DAT Digital or Analog

Posted: Thu Jun 09, 2005 11:43 am

I need some help,
My question will take a little explaining, I have a motu HD 192 setup on a mac, if someone records there voice on a standard 44.1khz dat tape and sends it to me, would there be a difference in quality using a digital signal such as SPDIF, versus the analog xlr outputs?
Yes in theory the signal would not be identical not 0s and 1s, but could I get that exact same quality capturing with the motu 192?

Posted: Thu Jun 09, 2005 12:40 pm

Your question depends on too much information, likely unavailable. Quality of digital i/o, quality of analog i/o, including converter quality, etc.

SP/DIF is, generally, a lesser quality, rather consumer-oriented digital connection, possibly no better/worse than a good analog/converter connection. That said, almost no way to know until you just try them both. Keeping everything digital "should" be better. Hard to say, in this case...

Likely, the real quality determinent here will be the quality of the DAT recording itself. The method of getting it from machine to machine, with the stated options, may be of little consequence......

TG

Posted: Thu Jun 09, 2005 12:51 pm

Thanks for the reply, I don’t own a dat machine myself, and since I usually don’t use dat, probably just have it outsourced.

Thanks for your time though, as always it’s the quality of the recording and the details will follow

Posted: Fri Jun 10, 2005 8:48 am

If the question is which is better to load in your system, the digital spidf connection is the way to go. Going analog with a dat tape will add two more conversions goin into your daw i.e D to A then A to D, and the best convertor is no convertor. While there is error correction in a digital signal from a dat due to the tape, this same correction is fed to the dats convertors and can't be avoided. Dave Fries

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