So I have recently upgraded from a 1/2″ 8 track to a 1″ 16 track. While the 1/2″ treated me well for many a year and I loved the economy and methods of being limited to 8 tracks, an opportunity arose that i couldn’t refuse and I decide to take the plunge along with my friend Jason to move up in track count. When I was in the process of making my decision, one piece of advice that was given to me by the esteemed Howard Bilerman of Montreal was that 1″ tape might be hard to get a hold of.

Boy was he right! Even though analog reel to reel tape production is not dead, (as reported in many media outlets - they never follow up with anything but that’s a post for another day) 1 ” was hard to get a hold of and it was pricey to say the least.

We ended up paying over $200 CAD for one reel - yes one reel - from a source that had it in stock but shall remain nameless. If we had done our homework or had been more prepared it wouldn’t have been so expensive, but we had a tech coming to calibrate the deck and need the tape ASAP. In the future, we will be more prepared and will order from tapestockonline.com. They can order 1″ tape from the manufacture but don’t keep any in stock. The best part is the price…. $76 USD, which is a long way from $200.