> Ya'll "fergive" me if this is a completely idiotic
> question.
>
> Is there any way to transfer audio DAT tapes directly onto
> a hard drive
> without going through the process of playing and recording
> in real time?
> I'm thinking of the data backup and storage drives here
> which might use
> stationary heads.  Hey!....Never hurts to ask.
>
> Martin

I use a Sony SDT-5000 DDS drive (internal scsi) to extract
DAT audio at 2x speed. I had to upgrade the firmware for the
drive to decode audio, and I use a command line (freeware)
program called DAT2WAV. The hardest part of setting up the
system for me was configuring the command lines so that the
program would detect the drive, but once I got it working it
worked really well.
Find DAT2WAV at: http://web.ncf.ca/aa571/dat2wav.htm

-Matt Sohn