selling of a few tapes on the goN is pretty much a normal occurance.

the big issue here is that if we are serious about allowing RTR to develop as an 'ultimate' format then all us tape-heads must support The Tape Project as best we can until the musical selections expand enough to become viable. once there are 30-40 titles out there then more fence-sitters will join in and the momentum The Tape Project began can sustain itself. we need a larger core of people wanting to hear the best possible sounding tapes. we don't need 2000 people, but 500--1000 would be enough that the various types of music will be reasonably represented and a person can get into tape and have the music that they want.

i think we are damn lucky that a group of people made the commitment to create The Tape Project. there is zero chance i would have got into RTR without them. to me it enriches our hobby having licensed legal master tapes you can buy and listen to.