Topic: Transfering DAT Collection to Hardrive/FLAC

[h2orush]

Greetings....

So, I recently dusted off my old DAT collection and am wanting to transfer everything to hardrive. I have about 600 or so DAT tapes, mostly Dead and JGB, but also some really nice stuff from DMB, Samples, Big Head Todd & others.... I was an active taper back "in the day", circa 1989-1995. My best stuff was JGB @ the Warfield from 92-94, all FOB with Neuman Km 54's.....I beleieve I have at least several shows that are not in circulation......

Some people here must have done this....Please forgive my "newbieness" here, as I have been out of this game for a long time.

Several questions on how to approach this, but I'll start here...

1) My only DAT player is a Denon DTR-80P. How do make a digital connection to my soundcard?

The only "digital out" on the Denon is a weird "mini to rca" digital cord that I dont have anymore..
 http://taperssection.com/index.php?topic=158763.0

Regardless, the only input on my soundcard is a mini plug. How do I ensure a digital connection to the soundcard? Am I losing alot if I just go "analog out" out the Denon into "analog in" on the Soundcard. I'm still trying to figure out what sounds card I actually have.

I am planning on usuing Audacity to run the tranfers, but open to suggestions.

Thanks for the help!

[greenone]

The DTR-80P cable sounds like it's going to be an obstacle...any taper buddies you can hit up for a loaner DAT deck? If so, I'd suggest borrowing one (or getting one cheap off eBay). I see a Tascam DA-20mkII or a Sony R300 for around $100 buy it now, but then you'd still need some way of going digital in, if you don't have a digital soundcard. Might be going beyond what you want to spend on this project.

That said, there are folks on here (myself included) who would gladly help transfer for you - twatts and boilerinthebasement come to mind as well...

[twatts (pants are so over-rated...)]

I'll gladly Transfer any Phish or related material for you, and return your DATs with DVDRs of the transferred music files...

Thanks,

Terry

[F.O.Bean]

I'll gladly Transfer any Phish or related material for you, and return your DATs with DVDRs of the transferred music files...

Thanks,

Terry

I have JMP w Fishman from moedown 2002 I might need transferred!

[h2orush]

What soundcard do I need for the digital transfer? Any suggestions?

[F.O.Bean]

I've always used an m audio audiophile. It's bit perfect

[keytohwy]

What soundcard do I need for the digital transfer? Any suggestions?

I had the DTR-80P and may still have that cable.  Are you in the Bay Area?

[keytohwy]

Also, what type of computer do you have?

[obaaron]

Greetings....

So, I recently dusted off my old DAT collection and am wanting to transfer everything to hardrive. I have about 600 or so DAT tapes, mostly Dead and JGB, but also some really nice stuff from DMB, Samples, Big Head Todd & others.... I was an active taper back "in the day", circa 1989-1995. My best stuff was JGB @ the Warfield from 92-94, all FOB with Neuman Km 54's.....I beleieve I have at least several shows that are not in circulation......

Some people here must have done this....Please forgive my "newbieness" here, as I have been out of this game for a long time.

Several questions on how to approach this, but I'll start here...

1) My only DAT player is a Denon DTR-80P. How do make a digital connection to my soundcard?

The only "digital out" on the Denon is a weird "mini to rca" digital cord that I dont have anymore..
 http://taperssection.com/index.php?topic=158763.0

Regardless, the only input on my soundcard is a mini plug. How do I ensure a digital connection to the soundcard? Am I losing alot if I just go "analog out" out the Denon into "analog in" on the Soundcard. I'm still trying to figure out what sounds card I actually have.

I am planning on usuing Audacity to run the tranfers, but open to suggestions.

Thanks for the help!

wow...would love to hear the neumann pulls love the KM54's!  The Vasseurs ran them at many a JGB show you had a set too?  damn!  Any chance you have 5/17 and 5/18 1994?  Got the AT 831 sources but would love a km54 pull of these great nights.

..and I agree on the m-audio audiophile 24/96 they are cheap and plentiful. You may just be able to pop it right in the PCI slot the current one is in depending how old your rig is.

[H₂O]

You may be better off getting a handheld recorder that has a spidif input then using a PC w/ soundcard.

A mAudio microtrack 2496 would work great and can handle upto 90meter tapes w/o running into the file split limitation of the device.

You can pick them up cheap on eBay.

Also you may want to consider buying a used full size deck then trying to get by on the Denon.  You can find used Sony PCM-r500's for around $150 shipped on eBay.

Full size decks especially the Sony A8,A9,2600,2800,r500,r700, 7040 will haves much better chance of reading tapes

[sspott]

I'm doing the same thing, trying my best to make my way through an enormous DAT collection [1k+], I was pretty lucky since I was able to do transfers without any real hardware cost, I still have my workhorse Fostex D5 -> Optical Cable -> (via Toslink) MacMini 1.83 GHz, Core 2 Duo, 2GB Memory (Snow Leopard 10.6.6), the key part to all of this is having a repeatable workflow... naming conventions, any mastering, source documentation, etc... having this stuff scripted *really* comes in handy.

I know *years* ago +sleepypedro had some batch files used in cooperation with some DDS drives to 'extract' the audio from the DAT's.  Gives me an excuse to reach out to Peter, does anyone else have a way of doing that (i.e. DAT2WAV, etc.)?

Also.... I'd be happy to do any Widespread Panic / Related DAT transfers if you need 'em.

[Rockinman59]

I convert all DAT's for dmb from many people (including here on TS) who have sent them to me over the past 4 years.  I've done about 100 DAT's so you can send me the dmb DAT's.  I have a DAT deck and record the DAT right onto Sound Forge on my pc.

Message me if you're interested


Tom

[keytohwy]

I'm doing the same thing, trying my best to make my way through an enormous DAT collection [1k+], I was pretty lucky since I was able to do transfers without any real hardware cost, I still have my workhorse Fostex D5 -> Optical Cable -> (via Toslink) MacMini 1.83 GHz, Core 2 Duo, 2GB Memory (Snow Leopard 10.6.6), the key part to all of this is having a repeatable workflow... naming conventions, any mastering, source documentation, etc... having this stuff scripted *really* comes in handy.

I know *years* ago +sleepypedro had some batch files used in cooperation with some DDS drives to 'extract' the audio from the DAT's.  Gives me an excuse to reach out to Peter, does anyone else have a way of doing that (i.e. DAT2WAV, etc.)?

Also.... I'd be happy to do any Widespread Panic / Related DAT transfers if you need 'em.

I used DATXtract on a Mac with great success.  It was a flashed Sony DDS drive > SCSI firewire adapter > Mac Pro.  I think it needs to be running 10.5 or earlier.

http://pdicamillo.org/~peter/datxtract/

[H₂O]

I xfer using following:
Sony pcm-7040 > AES > tascam hs-p82
Or
SGI Sony sdt-9000 dds > SCSI > DAT2wav (under winxp)

I have used DATXtract under osx 10.6 as well

I much prefer the dat2wav solution as it does some error correction but to really xfer dats you should have a couple of options

My xfer process is:
1. Xfer with dat2wav
2. If xfer clean and successful then done else
3. If dat is 44.1 or 48 kHz transfer with pcm-7040
4. If dat is 32 kHz try Sony dtc-a8 transfer

Out of the hundreds of tapes I have transferred only about 5% end up needing to be xfered with the 7040 or A8

[c.b.taper]

Greetings....

So, I recently dusted off my old DAT collection and am wanting to transfer everything to hardrive. I have about 600 or so DAT tapes, mostly Dead and JGB, but also some really nice stuff from DMB, Samples, Big Head Todd & others.... I was an active taper back "in the day", circa 1989-1995. My best stuff was JGB @ the Warfield from 92-94, all FOB with Neuman Km 54's.....I beleieve I have at least several shows that are not in circulation......

Some people here must have done this....Please forgive my "newbieness" here, as I have been out of this game for a long time.

Several questions on how to approach this, but I'll start here...

1) My only DAT player is a Denon DTR-80P. How do make a digital connection to my soundcard?

The only "digital out" on the Denon is a weird "mini to rca" digital cord that I dont have anymore..
 http://taperssection.com/index.php?topic=158763.0

Regardless, the only input on my soundcard is a mini plug. How do I ensure a digital connection to the soundcard? Am I losing alot if I just go "analog out" out the Denon into "analog in" on the Soundcard. I'm still trying to figure out what sounds card I actually have.

I am planning on usuing Audacity to run the tranfers, but open to suggestions.

Thanks for the help!
h20rush jgb tapes are to die for. u never called me back. rc