Which Tascam DAT Deck?

sweetbeats

sweetbeats

Reel deep thoughts...
Sorry...its digital and not analog equipment (though it DOES have analog I/O :)), but I'd rather ask here...and, sorry, I believe this sort of question has been asked before and I'm too lazy to go searching.

Interested in a budget DAT deck.

Comfy with Tascam.

What's the one to get in terms of best converters and least reliability headaches?

Is the DA-30 okay? DA-20?
 
Why is it that you want a DAT deck? It's a pretty dead format and as far as I know, doesn't offer any sonic improvements over hard disc.

Since you're after one though, it seems that they don't go for very much second hand so I'd just try and get Tascam's best model. The DA40 looks good.
 
If I'm correct, the DA-88 isn't a stereo DAT deck, is it? I thought it was an 8-track recorder.

James K said:
Why is it that you want a DAT deck? It's a pretty dead format and as far as I know, doesn't offer any sonic improvements over hard disc.

Since you're after one though, it seems that they don't go for very much second hand so I'd just try and get Tascam's best model. The DA40 looks good.
Click to expand...
 
I had the DA-20 back in the day and loved it. It was 100% reliable and sounded great to me. I still think about trying to find another one used sometimes, just because I really enjoyed the machine. I liked the features on it, and I really liked the display and that it would show the name of the song it was playing. Not all of the machines did that. Anyway, I have no experience with the DA-30, so I can't comment.

The only other DAT machine I worked with was a Panasonic SV-3800.
http://www.carrigsound.com/Panasonic_DAT_JPEG.JPG

This one was also excellent and perfectly reliable in my experience.
 
FWIW dude at the Studio Maintenance Center that used to work on my decks offered the original DA30 was more solid, serviceable platform than the MKII .
I'm sort of in the opposite situation; Have the DA30, don't use it, but still what to do with a stack of masters?
 
Thanks, Beagle...that helps.

James K, I'm looking at a DAT deck because I have a PILE of DAT tapes and no way to play them. I did transfer them to CD-ROM years ago but in review something wasn't right with the clocking and I have (ARG!) pops and clicks. I've periodically thought of trying to find somebody locally from whom I can borrow a DAT deck but I was looking online recently and was pleasantly surprised by the prices. DA-40 is out of my price range. Note that I said "budget DAT deck". ;)

Steenamaroo, Beagle hit it on the head...I'm not looking for multitrack machine, but a stereo machine.
 
I have a couple of Sony DAT decks, the PCM2500 and the R500. The 2500 is pretty old, but it is built like a tank. Also, the balanced I/O can be bypassed, I've looked at the schematic and all it is is a +4/-10 set of converters. So you can run either. Neither of these accept an external clock, although the 2500 has a clock out. (just not clock in.) Supposedly the R500 has some magic 20bit filter algorithm thingy. I picked one up a few years ago, had like 1 hour on it or something.

****Note also that in my endless quest to do things the hardest way possible, I've picked up a computer DAT drive, that can be flashed for audio (there are only certain ones capable) and then used a piece of (now) freeware called dat2wav to extract the data and convert it to .wav files. It just extracts the data from the tape, and I use an old 486 machine to do the transfers. If you're up for that here is a list of drives. DAT FAQ I also have firmware on a CD or hard disk somewhere. (Eventually I will get organized, but I'm guessing it will come as part of my last rites....) The backstory is the SGI workstations were audio capable and the subcontracted with Seagate for an audio capable DAT drive. (The tapes are the same, just the computer backup ones tend to be longer)

If you're going to go digital to digital I would assume you'd want both the playback and the recorder to be on the same clock, rather then relying on the S/PDIF to send the clock signal (I'm guessing that may be what happened originally to get the pops/click?) I suppose you could use the 2500 and sync the recording machine (if what you're using accepts an external clock) to it. PM me if you want to borrow it, or if you want to try the dat2wav thingy. (I also have a spare drive) I also have an Opcode 64XTC and a PPS-100 if you want a dedicated clock.
 
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One more note on the older Sony, it has AES/EBU, SDIF, (sony proprietary) and S/PDIF I/O in addition to analog I/O. Not sure what you are copying to. Also, the DAT drives that are audio capable are all SCSI interface, so you'd also need a SCSI card if you went that route. (But the drives can be had pretty cheaply)
 
Don...hmmm...that might be the ticket. I'm into beating myself over the head and going the eclectic route.

My thought on the DAT deck was that I'd be going digital to digital via S/PDIF from the DAT machine to my Yamaha i88x interface and, if possible, slaving the DAT. If the DAT needed to be master so be it, the Yamy is happy either way. BUT...since all I'm really wanting to do is reconvert the DAT data to wav on the PC, doing it via a SCSI DAT data drive might be ideal. I'm certain the pops and clicks on my previous transfers owe their gratitude to a clocking issue. IIRC I had the borrowed DAT set as master at the time and I was using a DigiDesign AudioMedia III PCI card. I had it set to slave to the S/PDIF input jack, but I have a hunch this was a falacy because I think the software I was using was really clocking to the PC mobo. I know...bad. It was definitely a kludge...and I didn't know better past that top layer of info.

SO...PCI SCSI card...check...cheap enough. DAT drive...I'll have to look and see just how cheap they are. I have a couple laying around but my hunch is that they aren't audio capable...server backup drives that are no longer in use.

Cool. Thanks.
 
Cool, note that for the drives that don't come automatically with audio firmware, you have to flash the drive. This is easy enough to do, but requires you install the drive and run a DOS utility to flash the eeprom, and there are links on that page to all the firmware. It's a one shot affair too, and it does something to the SCSI ID numbers after that. I've done it though without issue on two drives. I do have a spare audio capable drive if you need it. (It's been sitting on a shelf since I flashed it about 5 years ago.)

The link I posted has a listing of drives that will work, and a pretty good explanation of HOWTO, and how the drive will identify on bootup if the firmware is correct. Also, dat2wav wants to run in a Win9x DOS window. I've not tried to run it from DOS itself. So you'll need a box w/ Win 98.

Ebay prices for drives are all over the map, with some vendors wanting 1990 MSRP pricing....Although one guy was selling one along with VDAT (which is like dat2wav but with a GUI front end, but the site was on compuserve Germany and is gone now -- I haven't tried to find the programmer, as he wanted something like 50 or 100 euros for it and dat2wav worked fine for what I was doing.)

FreeGeek is a possibility, but they don't seem to keep tape drives for the thrift store and they don't take requests. I've found one there in all these years, and it was broken. The only issue is the drives are all getting long int the tooth. I'll keep on the lookout though.

Also, the 2500 is available too.

Don
 
Another thing you might want to think about doing if you transfer from an audio dat machine is recording both spdif and analog at the same time. If the digital stream gets messed up again, you still have the analog as a backup. You would be hard pressed to tell the difference. Besides, if there is any read error, that will be part of the digital transfer and not the analog one.
 
PM'd ya back. I'm partial to the Adaptec cards, but I have spares as well. FreeGeek used to have quite a few, so I picked up some "spares"
 
jpmorris said:
Isn't windows 98 only able to access 512MB because they put the kernel's own memory arena at the 512MB mark?
Click to expand...

? I don't know if that would be a problem or not, if the OS can't address the additional memory, it should still be able to address the first 512 I'd think.
 
The 512mb "limitation" was only a recommendation. The os can see up to 1024mb. There is the possibility of instability. The only thing I've run into that threw a fuss is the defragmenter. I'm going to pop a 512mb stick in now to see if that allays that issue. I actually have it running with 2gb at the moment. Os can still only see 1gb...similar to running more than 4gb on a current 32-bit MS os...limit is somewhere between 3 and 3.5gb as far as what the os "sees". Certain resources may be addressing that unseen portion but the hard limit is 4.

Yeah...pretty pointless to stuff 2gb in there but I just had to see. It failed during install but with updates and mobo drivers in its working. I won't be permanently running more than 1gb in there and will scale to 512mb if needed.
 
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