Topic: Sony D8 bad audio trouble shooting question

[mblindsey]

I just pulled out some old DAT's (say 7-8 years old) and tried to transfer them.  Actually, I tried to play about 6 DAT's.  The sound was as if the recording was brickwalled/distorted.  I've listened to these before and they sounded fine (not in a several years, though).  Is there an easy way to determine if this is bad DAT or bad D8?  I'm leaning towards bad D8, but all the tapes are roughly the same age and have been stored together, so I can't rule out catastrophic failure for all of them.  Does the symptom described point to one or the other in your experience?

...to half answer my own question, I guess I could try to record/playback something new...but, the new DAT's I have were stored with the "recorded on" ones, so...

--Michael

[andromedanwarmachine]

Hi Michael,

DAT is a pretty stable format at that age. There are four layers to tape- anti-static backing, polyester base, base film treatment and magnetic layer. As "tape" deteriorates, the polyester base absorbs moisture from the environment and you get shedding of the top layer. In digital media this would eventually appear as block error rates which the machines error correction would be able to deal with until it became so bad it was unplayable altogether. Classic timescales for tape media stability are a couple of decades but it depends on environmental considerations also.
There are of course extreme circumstances- how does the tape look? and how was it stored? I've got the older D3 and tried to use it recently (have owned it 20 years) and it's had it!- now won't even eject. The sound you describe; is it like the audiable cue/review noise?

I would definitely try a new recording and see what happens although I've got to tell you I think it'll be the machine.

JimP

[H₂O]

I would bet it's the recorder and from what I am seeing lately on my machines it may be the pinch roller dried out (which will cause the tape to slip across the heads)

[andromedanwarmachine]

You know, in that respect, it might, (repeat) might, be worth an automotive product (available here in the UK anyway) made by Autoglym called Vinyl & Rubber care on the end of a cotton wool bud applied to the roller.
I've seen it work wonders on cracked rubber parts before- totally "removing" cracks and fissures from rubber seals..

JimP