The last manufacturer of professional quality analog audio tape has stopped making the out of date audio storage format.
American company Qantegy was the last known manufacturer of professional audio tape reels for use in analog studio mastering.
With the ascendency of digital recording, analog tape sales have plummeted, making the format no longer comemrcially viable to produce, but there are still some recording artists and producers who prefer the ‘warm’ sound of analog over the ‘cold, thin’ sound of digital recording.
Reports of specialist analog studios buying up big on the remaining stocks have been coming out of America for weeks since the announcement was made.
Qantegy’s long history goes back to World War 2, and at the end of an era it is timely to recall the story of how the company first began to produce audio tape:
In 1945, after capturing several German “Magnetophon” tape recorders from Radio Luxembourg, the American Signal Corps recorded a speech by General Dwight Eisenhower to be played to the people of occupied Germany. Due to a shortage of recording tape the speech had to be recorded on a reel of used German tape. Unfortunately, due to a problem with the German tape recorder, the tape was not completely erased and the voice of Adolph Hitler was intermittently heard along with Eisenhower’s voice. This caused a great deal of fear and confusion among the German people and obviously a great deal of embarrassment for the Allied Signal Corps.
General Eisenhower issued an immediate order that no more captured German tape was to be used and assigned Major John Herbert Orr to develop an American magnetic tape manufacturing facility.
Major Orr located a German scientist, Dr. Karl Pfleumer, who gave him a basic formula for magnetic tape. Within two weeks Major Orr had managed to manufacture his first reels of usable audio tape. After returning to his home in Opelika, Alabama after the war John Herbert Orr set up a magnetic tape manufacturing facility and soon afterwards began marketing his own tape under the “IRISH” brand name. Orr continued his manufacturing operation and in 1959 Orradio Industries became part of the Ampex Corporation.
The Ampex Corporation, founded by Alexander M. Poniatoff, had been developing audio tape recorders since the end of WWII starting with their model 200. The company’s first sales of the Model 200 were to Bing Crosby Enterprises and the American Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). In 1956 Ampex announced an historic breakthrough, the first practical video tape recorder.
Shortly after this introduction Poniatoff and Orr entered into negotiations and in 1959 Orradio Industries became the Ampex Magnetic Tape Division of Ampex Corporation.
The Ampex Magnetic Tape Division continued its development of leading edge recording tapes in conjunction with its sister division, the Ampex Audio Video Systems Division. Numerous major advancements in recording technology over the past 35 years have resulted in today’s sophisticated digital recorders. And, it is fair to say, many of these advances would not have been possible without the the equally significant advancements in magnetic tape technology developed by the Ampex Magnetic Tape Division.
An excellent example of the Ampex contribution to the science of magnetic tape manufacturing was the installation of the first metal particle coating line in the United States, and indeed the first such line outside of Japan.
After a long and fruitful partnership the Ampex Corporation decided to divest itself of its media division and the Ampex Recording Media Corporation was put up for sale. The sale was completed in November of 1995 and the recording media pioneer became Quantegy Inc.