Recently I was reviewing some WAV files that I created from DAT and noticed
a handful of glitches here and there that were clearly digital in origin,
rather than from the original analog tapes that had been transferred to DAT.
After doing a retake or two, I discovered that some glitches remained,
occurring in the same places on both the old and new WAV file, while others
were no longer there in the new one. So, since these errors didn't appear
random, it seemed to me they must be caused by physical blemishes on
particular spots on the tapes, rather than by a dirty head on the machine (a
Tascam DA-20 MKII). But after having made a few hundred hours of WAVs from
DATs, the glitch problem had only recently started showing up. The newer the
files, the more common the glitches. Anyway, long story short, I purchased a
DAT cleaning cassette just in case, ran it in the machine one time,
following the instructions exactly, and then actually had more glitches
showing up, even on tapes that had zero errors when I first did them. I did
a second cleaning run, found fewer glitches afterwards, but still more than
originally. Since running the cleaning cassette more than 2 or 3 times in a
short period is a bad idea, I'm told, does anyone have any suggestons on how
to address this kind of problem? Any input would be very helpful. Thanks
very much.



 
----------------------------
Brian Carpenter
Mellon Digital Audio Technician
 
American Philosophical Society
105 South Fifth Street
Philadelphia, PA 19106-3386
(215) 440-3418