Transfer DATs of music tracks to computer

Elmer_Lang

Elmer_Lang

Well-known member
Hi

I have 10 DATs (Digital Audio Tapes) of music recordings that I want to transfer to my mac to use in videos.

First off, aren't DATs only 2 tracks?

If so, is there a way to do it other than send to some transfer company or buying expensive equipment? Maybe an adaptor you can put in a normal cassette player so it can be played and digitally transferred like I've done with my regular cassettes using a Radio Shack CTR 120?

If not, any suggestions on what to do or where to go?
 
A DAT cassette is physically completely different than a "Compact Cassette". The two are in NO WAY compatible.

You need an actual DAT machine to play a DAT cassette. There are likely several people on this (and similar) forums who have working DAT machines.
 
AFAIK you'll need to buy, rent, or borrow a DAT recorder to play the tapes and capture them in real time. But before you go to the time and expense to do so, consider whether you can even legally use the music once it's transferred. If they're recordings of your own compositions no problem but if its copyright is owned by someone else, say it's a recording of you playing a popular song on the guitar, then you need to license it anyway before you can use it, so it might not be worth the trouble.
 
No there is no adapter that you can use. DAT records like a small VCR with a rotary head and a helical striping of the tape so you have to transfer from a DAT recorder. Yes they were two tracks, though there may be some rare oddball variation that has more. A similar device (DA-88) was an eight track digital tape. But those use Hi8 cassettes.

So your options are to find someone with a DAT deck and get them to transfer it, sent it to a transfer house, or buy a DAT and do it your self.

There are probably a number of us on this list who own DAT decks. I have a couple. I would even sell the small portable one if you like but I need to keep the rack beast since I have a fair amount of recordings on DAT.

You could also probably get one of us to do the transfer. But as much as I would love to take your money you can probably find someone local so you don't have to ship the tapes.

Also Those recordings are getting a bit old (for tape) so you may want to do a quick test on the lest important one and make sure you don't have to "bake" the tapes before you transfer. Especially if you haven't been careful with how you stored them. If they have been sitting for a decade with out being played you might just want to "bake" them as a general percussion.

You can probably find instructions on the web but "bake" does NOT mean putting them in the oven. Basically you are dehydrating them so the tape doesn't stick to itself. DAT will take longer to bake than 1/4" because it's closed, but it's also a more robust recording so you don't have to be quite as paranoid about stray magnetic fields. Probably a couple of days at 150 should be enough.
 
DAT never suffered from the problems old analogue tape did. The Baking solution was not applicable to every old tape - just those that used the dodgy formation which caused so much grief. Old DAT tapes just need to be dry - and stable - so being left somewhere warm for a couple of days to remove damp is usually enough. However - before you play them it's a good move to wind and rewind at least two or three times to even out the tension. Old DAT tapes are also very prone to shedding oxide, so proper cleaning internally will almost certainly be needed. Some machines have a visible readout of error correction per second - and a reading of 30 or 40 or so each second is not normally a worry - but if the oxide starts to shed, you'll see a big increase to maybe over a 1000 per second, and if it gets this bad, you are on borrowed time - expect a mute any second. The cure is a good clean of the tape path and the heads, as the gap either side of the rotary head tips fill up with crud, and start to lift the tape off the head surface. I have hundreds of old DAT tapes, and can never do more than 10 or so before the machine needs cleaning, and lots of edits to repair!

It was a dreadful format that just didn't have lifespan built in!

As for copyright - as it will be unlikely that these are commercial recordings, dubbing from one media to another is not a major concern, in terms of copyright theft. For those in some territories, perhaps you should take out a dubbing licence, but to actually do this in the UK for a small number of copies is rarely possible. In most cases, DAT was a working medium, rarely a public one.
 
paulears said:
D...
As for copyright - as it will be unlikely that these are commercial recordings, dubbing from one media to another is not a major concern, in terms of copyright theft. For those in some territories, perhaps you should take out a dubbing licence, but to actually do this in the UK for a small number of copies is rarely possible. In most cases, DAT was a working medium, rarely a public one.
Click to expand...
As you say, these likely aren't commercial recordings but even so, the OP said he wanted to transfer the tapes in order to use the music in his video soundtracks. Unless it's just dabbling for personal use that means he'll need a sync license from the music's publisher to use it unless he is the music's composer and lyricist or otherwise has come to own the copyright to the words and melody. Even if these as recordings of his own performances, unless he actually wrote the music he needs to license it from whoever owns it in order to use it in a video. If that's the case it may not be worth going through the hassle and expense of making the transfers.
 
DAT machines are fairly inexpensive if you look for a used on on eBay.
I was thinking of selling my Fostex D-5 (DAT machine) but it seemed not worth the trouble for the price it might bring.
 
paulears said:
DAT never suffered from the problems old analogue tape did. The Baking solution was not applicable to every old tape - just those that used the dodgy formation which caused so much grief. Old DAT tapes just need to be dry - and stable - so being left somewhere warm for a couple of days to remove damp is usually enough. However - before you play them it's a good move to wind and rewind at least two or three times to even out the tension. Old DAT tapes are also very prone to shedding oxide, so proper cleaning internally will almost certainly be needed. Some machines have a visible readout of error correction per second - and a reading of 30 or 40 or so each second is not normally a worry - but if the oxide starts to shed, you'll see a big increase to maybe over a 1000 per second, and if it gets this bad, you are on borrowed time - expect a mute any second. The cure is a good clean of the tape path and the heads, as the gap either side of the rotary head tips fill up with crud, and start to lift the tape off the head surface. I have hundreds of old DAT tapes, and can never do more than 10 or so before the machine needs cleaning, and lots of edits to repair!

It was a dreadful format that just didn't have lifespan built in!
Click to expand...

While it's true that the biggest problems are with some very specific brands from the 70's I have had tapes that predate that by a lot that were trash because of bad storage and needed baking to play. DAT generally has a more controlled wind so it's a bit less of an issue but it also has much more contact area with the head drum and any slight stickiness will end up in an "eaten" tape. Best case then is there is a section of tape that you can't transfer, worst case is you have to take the deck apart and the tape is trashed. with some surgery and a LOT of luck you may be able to get past the trash if the tape hasn't broken and salvage some of the rest of that tape. But if it breaks or you have to cut it to get it out of the machine you lose the tape, short of sending it to a transfer place that can open the case and reattach what's left.

DAT ruled FX recording for a decade or two and I have transfered thousands of DATs, anything that hasn't been played in ten plus years that you really want you should bake. It's not like analog where you are going to see an issue before it becomes catastrophic.

Dreadful is really a relative thing. Compared to Nagra open reel Digital? Or noisy Cassette? or maybe the have a glitch loose an hour MiniDisk? Or even open reel 1/4" tape. They all had their pluses and minuses. DAT was pretty reliable held a lot of recording time with no tape hiss and no noise reduction artifacts. And it was pretty cheap and very portable. Plus no generation loss.

Flash recorders and HD recorders beat DAT walking away but they were not an option (Portable was not available and rack mount was not affordable) when DAT was the standard.

Good point about cleaning. If you can get something like the panasonic 3800 it will give you an error count so you can gauge when things are getting problematic.
 
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