leftybassman392 Posted July 16, 2016 Share Posted July 16, 2016 I have a feeling something like this has been asked before, but does anybody know where I can get an old DAT master tape copied to CD? Doesn't need to be archive quality. TIA Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leonard Smalls Posted July 16, 2016 Share Posted July 16, 2016 Funnily enough, I used to work in sound transfer at the BBC... This chap looks cheap and seems to use quality kit - but I've never tried him! http://www.video99.co.uk/audio_transfers.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leftybassman392 Posted July 16, 2016 Author Share Posted July 16, 2016 Thanks for that. If I have to pay for it then this does indeed look reasonably priced, and having a banker is always handy. I guess I'm hoping that somebody still has an old DAT player they've never got round to selling... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tonyquipment Posted July 16, 2016 Share Posted July 16, 2016 Know anyone with a DAT player? Throw him a beer and play around with tapes 😁 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Sausage Posted July 16, 2016 Share Posted July 16, 2016 (edited) What kind of DAT, the ones like VHS or the smaller ones? Edited July 16, 2016 by Lord Sausage Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leftybassman392 Posted July 16, 2016 Author Share Posted July 16, 2016 (edited) [quote name='tonyquipment' timestamp='1468667727' post='3092504'] Know anyone with a DAT player? Throw him a beer and play around with tapes �� [/quote] That would be the plan, except that if I did then the job would probably already be done. Some kind of remuneration in cash or kind is pretty much a given - perhaps I should have made that a bit clearer... [quote name='Lord Sausage' timestamp='1468668534' post='3092508'] What kind of DAT, the ones like VHS or the smaller ones? [/quote] You're thinking of ADAT I suspect. It's the smaller one that looks (and works) a bit like a miniature cassette tape. Edited July 16, 2016 by leftybassman392 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Sausage Posted July 16, 2016 Share Posted July 16, 2016 [quote name='leftybassman392' timestamp='1468669132' post='3092514'] That would be the plan, except that if I did then the job would probably already be done. Some kind of remuneration in cash or kind is pretty much a given - perhaps I should have made that a bit clearer... You're thinking of ADAT I suspect. It's the smaller one that looks (and works) a bit like a miniature cassette tape. [/quote] Yeah, I have a DAT player then! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leftybassman392 Posted July 16, 2016 Author Share Posted July 16, 2016 (edited) [quote name='Lord Sausage' timestamp='1468669531' post='3092517'] Yeah, I have a DAT player then! [/quote] Well in that case... Would you be willing to help out? If so, where do you live? Oh, and can you confirm that you like beer? ETA: I should add that this is by way of insurance and may not actually be needed - the DAT is an old demo master tape that we did around 20 years ago and is with an old bandmate of mine who's trying to get a copy for posterity. He has terminal bowel cancer so I feel I owe it to him to get the job done if he has any problems with it. Edited July 16, 2016 by leftybassman392 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Sausage Posted July 16, 2016 Share Posted July 16, 2016 [quote name='leftybassman392' timestamp='1468670397' post='3092524'] Well in that case... Would you be willing to help out? If so, where do you live? Oh, and can you confirm that you like beer? [/quote] Yeah mate, I'll help. I live in the North West, near Wigan. I do like beer but prefer bourbon haha. You don't have to give me anything! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leftybassman392 Posted July 16, 2016 Author Share Posted July 16, 2016 [quote name='Lord Sausage' timestamp='1468670602' post='3092526'] Yeah mate, I'll help. I live in the North West, near Wigan. I do like beer but prefer bourbon haha. You don't have to give me anything! [/quote] Top man! Much appreciated. I did put a bit more info in the previous post - long story short it may not actually be needed but I'm just making sure I have a way of getting it done if I need to. Thanks muchly for the offer: I'll get back to you if I need to take it up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Sausage Posted July 16, 2016 Share Posted July 16, 2016 [quote name='leftybassman392' timestamp='1468671025' post='3092530'] Top man! Much appreciated. I did put a bit more info in the previous post - long story short it may not actually be needed but I'm just making sure I have a way of getting it done if I need to. Thanks muchly for the offer: I'll get back to you if I need to take it up. [/quote]No problem Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
timmo Posted July 16, 2016 Share Posted July 16, 2016 Not knowing anything about DAT, why did you choose to use it instead of VHS. I assume from what I have read, it is video. Was it a much better quality, and was it rare to use? No reason for asking, other than I have never heard of it, and obviously, as it is tape, I will never have cause to use it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Sausage Posted July 16, 2016 Share Posted July 16, 2016 (edited) [quote name='timmo' timestamp='1468687523' post='3092701'] Not knowing anything about DAT, why did you choose to use it instead of VHS. I assume from what I have read, it is video. Was it a much better quality, and was it rare to use? No reason for asking, other than I have never heard of it, and obviously, as it is tape, I will never have cause to use it. [/quote] Digital Audio Tape. It was like CD quality on tape. You would tend to mix down to them in studios so you could take good quality mixes home with you. Or even bounce tracks to them and then take em back to one or two and keep layering tracks etc. You could skip tracks v quickly. This will explain it more clearly https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Audio_Tape Edited July 16, 2016 by Lord Sausage Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NancyJohnson Posted July 17, 2016 Share Posted July 17, 2016 [quote name='timmo' timestamp='1468687523' post='3092701'] Not knowing anything about DAT, why did you choose to use it instead of VHS. I assume from what I have read, it is video. Was it a much better quality, and was it rare to use? No reason for asking, other than I have never heard of it, and obviously, as it is tape, I will never have cause to use it. [/quote] Just to throw something else in (and to confuse things further!) ADAT recorders used S-VHS tapes for multitracking. Unsure of the specifics, but one ADAT machine could record 6 or 8 tracks, you just added more machines to add more tracks. The machines wrote some kind of time coding to the S-VHS cassette so you linked up the machines, popped your tapes in and hit the sync button and the audio lined up. Clever really. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leftybassman392 Posted July 17, 2016 Author Share Posted July 17, 2016 (edited) My first studio setup was based on ADATs. They were 8-track recorders, and could indeed be sync'd up in banks. I had 2, but you could have up to 16 IIRC. The downside was that because they used S-VHS tapes they took a while to sync up (making them a bit laborious to use). Oh, and they were big, expensive, heavy and generated quite a lot of heat - the HD24 hard disc recorder that replaced them was a whole lot easier to use from every perspective. I actually still have some of my old S-VHS studio tapes (just for posterity these days of course since I have no way of being able to play them). ETA: The optical interface (commonly called a lightpipe) was invented by Alesis specifically for use with their ADAT machines. It is now the industry standard for optical interfacing. Although time code was embedded in the lightpipe signal (allowing machines to sync easily), transport syncing had to be done via a separate D-connector. Here's a link: [url="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ADAT_Lightpipe"]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ADAT_Lightpipe[/url] Edited July 17, 2016 by leftybassman392 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leonard Smalls Posted July 17, 2016 Share Posted July 17, 2016 Talking of clunky multi-track set-ups, when I was in Sound Transfer I was once given a 2" 24 track tape and a roll of 16mm film. The tape contained 8 different mixes (i.e. final, music and FX, dialogue etc), and the customer wanted 18x16mm magnetic film copies of mixes, plus 4 DAT and 5 1/4" tape copies of the final, plus 2 D3, a Beta SP and 10 VHS copies copies of the film and final mix... It took us 1/2 a day to set up and plug, but we ran it all in one with everything slaved to one of the Nagra T 1/4" recorders (due to their excellent time code generator and syncing properties). So when I pressed play/record on the Nagra, 4 other Nagras, plus 2x Sony and 2x Fostex DATs, an Otari 2", 19 Albrecht 16/35mm film recorders, 2 x Panasonic D3s and a Sony Beta Sp chugged into action automatically. The VHSs we had to start by hand! We were so pleased we permitted ourselves a number of pints of Fullers ESB that evening... (as we did most evenings!) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NancyJohnson Posted July 17, 2016 Share Posted July 17, 2016 I've got three 1" Ampex reels of demos I did years ago. I think they're 16 track. Could be more. No idea what's on them, they never got finished. P Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leftybassman392 Posted July 18, 2016 Author Share Posted July 18, 2016 (edited) [quote name='Leonard Smalls' timestamp='1468764702' post='3093158'] Talking of clunky multi-track set-ups, when I was in Sound Transfer I was once given a 2" 24 track tape and a roll of 16mm film. The tape contained 8 different mixes (i.e. final, music and FX, dialogue etc), and the customer wanted 18x16mm magnetic film copies of mixes, plus 4 DAT and 5 1/4" tape copies of the final, plus 2 D3, a Beta SP and 10 VHS copies copies of the film and final mix... It took us 1/2 a day to set up and plug, but we ran it all in one with everything slaved to one of the Nagra T 1/4" recorders (due to their excellent time code generator and syncing properties). So when I pressed play/record on the Nagra, 4 other Nagras, plus 2x Sony and 2x Fostex DATs, an Otari 2", 19 Albrecht 16/35mm film recorders, 2 x Panasonic D3s and a Sony Beta Sp chugged into action automatically. The VHSs we had to start by hand! We were so pleased we permitted ourselves a number of pints of Fullers ESB that evening... (as we did most evenings!) [/quote] Crikey! That has to count as some kind of record, surely? On the other hand, you probably wouldn't keep any records of recording records... Edited July 18, 2016 by leftybassman392 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leonard Smalls Posted July 18, 2016 Share Posted July 18, 2016 Not only that, but we didn't have a record-cutting lathe... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MacDaddy Posted July 18, 2016 Share Posted July 18, 2016 VHS? I remember we used to mix down on to Betamax. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
timmo Posted July 18, 2016 Share Posted July 18, 2016 Thanks for the replies. I now know what DAT, and ADAT is. Only around 20 years late Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ras52 Posted July 18, 2016 Share Posted July 18, 2016 [quote name='timmo' timestamp='1468858398' post='3093831'] Thanks for the replies. I now know what DAT, and ADAT is. Only around 20 years late [/quote] The contents of my various must-clear-that-out-sometime boxes include 1/4" tape reels, DAT tapes, Sony minidiscs, Iomega Zip drives (and the odd 3.5" floppy), plus VHS and Betamax video tapes - none of which I can play/read any more! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NancyJohnson Posted July 18, 2016 Share Posted July 18, 2016 I bloody loved minidisc. I suppose at the end of the day it was just a read/write disc system, but it just worked so well. I had a full sized Sony deck...lovely thing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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