Why do I care about DAT?

Author
crabtwins
Max Output Level: -61 dBFS
  • Total Posts : 1460
  • Joined: 2005/03/03 19:20:59
  • Location: Milwaukee, WI
  • Status: offline
2005/06/06 20:07:49 (permalink)

Why do I care about DAT?

Digital Audio Tape? I know its a big deal but just tell me a few things.
WHy is it necessary?
When will I need it?
How would I get from a finished p5/Sonar song to DAT?

My intuition tells me DAT is a special format that is used in the recording industry?
Is that chaning given all this computer business?

Answer 1-I'll be happy
Answer 0 - I'll be remiss
Answer all - Thank you.

#1

3 Replies Related Threads

    woodamand
    Max Output Level: -77 dBFS
    • Total Posts : 673
    • Joined: 2003/11/10 15:56:37
    • Status: offline
    RE: Why do I care about DAT? 2005/06/06 20:16:15 (permalink)
    It used to be a big deal when everyone was using the Alesis ADAT machines in studios. Its short for Digital Audio Tape. It was going to be the next big thing until it was killed off by congress in a really dumb attempt to stop consumer tape piracy - this was before the advent of CD burners.
    Long story short, unless you want to dump your tracks to wav files and mix in a studio that has an ADAT, don't bother. Its just a relic now, at least as far as I know......
    Anyone else care to correct, please help the crabboy out.
    thx

    check out the new Brain Transfer Project CD
    http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/braintransfer
    #2
    blipp
    Max Output Level: -5 dBFS
    • Total Posts : 7006
    • Joined: 2004/11/22 17:43:50
    • Location: UK
    • Status: offline
    RE: Why do I care about DAT? 2005/06/06 20:26:21 (permalink)
    I used to have a couple of DAT machines in the past and the sound quality was great, but woodamand is correct, DAT is dead. Most studios deal in cdr's now from what i've read.
    #3
    Jim Wright
    Max Output Level: -66 dBFS
    • Total Posts : 1218
    • Joined: 2004/01/15 15:30:34
    • Status: offline
    RE: Why do I care about DAT? 2005/06/06 23:09:10 (permalink)
    DAT and ADAT are both digital audio tape formats, but have some differences.

    DAT is an international-standard stereo digital audio tape format, and different machines can record at 32KHz (for speech), 44.1K, 48K. Strictly 16 bits (at least with machines I used).

    ADAT is a proprietary Alesis digital audio tape format that could handle 8 tracks of 16-bit audio (later 20-bit) on a single digital video tape cassette (different cassette format than DAT). 48K was the stock sampling rate. There was a hotrod "super-mux" way to get 4 tracks of 96K sample rate audio, IIRC. ADAT machines were wildly popular in the 90's. ADAT is also the name of the proprietary Alesis optical digital format (8 channels, 48K nominal sample rate) that is still supported by many audio interfaces (RME, M-Audio, Edirol, Tascam, EMU, Frontier, Terratec ......)

    - Jim
    #4
    Jump to:
    © 2024 APG vNext Commercial Version 5.1