DAT recording gear

[asands]

Hey everybody!

I find myself in this part of Talkbass which I've never been before..... Hard to stay outta the classifieds lol.

Anyway, I've got a friend who is giving me some DAT recording gear that is in nice shape but older obviously. I don't really have the time or drive to figure out how to run this stuff. He sent me a picture of it but I don't have it yet. It's a rack filled with a DAT recorder and what I assume is related items.

My question is, how many still use DAT stuff? Is it worth anything to sell or trade? I'm not posting a feeler to sell it, I am just wondering if this is even worth putting out there. Is there any sound advantage to DAT over current PC rigs? If it isn't worth anything I'll probably keep it with hopes of dusting it off in the future and figuring it out but there is gear I could use for my cover group now so trading or selling it would be ideal.

Just to clarify, the guy giving me this rig inherited it and has no musical inclination or idea what to do with it. I'm not just selling a gift for cash here lol.

Thoughts, questions, comments?????

 

[lavmonga]

I haven't used DAT stuff in 10 years.

 

[jbybj]

Using DATs will be more of a hassle than it's worth. Outdated, hard to get stock, poor shelf life, heads wear out, if they aren't already, limited to 16 bit, 48K. IMHO it's a boat anchor.

 

[audioglenn]

Well, it's nice of your friend to give you this equipment, but, I'll have to agree with the above posts. I'm a recording engineer and I have not used a DAT
recorder in over ten years. We have three DAT machines in a closet, not the control room. The only time I have had to use one of them is to transfer
somebody's old tape to a newer format. If you have a lot of clutter in your house, this will only add to it.

 

[tangentmusic]

Yep - DAT = Obsolete.

 

[jbybj]

We have three DAT machines in a closet, not the control room.

At my work the DAT machines are stored in a room on the shelf with the wire recorders. I kid you not.

 

[seamonkey]

I wouldn't waste my time, but I also wouldn't waste my time with an analog tape either.
If I recall, DAT had some copy protection scheme. Too political.

 

[T-Bird]

Hi.

Even though there's quite a few 19" 2 track DAT machines that many consider obsolete, the sentences like: "It's a rack filled with a DAT recorder and what I assume is related items" in these kinds of discussions IME usually means ADAT (or even ADAM ).

ADAT is very much used still in tracking duty, the gear can take a lot of abuse, the connectivity is great and the media is still available.

The machines are AFAIK plentiful and cheap, so if it's indeed ADAT, there's some monetary value but not much.
I'd pair one or four with a nice analogue console if someone offered me ADAT gear .

If it's ADAM (co-owned one back in the day), that's one hell of a piece of digital recording history but not much more.
Could be worth quite a bit as a backup/spares donor for someone who uses those machines or has a lot of old sessions tracked with it though.

Pics will reveal the value of that fine gift though .

Regards
Sam

 

[davy4575]

I havent recorded on DAT or ADAT for that matter in years, prob since 94 or so. The old adats were notorious peices of crapolla. I had to bring up some old DAT tapes to transfer masters off of them into a daw a while ago and it was an exercise in frustration. As it was, (it was the sony model that wouldnt transfer to the other sony model) I played it real time and ran it in the like we used to bounce tape....good times

 

[spaz21387]

if it matters I think nirvana recorded on DAT machines. Id say just get a cheap interface and a cheap program or free program like reaper

 

[davy4575]

Nirvana recorded on 2" tape, atleast from nevermind on....

 

[JACink]

Sorry ro add to the negativity, but I just trashed 4 DATs from a project that were upgraded to new stuff, if they were ADAT I would have probably kept them.

However, if you have no experience with recording, it's always fun to play with stuff like this, it makes you appreciate modern stuff so much more

 

[Timi]

ADAT is very much used still in tracking duty

Do you or people you know regularly make records on ADAT decks? Results matter more than gear of course but it's been so long since I've seen one or heard anyone talk about them (online or IRL), no way is it common anymore. Didn't think you could still get the tapes...

 

[T-Bird]

Hi.

Do you or people you know regularly make records on ADAT decks? Results matter more than gear of course but it's been so long since I've seen one or heard anyone talk about them (online or IRL), no way is it common anymore. Didn't think you could still get the tapes...

I actually personally skipped the whole ADAT as a recording medium, we were using that ADAM and a Fostex R16 R-R when I was a part of that studio I talked about.
The fellow I had the studio with, later bought another ADAM.
So he AFAIK then had the both ADAM machines that originally came to Finland in the late 80's .
But then some rather unfortunate things came up, and we parted in not so pleasant terms, so I don't know what he uses ATM.

I was then inactive on the recording circles for about a decade, and when I got back in mid 00's, the proverbial deck of cards was shuffled in a whole another way .

As far as I see it, and from what I've read online, the price of ADAT machines is so low nowadays that on the regions ADAT was popular, the old machines are still in use in budget studios.

For more than 16 track simultaneous recording/tracking, even the price of a ADAT system is hard to beat.
Not to mention the ease of use.

The editing (and re-recording) can then be done with the simplest DAW.

So IOW, "making records with ADAT" probably doesn't happen much, but tracking, yes.
AFAIK anyway.

Regards
Sam

 

[RDUB]

I still have a little portable 2 track DAT machine on a shelf somewhere in my studio. (Maybe I should say 'ex-studio'. The place is a torn apart shambles awaiting some new drywall, paint, and flooring. The way my schedule's been, it should be put back together sometime before the next millennium...)

I still have a stack of tapes there as well. I assume they'll be in about the same kind of shape as the box of cassettes hidden in there...

 

[EastCoastThump]

I have two ADATs and a DAT machine still stored in the studio, for the (exceedingly) rare job when I'll use them to transfer someone's project to DAW.

The DAT is still a reliable machine, but the ADATs are another story. Even 20 years ago, ADAT transports were well short of robust, and the tapes themselves were fragile. The last time I used the ADATs was a few years ago to transfer some '90s-era tapes to DAW, and some tapes couldn't be rescued. Any modern ADAT tracking would have to use ADAT-era tapes; and they're not vintage—they're just old and unreliable.

Honestly, I'll probably recycle the ADATs during my next studio gear purge. I've considered donating them to the local Music Resource Center (a non-profit that offers essentially free music and recording instruction to local kids to give them something productive to do after school), but I wouldn't want some disadvantaged kid to get turned off recording by having to struggle with those decks.

 

[bluesdogblues]

#My question is, how many still use DAT stuff?
#Is it worth anything to sell or trade?
#Is there any sound advantage to DAT over current PC rigs?

#Last time I used it was 1998. Since 2000 I transfer all my DAT digitally (to Hard Drives) and never look back. I think all people who ever been used DAT did the same.
#IDK, but it's only value now I think is it's history as an antique electronic gear, IDK anything about it's pricing or trade/sell/buy value.
#No Sound advantage over any decent PC DAW today.

 

[RDUB]

Yeah... One of those projects that'd be nice to do, but keeps being pushed back, is going through the DAT, cassette tape, and even non-reissued vinyl, and porting them over to digital. Some day!

 

[asands]

Well thanks for all the replies folks. I haven't been around as my first baby was born on Sunday. That excitement has kept me busy lol.

So what's on the rack is a Tascam DA-78R ( DTRS ?) and a Tascam DA-20 II. Also a Tascam cassette to cassette (Tascam 202 MK III) and an E-Mu Proteus 2000 which is a Midi controller/patch unit from what I can tell.

Needless to say I just threw it on Craigslist with a ton of nice Monster and Hosa cables and the rack for $100. Didn't expect to garner any interest but I've had 5 people say they wanna come buy it for full price. Guess I underpriced it lol. Oh well, it will pay for some of the baby related things I keep seeming to need.

Thanks for the info everyone. It all pretty much confirmed what I thought. I remembered seeing ADAT stuff in the 90s sold for crazy money but just like anything else electronic, seems to have gone by the wayside.

TB rocks!

 

[Roland GR 88]

Thanks for the pic - this would have been to die for around 1998 and cost upwards of 6k. Oh, how times have changed. I used this same set-up to transfer my cassettes to DAT for my uber-expensive DAT Walkman. Was working for a large retail chain at the time and we had free use of the gear. What you have there is a rack of the fastest depreciating products in recent memory. I own the EMU and it still does the job, worth $100 on its own (maybe) The rest are little more than parts that someone somewhere will need sometime.
Congratulations on being Dad !!