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Gear / Technical Help => Ask The Tapers => Topic started by: Trey Batson on August 06, 2003, 05:02:59 PM

Title: Have you ever recorded over an already used DAT?
Post by: Trey Batson on August 06, 2003, 05:02:59 PM

I hope that makes sense, but I plan on patching at ABB on Saturday and I don't have any blank 90m dats.  I do have a 90m that a friend had recorded from SBD on but it came out horrible with clipping, etc.  Anyways, I was just wondering what the implications of doing this are.

Title: Re:Have you ever recorded over an already used DAT?
Post by: Simp-Dawg on August 06, 2003, 05:32:49 PM

yeah you should be fine with that

Title: Re:Have you ever recorded over an already used DAT?
Post by: super-phat-al on August 06, 2003, 06:34:14 PM

i have wondered the same thing.  How much quality if any is lost?

Title: Re:Have you ever recorded over an already used DAT?
Post by: EA on August 06, 2003, 07:16:05 PM

I've done it in a pinch before. The results depend a lot on the tape. If it's a fairly new tape that's been recorded on once and played back only once, you'll probably be just fine. If it's a 5 year old tape that's been listened to a million times, you're going to be more likely to have problems.

Title: Re:Have you ever recorded over an already used DAT?
Post by: Trey Batson on August 06, 2003, 09:05:54 PM

Here's what the oade.com faq says:

Quote

Is it okay to record over a DAT tape ?  

Yes. While a DAT machine does not erase the tape before re-recording, it does do a good job with this. When doing an alignment on a DAT machines record heads, you must use a fresh section of tape as the old signals are still present and can confuse the technician. We have never seen this cause a problem in playback. We do, however, recommend fresh tape for mastering applications, save the used tapes for dubs.

I remember reading this answer a while back but I was wondering if everyone else felt the same.

+T to all, thanks.