Hi All,
   I'm a bit late in the game here in this DAT conversation but I figured I'd give you my experience
with the DDS transfer. I actually learned the method of DDS transfer from Dave Rice and through
a couple trial and error attempts, have finally locked into a pretty workable DDS transfer method.

Currently, I have set up and helped transfer over 400+ live recording that various bands made
during their tours in the 1990s. We have two DDS decks running and out of the 400+ DATS, we
were not able to transfer about 20 of them. The set up is actually pretty simplistic once you have
all the pieces. I have a folder where I was able to dig up the firmware update for the Sony DPS-
9000 deck to switch it to Audio mode. Then, I just connect it to old G4s with PCI cards and we're
ready to transfer away. Total cost is around $50 - $100. Aside from the cheap aspect of the
transfers, the .log and .txt that the DATxtract software gives you is an incredible boon to the
transfer of this material. Without having to listen to the entire tape, we can spot errors and
glitches in a simple txt readable document. Audio wise, we've done some A/B between a
commercial DAT deck and the files spit out from the DDS and they are virtually indistinguishable.
We haven't flipped the phase on the files, though, which we will be doing on the problem tapes
that we weren't able to transfer.

These files are eventually going to be released to the public online, so once all of the logistics of
that get figured out I can point anyone interested in examples of the DDS transfer.

Peter Oleksik
Media Archivist