Recording music professionally used to mean loading in a bunch of analog open reel 2 inch tape. The main manufacturers Ampex (Quantegy), 3M and BASF (Emtec...now RMGI) all had great products with enough differences that a band or engineer could choose the right tape for their session. 3M jumped ship first as the demand for analog tape grew smaller. Emtec shut down their production and finally Quantegy closed their doors leaving the tape purists in a tough situation. When Quantegy reorganized and started production again back in 2005 things looked good. RMG International came along with the great BASF/Emtec formulations and the market looked even better. It's hard to believe there is one tape maker currently around supplying product now that Quantegy shut down the tape lines again. RMGI tape is meeting demand for those who like analog recording. It has been a crazy road for sure getting product back out there but from what we can tell the demand is still strong, just not as huge. Hopefully ATR Magnetics will have their product available soon as well. It might be a digital world but Long Live Analog!

I get amazed by how many genres of music are out there now. The electronic music world is a great example: House, Deep House, Trance, Psy-Trance, Techno, Drums & Bass, etc. I'm glad there in not a test on these...

There is a company in Denver called Beatport  that has done an excellent job compiling a huge selection of music for DJs, clubs and anyone interested in electronic music.

You can kill a few hours just sampling the tracks and there is a good chance you end up filling your crate before leaving their site.

This ad has been on my office wall for quite awhile.  I found it back in the mid 1990's when going through some papers in the warehouse; it came from my old friend Bill Pugliese who used to own B&L Sales, Inc. in North Hollywood, CA.

The complete system could be purchased for $3499.00; blank 8-track cartridges were additional.  The manufacturer Make a Tape, Inc. was out of Fraser, MI and it looks like they were set up to sell through distribution.   I have no idea how well these sold...I just like the great graphics on the ad. 

 The brochure I have is from 1972; blank 8-track tapes sold for $3.50 and you spent another 50 cents to make the copy.  It looks like a pretty nice profit margin...

Archival Gold media has become a very popular storage choice for many of our clients.  Prices for CD-R, DVD-R and DVD+R discs can vary widely depending on the brand and type of media.  Thanks to Lora Swenson of MAM-A for her input!

 1. Gold media is priced higher than most of the standard grade media on the market...why should someone go with a gold disc?

Gold media will last longer than silver.  A Gold reflective layer won't corrode over time but this is possible with non gold media.  MAM-A has a Silver vs. Gold page which answers many of the common questions.

 2. DVD-R or DVD+R...is either format better than the other?

We hear from MAM-A that both formats are essentially equal.  There are some who favor the minus R and others the Plus R; based solely on our sales the DVD-R format is more popular.  Here is more information on DVD-R and DVD+R formats.

 3. What are the ideal record speeds for gold media?

Lora told us:  "Our gold DVD-Rs are indicated to write at a top speed of 8X, but we think 4X is ideal.  Since gold is not as reflective of a metal as compared to silver, the dark organic dye used for all recordable DVDs does not allow for  good performance at 16X.   Gold CD-Rs are made with Mitsui's patented Phthalocyanine dye, which is translucent, therefore allows the gold reflective metal layer to perform at top speeds of 52X."

Visit our Gold CD-R, DVD-R and DVD+R pages for complete product information.

Microboards has a publishing solution for bands, churches or any organization that needs an easy-to-use machine to burn and print CD and DVD discs.

From Microboards site:

Four Easy Steps to Creating Professional, Finished Discs

1. Design your label. Use included templates for easy design or import from Photoshop®.

2. Choose your recording files. Make audio discs, burn multimedia content, distribute software, or archive data.

3. Set the quantity desired. Also access advanced features through the intuitive software interface.

4. Walk away! Let the 50-disc input, reliable robotics, integrated inkjet printer, and high-speed recorder do the rest!

Words and pictures are great but to see the machine in action watch the video.

The GX-1 is compatible with PC and Mac.  For more product info please visit our GX-1 page. 

Avastor hard drives are favorites of Encore Data Products pro A/V customers.  The company has become a global supplier for people recording music, editing for film and more. 

I spoke with Avastor, Inc. co-founder Richard Wilson the other day about their company...here is what I found out:

1. What is your background that led you to start a pro A/V drive company?
I started way back in 1979 working for Texas Instruments (in the oil exploration business), using mainframe computers and one inch and half inch computer tape!   In 1987 I joined 3M handling the UK pro audio/video tape business.   Hard drives are now the new tape-certainly for audio.   It was time to produce a hard drive product designed for professional applications.

2. What are the biggest changes you've seen in the last 5 years in music recording?
The smaller demand for analog tape and the move to affordable digital workstations that are easy to use.

3. Any predictions on the next 5 years?
Higher sampling rates and bit depth to provide content for DVD-HD and Blu-Ray DVD.

4. Why go with Avastor over a drive you can find on the shelf of your  local computer big box store?
As stated previously, it was time to introduce a robust external hard drive, which could handle the rigors of editing- as well as stream large track counts of high resolution audio and video.  All our drives are 100% speed tested, fan cooled and come in a robust LockBox – ideal for shipping and storing.  Consumer drives simply do not offer this protection and performance for your valuable masters.

5. Any new products on the horizon?
We have some new RAID products – as well as other storage solutions coming.

Encore Data Products is offering a FREE Avastor T-Shirt with every Avastor drive order...while supplies last. 

In our corner of the world blank recordable Blu-ray discs outsell HD-DVD. There are more brand choices and greater capacities; you can fit quite a bit on a 50GB disc.  Both camps have strong supporters so time will tell how each will do.

Articles about the two formats often bring up the old "VHS vs. Beta" comparison.  CNET has a Blu-ray, HD-DVD and DVD comparison page which is a good source for the basics.  Other information sources include the Official HD-DVD site and The Blu-ray Disc Association.  

There was an announcement this week about a Blu-ray format change that will affect the early adopters of the format.  Earlier machines won't be able to use additional features that will be found on upcoming releases.

For users of blank recordable media upcoming products include printable discs; we have heard Imation and TDK have released product but our suppliers do not have anything available yet.  We just added two Blu-ray Pro duplication systems by Microboards Technology; for specs click here.

For our blog visitors: We are running a store-wide 10% off sale!  Save 10% on any IN STOCK item  order over $150.  Use coupon code 2DAY10 when checking out.  As always ground shipping is free to the lower 48...

Save big on gold media, tape, drives and more.  Coupon expires at midnight April 10th. 

Thanks for visiting our blog...check back for upcoming product reviews, news and customer spotlights.   

I want to mention a favorite music magazine of mine:  Tape Op magazine.  For those of you who are not familiar with it definitely check it out.  There are always excellent articles on recording, studios, gear and people in the music business.  As a person who has played in bands over the years but never studied the fine points of recording I can still enjoy reading about how a certain band/producer/engineer managed to come up with a certain sound.  It is a print magazine but there are many more articles, resources and even a message board on their website.

We run a small ad in Tape Op for our RMGI analog tape, Avastor and Glyph hard drives since a lot of our clients are the folks who record music for a living.  I'm sure the mag appeals to music fans as well since well-known artists and producers are often featured.  Making an "album" can be a pretty involved process so naturally some great stories are created along with the music.  

Odds are if you are involved with music you already subscribe to Tape Op...if not it is time to start reading.  

Since Encore Data Products does most business online our web store had to work well, be user-friendly, have a decent look and most importantly leave customers wanting to return.   we shopped around prior to partnering with a firm to build our online store in 2006.  After checking out various store software versions and companies who created stores we ended up going with Ryan Design Studio.

 The result exceeded our expectations and the store looks great.  I spoke with Padraic Ryan, founder of Ryan Design Studio, to get a little information on their company and find out what makes them successful:

 Tell us a little about Ryan Design Studio 

 I formed Ryan Design Studio back in 2003 as an Architecture and Web Development firm. Architecture and Web Design may sound like two totally unrelated fields, but from a design perspective they are essentially the same thing: solving a problem using design. While the housing market slowed here in the Northeast, the e-commerce market was growing at an exponential rate, so we decided to drop Architecture all together and focus solely on e-commerce and other web development projects.

 Originally Ryan Design Studio was only myself, but I now have two graphic designers and two programmers who I partner with on most projects. This not only keeps our designs fresh and different, but also allows me to give our clients the one on one support that they have grown accustomed to.

Why did you end up focusing on X-Cart store software over some other choices?

 When we were developing our first e-commerce store back in the early 90s, we had to essentially build our own shopping cart system using a programming language called CGI. Over the years, there have been more and more companies who offer pre-made systems, and we have tried most of them. We finally settled on X-Cart mainly due to their extremely flexible system and the extensive development community that has grown up around it. There are literally hundreds of add-on modules available, and most importantly, the code allows us to integrate any look we want into the template system. We have found it to be a great platform.

Does your company offer services other than X-Cart design?

We originally offered Architectural services as well as web development, but have since dropped our Architectural practice. We specialize mainly in e-commerce sites built with X-Cart, but also build 'brochure' type sites for businesses who are just looking for a web presence or on-line portfolio of projects. We also run our own hosting service that is geared primarily for our X-Cart clients.

If you are looking for a company to get your business online we recommend Ryan Design Studio; for more information you can contact them here.   

Prior to starting Encore Data Products I used to co-own a tape supply company in Burbank, CA. The company started out as a 3M distributor moving a lot of 3M 996 open reel tape. Soon after Ampex signed us up and then BASF. A decent-sized recording project would use 20-50 reels of 2"  tape and often more. Since tape is now about $225 per reel of 2" x 2500' I dug back to see what it cost about 10 years ago....somewhere in the neighborhood of $125 depending on which version you went with. While researching I found a studio price sheet for Mitch Easter's Drive-In Recording Studio from 1980.  Tape at that studio in 1980 was $110 per reel.  Costs have doubled but since demand has dropped considerably I guess $225 is not too bad for "that great analog sound".

Mitch Easter is one of those great musician/producer/engineer guys who fronted an excellent band Lets Active.

One of the best shows I've ever seen was at the late, great 688 club in Atlanta, GA that Let's Active headlined.  After not letting anyone in until very late due to sound check issues (if I remember correctly) we finally saw them go on about 1 in the morning.  Definitely worth the wait.

I have never met Mitch but he always seemed like the kind of person you would want to be in a band with.  He has a new CD out now you can order here. 

One of the newer tape storage options on the market is Sun StorageTek T10000 (T10K) tape. With an uncompressed capacity of 500GB this format is very popular with large data centers who require a reliable, fast and high capacity tape media.  Product specs can be seen on the StorageTek site.

From the Sun/Storagetek site:  "The Sun StorageTek™ T10000 tape cartridge, which works in tandem with the Sun StorageTek T10000 tape drive, addresses issues related to data growth, security, manageability, and cost. With 500-gigabyte capacity, the T10000 tape cartridge stores more data in the same footprint. And with 2:1 compression, it can store up to one terabyte of data to help you meet growing data storage requirements. Ultra-high capacity makes the T10000 tape cartridge ideal for high-volume backup, archiving, and disaster recovery applications.

The T10000 tape cartridge also increases data security with the Sun StorageTek T10000 SafeGuide™ system, in which a unique hub lock stabilizes media within the cartridge shell."

Please call us at 866-926-1669 or email us at sales@encoredaproducts.com if you would like more information or would like to discuss volume pricing. 

It looks like Imation is acquiring TDK's global recording media business. From what I have read there will still be TDK branded product on the market but it will now be manufactured by Imation.

TDK still makes audio products as well as data media; it will be interesting to see if all the lines make the final cut. 

I wanted to let everyone know we just started an INCREDIBLE promotion on our top-selling Gold media products. We picked one item from our 3 categories: Gold CD-R, Gold DVD-R and Gold DVD+R discs. Our prices are always competitive but now you can save an extra 10% on these items when your total is $150 or more. As always ground shipping is free so your savings can be huge.

MAM-A Mitsui is the industry leader in gold archival media.  With DVD media having a life expectancy of 100+ years and the CD-R 300+ years gold is the way to go for your long-term storage projects.

Professional photographers, government agencies, hospitals and more use MAM-A gold media for their critical storage applications.  

MAM-A offers multiple pages of information on manufacturing processes, technical reports and more at www.mam-a.com .

I have spoken with a lot of people this week wondering about their Glyph drives. I'm very happy to report we have product moving out again; all the Glyph GT Series 051, 050 Quad, and 062 RAID drives are shipping. The only back orders we currently face are for the GT keys...this has been a tough one over the past few months.  It looks like in a month all product lines will be at 100%.  The staff at Glyph are all working hard to keep us "in stock".  

Glyph is currently offering a wide selection of hard drive storage for professional A/V users.  The new GT062 series is a dual drive product which supports RAID 0 and has FireWire 400, FireWire 800 and USB 2.0 ports.  For you eSATA customers the GT 050Q Quad series offers FireWire 400, FireWire 800, USB 2.0 AND eSATA ports.  Capacity goes up to 750GB.

 New Glyph products for us this week include a pro CD/DVD Burner and a 1-to-1 media duplicator.  Please give us a call  (866-926-1669) if you would like to discuss your upcoming hard drive needs. 

The Encore Data Products blog is still very new and very much a spec in the world of blogs.  My goal is to provide some useful information to our readers and generate some interest in the company from people who might not know about us.  Here are some basics on the company:

Brands we sell:  Altec Lansing, Avastor, Buffalo Technology, Certance, Delkin Devices, Emtec, Exabyte, Fuji Film, Glyph, G-Tech, HP, IBM, Imation, Iomega, Kodak, Lacie, MAM-A Mitsui, M Audio, Maxell, Maxoptix, Maxtor, Memorex, Microboards Technology, Neat Receipts, Panasonic, Permastore Turtle Case, Philips, Pioneer, Plasmon, Primera, ProAvio, Quantum, Rimage, RMG, Samsung, Sandisk, Sennheiser, Sling Media, Sony, Sun Storagetek, Taiyo Yuden, Tandberg Data, TDK, TEAC, Telex, Toshiba, Verbatim, Western Digital and Xerox.  I think that is everybody...

Our products include:  Archival gold CD-R DVD-R DVD+R,  hard drives, medical grade media, LTO, DLT, AIT, T10K tape, storage, pro audio, blu-ray, HD DVD, data tape, DVD media, CD-R to name a few. 

Our Customers cover a variety of markets.  The pro audio & video folks use us for hard drives, media and RMG analog open reel tape.  Hospitals and medical offices need archival media, medical grade discs and backup tape.  We just added the TDK Medical line of DICOM Media Creator Systems. 

Everybody these days uses some sort of backup computer media.  our professional photography clients love the gold archival CD & DVD discs; some of these folks find us through our little ad on The Online Photographer blog by Mike Johnston.  Tons of great photography info on that site! 

From a police station in rural Texas to a university in New York....everyone has something to back up and we try hard to have the best items available.  From our office in Louisville, CO (Money Magazine's #5 best place to live in 2005!) we get most orders out same-day and offer prompt delivery with multiple warehouses all over the U.S.

We are now offering international shipping on some products to many countries.  Please visit our International Order info page for more information.

Free shipping and no minimums???  Yes!  We are glad to offer free shipping within the United States (except AK & HI) and have no minimum order amounts.  There are some products that have a starting quantity for ordering but most can be ordered in singles.  We collect sales tax for orders shipped in Colorado.

Specials:  We run a lot of promotions both in the store and through our email list.  If you would like to receive all our promos be sure to sign up on our front page.  We don't send out emails every day but try to get some specials going at least twice a month.  Our monthly email newsletter often has extra coupons as well.

That's enough for now.  I hope if Encore Data Products is new to you you'll check us out; we would love to be your supplier of choice!

Emtec  has a line of USB flash LCD drives that can be loaded with your own logo on a flashing 4 color LCD screen.  I've mentioned this product before but since we are receiving more and more inquiries I decided to show it again:

 Product specifications:

1. Original LCD panel with solar captors
2. Universal compatibility with USB 1.1 and USB 2.0 interfaces
3. Operating systems: WIN 2000, WIN ME, WIN XP, Vista, MAC 8.6, OS 9 et OS X
4. Read speed: up to 7 MB/s
5. Write speed: up to 4 MB/s
6. Image Size: 26.5*12mm
7. Image Resolution: 300dpi
8. Image File Format: PSD/ TIF/ EPS/ BMP/ AI/ JPG
9. USB 1.1/2.0 compliant
10. Hot plug & play
11. No external power is required,it's solar powered
12. 10 years data retention

This is a great promo product for companies, groups and bands.  The key comes preloaded with your logo; each key can also be preloaded with presentation data as well.

Normal turnaround time is about 2 weeks after the artwork is approved.  Right now capacities available are 1GB, 2GB and 4GB.

The minimum order on the custom logo LCD drive is 200 pcs.  The item is available with a preloaded Emtec logo in singles; custom logos require the 200 minimum.

You can see complete specs on the Emtec site as well. 

Avastor has been making the news again lately by teaming up with pros like SADiE and
Guy Charbonneau's Le Mobile Remote Recording.  Company co-founder Richard Wilson does a great job explaining their HDX products on a recent tradeshow podcast.

For the month of May Encore Data Products is running an Avastor promotion:  FREE 2nd Day Air delivery AND a FREE AVASTOR T-Shirt with every Avastor hard drive purchase.  We will automatically upgrade your shipping from free ground to FREE 2nd day air.  Our T-Shirt supply is good but once these run out that part of the promo will be done.  

Avastor has become a world leader in professional A/V hard drives.  Their drives are designed to hold up to the rigors of music, TV & film production.  Don't settle for less...there are cheaper drives out there but you get what you pay for.  A crashed hard drive can really throw a wrench in the works when you are in the middle of a session; you might save some cash up front with a "no fan inexpensive consumer drive" but why take that chance.  

Feel free to call us if you are looking to stock up on Avastor; I would love to provide you with a quantity quote:  866-926-1669 . 

Analog tape is definitely back. Product was never completely gone but it was close. I caught up with Doug Bernhardt, western regional sales manager for RMGI North America, our source for RMG tape in the United States.

He was kind enough to answer a few questions I had about the current state of tape:

What has the response been to being the only active pro analog tape supplier in the U.S.?

Everyone has been very supportive, and in fact enthusiastic with the reintroduction of the analog tape products. People want to know the history of RMGI from its roots with AGFA, BASF, and EMTEC. They want assurances we will continue the analog product. And our job is to create that comfort level that RMGI is here to stay.

I know there have been some issues with earlier reels of tape....what's the latest?

RMGI expected some initial issues with the move from Germany to Holland, and we have had some issues. But to their credit RMGI has been extremely responsive to our problems here in North America. They have made the necessary corrections to the product and the current inventory is performing to the high level we all had expected. There are still isolated issues, but we are dealing with them as quickly as we are aware of them. And would ask users to contact us immediately if any problem, no matter how small crops up.

Different markets are using the different formulations...what tapes are being used in your main markets?

The SM900 has been the main product of choice in the studios, as it was when it was produced by EMTEC. The SM911, which is the equivalent of the discontinued 456, has had a resounding increase in sales. And even the original AGFA 468 has been getting new users to its fold. But SM900 is still the major player in the analog world. How is the current supply in the U.S.? Our first inventory levels were based on a shared market with Quantegy. So, we were caught a little short with their discontinuation, but we again have had excellent support from RMGI. Along with an increase in our ship containers, they have been shipping by air critical product to us when needed. We seem to be working on a JIT (just in time) inventory, but we fully intend to have at least a 30+ day inventory of all required product for our dealers. We are getting close, but not quite there as yet. Demand has been intense for 1/2" product, and we are working hard to maintain inventory for immediate release.

Any parting comments?

I can't say enough about the dealers and clients positive attitude with all the changes in the analog market the last few months. We hope everyone understands we are doing all we can to satisfy all concerned. And we hope that with a little patience from all we will get back to a stable market. Where one can order, receive and record on the analog product and concentrate on just making music.

Thanks Doug for taking some time with us. We are looking forward to supplying studios and musicians with RMG...long live analog!

DLT, LTO, AIT, CD, DVD, Optical, 1/2" tape, hard drives...you name it and there is a Turtle Case by Perm-A-Store built to store and transport your media. I am mentioning the cases today to remind our readers that the cases you buy from Encore Data Products have FREE SHIPPING just like everything else we sell. These cases can get heavy so our free shipping can save you a ton.

We are adding some more cases soon!  Give us a call at 866-926-1669 if you need an item not currently on our site.  We sell everything the manufacturer makes. 

Sun has a section dedicated to all things T10000 (or T10K).   You have to love a tape that can hold 1TB of compressed data.  For a complete spec sheet visit the Sun link here.  The T10000 tape products are designed for the Sun T10000 tape drive:

Looking for tape and barcode labels?  Our ongoing Sun promotion gets you FREE barcode labels with any T10000 tape order of 50+ pcs.

Please call us if we can help out with you Sun media needs:  866-926-1669 

I have been working this week with Jeff Liu at Norco Technologies to get their direct attached storage and controller cards in place at encoredataproducts.com . Norco offers high performance storage products that are priced very competitively; no wonder the Norco market share continues to expand.  The newest hardware item is the DS-1220 RAID Storage subsystem that can hold 12TB + storage.

I asked a few questions this week about the company and here is what I found out:

1  Tell us a little about Norco Technologies...

NORCO, formed in 1991 through the merger of leading industry innovators, is the leading worldwide supplier of server rackmount, storage systems, network appliances, industrial PC parts and solutions distributed by 100 companies around the world. Headquartered in mainland China, NORCO has locations in the US, Canada, Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen, China...."   Check out the ABOUT US on the manufacturer site for details.

2. Encore Data Products focuses on your storage product offerings.  What industries are using Norco storage products?

The biggest users are the server, movie and security industries.

3. Any new products on the horizon?

Yes.   We are working on a line of Network Attached Storage (NAS) products.

4. Anything else you would like to tell our readers about your products?

Our storage products are the biggest growing portion in our product lines. You get the same performance as the ones that cost you much more.

Thank you Jeff for taking the time to tell us about Norco!  

Readers call call me directly at 866-926-1669 if you need more information.  We will continue to add more Norco items this week.

4th generation Tandberg Data LTO drives LTO-4 FH (1640LTO) are now available. We added the LTO-4 tape media a couple of weeks ago and are happy to report the drives are available too.  The drives write LTO-4 and will backward write LTO-3 tape.  Backward read is available on both LTO-2 and LTO-3.

Tandberg Data part number 7202 is an external drive kit that comes with the External tape drive, black, Backup Exec QuickStart Edition, 1 Data Cartridge + 1 Cleaning Cartridge.  As always shipping is free; the LTO-4 tape is still at our LOW introductory pricing as well.

Ok...I know there are people today who have never held a vinyl record before.  I was bummed when the world of vinyl pretty much disappeared and CDs took over.  As a kid, searching through crate after crate of used albums was fun and I discovered some great bands that way.  Doing the same with CDs is ok but a full LP cover with great artwork does shrink well to a CD insert (or MP3 listing).  I discovered the best band of all time (in my opinion...) at a Flea Market (the Jockey Lot) in Anderson, SC by parting with $2 to pick up a copy of Remote Luxury by The Church.

  The guy selling records had boxes of radio station "promotional only" albums a local country station would not normally  play.   The  album great cover sold me so I took a chance based solely on the look and I have been a huge fan of the Church ever since. 

I still have boxes of records in the basement and for years I have talked about getting a turntable again.  Ion Audio has a product on the market now that is a USB turntable.

It converts your vinyl to MP3 or CD format.  I hope to start converting my albums sooner than later; it should be fun hearing stuff that never made it to CD format before.  There is also a 1/8" stereo line input which allows you to digitize music from cassettes and other analog sources.

We just added another item from Ion Audio: The IDJ dual IPod DJ mixer.

It looks like Ion has picked a couple of winners here; you get a big bang for your buck since both items have excellent prices and can really deliver.

I get this question from time-to-time: What exactly is scratch armor protection on the Delkin Archival Gold CD-R and DVD-R discs?

Scratch Armor is a thin  protective extra coating Delkin puts on the top layer of some Archival Gold CD-R and DVD-R discs.

HERE IS WHAT DELKIN SAYS: 

"Scratch Armor's protective layer prevents scratches, scuffs, dirt, chemicals, and fingerprints; making it the best way to protect your precious memories, music, and important documents. The clear scratch resistant coating that comes on the Archival Gold media prevents damage from the daily grind that CD's and DVD's are faced with. Combined with Archival Gold's established reliability, Archival Gold with Scratch Armor also increases the quality and lifespan of your recordable media. Scratches, scuffs, dirt, chemicals, or fingerprints can leave your recordable media damaged beyond repair, but Scratch Armor insures the lifespan of your disc. Lasting 10 times longer than other recordable media, Scratch Armor's protective surface keeps your memories, music, and files safe. Multiple brands of recordable media manufactured by top competitors, and purchased at well-know mass merchandise chains, were subjected to rigorous laboratory testing in an environmental chamber to measure CD and DVD life expectancy. While Archival Gold media has consistently shown it can safely store your images for more than 300 years, popular competitors didn't make it past 6 months. Archival Gold CD-R's are made with a patented Phthalocyanine dye. When compared to Cyanine and Azo dyes found in the majority of CD-R's on the market, Phthalocyanine dye lasts significantly longer when subjected to the harmful effects of UV light, heat, and humidity. This combined with the non-corroding effects of gold make Archival Gold CD-R's the 300 year disc. Archival Gold DVD-R's have also been tested to last well over 100 years; both Archival Gold formats outlast their competitors by decades."

Scratch Armor protection goes above and beyond other archival gold media;  if your discs will be handled frequently and you want the absolute best protective coverage then the Delkin Archival Gold with SCRATCH ARMOR should be your choice.  Delkin offers their gold media with or without Scratch Armor; we stock only the discs with the extra coating.

Recording Speed Note:  The Delkin CD-R are rated 52X.  The Delkin DVD-R with Scratch Armor are rated 4X.

Did you know Encore Data Products sells replacement ink and ribbons for Primera and Rimage printers and duplicators? Our inventory is all new and is the "real stuff"; no generics or used refill cartridges. Just need one ink cartridge? No problem...order as little or as many as you need. As always free shipping can save you lots.

If you are looking for the Primera or Rimage hardware we have a wide selection too:

Primera offers the Bravo SE, Bravo II and Bravo PRO publishers along with the Accent II disc laminator.  Rimage has the 2000i, 360i and 480i units.  Very popular are the Rimage CD and DVD Media kits:  A kit containing CD or DVD media, Ribbons and/or ink for your Rimage machine. 

It's the end of the month and we are running an incredible sale on Glyph GT050 Quad 500GB and 750GB hard drives.

Prices are almost 50% off list!  Don't forget the free shipping!

Ports:

FireWire 400 (IEEE 1394a) - One 6-pin port

FireWire 800 (IEEE 1394b) - Two 9-pin ports

USB 2.0 Hi-speed (device-side) port

eSATA - One port

These unbelievable prices are online until tomorrow at 3:00 PM.  

Surface technology looks pretty darn cool...the Microsoft marketing department did a good job on their presentation at least. If you have not seen this technology check out the Microsoft site to "Experience Surface".

Also visit the Popular Mechanics behind-the-scenes first look with video.

As you can see there are thousands of possibilities here; time will tell how well this technology will translate into the workplace and our daily lives.  How long until you can play Blackjack in Vegas on one of these?  

One of our top pro A/V hard drive manufacturers was a sponsor at the recent "From Home to Studio" conference held at the world-renowned studio The Village Recorder in West Los Angeles, CA.  From what we hear and read it was a big success.  The conference was started by David Hampton, author of the book "So, You’re an Audio Engineer. . . Well, Here’s the Other Stuff You Need to Know".  The book is a must-read for anyone working on the recording side of the music industry.

The conference is a perfect fit for Avastor since their current product offerings are built with pro A/V in mind.  People outside of the recording industry might not yet know about Avastor but that will change soon as upcoming products will target multiple storage markets.  

From the Avastor site:  Avastor – offering a broad range of storage and integration solutions for the professional digital content creator. See why Avastor should be your storage supplier

For information on the conference and book visit www.soyoureanaudioengineer.com

We get questions every week from hard drive users wondering why they should spend extra on an A/V hard drive.  For those outside of the pro A/V industries the term "professional Audio/Video hard drive" might seem a little odd. A drive is a drive, right?  Not exactly...

Why spend extra when I can get a great deal on a brand X hard drive at my local chain electronics store?  That depends on what you are using the drive for.  If you are simply backing up your latest digital camera pics or your new MP3 purchases then a cheap USB drive will likely be fine.  Always have at least one copy of everything...drives can crash.

If you are using the drive for large data transfer applications like music, TV and film production don't use your budget cuts on storage.  Ask anyone who has worked on a few projects and odds are you'll hear horror stories of lost data, defective drives etc.  

Since Glyph Technologies is one of our top pro A/V drive lines I pulled some useful information from the Glyph site:

Internal power supplies and fans.

Glyph uses pro-quality internal power supplies in the GT Series, and sturdy IEC type connectors like those used on server-grade computer gear. To keep the drive mechanism cool, we use whisper-quiet fans that produce no more than 20 dBa noise. Some companies offer "fanless" drives. We believe "fanless" is not something to brag about. Without a fan, and in heavy-duty cycles like audio and video production, your drive has a higher likelihood of failing. There's just no other way to put it.

Warranty & Replacement

We offer what we call an Overnight Advance Replacement Policy, which basically states that if your GT Series hard drive fails within the first year of it's warranty, we will send you a replacement drive overnight. Now, who else can make that claim?

Unbeatable Support

We have the industry knowledge to keep up with today's computers and systems, and if you need to call Glyph Support, you get directly through to a tech who is prepared to help you. If your drive does need to be repaired, we have a 48-Hour in-house turnaround time on most repairs, which means that you'll be up and running again in no time.

No wall-warts in the GT Series.

Don'tcha just hate them? You can't just use any adapter with any drive -- you have to use the one that it came with. And if you lose it, you're out of luck. Big, bulky wall adapters take up more than their share of the power strip, not to mention that the fragile connector from the wart to the drive is anything but professional.

Quietmetal

Glyph's Quietmetal is our time-tested solution to quieting noisy hard drives. It's a tri-laminate material (two layers of metal separated by a polymer core) which mounts the disk mechanism to the chassis, and dampens disk vibration before it reaches the chassis, thereby reducing the overall noise of the hard drive system. And it's dead quiet. Really. Glyph is pleased to offer Seagate hard drive mechanisms in our hard drive products. Seagate has the best reputation and the lowest failure rates that we've seen from any disk manufacturer.

I hope this helps.  Definitely do not buy more storage than you need but be sure NOT to buy less. 

Finally we have more Panasonic LM-BE50DE rewritable 50GB blu-ray discs available again. This particular capacity in the rewritable format has been very hard to find but here at Encore Data Products we have stock today!

	Data Capacity		50GB 1
	Recording Speed		1x - 2x
	Disc Type (Layer)		Dual Layer