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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?

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TeddyG Thu, 06/09/2005 - 11:40

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

anonymous Fri, 06/10/2005 - 07:48

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 converter is no converter. While there is error correction in a digital signal from a dat due to the tape, this same correction is fed to the dats converters and can't be avoided. Dave Fries