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Sony DTC-700 audio DAT player/recorder

(kevinboone.me)
115 points naves | 2 comments | 30 Jun 25 18:03 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
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afandian ◴[01 Jul 25 08:40 UTC] No.44431874[source]▶
This dredged up a question I had two decades ago and never looked up. Perhaps someone here knows.

I got to use a Tascam DA-38 a few times. It was an 8 track and I could have sworn it had punch-in recording. It used DTRS, not DAT, but apparently it shared the helical scan. Presumably the 8 tracks were interleaved on a single bitstream, so how was it possible to seamlessly replace one track live? Was there more than one head? How did the clock sync work for simultaneous reading and writing?

replies(1): >>44431920 #
tecleandor ◴[01 Jul 25 08:49 UTC] No.44431920[source]▶
I've checked an SoS review [0], and it seems like it was a multi-head operation (although I don't know if that's what enables the track punching):

  >  The ability to monitor off tape during recording is due to the DA38's 4‑head drum layout.
--

  0: https://www.soundonsound.com/reviews/tascam-da38
replies(1): >>44433295 #
1. afandian ◴[01 Jul 25 12:36 UTC] No.44433295[source]▶
Thanks, and shame on me for not looking it up first! I still wonder if the tracks were kept clock-synched or whether punch-ins would produce clock dislocations, and if they were somehow buffered...

This SoS article doesn't answer it, but provides more background.

https://www.soundonsound.com/sound-advice/all-about-digital-...

replies(1): >>44434429 #
2. tecleandor ◴[01 Jul 25 14:48 UTC] No.44434429[source]▶
Ah, that's interesting! I'm going to read it later. Thanks!