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Reconsidering DATs DATs
(digital audio tapes) have caught a lot of flack over the past few years. As
random access media (the hard drive) becomes more ubiquitous and affordable
for music, digital audio tape seems to be going the way of the Dodo.
However, there may still be a few advantages to using DAT, even when
compared with computer media's major selling points: convenience,
reliability and quality. So if you're one of the many musicians whose DAT
machine is collecting dust, read on.
Convenience
Probably the biggest issue people have with DATs today is their slower,
manual-style interface. This is because the architecture is modeled after an
analog cassette: not necessarily cutting-edge. If you think about it,
though, this is as much a benefit as a liability. Has anyone ever
accidentally deleted a computer file? I have on numerous occasions, and when
I think about how it happened the answer is usually that I was too impulsive
to take a moment and think before acting. However, if I'd been forced to
take a tape out of its case, read the label and insert it into a machine
(not to mention flipping the copy-protection tab), that moment I didn't have
with my computer may have given me pause to think about what I was doing,
instead of just doing it. Basically, the "inconvenience" of physical media
puts in a dummy-proof layer that doesn't exist in the immediate world of
computers.
Reliability
Many critics claim that DAT mix-downs done years ago have been compromised
over time through digital dropouts. With tape, this occurs as the media
oxidizes and physically loses some of its information. While incidents like
this do occur, all of my DATs - from varying manufacturers, dating back to
1990 - are in good working condition. And they haven't spent the past 13
years in dry storage, either. They've moved across the country a few times
and spent most of their life in a shoebox in the garage! This doesn't mean
you should overlook digital audio tape's potential reliability issues, but
realize that all media - including the hard drive and (re)writable CD - is
susceptible to error. Just out of curiosity: does anyone have a hard drive
from 1990 that still works?
Quality
Probably the biggest issue that signaled the end for digital audio tape is
the lower resolution and fairly flat sound compared to modern, higher
resolution formats. While 16bit is not today's preferred flavor for
mix-down, it's fairly common knowledge that the sound quality early era DATs
had as much to do with the analog-to-digital converters as the bit rate and
resolution. As proof of this, I commonly receive current 16bit mixes at
ZenMastering which sound as good as - if not better than - other 24bit
files. This is because a media format only captures what an engineer and
producer has created. And if you know how to make a great recording, the bit
rate, resolution and mix-down format are all secondary issues.
Now I'm not suggesting people stop using computer media for audio mixes, or
that they go out and buy a new DAT machine. Tape-based media certainly has
more limitations than computer-based storage solutions. But realize that
along with those limitations come some inherent design advantages that don't
exist in a computer setup. In the ongoing quest to make life more
convenient, sometimes the baby is tossed out with the bath water.
© 2003
Paul Abbott. |
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