[ARSCLIST] extracting audio from 32kHz 12bit DAT tapes digitally

[Ganesh.Irelan@xxxxxxxx]

Thank you Karl and Dave for sharing this information!  I never knew that using a DAT drive was an option for extracting audio from DATs.  We are about to start a project transferring many hundreds of audio only DAT tapes for which there are no analog backups.  Using a DAT drive presents the option of doing this unattended at greater than 1x.  That is huge!

One question, what is the best software for doing this in Windows 2000 or XP?

Thanks again,
Kevin Irelan


-----Original Message-----
From: Dave Rice [mailto:dave@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]
Sent: Wednesday, July 18, 2007 4:49 PM
Subject: Re: extracting audio from 32kHz 12bit DAT tapes digitally


I didn't want to do an D-A-D conversion, whether the sound quality is  
good or not. A digital only workflow makes a better workflow since I  
don't need to determine audio quality, set levels, etc. Also some of  
the D-D workflows can happen at faster than real time and retrieve  
the metadata on the tape.

The problem I had was related to DATXtract software. It would give  
errors for long play 32kHz 12 bit recordings.
I have since installed ubuntu/linux onto my Mac, installed read_DAT  
and can now pull off 44.1/16, 48/16, AND 32/12.
It separates the files according to the start/stop markers (which  
running SPDIF out through audacity can't do).
And it generates detail files that provide the metadata of the tape  
including the recording time which is very helpful for cataloguing  
(with an d-a-d workflow this data is also lost or likely never  
identified).
Dave

David Rice
Archivist
Democracy Now!
87 Lafayette St.
New York, NY 10013
Phone: (212) 431-9090 x811
Fax: (212) 431-8858
Email: dave@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx