I have some audio that I have recorded on DAT media using a Sony PCM-M1
Digital Audio Tape (DAT) and an external microphone. I would like to
transfer these files over to my PC harddrive. The only way that I can
do this is to re-play the tape into my computer using the microphone
port. Is there a way to transfer the files over directly?

wrote:

I have some audio that I have recorded on DAT media using a Sony PCM-M1
Digital Audio Tape (DAT) and an external microphone. I would like to
transfer these files over to my PC harddrive. The only way that I can
do this is to re-play the tape into my computer using the microphone
port.

If your must transfer in the analog domain you should at least use a line
input rather than a mic input.

Is there a way to transfer the files over directly?

Assuming that the PCM-M1 provides an S/PDIF or AES digital output and your
computer provides the corresponding input, you would do better to use these
to accomplish a transfer in the digital domain.

There used to be 4 mm tape drives used for data backup that could also
access audio DAT data using the computer's file system. I don't believe
that these are available any longer.

If the data is important to you and you cannot figure out a way to get it
tinto your computer than by analog trnsfer then you may wish to book a few
hours in a local studio and have them transfer the data to a CD that you
could then almost certainly use on any reasonably modern computer.

--
================================================== ======================
Michael Kesti | "And like, one and one don't make
| two, one and one make one."
mrkesti at comcast dot net | - The Who, Bargain

If this is non critical speech you can go the sound card line input
analog transfer route. If you need quality
I would seek out a studio to do it for you. Otherwise you're in for
some S/PDIF interface purchases & experiments.

Kevin T

In article .com,
wrote:
I have some audio that I have recorded on DAT media using a Sony PCM-M1
Digital Audio Tape (DAT) and an external microphone. I would like to
transfer these files over to my PC harddrive. The only way that I can
do this is to re-play the tape into my computer using the microphone
port. Is there a way to transfer the files over directly?

Sure. You can get an S-PDIF card for your PC and use a DAT machine with
an S-PDIF port to play them digitally into the computer.

The M1 can be set up to have an S-PDIF output if you use an overpriced
and unreliable special cord. Oade Brothers might still have them in
stock.
--scott

--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

In article .com writes:

I have some audio that I have recorded on DAT media using a Sony PCM-M1
Digital Audio Tape (DAT) and an external microphone. I would like to
transfer these files over to my PC harddrive.

There are no files on a DAT tape, at least not in the same sense as
computer files. You can, however, transfer the RECORDINGS.

The only way that I can
do this is to re-play the tape into my computer using the microphone
port. Is there a way to transfer the files over directly?

THat's about as direct as you're going to get, except that the
"microphone port" on every computer is about as low quality audio
garbage as you'll find, plus you're probably overloading it. Does your
computer have a line input jack? At least use that and give the audio
that's there a half a chance. A better sound card will make a better
transfer, but no matter what you do, it will be in real time.

The PCM-M1 has a digital port, but it's weird. Even if you had (or
bought, or borrowed) a sound card with a digital input, you'll nedd a
hard-to-find adapter cable to get the digital audio stream out of the
M1, and you'll still be making a real time transfer.

If your computer doesn't have a line input, find someone who has a
better setup than you, lend them the tape and player if they don't
have anything to play a DAT on, and get it transferred. If this is a
large project, like you have several cartons of DAT tape, then it's
worth investing in new hardware yourself.



--
I'm really Mike Rivers )
However, until the spam goes away or Hell freezes over,
lots of IP addresses are blocked from this system. If
you e-mail me and it bounces, use your secret decoder ring
and reach me he double-m-eleven-double-zero at yahoo

On 19 Aug 2005 08:21:24 -0700, wrote:

I have some audio that I have recorded on DAT media using a Sony PCM-M1
Digital Audio Tape (DAT) and an external microphone. I would like to
transfer these files over to my PC harddrive. The only way that I can
do this is to re-play the tape into my computer using the microphone
port. Is there a way to transfer the files over directly?

They aren't files in that sense. You'll have to play the tape. But
not, please into a mic input! If your soundcard has Line In, this
will give adequate quality if levels match. But I expect your DAT
machine has a digital output? A sound card with a digital input
isn't expensive. Why not do the job properly? Or, if this is a
one-off, farm the job out. There must be a kid locally who dabbles in
home-studio stuff?

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On 2005-08-19 (ScottDorsey) said:
Sure. You can get an S-PDIF card for your PC
and use a DAT machine with an S-PDIF port to play them digitally
into the computer. The M1 can be set up to have an S-PDIF output if
you use an overpriced and unreliable special cord. Oade Brothers
might still have them in stock.
WHat about the Zefiro cards? I've been thinking about getting one of
those, the za2, older technology, had spdif ports, even had drivers
for old dos boxes as well as linux iirc.



Richard Webb,
Electric SPider Productions, New Orleans, La.
REplace anything before the @ symbol with elspider for real email

--

wrote:
On 2005-08-19 (ScottDorsey) said:
Sure. You can get an S-PDIF card for your PC
and use a DAT machine with an S-PDIF port to play them digitally
into the computer. The M1 can be set up to have an S-PDIF output if
you use an overpriced and unreliable special cord. Oade Brothers
might still have them in stock.

WHat about the Zefiro cards? I've been thinking about getting one of
those, the za2, older technology, had spdif ports, even had drivers
for old dos boxes as well as linux iirc.

If you have an old motherboard with a slot that will still take it, sure.
It was a great design and I think it's a real shame Greg decided not to
update the thing for modern PCI. I think he is designing electric car
control logic today and has dropped audio completely.
--scott

--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

wrote in message
oups.com...
I have some audio that I have recorded on DAT media using a Sony PCM-M1
Digital Audio Tape (DAT) and an external microphone. I would like to
transfer these files over to my PC harddrive. The only way that I can
do this is to re-play the tape into my computer using the microphone
port. Is there a way to transfer the files over directly?


Even a lowly Soundblaster Live! can be set up to transfer from a DAT in the
digital domain via either SPDIF or AES/EBU. If you don't have the LiveDrive,
you can pick up a daughter card from Hoontech for digital transfers. There
are numerous other options with higher end sound cards, and I believe Edirol
has a USB unit that will do this. Yes, the UA-1EX and UA-1X both support
SPDIF I/O over USB 1.2. These would probably be the easiest way to do this
in the digital domain, maintaining the fidelity to the level of your DAT's
AD converters.

Craig

wrote in message

On 2005-08-19 (ScottDorsey) said:
Sure. You can get an S-PDIF card for your PC
and use a DAT machine with an S-PDIF port to play them
digitally into the computer. The M1 can be set up to
have an S-PDIF output if you use an overpriced and
unreliable special cord. Oade Brothers might still
have them in stock.

WHat about the Zefiro cards? I've been thinking about
getting one of those, the za2, older technology, had
spdif ports, even had drivers for old dos boxes as well
as linux iirc.

(1) Only ISA, with an absolute promise that there will never
be a PCI version.
(2) As bit-perfect digital I/O cards, they've been equalled
by tons of audio interfaces, some built right into
motherboards.
(3) Driver support for XP? No way!

In article writes:

WHat about the Zefiro cards? I've been thinking about getting one of
those, the za2, older technology, had spdif ports, even had drivers
for old dos boxes as well as linux iirc.

That would be a good choice for DAT transfers. It's only 16-bit but
it's a good solid design. I don't know how far driver development went
so it might not work on the latest Windows machines.

As I recall, the ZA-2 could read DAT start IDs, but I'm not sure what
it does with them. Maybe it opens a new WAV file at each ID, which
would make transferring the recording to CD with track markers
correspoinding to the DAT start IDs easy.


--
I'm really Mike Rivers )
However, until the spam goes away or Hell freezes over,
lots of IP addresses are blocked from this system. If
you e-mail me and it bounces, use your secret decoder ring
and reach me he double-m-eleven-double-zero at yahoo

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On 2005-08-20 said:
WHat about the Zefiro cards? I've been thinking about
getting one of those, the za2, older technology, had
spdif ports, even had drivers for old dos boxes as well
as linux iirc.
(1) Only ISA, with an absolute promise that there will never
be a PCI version.
(2) As bit-perfect digital I/O cards, they've been equalled
by tons of audio interfaces, some built right into
motherboards.
(3) Driver support for XP? No way!
Irrelevant to my needs, running linux or dos, won't have xp anywhere
around this shop. OUr desktop publishing machine is still running 95
and not permitted an internet connection because it's stable.
sOme old compaq 133 mhz machines we salvaged are the main workhorses
around here and they contain isa slots.



Richard Webb,
Electric SPider Productions, New Orleans, La.
REplace anything before the @ symbol with elspider for real email

--

If you don't mind booting up to 16-bit dos for recording you should be
ok. That card was happier in a single tasking OS, but under Win95 some
pci based video cards caused channel swapping.

Under Win95 it would work in some computers flawlessly, and then others
were plagued by this channel swapping problem. Running under DOS, as I
recall it was quite problem free.

Gordon

wrote:
On 2005-08-20 said:
WHat about the Zefiro cards? I've been thinking about
getting one of those, the za2, older technology, had
spdif ports, even had drivers for old dos boxes as well
as linux iirc.
(1) Only ISA, with an absolute promise that there will never
be a PCI version.
(2) As bit-perfect digital I/O cards, they've been equalled
by tons of audio interfaces, some built right into
motherboards.
(3) Driver support for XP? No way!
Irrelevant to my needs, running linux or dos, won't have xp anywhere
around this shop. OUr desktop publishing machine is still running 95
and not permitted an internet connection because it's stable.
sOme old compaq 133 mhz machines we salvaged are the main workhorses
around here and they contain isa slots.



Richard Webb,
Electric SPider Productions, New Orleans, La.
REplace anything before the @ symbol with elspider for real email

--

start-ids
It would write a cue sheet which you could import into CDWAV along with
the corresponding continuous wav file. CDWAV would create a disc-at-once
CD with tracks split at the dat-id markers. (maybe with rounding to
sector boundaries)

I wish more software did this. Samplitude had something similar, but
only with certain soundcards. A few SEK'D cards could do this. Evidently
the drivers had to be written to support this function.

Gordon

Mike Rivers wrote:
In article writes:


WHat about the Zefiro cards? I've been thinking about getting one of
those, the za2, older technology, had spdif ports, even had drivers
for old dos boxes as well as linux iirc.


That would be a good choice for DAT transfers. It's only 16-bit but
it's a good solid design. I don't know how far driver development went
so it might not work on the latest Windows machines.

As I recall, the ZA-2 could read DAT start IDs, but I'm not sure what
it does with them. Maybe it opens a new WAV file at each ID, which
would make transferring the recording to CD with track markers
correspoinding to the DAT start IDs easy.


--
I'm really Mike Rivers )
However, until the spam goes away or Hell freezes over,
lots of IP addresses are blocked from this system. If
you e-mail me and it bounces, use your secret decoder ring
and reach me he double-m-eleven-double-zero at yahoo

Thanks, everyone for the detailed and helpful responses. We don't
actually have a large amount of DAT recordings yet, but are trying to
formulate a good workflow for the digital transfer in anticipation of
future recordings. Your suggestions have been most useful!

-- jeet

I have a ZA-2, if you're interested.
Tom
wrote in message
ups.com...
Thanks, everyone for the detailed and helpful responses. We don't
actually have a large amount of DAT recordings yet, but are trying to
formulate a good workflow for the digital transfer in anticipation of
future recordings. Your suggestions have been most useful!

-- jeet

Yes

Way back before much else was available I used Hootech daughter boards
via ( Coresound cable ) to extract 16bit digtal field audio from Datman
uinits into Soundblaster ( pre live) PCI cards on win 98 PCs.

Kevin T

On Sat, 20 Aug 2005 23:13:57 -0500, Gordon Gidluck
wrote:

If you don't mind booting up to 16-bit dos for recording you should be
ok. That card was happier in a single tasking OS, but under Win95 some
pci based video cards caused channel swapping.

Under Win95 it would work in some computers flawlessly, and then others
were plagued by this channel swapping problem. Running under DOS, as I
recall it was quite problem free.

Gordon

I have a Zefiro ZA2 working happily under Win98SE. There were also WinNT
drivers so I wouldn't be surprised to find that someone was running one
under XP.

Unfortunately it only supported cue sheet writing under DOS.

Cheers.

James.

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On 2005-08-22 said:
I have a ZA-2, if you're interested.
I'll get back to you on that.



Richard Webb,
Electric SPider Productions, New Orleans, La.
REplace anything before the @ symbol with elspider for real email

--