Re: [ARSCLIST] Glitchy dats

[David Lennick <dlennick@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

"Scott D. Smith" wrote:

> David,
>
> DAT's can be a nightmare. Not only have we encountered problems with
> tapes just a few years old, but have also had (mostly shell related)
> problems with new tapes from supposedly reputable manaufacturers.

Indeed..my most recent batch of Sony DDS tapes (I buy 'em from American Digital)
seem to have a shell design problem. They work fine in the Tascams but when I load
them into my older JVC to renumber tracks, I have to jiggle the housing a few times
or the machine will spit them out. Never had that happen with any other tapes.


> A few years ago, when transferring tapes for dailies on a big budget
> feature, we had some tapes come in that would come to an absolute stop
> when we attempted to play them. Of the 5 DAT recorders we had, only one
> (non-time code) machine would even rewind the tape! The production mixer
> lost a lot of sleep over it. Fortunately, he was still doing 1/4" backup.

I did 1/4" backup for a few years, when I was still encountering error problems
(which disappeared when I discovered DDS tapes which have always worked better for
me than dedicated audio DATs).

> I foresee DAT and DTRS tapes being the next big problem to come (not to
> mention the old PCM-F1 and X-86 tapes!). This is going to make analog
> tape problems look like a walk in the park in comparison.
>
> Scott D. Smith
>
> Chicago Audio Works, Inc.

Moral: copy everything! Incidentally, the person who sent me the problematic dats
for transferring confirms that he was aware of the situation and that a less than
perfect machine at a university radio station was used to make the recordings.
Transfers to CD are just wanted for reference since these programs won't be
broadcast again (if they are, one of you high-priced guys will get the call to
salvage these tapes).

dl