Dat - What is it?
Digital Audio Tape (Dat) was an audio recording and playback medium developed by Sony - introduced in 1987 - and was intended to be the successor to the audio cassette. It is somewhat similar in appearance but at 73 mm × 54 mm × 10.5 mm it is practically half the size; its height being comparable to an triple-A battery stood on end. Dat was a digital technology with excellent maximum potential as compared to a market Cd and was capable of making exquisite digital clones from a digital source unlike other standards of the day (Digital compact Cassette and MiniDisc) that used lossy compression.
Dat - The Technology
Very similar to video recording technology of the day, Dat used a rotating head with a helical scan to report data. The method of data warehouse beyond doubt worked as a safety part of sorts and prevented splicing tapes to edit them which was inherent on analog tapes, digital compact cassettes, and open reel digital tapes.
The Dat acceptable specified four sampling modes: 32 kHz at 12 bits, and 32 kHz, 44.1 kHz or 48 kHz at 16 bits. It was inherent to find non-standard recorders that allowed recording at 96 kHz and 24 bits (Hhs). Dat was unable to report long durations at the highest sample rates. The same tape at one rate could report for 6 hours and at an additional one rate a mere 90 minutes. Only so much tape can be packed into a Dat shell.
With the more involved rotary head the recorder mechanism was significantly more costly for a Dat recorder than for its stationary analog counterpart. Because of this Philips and Panasonic created the Digital compact Cassette (Dcc) a less impressive but beyond doubt enviable stationary head make that had decent potential at a reduced cost. It was no match for the Dat because of its required lossy compression but comprehensive it did a good job and proved a static head could be used for high potential digital recordings.
Dat - Was There Ever a Need?
Despite the Riaa's lawsuits and lobbying against Dat manufacturers it at last gained quite a following in the 1990's in the recording industry. Back in the 1990's a great many archival tapes were made using the Dat media. These archives are still ready today in some places but the machines are no longer produced so unless these archives are transferred to an additional one format it will come to be harder and harder with time to find archivists and audio transfer companies capable of transferring the media to a current format.
Because of Dats lossless encoding and high potential it induced no hiss or other electronic noise so became a favorite for creating exquisite expert copies. It is beyond doubt inherent with enough digital equipment to generate a complete digital chain between the microphone and the speakers on the Cd player. With digital mixers and other digital hardware, analog induced problems could be fully eradicated from the majority of the process.
Dat In The Home
Dat, for many reasons, never gained a great deal of popularity with the normal consumer. For the most part it was easier and less costly to go with the alternatives. It was favorite with some garage bands and boutique studios but the everyday Joe rarely saw one until their brief stint as sequential data back-up devices. Data backup tapes enjoyed a few years in the sun before being replaced by large and then ultra large external drives using the serial, parallel and later, Usb ports.
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