Ripping from audio DAT tapes

2003-09-12 17:25:02

Hi everybody,

I handle content for a big classical music website.

Normally, we get labels to send us CDs, and I rip them, hundreds at a time, using a Plextor SCSI drive.

We're about to get a bunch of catalogue in on DAT tapes. While I have used DAT tapes before in a studio, I've no idea what the best way of digitising them is.

Does anybody have any suggestions? Is there software/hardware available that will let me put the DAT tapes in a drive in the computer and turn them into WAVs, or should I copy them onto CD first?

If this is the case, what's the most effective way of going about that without using too much studio audio equipment?

Many thanks for your assistance,

Jack

Ripping from audio DAT tapes

Reply #1 – 2003-09-12 18:13:52

The way that I rip DATs is to use the digital output of my DAT player into the digital input of my M-Audio 2496 card. Then I use Cool Edit software or dBpowerAMP to rip the audio. The disadvantage of this is that it is only 1x realtime and I have to do the track breaks manually.

If you copied the DATs to CD-Rs using a stand-alone recorder you might get the track breaks included. Then you could rip these normally. Make sure you have a newer CD recorder that does not resample (i.e. HDCD compatible).

You don't mention if the DATs are recorded at 44.1 or 48 kHz. If they are meant to be CD masters they are probably 44.1, but if they are 48 then you don't want to record then directly to CD-Rs because you won't be sure of the conversion quality.

Hope this helps...

Ripping from audio DAT tapes

Reply #2 – 2003-09-12 18:29:12

Thanks,

That's certainly one way to do it, and that'll be what we have to do if we can't find another way. There's going to be hundreds of these DATs, so if anybody else has a direct way, I'd love to hear from them.

Jack

Ripping from audio DAT tapes

Reply #3 – 2003-09-12 18:49:25

AFAIK, there is no way of speeding up data transfer from DAT to PC ... so you will most likely be stuck to 1x realtime recording.

The way I do it is just like bryant stated ... record via SPDIF In of a non-resampling soundcard, use some wav editor like cool edit for cutting & trimming and use a good resampler (like SSRC) if your DAT recordings are 48 or 32 kHz ... the resulting wav can be burned with any burning suite (I prefer Feurio! as an audio specialist) ...

DAT archiving can be fun, though (especially if you don't know exactly what kind of music is on the original tapes, as I experienced  )

Ripping from audio DAT tapes

Reply #4 – 2003-09-12 20:03:18

You might want to check out this page on audio-compatible PC-based DAT drives.

    - M.

Ripping from audio DAT tapes

Reply #5 – 2003-09-16 21:11:48

If you come across SPDIF recording, never forget to manually slave your soundcard to the SPDIF input before starting to record (in the soundcards options).

Anyway, DAT is a very unreliable media. There are often some strong glitches in the audio on weak spots of the tape. I'm afraid that the only way to check is to listen to the whole audio. Unless there are some professional DAT decks that display read errors.

Ripping from audio DAT tapes

Reply #6 – 2003-09-16 21:49:37

I wouldn't go so far as to say that DAT is a very unreliable media, but there are definitely better options available today.  DAT served admirably for 10-15 years
as the defacto digital medium of choice.  May it R.I.P.

This month's Mix magazine has a good article by Eddie Ciletti on DAT archiving issues.

The Fostex D-5 will report errors on playback and the Sony PCM-2700 & 2800 DAT can be modified to give the same info.

I've been doing a good bit of transfers lately and here's how I do it:

Sony PCM-R300 DAT SPDIF out > Echo Mia Card (PureWave mode) (Input clock on SPDIF)

Record in Samplitude 16 bit/44.1kHz or 48kHz depending on the source (no resampling) and save as Windows PCM .wav files.

If I'm going to do any editing or mastering, I then open a new VIP (32 bit float/96kHz) and import the .wavs.  Any processing at that point is done at very high quality and I can resample/dither to get the target output I need.

It's slow during the original transfer but it gives you time to listen and get an idea on how you're going to approach any editing or sweeting.

Good luck.

Ripping from audio DAT tapes

Reply #7 – 2003-09-17 17:14:36

Thanks for all the advice, everybody. Ripping from DAT looks like the sort of thing we're not really equipped to do here, so the record label in question is going to master them onto CDs, and then we'll rip those. They were going to have to make the CDs anyway, it seems.

I'm very grateful for all the advice I've received on this forum, so thank you all.

Jack