ok wtf is a dat recorder for??

[jiffy999]

I'm going insane looking at all this recording stuff. So what is with this dat thing? Is like a digital recorder or what? Please tell.

 

[riley357]

DAT is Digital Audio Tape. It's a format with some similarities to VHS.

Maybe you mean DAW- Digital Audio Workstation. That would be either a standalone like the Boss/Yamaha/Akai etc or PC/Mac-based hardware and software solutions to recording and editing audio.

Digital formats store the information as 1's and 0's as opposed to analog tape that stores the information magnetically and in a linear fashion. The advantage of digital formats is in editing and in the ability to create copies without hiss and other artifacts that are inherent in analog tape formats. Some of the disadvantages of digital audio are the need for DA/AD converters that can add their own artifacts to the digital recording, the lack of "tape saturation" that many people find to be a pleasing element of analog, and the need to dither bit depth and resolution when recording in anything other than 16bit/44.1k before burning to CD.

 

[dr.colossus]

my old band used datto back up the mixdown track from the reel to reel to the pc......i'm pretty sure its old technology now, i think there main purpose was to record the two-track mastertape in digital format, but know most people obtaian a hardcopy master through a c.d. burner


then again i might be wrong. this is only based on my extremly limited experience

 

[SPINSTERWUN]

What's up riley357? I haven't seen you for a while.

 

[drstawl]

They also come in handy as a very compact alternative for two track recording in remote locations.

 

[Freudian Slip]

I think the mini disc has replaced the dat for remote stereo recording. The price is so much better for pretty much the same results...??? The pro studios did use the dat's for some time for mix down to stereo though. I have a few adat's and dat's in the closet.


Happy new Year!!!!

Dave/F.S.

 

[drstawl]

The Mini Disc is a compressed format. DAT is uncompressed.

 

[Blue Bear Sound]

I think the mini disc has replaced the dat for remote stereo recording.

No - not for *serious* remote recording.

The price is so much better for pretty much the same results...???

Not the same results at all, not even close........ as the good doctor pointed out, MD is data-compressed using a lossy compression technique - meaning, a portion of the audio signal literally gets thrown away (the portion the algorithms calculate as being extraneous). DAT is exactly the same as a 16-bit/44.1khz CD-recording... New DAT units now handle 24-bit, although I believe their sampling rates still top out at 48Khz....

Bruce

 

[Freudian Slip]

Once again I have shown my ignorance

I did not know that. I have hears several mini-disc recordings and they sounded pretty good. But they were live so it is hard to tell what effect mic usage and placement had VS the unit it's self.

Learn something new every day.



F.S.

 

[Track Rat]

I have one of each (MD and DAT that is). The MD has, although subtle, a gritty halo of fuzz to the sound as compaired to the DAT which of course is basicly the same as CD.

 

[drstawl]

Same as a CD in that there's no codec to go through. But CD is defined at a 44.1KHz sample rate and DAT can use 48KHz. As our duck salesman from the North pointed out- they even have implementations at 24 bits now.

 

[Track Rat]

True. And no I don't want to buy a duck. How are you fixed for sheep Bruce?

 

[Blue Bear Sound]

I'm good for now! (but maybe in a couple more months - thanks TR!)