>That whole DAT-extraction thing seems very kludgey. Also, reports seem to
>indicate that few people get it working reliably and use it for large
>collections. I'm sure there are some >experts on-list who do this all the time,
>but that doesn't seem common. For a small or medium-sized collection (fewer than
>a few hundred DATs), I think it's much easier to just use >SPDIF and go
>real-time with somewhat common regular DAT machines. If you monitor in real
>time, you can clearly hear if there are the problems that plague some DATs,
>>uncorrectable errors, mutes, dropouts, etc.
>
>-- Tom Fine
Yes it is kludgey to get the unit to work, but once it is configured, it can
work like a charm. Any errors are easily viewable in a competent DAW such as
Wavelab. In such cases, I try a pass on the Sony R500. 9 times out of 10 it
works fine.
I must admit that this is a repurposing of already outmoded technology. It is
difficult to find the drives, and you have to seek out the software, plus
figuring out how to make it work.
But if your collection is very large, it may be worth looking into.
Of course, all this assumes a competent engineer, who can recognize errors when
they see them..
-Matt Sohn
|