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"Manufacturers Cite Recording, Mastering Sales Boom"
BY STEVE PUPLER NEW YORK

This will be the watershed year for digital recording technology, say manufacturers, who are projecting; the greatest sales to date of both digital multi-track and two-track mastering recorders.
Spurred by the accelerating public awareness of digital audio through the growth of Compact Disc, and record labels' increasing demands for high quality digital masters, at least one major manufacturer is speculating that "most of the North American studio community will invest in digital recording technology this year."
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These sales will occur, he adds, without the use of incentive discounts, as DEC "does not anticipate any significant reduction" in the X-800's $170,000 price tag to help meet projections.

• Anmerkung : Der erste Ampex Videorecorder von 1956 - der AV1000 sollte 100.000.- US Dollar kosten und wurde auf Bierdeckeln bestellt, so wild waren die Kunden (angeblich) hinter dem Teil her (überliefert die von Ampex geschürte Legende). Das waren damals 400.000 DM + Export/Import und Installation (bei uns von Siemens Karlsruhe) - also zusammen runde 600.000.- DM. Die 170.000.- Dollar waren in 1985 immer noch eine Menge Geld und somit nur für die Großen Studios erschwinglich. Wer brauchte 32 Audio-Kanäle wirklich ?

"The 32-track recorder has cost the same for about a year and a half now," he notes. "The machine is very expensive to build, and what's more, the demand is keeping steady pace with the supply."

Nordahl says that, for Mitsubishi, the geographical pattern of digital sales has followed what he sees as an established chronological triangle.
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Los Angeles first, followed bv New York and then Nashville.

"When Neve (die Mitsubishi Vertriebsfirma in  USA ??) first brought their recording consoles to the American market around 1970, the first studios to buy them were on the West Coast," he points out. "After that, New York studios bought some, then Nashville. The same thing occurred when Neve introduced the NECAM automation system.

The big L.A. studios bought about half a dozen of the computer consoles before New York and Nashville got into the act. It seems to be that way with everv major development."

According to Nordahl. Mitsubishi's marketing strategy for the 32-track machine remains unchanged for 1985. He claims his digital multi-track is for "studios that stand out at the top of the studio community," while competing 24-track digital machines will become "the standard for the masses."
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Nordahl says, he remains skeptical of the Digital Audio Stationary Head (DASH) format, the digital standard developed by Sony, Studer and Matsushita, which is non-compatible with Mitsubishi's format.

"The DASH standard is really a marketing and promotional ploy," he charges. "They [Sony, Studer and Matsushita] still have no 24-track products in the field that are compatible, and neither Studer nor Sony have actually delivered any of the two-track DASH compatible machines they showed at November's AES (Audio Engineering Society) convention in 1984."

Sony Pro Audio's national sales manager for digital audio, Rick Plushner, acknowledges that his firm is the only DASH proponent so far, to market a 24 track digital recorder. But he asserts, that the other members of the DASH group are "working on their DASH multitrack machines" and that introduction of those recorders will occur shortly.

As far as the open-reel two-track Sony PCM-3102 and Studer D820 recorders shown at the AES convention (in 1984), Sony's Curtis Chan notes that "both Sony and Studer will deliver two-track DASH recorders around June 1985."

As far as the business outlook for Sony's multitrack PCM-8824, Plushner says, that there are currently 36 PCM-3324 recorders in the U.S. He adds that, in the last four months alone, that figure has doubled from approximately 18 machines.

"We are selling and delivering about four 24-track machines per month," he says. "We realize that it's not so much the orders taken, but the deliveries made that are most important."

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• Anmerkung : SONY hatte sowieso einen sogar selbst erzeugten Wettbewerbsvorteil, der auch aus der genialen Namens-Kreation der SONY Gründer hervorging - der SONY Slogan : A SONY is a SONY is a SONY.

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Plushner says that word of mouth (Mund zu Mund Propaganda) has been the best selling force for the 3324: "We demo the machine for prospective clients, and then put them in touch with other people that own them. That seems to help."
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Sony has been selling its PCM-1610 videocassette-based digital audio two track mastering recorder for about five years (also etwa seit 1980), and with the strong momentum of Compact Disc, Plushner sees sales of that unit increasing heavily in 1985.
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The 1610 is the most popularly accepted format for CD mastering, and now "with the popularization of CD, there's a tremendous need to convert old recordings to digital and also digitally master new recordings," he says.

Plushner notes that the most marked trend he's seen over the past year is the gradual acceptance of digital technology by studio owners and engineers, to the point where

"it's become a much less extraordinary thing to them. A lot of multitracks are available from rental companies, and are used by medium-size and smaller studios, as well as the major studios. So the smaller studios have become familiar with the technology, and it has become much more commonplace to them."
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• Anmerkung : Es gibt keine so richtig glaubwürdigen Zahlen von SONY, aber es müssen in USA mehrere Tausend PCM-1610 mitsamt U-matic Recordern verkauft worden sein und sie funktionierten auch.

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What of Sony's DASH compatriots, Studer and Matsushita ? Asked when his company foresees placing a digital multitrack DASH recorder in the marketplace, Matsushita's Almon Clegg replies, "I don't see us entering the marketplace at this time. We are, of course, very interested and highly supportive of the DASH standard, as the format uses the thin-film recording heads we manufacture. We will be a supplier of the thin-film heads and other electronics for DASH machines. If the market grows quickly enough, we may indeed come in with a full machine, but we don't really see that happening this year."

According to Studer Revox of America's vice president and general manager Thomas E. Mintner, Studer will show the final version of its DASH two-track recorder at the Anaheim AES in May 1985, with limited numbers of the machines available "shortly thereafter."

"Our concern (unser Interesse) at this point is not so much the initial delivery date," says Mintner. "We are more concerned with our ability to fill the orders currently on hand and those that continue to come in. It's obvious to us, that many buyers are waiting for the DASH two-track machines, rather than investing in earlier technologies that may soon be obsolete."

Mintner adds that Studer's ability to fill all the orders it has already received will depend on the rate of production later this year 1985, as well as the number of orders coming in later, both of which "are difficult to forecast at this time."

As far as digital multitrack recorders, Studer expects to market its debut in that arena sometime around the middle of 1986.

"As we announced at the Paris AES, the multitrack Studer machines will be double-density DASH format, using 32 cross-protected audio channels and a total of 48-tracks," says Mintner. "They will be totally compatible with the other DASH machines."
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