As an addendum...
GSI decided to go new with the API desk they purchased... they wanted to try to steal clear of used desks for obvious reasons.
Kurt Foster :
I don't know if the Studer machine is used - and if so how old it is... the article didn't say. I'm not sure you can even buy brand new tape machines anymore? Or if the best you could do would be to get something with low mileage, or that had been professionally (factory?) refurbished from top to bottom...

Studer stopped making mulitracks around 2000. i think they will still run into maintenance issues on the console a couple years down the road in spite of it being new. i think 2 years is how long the warranty is. if the plan is to run as close as they can to 24 - 7, they need to keep people on staff to work on the gear, otherwise they are going to have a hard time . i had extra strips for the console but if any of the tape machines went down, i was dark. it usually took at least 3 or 4 days to get a tech in. the most problematic issues were usually something to do with the power supplies on both the console and the tape machines. .

Kurt Foster, post: 452495, member: 7836 wrote: Studer stopped making mulitracks around 2000. i think they will still run into maintenance issues on the console a couple years down the road in spite of it being new. i think 2 years is how long the warranty is. if the plan is to run as close as they can to 24 - 7, they need to keep people on staff to work on the gear, otherwise they are going to have a hard time . i had extra strips for the console but if any of the tape machines went down, i was dark. it usually took at least 3 or 4 days to get a tech in. the most problematic issues were usually something to do with the power supplies on both the console and the tape machines. .

At least Zeltec is around the corner, in the basement floor of the Sears Sound building. Still doesn't help w the downtime issue necessarily, but it's good to have a great mind nearby for that stuff.

Perhaps having an extra power supply for both the console and tape machine would be beneficial for the studio.

I don't get the mag so I couldn't read the article, and didn't see it on the web (maybe I missed it), but if they're dumping the tracks into the DAW, I'm guessing this might ease some wear and tear?

From what I gather talking to people, the ampex machines sounded better but were less reliable, which is why a lot of studios opted for the studers when they came out. Not sure if this is a concensus or not.

I really wish some company would start manufacturing tape machines and tape again. There's got to be a decent market, and some way to unobtrusively integrate digital control and compatibility with them. I mean weren't some of the later tape machines from the early 90's already doing like 'self adjusting' or computer aided adjustments?

Mara Machines refurbs MCI's and does a 6 month warranty with phone and online support.

you can just swap out power supplies for a console but tape machines need to be adjusted (multi meter and oscilloscope) and then re aligned when swapping power supplies.

I'm not familiar w Mara machines. Gonna check them out.

Kurt Foster, post: 452501, member: 7836 wrote: you can just swap out power supplies for a console but tape machines need to be adjusted (multi meter and oscilloscope) and then re aligned when swapping power supplies.

Is that something an in-house tech or regular recording engineer could learn to do well enough?

Mara looks super cool, on my hitlist when I make it down to Nashville.

They even do alignment via skype, which is a very good use of technology.

It reinforces further my notion of, and motivation towards, brealtime remote systems.

I think it's important to reiterate what we've said regarding analog studios for some time now, and that is that maintenance is a "when" and not an "if".
In the heyday of analog, big studios had on-staff maintenance people - at the very least they had someone they trusted nearby. As Kurt mentioned, if the studio is planning on running 24/7 ( which is every commercial studio's goal) then that kind of mileage on the gear will absolutely require maintenance. Components that require hefty power and pass voltage, and machines with moving mechanical parts will absolutely wear down ( and eventually out ) after a while.
There were many basic maintenance tasks I could do on my own, realigning and biasing tape machines, pulling and dropping modules into console channels, etc., but I wasn't smart or skilled enough to do the other things needed, and for that I had a guy I could call in (and did, more than just a few times over the years).
For those who never worked in an analog studio, we weren't able to just pull an entire mixer and put it in the back of a van to have it repaired....miles of cable would have needed to have been pulled, in some cases the entire window of a control room (or in some cases perhaps even an entire wall) would have required removal just to get the console out of a CR; and tape machines were beasts, some weighed in at 350 pounds, so it wasn't like you could just throw them in the backseat of your car and take them to a repair center. Service reps had to do repairs on site, and those guys weren't working for minimum wage, either. Lol