DAT-Heads Digest #71
Contents:
DAT-Heads Digest #70 (fwd) (Robert Katz)
digital distribution (Seth Breidbart)
Stuff (Art Munson - Cassette House)
Re: Sony tape transport problems (Lauren Weinstein)
JVC XD-P1Pro (cont.) (Michael Skidmore)
Anyone use CSB Binural Mikes? (David Landsberger)
RDAT by John Watkinson @ Mix Bookshelf for 70 bucks (Tom Hays)
From: Robert Katz <bobkatz@panix.com>
Subject: DAT-Heads Digest #70 (fwd)
Date: Fri, 21 Oct 1994 21:01:42 -0400 (EDT)
AFOSTER wrote:
>I am a little bit tired of personal plugs for one's business or service on
>this list.
>...and I don't know about this Digital Domain thing, but it
>seems like another often-used tactic...disguising a "plug" as "information"
>or "expertise." If you have helpful information, I think this is the
proper
>forum for it...a discussion of digital audio and the various tangents from
>that. I think advertising and business should stay in their forums.
Now I feel obligated to respond. If you think my message was couched in
commercial terms, then I'm sorry, it wasn't intended that way. Anyone who
knows me knows that I pass on far more free and friendly advice than my
share. The points I was trying to stress in my message are that
daisychaining is in general not a good thing. I personally have been stung
by daisychaining, because I didn't bring my own box to a recording. The
first DAT machine in line goes out of record; everybody loses. The
first DAT machine has some kind of a glitch; everybody loses.
Now if it appears I added a "commercial message" to my missive, it was
because I have been upset lately by messages on this list showing that
many Datheads may be penny-wise and pound foolish by purchasing (or
building) an inexpensive box strictly designed to eliminate SCMS, when
they could purchase a more expensive, but versatile professional interface
box that is has gained the reputation as the Swiss army knife of digital
audio. I have put too much sweat into the design of my box the to
see it being disregarded, and I feel people should be informed of the
price/performance comparisons---and this *is* the forum for that message.
Again, sorry if I offended.
Now let me pass on this:
Dave Singer wrote:
>I need the logo so I can layup a disc label on a Mac. Anyone know where I
>can find correct EPS or an outline font for this logo?
>dave singer@apple.com
>David Singer
>Apple Computer/ATG 408-974-3162
David, you can find it in the Midi Music Forum on Compuserve, of all
places.... In one of their libraries, as I recall. And if you can't, I'll
email it to you in Macbinary as I have it as an EPS created with Adobe
Streamline.
Bob Katz
Digital Domain
bobkatz@panix.com
From: Seth Breidbart <sethb@panix.com>
Subject: digital distribution
Date: Fri, 21 Oct 1994 22:08:39 -0400
>daisychaining is in general not a good thing. I personally have been stung
>by daisychaining, because I didn't bring my own box to a recording. The
>first DAT machine in line goes out of record; everybody loses. The
>first DAT machine has some kind of a glitch; everybody loses.
That's going to happen even with a digital distribution box of some
kind. The win is that when the second deck glitches, the third deck
doesn't notice. (The first deck is doing the A/D conversion, so if it
dies, everybody loses. The solution to that is to split the analog
signal.)
I have no problem with the mention of devices, especially by someone
who can answer all our rude questions about them :-)
>In response to the daisychaining issue, for those of you who have been
>disdaining the Digital Domain FCN-1 Format Converter because it has too
>many features (and is "too expensive") to do the job, (although many
>satisfied DATHEADS have purchased the FCN-1) have you considered that the
>FCN-1 can be battery operated, and has 5 simultaneous digital outputs!
It's not the "too many features", it's the fact that all those dip
switches have to be set individually. (I like the flexibility to set
them, I'd just prefer a setting that says "copy the input signal"
which would make my life a bit easier.)
Also, I believe it requires 9 volts (minimum). Most of us run
portable equipment on 6 volts, so we'd need to carry along an extra
battery to get 12v.
BTW, my FCN-1 has only 4 outputs (1 XLR, 3 rca). Maybe you should
change the model number once in a while?
Seth
From: Art Munson - Cassette House <artmuns@well.sf.ca.us>
Subject: Stuff
Date: Fri, 21 Oct 1994 21:20:48 -0700 (PDT)
>
> From: AFOSTER@cmcvax.mckenna.edu
> Subject: "Advertising" on DAT-heads
> Date: Thu, 20 Oct 1994 20:24:39 -0700 (PDT)
>
> I am a little bit tired of personal plugs for one's business or service on
> this list.
Sorry if I'm offending anyone here but I've found that most people are happy
to find that there are places to buy DAT tape at reasonable prices.
> I buy Art Munson's tapes, am very happy with his products and
> prices, and have friendly conversations with him when I call,
Thanks!
> but I don't think he needs to frequently repeat how "eager" he is to
> replace broken or defective tapes...
I've run across many businesses that seem to not care about their customers
or stand behind their products and I never wanted to be one of them. I
would think that would be a good thing.
> I think advertising and business should stay in their forums.
>
I don't know where a DAT user would look for tape and related supplies,
I'm open for suggestions.
> ------------------------------
>
> From: Jonathan Wilfong <wilfong@kmerl.research.panasonic.com>
> Subject: When do you return a tape?
> Date: Fri, 21 Oct 94 10:18:07 EDT
>
> >> 2 - By simple reasoning, the longer a tape is, the more
> >> places there are for it to break so even if the tape
> >> itself were identical, I'd expect a 90m to have a
> >> 50% greater chance of messing up just because 2 90m
> >> tapes should have the same chance of messing up as
> >> 3 60m tapes (both 180m worth of tape).
> >
> >Like I said it has not been my experience nor the hundreds of people
> >who are buying them. This includes recording studios, radio stations
> >universities, audio and video production houses as well as many faithful
> >DAT-Heads.
> >
> >
> >My 2 pennies worth
> >
> >ARt
>
> Well, this doesn't really address what I actually said. Anyone out
> there have a car which does NOT have a greater chance of hitting
> a pothole if you drive 90 miles rather than 60 miles? (Maybe if
> a recording studio, university or production company were driving...)
>
> As I've said (apparently to deaf ears in this case) I'm NOT disputing
> Art's return record - I just asked for someone to explain to me
> why a tape that's 50% longer won't have 50% more spots to go
> bad.
O.K., I'll try one more time. It would seem that your logic would make sense
BUT *it has _not_ been my experience that any length tape "messes" up more
than any other length.*
Art
From: Lauren Weinstein <lauren@vortex.com>
Subject: Re: Sony tape transport problems
Date: Fri, 21 Oct 94 21:27 PDT
Brad Newman says:
> I sent 4 DTC-690 machines back to Sony for the repair kit modification and
> the same 4 back again for overhaul kits. Even after both modification, done
> by Sony, the units still had problem with the tape transport and were sent
> back again. ... (IMHO) Sony is making a bad transport an until they make
> more changes in the design, the decks are nothing but trouble in the
> long run ...
In my original message with serial numbers, etc. regarding the fixes for the
59ES and 690, I pointed out that my Sony source had warned me that there
were indeed some problems with the modifications being improperly applied
to those two units (especially early on) by some of the service centers:
"He pointed out that some users who had that kit installed still had
problems--this was due to some cases of improper installation and
setup of the modification by service centers, which he says must be
done correctly or it appears to the user that nothing has changed."
If the properly modified transport still had problems, one would expect to
see a high failure rate for the 60ES (which uses the modified transport)
which simply doesn't appear to be the case. In fact, the only reported tape
transport problem with the 60ES I've heard of to date is the one reported
here in dat-heads, and that involved 90 meter tapes which the 60ES manual
explicitly says not to use! If there are dat folks out there who know of
other 60ES failures using the recommended length tapes I'd sure like to know
about them--but dealers I've talked to have not been experiencing these sorts
of problems with the unit.
--Lauren--
From: Michael Skidmore <mskidmore@ucsd.edu>
Subject: JVC XD-P1Pro (cont.)
Date: Sat, 22 Oct 1994 00:05:32 -0700
To answer Paul's question: No. The JVC doesn't has any sort of even
momentary backlight in the LCD. I hope they include it in another model in
95?
I'll throw in some more comment's to expand on my previous post. I
was talking to Jim Oade, Hi Fi Sales and Service about a custom power
supply/preamp for my new mics (AKG 460B/CK8X which I decided to buy based
on the many favorable comments and Jeff's forwarding to me Paul's detailed
and excellent review) and we got to talking about this. He said he demoed
one and was considering carrying it at his store. He said he liked it a
lot. He said the full size head and transport mechanism are top notch and
the Sony portables can't compare (his words not mine). He also said that
he tried the mic and wasn't impressed. They tried to talk JVC into selling
him a lot without the microphones but JVC would not negotiate. He was
dissapointed and decided not to carry them based on that point. He was very
pleased with the deck itself and said I would have unmatched sound if I
used an external preamp and went in the Line In jack instead of the
Microphone In jack (which goes thorugh the internal preamp).
His phantom supply/preamp with 20dB gain is going to set me back
$900 for the basic and $1300 for the higher quality components unit which
has warmer sound and more bass.This will include a lead acid that will run
the AKG 460B/CK8X microphones for 3 shows. He said he had built them for
several DAT-Heads. Please tell me if the 1300 one is worth it and if you
have any other Phantom power supply/ preamp suggestions. The Stewart BPS-1
was suggested as an economical but quality alternative.
______________________________________________________________________________
Michael Skidmore, SRA II W: (619) 534-1894
UCSD School of Medicine H: (619) 587-4885
Dept. of Pathology
La Jolla CA 92093-0612
______________________________________________________________________________
"Standard orbit, Mr. Sulu."
From: David Landsberger <berger@world.std.com>
Subject: Anyone use CSB Binural Mikes?
Date: Sat, 22 Oct 1994 15:24:28 -0400 (EDT)
I'm very seriously interested in buying a pair of binural CSB mikes.
Has anyone out there used them? I'd love to hear your comments.
I'd also be very interested in obtaining a DAT of a show made with
these mikes. If you can help me out, please mail me.
berger@world.std.com
Thanks a bunch!
David
From: Tom Hays <tom@crl.com>
Subject: RDAT by John Watkinson @ Mix Bookshelf for 70 bucks
Date: Sat, 22 Oct 1994 12:25:23 -0700 (PDT)
Hi,
The book _RDAT_ by John Watkinson, discussed recently, is in
the current Mix Bookshelf catalog for $69.95, which seems
like a lot for 244 pp. which purport to not be too
technical. Mix BS's phone # is +1 800 233 9604.
--
Tom Hays
Big Sound
(415) 826 6810
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