[Dixielandjazz] FW: mp3, CD etc. and DAT

[Jim Kashishian]

Bill Gunter asked, referring to hard disc recording:
However, there is the problem of such technology being made compact and
portable so that recording in the field is feasible and I have zero idea of
what exists currently to deal with this issue. I would think that DAT is
rapidly becoming obsolete.


Da world goes 'round & 'round, Bill!  When portable DAT recorders became
available to on-site recording engineers (for film work), people were
reluctant to ditch their beloved analogue tape recorders, not trusting the
new fangled small tape & having their audio in a non-linear format. 

DAT can record, on a separate track, the time code which is slaved to the
cameras for automatic sync of picture & sound, so it was certainly a viable
replacement for the more cumbersome analogue recorders.

And, surprise, surprise, Hollywood was the last to make the changeover!
(The U.S. is always reluctant to change in the professional audio
world....curious, huh??)  The changeover will not be "rapid", Bill.  It is
still not fully accepted in Europe, so expect to see tape recording in
Hollywood for a good while.

Today, you can buy an 8 track hard disc field recorder from hhb, the same
crowd I mentioned on DJML yesterday.  Go again to
http://www.hhb.co.uk/hhb/usa/index.asp & click on PORTADRIVE to read all
about it if you're interested.  Being a professional recorded for film work,
they are way over the top for domestic music recording, and I only mention
it here as Bill asked.

I already mentioned I supply most of the film makers in Spain with their DAT
tapes (I handle the hhb brand), and although many are buying into the hard
disc recorder idea, most are still using their DAT recorders, as those
die-hards with their analogue tape recorders did when DAT was introduced.
Change comes slowly.

My only complaint with hard disc recorders in such a delicate area such as
film recording is, if there's a problem with a hard disc, you lose the whole
days audio, whereas on digital tape, a glitch usually is miliseconds, and
you can usually find a similar word or syllable to patch into the hole, or
bring the actor in for an overdub.  That is why the portable recorder
mentioned above records onto its hard disc & onto a DVD at the same time.
The DVD is a mix-down of the 8 tracks to 2, I believe, and they say it is to
give the director the instant chance to hear his day's audio takes already
mixed.  Just happens to be a nice little safety copy in case the hard disc
blows the days recording!

Any kind of misgivings like that, however, are completely frowned upon by
the hard disc advocates, and will brand the speaker as being "old", or old
fashioned....a death toll in the audio business!

I was the very first person to record audio to hard disc in all of Spain in
1987.  I was invited to huge meetings, carrying my two huge bricks that
amounted to a total of 700 megabytes of hard disc, to speak on the
technology.  At one meeting of audio experts where I felt completely out of
place, knowing that really I'm really just a trombonist that happened to be
in the right place at the right time, I was challenged by the expert on
digital tape recording at the meeting.  "Limited headroom, etc., etc.", said
he!  My answer, was "if you need to manipulate the audio, then hard disc is
the only answer".

That is the escence of the argument between hard disc & tape.  The fact that
tape is disappearing from the market will require everyone to end up on hd
only, obviously.  Doesn't mean that tape wasn't good, and didn't have a
place in the recording industry, though.

P.s. I just bought a memory stick the size of a thumb nail for my Sony
digital camera that has 1 GB of memory.....which is really weird when I
think about my two original recording "bricks"!  What a world we are living
in, the speed of the innovation!

Jim