A BRIEF HISTORY OF REALTIME
Extremely animated duplication industry pioneer reads Backlash Magazine while running Nirvana cassettes for Subpop Records, Year 1989 (note advanced "Princess" phone system, quarter-inch reel-to-reel and programable typewriter technology).
REALTIME CASSETTE DUPLICATION was founded by Philip "Pip" McCaslin in 1986. After searching in vain for a high-quality vendor for his own music projects, he setup the company to provide audiophile-quality tape duplication and related services to local musicians and independent record labels. Early clients included Subpop Records (Nirvana, Mudhoney, Soundgarden, Tad and just about every other Jack Endino effort), Green Monkey Records (Green Pajamas, Arms Akimbo, The Bombardiers, Prudence Dredge); and many other Pacific Northwest musicians/bands of the era (Sadhappy, Chuck Metcalf, Skin Yard, Mother Love Bone, Laura Love, Hammerbox, Amy Denio).
Scott and Pip with 120 Nakamichis By 1990 REALTIME was running the only 120-deck pro- Nakamichi cassette duplication system in Washington, cranking out over 2000 crispy hot chrome cassettes a day for all sorts of wide-eyed,innocent Northwest musicians. The business soon began to offer Compact Disc manufacturing services in addition to cassette duplication as demand for the five-inch disc blossomed.
By the mid 90's CD manufacturing had become the mainstay of the company, and REALTIME had developed a reputation for excellent quality, know-how, service and fair-dealing in an industry which oftentimes came up short in these categories.
Pip introducing new Toucans Steel Drum Band productOver the last half of the 90's decade Pip established REALTIME as one of the most prominent media duplication companies in the Northwest. Clients included Popllama Records (The Presidents of the USA, The Posies, Young Fresh Fellows, The Picketts, Fastbacks), DC Comics, Saltmine Creative, Realnetworks, Swamp Mama Johnson, Microsoft Corporation, Corbis Corporation, Fastrax, The Boeing Company, JZK Inc., KCTS, KING, Seattle Opera and Seattle Youth Symphony.
During the last year of the century the company phased-out its venerable realtime cassette duplication service to concentrate on short-run CDR & DVD manufacturing and the ever-popular CD & CD-ROM packages. REALTIME has continued to serve a vibrant niche market since the dawn of the new millennium, and has thrived as a truly local, independently-owned operation.
Pip at Realtime International Headquarters, 2011.
New century Command Center, Year 2000.