Tascam ATR-60-16
A one-inch sixteen-track that studios reportedly bought twice - once to track on, once to expand with.
Overview
Tascam's own advertising for the ATR-60-16 leaned on one observation: studios that already owned one tended to buy a second when it came time to expand, and the copy claimed they did so every time. That's marketing, not a verdict. It does show what Tascam thought it had. The machine was pitched as the flagship of the ATR-60 line, and the head technology was the center of the sales argument. The ad copy claimed the heads were accurate enough that final EQ decisions could be made in sync mode without rewinding or verifying against repro. It also claimed the deck's circuitry gave transparent punch-ins, with edits that left no audible seams. Whether that held up in a working room was for engineers to decide. It was at least a specific, testable claim, not vague "professional quality" language.
The tape format is the headline number: one-inch, sixteen tracks. That puts the ATR-60-16 in a particular niche — enough tracks to cut a full band without bouncing, on a tape width narrow enough that the per-track real estate is tight compared to a two-inch sixteen. Lock-up speed was another point Tascam pushed, claiming the transport locked fast enough that the limiting factor was whatever else was in the rack. Again: advertising. But the fact that Tascam chose to lead with sync-mode EQ accuracy and punch-in transparency suggests those were the two things the design was actually optimized around.
The line also included the ATR-60-8, a half-inch eight-track. Mix (July 1990, p.147) identified both as the flagships of the ATR-60 series and listed the ATR-60-16 at $15,999 against $6,000 for the eight-track version. If you needed sixteen tracks, you paid roughly two and a half times the eight-track money, and you committed to one-inch tape stock instead of half-inch.
For anyone shopping today, the ATR-60-16 shows up in period dealer classifieds at wildly different numbers depending on condition and timing. One Boston-area dealer listed a low-hours example at $11,000 in a used-specials ad, while the same dealer network's other listings carried the machine at $7,800. That spread is typical of pro tape decks. Head wear, transport condition, and whether the machine has been serviced recently move the price more than the model number does.
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