Hi All,
I wanted to echo the same experiences with some SONY DAT tapes & some
AMPEX brand. Only, I experienced the playability problems on Sony
machines, both 7030's & 7040's. Basically, the error rate would exceed
what the machine could handle. Most of the time, it was for the first
minute, or so, of the tape The (so called) high resolution formats were
another story. Very finicky. One word of caution: Learn to hear what a
good tape sounds like during the exercising process. If you happen to
run across a tape that has gone SSS (they do exist), you may ruin your
machine if you try to play it. You will, at least, wind up with a real
cleaning job.
FWIW: I lump ADAT's, DAT's, DA88's, etc. into a category known as
"Rotary Head Digital Audio." The DA88 format is also a long story unto
itself.
The rest of the advice that has been posted is spot on (IMHO).
Best,
Corey
Corey Bailey Audio Engineering
www.baileyzone.net
On 5/15/2020 2:53 PM, Gary A. Galo wrote:
> Over the many years I recorded concerts on DAT I used Maxell, BASF, Sony and TDK. The only problems I had were with a couple of Sony tapes in the old Panasonic SV-3700 machines. I never had an problems with Sony tapes in their own PCM-R500 machines. My practice was to always run two machines simultaneously, using two different brands of tape. That way, if I got a bad batch of tape, my butt would be covered. There are a couple of concerts I would have lost if I had not done this, and in each case it was Sony tape in a Panasonic machine. One of those was a Crane Wind Ensemble concert - there would have been a lot of unhappy people the next day if I had only run one machine. As it was, no one knew anything was wrong.
>
> When I scrapped DAT and began recording with Tascam DV-RA1000HD recorders, I still ran two machines at one. I have always believe that, with digital audio, redundancy is your best defense. It worked for me.
>
> Best,
> Gary
>
> Gary Galo
> Audio Engineer Emeritus
> The Crane School of Music
> SUNY at Potsdam, NY 13676
>
> "Great art presupposes the alert mind of the educated listener."
> Arnold Schoenberg
>
> "A true artist doesn't want to be admired, he wants to be believed."
> Igor Markevitch
>
> "If you design an audio system based on the premise that nothing is audible,
> on that system nothing will be audible."
> G. Galo
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Association for Recorded Sound Discussion List <[log in to unmask]> On Behalf Of Scott D. Smith
> Sent: Friday, May 15, 2020 5:42 PM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: [EXTERNAL] Re: [ARSCLIST] DAT collection
>
> This message did not originate from SUNY Potsdam or one of its trusted senders. Do not open attachments, click on links, or provide your credentials if the source is suspicious.
>
>
> Generally, the major manufacturers made pretty good tape. As pointed out by others, one of the biggest issues is poor storage, and not fully winding the tape to either the beginning or the end. And once the tape is damaged, that's pretty much the end of it.
>
> The only bad run we ever saw was around 1998 or so, when we did production dailies transfers for a major movie, and experienced a significant number of Ampex tapes with defective shell housings, which caused the tape to bind up and trigger the tension sensors on the deck.
> They changed brands quickly once we notified them of the problems, so I don't know how widespread it was.
>
> During the time period I did DAT recording for production sound, we used mostly BASF and Maxell tapes, along with some 3M and Fuji. The few problems I encountered during that period mostly related to the shell housings, as opposed to the tape itself.
>
> As you are probably aware, there can be a big difference between decks when it comes to compatibility, which is a whole different can of worms!
>
> --S
>
> Scott D.Smith CAS
> Chicago Audio Works, Inc.
>
>
> On 5/13/2020 8:51 AM, Shai Drori wrote:
>> Hi all
>> I have a collection of DAT tapes that I need to digitize that consists
>> of tapes from Ampex, Fuji, HHB, Maxell, and Sony. Has anyone run into
>> trouble with any of these in the past? It has been a few years since I
>> had such a collection and I do not want to ruin my PCM 7050 with a bad tape.
>>
>> Cheers
>> Shai Drori
>> Expert digitization services for Audio Video 3K scanning for film
>> 8mm-35mm Timeless Recordings Music Label www.audiovideofilm.com
>> [log in to unmask]
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