Vintage DAT tapes

ginridge

New member
From 1990 through 1997 I hosted and co-produced a nationally syndicated performance radio show called Rural Route 3. This was recorded live with a studio audience featuring nationally known singer songwriters, folk and roots musicians and later edited down to a 1 hr show, syndicated through the NPR satellite feed. I currently have the only master DAT tapes of the series and would like to preserve them in a more permanent form, possibly by putting them into Pro tools.

I've played segments of one tape to assess the condition and it did have multiple moments of drop out, though most of the tape seemed ok. The tapes are 20 years old and I'm concerned about deterioration (though they were stored under decent conditions). Is there a proper protocol to observe when playing vintage DAT tapes? I don't want to risk damaging these. I assume I should forward to the end then re-wind but I'd appreciate any other thoughts folks might have. I know you can bake vintage reel to reel tape to stabilize it, but a DAT? I'm not so sure...

Thanks very much for any thoughts or advice.
 
I should also tell you I'll be playing the DATs on a Tascam DA-30 MK-II DAT recorder, all the DATS appear to be Sony Pro DAT Plus tape.
 
I have some really old DAT tapes in storage and when I play one all seem to play without a problem. They are stored on end not laying down in a temperature stable area, i.e not big temperature changes, away from any form of electrical fields.

Yes, at some point in the future they may not play, but the biggest problem I have had with any kind of drop out, or should I say digital glitches, is when they are played back on a different machine and the alignment is slightly out between the recording DAT machine and the play back DAT machine.

I should play them all into the computer and save them all, but I really don't have the time. We are talking years worth.

Cheers
Alan.
 
My experience with dat tapes is they need to be played in a compatible machine. On one machine they're fine, in another not so much.

Finicky bastards.

As to the baking, I've heard of NO dat tapes being victim of sticky shed syndrome.
 
I tried to copy all my DAT archive and my dropout rate was huge - I tried all the old tricks with the machine that had recorded these tapes (a Panasonic 3700). Nothing worked. I bought a second hand machine on ebay and bingo - all the tapes played fine and I got the job done, and sadly dumped my old 3700. DAT was always very finicky with machine alignment.
 
Hmm. It's been a while but these may have been recorded on a 3700 now that I think about it. I may try to track one down but I'll test a couple more to be sure.

Thanks everyone!
 
My first DAT was a Casio portable, cost a fortune at the time. My second was a Sony DTC (forgot the number), and my third was a TASCAM DA20.

The tapes done on the Casio and the Tascam always played no problem on anything and still do. The Sony tapes sometimes had problems on other machines, the Sony had problems from the start with jamming tapes, this was fixed but I think they stuffed the alignment, went back several times but was never right, kept sending me to a corner repair agent that had no idea. Funny the Sony played the other machines tapes fine, just not the other way round. I still have all 3 machines just in case, think of how much that cost when I bought them all new, I could sell them for about $20 each now, maybe LOL.

Alan.
 
My first DAT was a Casio portable, cost a fortune at the time. My second was a Sony DTC (forgot the number), and my third was a TASCAM DA20.
Thats funny
I started out with the casio portable too. Tapes done on that are still fine, but then it started eating tapes. Got retired and i got the Tascam DA 20 or DA 30 (don't remember which right now)

But that thing has been robust and flawless. Once I changed the belt but thats it.

Then I got a MKII version. Dont like that as much and it's more finicky.

The only other times I've had problems is with the more expensive Sony and Panasonic machines.

But the good old tascam still works fine to this day.
 
I have a Tascam DA-30 and a bunch of DAT. A bunch.

Some play fine; some do not. But it does not matter. Because the FIRST thing I did was to transfer them via the digital output on the DAT deck.

Well, okay, it wasn't the first thing. The first thing I did was to treat them like vinyl and just play them whenever I felt the need.
Then the second thing I did was to notice some dropout.
The third thing thing I did was to cease playing DATs and fire an emergency distress signal to my buds.
Finally, the fourth thing I did was to invite a friend over and set up a full transfer ordeal onto a RAID array.
That was... oh... fifteen? years ago?

Still play them from time to time (who has time?), and honestly haven't noticed any MORE drops. They don't seem to be degrading. But now I don't care if they do - at least not so much.

EQ
 
Vintage DAT tapes 2.0

Hi Folks,

I began this thread sometime ago and based on the comments below, was ablate locate one of the original SV 3700 DAT records the tapes were recorded and use it for playback. Things progressed very well until a few weeks ago. I hadn't done any transfers for quite a while and was asked to return the DAT to the place I borrowed it from (the original NPR station where we hosted the shows) to be re-inventoried. When I got it back, it immediately started acting up, eating tapes and jamming up. I made a point of forwarding and rewinding the tapes before hand to make sure they were tight, and that helped for a bit, but on one tape, the Head Cleaning light came on repeatedly then the machine stopped reading the tape. When I tried the same tape in a Tascam DAT player I have, it did the same thing, causing the machine to stop reading the tape. I was able to get the TASCAM playing again by first forward and re-winding the tape repeatedly to "clean off the heads" as suggested in an internet post. I was able to get the machine back to the station and they cleaned the heads, but According to their tech, the head cleaning light still comes on and off. He feels it's a tape shedding issue.

As I recall, discussion below suggested that DATs weren't prone to tape shedding. Can anyone shed any light on this or suggest a way forward? The tech is offering to send the head cleaning tape back with the machine, nut is concerned that it will abrade the heads.

Thanks very much!
 
I'd suggest getting the machine serviced. There could well be a rubber part that has reached the end of its life or something may need a little lubrication. I've not experienced and DAT tapes shedding and I transfer DAT's fairly regularly with a Pioneer 96KHz machine (which uses the same mechanism as the DA20).
 
I did take it back to the Chief Engineer at the radio station who did a manual head cleaning and check up. I assume he'd be checking for roller/belt issues etc but I'll make sure when I pick it back up.
 
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