Topic: Are HD/Compact Flash recorders really this new??

[achalsey]

Obviously these seem to dominate over DAT now, but reading some of the intro stuff here, in '04 the 744 was just coming into play?  Edirol (or Roland, I don't know who owns who) was just coming out with their line of recorders?  The JB3 pretty much owned the market in the beginning of HD recorders?

I know nothing about the history and loyalty to DAT or mini disc recording, but I had no idea compact recorders were really coming into play only in the last 6 years.  I've read some DAT question boards, but would love to know why only now did HD recorders just blow up.  (BTW I'm assuming blinded loyalty/lack of vision because this is clearly a more cost and space effective means than DAT).

(and on a side note, with all this apple nonsense exploding in the same general time frame (with the iPod/iPhone), how have they not come up with a quality recording device?)

Edit: this question comes from reading the "TS knowledge base / archive" on recorders so a mod might want to update this.  When theres "not a lot known at this point," about Edirol's R1, and the R09 and HR are currently such a hit, might want to bump that and not DAT info.  Just saying.  Then again, I, like most beginners just go straight to asking questions and not looking around first, so I'm not really one to talk.  Constructive criticism? 

[John Willett]

HD recorders have been round a little while, Zaxcom started it all, followed by the HHB PortaDrive and the Aaton Cantar - but these were all very expensive machines.

I think the Fostex FR-2 was the very first 24/96 capable flash recorder around - certainly the first affordable one.

SD came along just after with the 744T and filled the gap with an affordable professional machine in a price bracket between the Fostex and the expensive HD machines.

The 744T was actually delayed by about a year - a friend of mine was a beta tester for SD and send the original 744T back in bits.  They addressed all the issues and the final unit was superb.  Good for SD to use good beta testers and fully action the results.

[runonce]

The JB3 was the one most tapers got their hands on first. Around 2002-3?

[Todd R]

The JB3 was the one most tapers got their hands on first. Around 2002-3?

That sounds right.  I was one of the earlier adopters IIRC.  Once I heard the JB3 could take a digital signal, I picked one up and starting using it alongside my DAT.

I'm just starting a process of transferring a bunch of archived shns on CDR back to hard drives.  I've got a show from 11/19/02 where I ran DAT, and one from 1/31/03 where I used a JB3.  So late 2002, early 2003 sounds about right for the JB3 coming into the hands of tapers.

EDIT:  Found another show from 12.19.02 taped on DAT, and shows on 1.17.03 and 1.18.03 taped on a JB3. 

[kleiner Rainer]

hmmm... good question... lets go back in history:

I just pulled out the August issue for 1994 of the german electronics magazine "Elrad". It contains a project of a digital audio I/O card for PCs, complete with drivers for Win 3.1 and NT. In the same issue are advertisements for harddisks: 540MB for 699DM (abt. 350 Euro), and a 1GB SCSI HD for 1499DM...

Back then, not every motherboard or harddisk could handle a 44.1kHz/16bit stereo data stream without dropouts.

And we are talking about desktop computers, not tiny portable battery-powered devices without moving parts!

In 1994, I already had my Teac DA-P 20 DAT recorder, but I could only dream of a digital audio workstation (and the necessary storage space in form of harddisks).

Portable digital recorders became feasible, when energy efficient PCMCIA harddisks with more than 540MB capacity became affordable. Up to that point, video tape, DAT and MiniDisc were the only options.


Greetings,

Rainer

[sunjan]

The JB3 broke the barriers, being the first affordable portable HD-based unit that could record uncompressed 16/44.1 without major issues.
The digi-in was a big thing, allowing it to be paired with better preamps, at a time where other recorders had poor quality AD and mic preamp.

Weighing the pros and cons, this was the tipping point for many DAT and MD tapers.

I remember Archos was also a contender at the time, but there were issues/glitches that Rockbox couldn't remediate.

Milestones:
1997-98 Zaxcom Deva
2000 PMD680  (mono)
2001 PMD690 (stereo)
2002 JB3 (announced in April, shipping in May/June: http://www.kurthanson.com/archive/news/041802/index.shtml)
2003 PMD670
2003 PDAudio
2003 FR-2
2004 SD744T
2004 R-1
2004 PMD660
2005 MT 24/96
...the list goes on.

I don't know much about the early history of lappy taping.
Like Rainer mentioned, decent PCMCIA sound cards popped up in 1997-99 (EMU8710, Vxpocket...). Paired up with an early Powerbook G3 Kanga or equivalent 1997 era Thinkpad it would have been a viable rig, at least in theory: http://lowendmac.com/pb2/kanga-powerbook-g3.html

I guess it was technically possible to lappy tape even earlier, but results would have been inconsistent (insufficient CPU speed/HD size), and field powering an issue. Maybe some of the pioneers here could tell more?

[stevetoney]

On the question of why Apple hasn't gotten into the flash recorder market, it seems to me that their business model and history focuses on the products with mass market appeal.  This is a pretty limited market so they're happy enough to let company's like Edirol and Tascam fight for the small (compared to the business Apple is after) revenues available in the flash recorder market.