DAT playback issue- refresher course needed

voxguy wrote:

> Upon insertion of just about every previously recorded DAT, after a
> FFD/RWD packing and start
> from the beginning, after engaging play, deck will intermittently lose
> the A-time readout - or it drops
> in and out...as does playback audio...

Many DAT recordings are no longer playable without a whole lot of care
and rescue. If these are really important, I'd suggest looking around
for a tape recovery specialist who has DAT experience and spend the
bucks to get them transferred. This sort of job requires opening up the
recorder and fine-tuning the tension and alignment to the tape, and it
may be necessary to transfer it in sections and then edit the pieces
together. Needless to say, it ain't gonna come cheap, and also needless
to say, you probably aren't equipped to open up your player and start
tweaking it yourself.

If it's just curiosity driving you to play these recordings, put the
tapes back in the drawer and find something else to do.


--
If you e-mail me and it bounces, use your secret decoder ring and reach
me here:
double-m-eleven-double-zero at yahoo -- I'm really Mike Rivers
([email protected])

voxguy <[email protected]> wrote:
>Upon insertion of just about every previously recorded DAT, after a
>FFD/RWD packing and start
>from the beginning, after engaging play, deck will intermittently lose
>the A-time readout - or it drops
>in and out...as does playback audio...and in other cases will go into
>Cleaning mode for the duration
>of play mode with PB distortion hash accompanying. Used Cleaning DAT
>a couple of times but
>didn't resolve the issue.
>
>Tracking on new/clean dat so far seems to be okay on playback. Using
>DDS1s, Maxell 90s and BASF DDS1 90s. Is this machine likely
>
>Confused at the lack of clean PB/ digital recognition 'loss' with the
>previously recorded material vs.
>newly recorded stuff. So far at least one snapped/eaten tape
>encountered.

The machine is mechanically misaligned. It can record, but it is putting
the tracks in the wrong place. When you play it back, it's fine, but if
you play back on another machine with the tracks in the RIGHT place, it
pitches erros.

Likewise, tapes made on this machine won't play back on other machines, I
suspect.

>These tapes have been encased/stored properly and machine has had very
>little usage - in many years.
>
>Any advice appreciated,

Get the machine aligned. Re-align it once a year. If possible, get the
tech to come and do it on-site because with some of these machines (especially
the consumer models), they get knocked right out of alignment in shipping.
--scott
--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

On Jul 7, 7:25 pm, [email protected] (Scott Dorsey) wrote:
> voxguy <[email protected]> wrote:
> >Upon insertion of just about every previously recorded DAT, after a
> >FFD/RWD packing and start
> >from the beginning, after engaging play, deck will intermittently lose
> >the A-time readout - or it drops
> >in and out...as does playback audio...and in other cases will go into
> >Cleaning mode for the duration
> >of play mode with PB distortion hash accompanying. Used Cleaning DAT
> >a couple of times but
> >didn't resolve the issue.
>
> >Tracking on new/clean dat so far seems to be okay on playback. Using
> >DDS1s, Maxell 90s and BASF DDS1 90s. Is this machine likely
>
> >Confused at the lack of clean PB/ digital recognition 'loss' with the
> >previously recorded material vs.
> >newly recorded stuff. So far at least one snapped/eaten tape
> >encountered.
>
> The machine is mechanically misaligned. It can record, but it is putting
> the tracks in the wrong place. When you play it back, it's fine, but if
> you play back on another machine with the tracks in the RIGHT place, it
> pitches erros.
>
> Likewise, tapes made on this machine won't play back on other machines, I
> suspect.
>
> >These tapes have been encased/stored properly and machine has had very
> >little usage - in many years.
>
> >Any advice appreciated,
>
> Get the machine aligned. Re-align it once a year. If possible, get the
> tech to come and do it on-site because with some of these machines (especially
> the consumer models), they get knocked right out of alignment in shipping.
> --scott
> --
> "C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

Hmm. I have stuff that studios gave me DAT backups for from sessions
in like, 2002-2003... i gather a
whole lot of flaws were revealed in this format since the last time i
paid attention to tech news about this
medium(?)

Starting to question whether i should've even bothered shipping two
3700s out to be serviced. In the late 90s
through 2003-2004 I saved/archived hours of stuff to DAT...most
recorded on one of these two particular decks --

Should i anticipate problems with PB of any of my DATs after the decks
they were recorded on have been aligned/
cleaned? As i seem to recall, i was able to seamlessly playback DATs
recorded in either machine interchangeably
without issue. Sorry to drag it out but i'm curious... have DATs
been found to lose integrity or otherwise have a much
shorter shelf-life than was originally thought when this medium was
the standard (in my radio daze we certainly relied
heavily on em and i definitely know of stations still relying on them
for backups). Again, just curious.


Any event, Thanks for these replies.... 'seems like only
yesterday...." i was using DAT tapes pretty consistently with no issue
from
one machine to another.......time flies and all that crap.

voxguy <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>Hmm. I have stuff that studios gave me DAT backups for from sessions
>in like, 2002-2003... i gather a
>whole lot of flaws were revealed in this format since the last time i
>paid attention to tech news about this
>medium(?)

It's fine. It just needs to be regularly aligned, just like any other
mechanical system. You align the analogue machine every morning, so
having to ship the DAT deck out for an annual alignment is nothing in
comparison. Especially considering the whole mechanical nightmare that
is the helical scan system.

>Starting to question whether i should've even bothered shipping two
>3700s out to be serviced. In the late 90s
>through 2003-2004 I saved/archived hours of stuff to DAT...most
>recorded on one of these two particular decks --

The SV-3700 has one of the best transports built. However, the converters
are just godawful, and the interfaces are nonstandard and do not actually
meet AES/EBU specifications. They will usually work with most AES/EBU devices
but not always.

>Should i anticipate problems with PB of any of my DATs after the decks
>they were recorded on have been aligned/
>cleaned? As i seem to recall, i was able to seamlessly playback DATs
>recorded in either machine interchangeably
>without issue. Sorry to drag it out but i'm curious... have DATs
>been found to lose integrity or otherwise have a much
>shorter shelf-life than was originally thought when this medium was
>the standard (in my radio daze we certainly relied
>heavily on em and i definitely know of stations still relying on them
>for backups). Again, just curious.

I have actually found DAT tapes to be surprisingly reliable, especially
considering they are a helical scan system. Out of the archives, I have
found far, far fewer bad tapes than I have found bad CD-Rs of the same era.

>Any event, Thanks for these replies.... 'seems like only
>yesterday...." i was using DAT tapes pretty consistently with no issue
>from
>one machine to another.......time flies and all that crap.

As long as you keep everything regularly aligned, you should have no
interchange issues with DAT. The problem is that folks let machines get
out of alignment and they drift, and the nature of digital systems is that
they can drift an awful lot without anybody noticing... until suddenly they
drift too much and it doesn't work at all.
--scott
--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."