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Dissed On DAT: Did Anyone Here Ever Use Digital Audio Tape?
I have long been fascinated by DAT - digital audio tape. But I never actually got around to using it. I'm curious about how well it worked, how easy it was to find a track and whether anyone here ever bought into this short-lived digital format, a pre-cursor to the CD.
Was it easy to edit on? How was the sound? How long could a DAT run? I'm pretty sure they were expensive at a time when you could buy a Walkman and the cassette tapes used in them for just a few bucks. Is that why it never caught on?
I wish now I'd explored the format more. even if it was cost prohibitive for me at the time. Between vinyl, audio tape, CDs and .MP3s, it's kind of the forgotten child of audio recording.
The History Of The Digital Audio Tape Format: How Sony Paved The Way For Modern Music Production
- Chrisphen
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Re: Dissed On DAT: Did Anyone Here Ever Use Digital Audio Tape?
Another consumer format that was slain in the crib by the IP lobby. There was another digital tape format introduced later called DCC that also failed. Then Sony's Minidisc (crippled by their own company IP concerns).
- Jody Thornton
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Re: Dissed On DAT: Did Anyone Here Ever Use Digital Audio Tape?
When I had better hearing, I would compare 48 Khz DAT to DVD-Audio or SACD (2-channel), and 44.1 Khz DAT sounded like a CD to me. The only thing is the tape mechanism used a helical scan rotary head like a VCR did. Yikes! That's complicated.
DDS drives made use of DAT tapes for backup and I was really keen on that format for data use.
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Jody Thornton
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Re: Dissed On DAT: Did Anyone Here Ever Use Digital Audio Tape?
I actually used DAT quite a bit. The quality was really good, it was difficult to manipulate in terms of starting the audio at an exact point the same way you could with reel to reel. I still have some old DAT tapes and I've been looking for a cheap machine so that I can listen. So far I haven't had much luck.
- AspectRatio
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Re: Dissed On DAT: Did Anyone Here Ever Use Digital Audio Tape?
I've always been intrigued by this format, but have no first-hand experience with it. Interesting to hear some of the experiences here from industry folks.
The excellent "Techmoan" who covers audio formats, both popular and obscure, did a nice video summation of it:
There's this one as well from a different user:
Last edited by AspectRatio (May 8, 2021 6:36 pm)
- Chrisphen
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Re: Dissed On DAT: Did Anyone Here Ever Use Digital Audio Tape?
Jody Thornton wrote:
The only thing is the tape mechanism used a helical scan rotary head like a VCR did. Yikes! That's complicated.
That makes the used market for these products particularly scary, even if most were used in 'professional' environments.
- Fitz
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Re: Dissed On DAT: Did Anyone Here Ever Use Digital Audio Tape?
The only thing is the tape mechanism used a helical scan rotary head like a VCR did. Yikes! That's complicated.
That makes the used market for these products particularly scary, even if most were used in 'professional' environments.
Here is a digital tape recorder that I did not know existed until today. A digital VHS for audio, Released even before the CD. A bit perplexing as there were no other consumer digital sources for audio at the time:
Cool Airchecks and More:
- PaulR
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Re: Dissed On DAT: Did Anyone Here Ever Use Digital Audio Tape?
We used DAT for a brief period of time in the new CHAY-FM studios after seeing DAT tapes in use at CFQR-FM in Montreal. The quality was excellent but it was always difficult for the announcer to cue to the beginning of the song. Shortly after the brief DAT experiment we dumped all of our music on to DCS hard drives for playback.
Last edited by PaulR (May 14, 2021 11:22 am)