Re: [ARSCLIST] Risk assessment tool Q3--DAT

[Tom Fine <tflists@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Mike:

I would not consider DAT an archival storage method and I would recommend a direct-digital transfer 
of any DAT material onto hard drives (assuming active archiving) and/or optical media. Here are my 
issues with DATs:

1. drop a tape and watch out for data dropouts. Just like a U-Matic and to a lesser extent a VHS 
video cassette. Dropping a DAT can and usually does scramble the magnetic particles in one or more 
parts of the tape. Digital dropouts are about as graceful as video dropouts.
2. magnetic media, with actually quite dense storage-per-square-inch, subject to all the erasure and 
deterioration problems of other magnetic media. I'm not sure what happens to DATs as the signal 
fades -- has anyone had any experience with this?
3. most important -- DAT transports are either made no more or soon will be made no more. Unlike 
cassette decks and various common reel-to-reel and video formats, there were not a gazillion DAT 
machines made and sold, and most that are sitting unused out there are pretty well used up (think of 
radio station abuse, for instance). DAT machines are not serviceable like an old Ampex reel deck, 
not by a long shot. They are from what my friend Brian Roth calls the "chinette equipment" era --  
disposable modules, surface-mount parts, limited manufacturing runs, etc.

I look on DATs as a bridge technology, the first lowish-cost digital recording medium where an 
average joe with a grand or so could get a 2-track digital recording as good or better than a CD. 
Lots of small studios and record labels used them for mastering, particularly when we got up to 
around 1990 and that late 60's Ampex or Scully deck was getting very long in the tooth and 
sticky-shed was starting to become a widespread, recognized problem. And of course DATs caught on 
big-time in broadcasting.

All the DAT business I get is transferring to hard drives and/or CDR media. I must say, though, that 
most of the clients I've dealt with have been early recognizers that those boxes of DATs are no 
proper place to store anything of value and were able to get digital-perfect transfers to more 
modern storage/archive options. When the day comes I run across a problem DAT, I will gladly spread 
the love and farm the job out to someone.

Now, all that said, hopefully we can all have a discussion thread in 30 years about how your DATs 
are holding up vs. your archival CD's. All evidence favors CD's but we just don't know yet. Reality 
and time have a way of invalidating lab simulations.

-- Tom Fine

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Casey, Michael T" <micasey@xxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <ARSCLIST@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Tuesday, January 10, 2006 4:41 PM
Subject: [ARSCLIST] Risk assessment tool Q3--DAT


Hi,

Again, I very much appreciate the responses to my last two posts.

Here is the last set of questions, concerning DAT:

1. What problems are encountered in transferring DATs?

2. Have you noticed tape deterioration with this format?

3. Are there any brands that are more problematic than others?

4. Are there problems with thinner tapes (probably 120 minute or above)?

5. Playback compatibility problems between machines?

6. Have you noticed any age-related problems?

7. If you had to choose between preservation transfer of a DAT tape from
the mid-1990s, an open reel tape with sticky shed, an acetate-based open
reel tape from the late 1950s, or an audio cassette from the 1970s,
which would you choose and why?

[Assume that the content is different on each but each has been rated as
equivalent in value. Assume also that you are conducting a visual survey
of your collection and you have no further information on the individual
recording. Therefore, your choice is based solely on what is known about
how the format itself deteriorates and the risk that it represents, or
on factors relating to the obsolescence of the format.]


Thanks!

Mike

--------------
Mike Casey
Associate Director for Recording Services
Archives of Traditional Music
Indiana University

micasey@xxxxxxxxxxx
(812) 855-8090

Co-chair, ARSC Technical Committee