DAT is dead we are all recording on computers

[studiomprd]

" I always revered the Sound from '24' as outstanding "

A lot of us did...

"24" was frequently nominated for and winning the sound mixing awards.

" relied more on the boom sound than lavs."

a lot of us did, too

[Whit Norris]

Several years ago when I was driving through Nashville and stopped at Trew Audio, the service shop was using a Fostex PD 2 as a door stop. That was very funny.

Whit

[Jeff Wexler]

The Fostex PD-2 was the literal representation of equipment becoming a "door stop". We often use the phrase but seldom re-purpose the gear to actually do something useful.

[fatfatjames]

My HHB PDR100TC somehow does not hold the power even with external ac after about 5 mins it will shut down... i am wondering if i should get it fixed... My first gear that my mum help to pay for...

[Tom Duffy]

Apologies for the sales pitch, but:

There are basically no more rotary heads available for repairing DAT units, and parts to fix other borkeness usually comes from other donor machines.

If you're worried about whether to keep holding onto an old DAT unit just in case someone brings you a tape to get some audio off, TASCAM has recently started a DAT and DTRS to Broadcast wave file conversion service. Details on our website.

Tom

TASCAM.

[Marc Wielage]

Wow, that is helpful. I've actually been keeping around an old Sony PCM-7040 "just in case." Maybe I should give up and just sell it for peanuts on eBay (like anybody is buying old DAT machines these days).

Playing back old DAT tapes is really a lot of grief. I had to do that for a post client some years back -- more than 500 hours' worth of material -- and sometimes we'd go through 6 or 7 different machines to find one that was reasonably stable and dropout-free.

[tsmyles]

On behalf of the "senior" folk here, we would prefer "more experienced" or "legendary"..............yeah "legendary" is good.

Eric

Thank you, Eric.

"Damn hooligans!"

[Mirror]

HAHA! I have the LAST working DAT machine in the WORLD!!! I WILL MAKE MILLIONS WHEN ALL YOUR PUNY COMPUTERS BECOME INFECTED WITH VIRUSES!!!

...Now to find what door I left it at.

[Eric Toline]

HAHA! I have the LAST working DAT machine in the WORLD!!! I WILL MAKE MILLIONS WHEN ALL YOUR PUNY COMPUTERS BECOME INFECTED WITH VIRUSES!!!

...Now to find what door I left it at.

Not quite the last. I have an 18yo HHb TC Portadat that still works like dream.

Eric

[Ray Collins]

Coincidently I found a HHB battery today, long lost in the bottom of a case. The HHB is long gone, the batteries inside are probably DOA anybody want it before I chuck it?

[Eric Toline]

Yes Eric ... But, do you still have the receipt?

Ya know, for provenance?

No, I don't but I bet the dealer does. Got it from Flecher Chicago in the late fall of 1994. About $6k I think. It has the HP matrix & a full function remote control.

Eric

[Jim Gilchrist]

Eric, I have one of your remotes that I set up to control 2 HHB recorders.

Jim

[Eric Toline]

Eric, I have one of your remotes that I set up to control 2 HHB recorders.

Jim

I made one of those 2 machine remotes for Mark Ulano but I can't recall if it was for the HHb Portadat or the Fostex PD4. Those remotes are my pride & joy. They never fail to work.

Eric

[Jeff Wexler]

Those remotes have a lifetime guarantee I believe... not your lifetime, Eric's!

[Eric Toline]

Those remotes have a lifetime guarantee I believe... not your lifetime, Eric's!

Man speaks the truth. Fortunately DAT is as the thread title says "Dead". With almost 1,000 HHb & Fostex remotes sold I'd never live long enough to fix them all........OTOH maybe I will hang around just for the fun of annoying people.

Eric

[Jay Rose]

Well, I still have Otari and Fostex timecode DATs in my rack, just waiting for one of you guys to send me production sound for it. : )

...And a timecode DTRS, in case you want to record isos...

[Jeff Babb]

I took a PD4 with me on a SD552 job recently so I could set the TC on my SB3. Fortunately my boom op had an iPhone with the Denecke app so the PD4 stayed on the truck.

[Jeff Wexler]

Interesting, the use of the Fostex doorstop (PD-4) as a timecode generator --- that's a pretty big package to lug around just to have timecode.

[Jeff Babb]

Big TC is better than no TC.

Maybe one of you electronics gurus can dig the TC generator out of a PD4 and put it in a new interface. A little repurposing of the doorstops.

[soundperson]

I too still got my HHB TC 1000 Eric, I got from Jose Gonzales at Location Sound 1995 together with a PSC Intellislate.

Had it upgraded from HHB UK to its latest specs at that time. It works fine but the built-in speaker's level is very low

on playback, even though the volume control is set at max. :-)

[jozzafunk]

I bought a 7" reel to reel the other day........

[soundmanjohn]

I was lucky enough to tour the sound archive studios at The British Library last Friday and they have closets full of DAT machines, cassette machines, Beta & VHS machines for those early Sony PCM transfers, laser-disc and mini-disc players, vinyl disc players and assorted tape machines. They also have a really nice "pro" Edison cylinder reader that uses the tracking arm from an old Revox linear turntable along with a variable speed cylinder carrier. For tape and DAT archiving, they have special software that allows four items to be digitized simultaneously, with logging for any detectable errors. There are boat-loads of Studer and Revox tape machines for the pro reel-to-reel stuff, as well. They maintain a stock of older rotary-head machines purchased from various places, including ebay, for the specific purpose of repairing the main transfer machines, which is a rolling process. When I visited, they were part-way through archiving 6,000 VHS tapes that had been used for off-air logging of BBC classical music programmes.

 

I still have reel-to-reel, cassette, MiniDisc and DAT machines and I'm currently archiving some old MD stuff that I found in the back of a drawer, gathering dust. A lot of dross, but some surprisingly good sounds that will go into the library and be useful in the future. As always, I find that I can re-create the location and circumstances of most of the recordings much more vividly by listening back to them, rather than looking at photographs.

 

Regards,

 

John

[Philip Perkins]

I still have a Fostex D10 that still works about as well as it ever did.  But it IS time to get anything I want off my DATs-- I was kind of amazed the D10 still worked well a few months ago.  When a client showed up with a DA88 DTRS tape to record to files I sent it to Tascam to transfer--I didn't trust my DA78 .    So I guess I can stop 2 doors.

 

philp

[chrisnewton]

I just copied a bunch of stuff from DAT, mostly personal archives, to my 744T and then to a backup harddrive. I was expecting the worst, but my HHB Portadat (and my ancient DA-P1 Tascam ) both worked flawlessly. I haven't touched either machine for at least 5 years, but they have been carefully stored. One of the tapes I copied was from 1997, the other from 2000. No problems at all. I'm keeping the data on a CF card also, for archival purposes. Over the years I had one or two problems (tape related) with the Tascam, but zero problems with the HHB. Certainly don't miss using them though.

 

Chris

[cmassey]

I think you are right on the price of the PortaDat Eric!  I paid $6K for mine, did the HP matrix update, used it about two years, and then sold it to a filmmaker in Philadelphia for $6K! 

 

Now that Sony MD walkman I still have on the shelf