Digital recording, mixing Need professional help.

I realy enjoyed reading these responces and I figured another sub-question in my own thread:

Why DATs arn't used in consumer media meaning why for instance there are no car DAT players or portable ones. Why there is no brand records sold on DATs such as on CDs or portable audio cassettes?

Once upon a time, our friends at the RIAA threatened to sue anyone who introduced a medium which could faithfully copy a CD... so, when DAT was being introduced it was greatly delayed because of fear of retaliation from the music industry. It was introduced with what is known as SCMS (Serial Copy Management System) as a compromise with the RIAA where only a single digital copy would be allowed on a consumer DAT. Professional machines were not restricted by the agreement with the RIAA. The first company to introduce a consumer DAT was Nakamichi with the 1000 but its cost was sky high (around $10K) and avoided problems with the RIAA. Eventually, the delay of DAT had killed its application as a consumer medium and became supported only in recording studios. CD-R followed close enough that it became the digital medium of choice for copying and we all know what has happened to the RIAA fears of piracy in the meantime.

For recording sessions, when doing a live 2 channel recording the CD-R is a very poor medium to use (dropouts, errors writing the CD-R, etc...). Therefore, DAT is very popular for this and has kept its foothold in studios and location recording. It is much cheaper to use than analog, much more robust than CD-R, and very convenient.

And to add to the above...I think it also became a victim of the constant format wars that plague the audio industry. At the time the DAT was being introduced (by Sony?? I'm not sure), Phillips was pushing their own digital cassette format. Besides that, Sony seemed to be pushing their own mini-disc format for many of the same consumer uses as the DAT. Who knows...it may have successfully replaced the cassette if all of the companies (record labels included) embraced it, but the recordable CD was inevitable and it's certainly more convenient for home users.

Thanks to Slartibartfast for the DAT bit rate info. I knew that Tascam (or Alesis?) came out with a 24/96 DAT a few years ago, but I wasn't sure what format the older DATs used.

And to Marakanetz...in the end it seems like the DAT has become one of the official replacements for the reel to reel recorder (though many people still prefer the analog feel and tape compression of a reel to reel recorder). Pros and enthusiasts use them to record live music...musicians used them for mix downs, and most studios, mastering houses, and CD duplicators accept them as a standard format. Many people have been slowly replacing them with CD burners and hard-drives for mix-downs, but they're still very useful for live recording.

Kudos..Would you guys do a series on digital recording and playback.... Sampling, jitter, aliasing, dynamic range, ect...the whole 44.1k yards. Just kidding... great posts folks.

I remain,

Nicely done! DAT101 course is almost complete. As to reproduce performance can DAT be better than CD-player or transport-DAC combo if used in the consumer media?