DAT-heads Digest #470, Volume #7 Tue, 3 May 05 09:50:01 EDT Contents: Re: Battery chargers all the same? (Charles Quinn) Sony and MDs (DCA) Re: Sony SDT-9000 audio firmware and software (Bob Ramstad) U2 Seattle shows ("hiroyuki") Akai GXC-760D ("Steve Novy") Re: Looking for some remastering help... (todd romero) FS: Denecke AD-20 PreAmp/AD converter in Ebay ("Gabriel Luna") FS: Denecke AD-20 PreAmp/AD converter in Ebay ("Gabriel Luna") Cream? (Colin Liston) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Charles Quinn Subject: Re: Battery chargers all the same? Reply-To: Charles Quinn Date: Mon, 2 May 2005 09:32:49 -0700 (GMT-07:00) >From: Wayne Hoxsie >Subject: Re: Battery chargers all the same? >Date: Fri, 29 Apr 2005 12:18:17 -0500 >A couple of things... >On my M1, the battery meter is next to useless. Fresh cells will show >four bars, but within 30 minutes, it is down to one bar, but will stay >hat way until the tape ends. I don't know if this is adjustable ?anywhere on the deck (I've not bothered to check the service manual) or >if this is considered normal variation in the components that make up >the voltage detection circuit, a broken or weak component, or something >else. I just know that a fresh set of cells will last me a tape or two. > Mine has always been this way, so I don't know if it is something that >can occur later in the life of the deck or not. Did you run it on out >to see if it still lasted a full tape or not? >Perhaps they are just bad cells. I've gotten a few from Radio Shack and >they were willing to replace them (only after hassling me about not >using their approved charger, etc). I really don't think the Sony >charger is to blame. The battery meter in the M1 is basically a voltmeter. A NiMH battery outputs 1.2V, normal batteries are 1.5V. The NiMH batteries stay at their rated voltage longer and then drop off rapidly. So your M1 shows lower voltage on the display but has no way to measure and display the life left. Higher amp-hour batteries will last fine, you just won't know when they are about to fail (well maybe your display will start flashing just before the end). Best bet is to test them at home and understand how long (time) they will last. I normally use my MAHA batteries (2300 mAH) with the light on and can easily tape a three hour show. Also, not all batteries are rated the same for mAH, there is no standard for this. The MAHA batteries are designed for high drain devices like a DAT deck or digital cameras. Other brands may have a higher number that does not reflect the actual length of time they can last. Caveat emptor. The people at thomas distributing are good to deal with. Chuck Quinn ------------------------------ From: DCA Subject: Sony and MDs Reply-To: DCA Date: Mon, 2 May 2005 13:21:03 -0400 (GMT-04:00) In response to bjf's message...There are several MD decks that have optical out. I agree that most do not. Also, I would not call it "stupid" that Sony left this feature off. It was a matter of cost and fear of piracy. On the new Hi-MD format portables, now you can transfer both ways via USB. There is third party software already available, and Sony also has released their own software to do this. Both are free. This allows the transfer of 80 min of music in less than 3 min. (in LP4 mode), 40 min in 3 min (in LP2 mode), or 20 min in 3 min (No LP mode). Also, the only time I have a problems with TOC is when my batteries went dead. That's user error - can't expect it to write a TOC with a dead battery. I have not heard of problems with their first portable (MZ-1) that you describe here, a friend of mine has that one - but you also can't expect the first one of anything to be perfect. Portables existed in the MD market before home or pro decks. So that unit was actually the first MD unit ever to hit the market. That was released in 1992, and they have come a long way since then. I think that was about the time I bought my first CD. Everything has its pros and cons, first time I used a DAT deck, it jammed and it cost me $40 to get my tape back out. All in all, I think MD is a great format in spite of all the criticism it gets from this community. Nothing rivals the size - even flash memory devices, which seem promising as well - but they are at a limit with flash chip densities right now, and most likely flash will be replaced by something else soon. Also, flash only supports 100k writes, while even though MD is a removeable media, it is capable of 1 million writes w/o degradation. The new Hi-MD formatted disks have a 1GB capacity, and kudos to Sony for allowing them to not only still play the old MDs, but also reformats them to double their capacity for a total of 305MB. I think that's pretty amazing. Dave >From: bigjazzfan@cableone.net >Subject: re: Sony MD Question >Date: Sat, 30 Apr 2005 21:57:22 -0600 > >There have been many Minidisc home decks (full size) that had digital out. >Usually optical but some had both coax and optical. > >So you could digitally dupe to CD or hard drive. > >Portables didn't offer digital out. > >Nor did Sony or anyone ever offer a dual home deck with MD and CD recording >in either direction. >I always wanted a deck that could easily dupe to CDR but Sony never made it. >Another stupid Sony moment. Not even in Japan did they offer this. > > >It's amazing any minidisc fans still exist. > >I'll still never forget losing important recordings with their first >portable when it >up and screwed up it's TOC and the disc was toast. That was pretty much >my end with portable >minidisc recording. Just can't trust it. I will say it's a fantastic >format for splitting and deleting and putting in >track marks. Always have wished CDR would have done this like minidisc >without a computer. > > >bjf ------------------------------ From: Bob Ramstad Subject: Re: Sony SDT-9000 audio firmware and software Reply-To: rramstad@alum.mit.edu Date: Mon, 2 May 2005 14:12:59 -0700 I received a private message from someone on the Firmware Page and damned if it didn't apparently solve the problem... I am using read_dat somewhat successfully with a Sony SDT-9000 and 12.2 firmware, apparently, under Linux with a 2.4 kernel (White Box Enterprise Linux 3 to be specific)... read_dat is available here... http://www.cse.unsw.edu.au/~andrewt/read_dat/ Here are his instructions... and my caveats are below... =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D= =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D= =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D 1. Load a write-protected audio-DAT-tape in your Sony DDS tape with audio firmware 2. use the 'mt' utility to set variable blocksize: mt -f /dev/ setblk 0 3. enable audio mode: 3.a) mt -f /dev/ setdensity 0x80 or b) dat -f /dev/ audio on 'dat' is a mt-like utility from the DATlib-package. But this utility is buggy for setting variable blocksize 4. check if drive is in audiomode: mt -f /dev/ status replies are density =3D 0x80 -> audio-DAT, 0x13 -> DDS1, 0x24 -> DDS2, 0x25 -> DDS3 or dat -f /dev/ audio 5. eject the writeprotected DAT mt -f /dev/ offline From now on you can use your 'Sony DDS-streamer with audiofirmware' in audio mode with DAT cartridges. Test it with loading a DAT tape (mustn't be writeprotected) and redo position 4 from above. =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D= =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D= =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D I don't have the "dat" utility so did everything with mt. I found on my system when loading the tape I wanted to read that "mt -f {device} status" initially returned density code 0x0 but also said File number=3D-1 and block number=3D-1 i.e. it wasn't at the start of the tape. I did "mt -f {device} rewind" and that cleared things up, got File number=3D0, block number=3D0 and Density code=3D0x80 when I checked th= e status. I also found that once I had gotten the first tape read, that it would read the same tape again with the write protect tab closed. Who knows why... In my testing, I was unable to reliably read a store bought DAT audio tape i.e. an official release. read_dat would give me an error: Closing track 0 and exiting because because non-zero data-id indicating non-audio data encountered Sony given they have a record label has always been a bit of a stickler, it would make some sense if the firmware they made wouldn't allow SCMS 10 or possibly SCMS 11 tapes to be read, and that would also explain a lot when it comes to people having problems reading certain tapes and not others. It's also possible that this might have been because the DAT had a TOC. I did attempt to read in a different DAT which I thought had SCMS but got the same error after a couple of minutes. I listened to the resulting WAV file and there was some audio on it but also massive dropouts. So apparently read_dat returns the same type of error if it gets a lot of dropouts. I read this tape back in with my Seagate Archive Python, didn't get any errors from read_dat but the resulting file did have dropouts. Not sure which is better, the SDT-9000 refusing to read the tape with too many errors or the Seagate merrily reading it but leaving glitches in the resulting WAV. I did successfully extract the first fifteen minutes of audio from a couple of different tapes, both were SCMS 00 and both did not have TOC. One of the tapes was somewhat randomly broken into smaller tracks for no apparent reason, but the other read fine in a big continuous file. The one with the random small tracks seemed seamless i.e. playback on WinAmp with gapless output sounded like nothing was missing, no skips or jumps, but it's a bit worrisome. Oddly, I then redid the procedure above, and then tried rereading the same tape, and got one continuous 15 minute file. I also reread the other tape that worked the first time and had no problems. So, those of you who have SDT-9000 and Linux should give this a shot, and please let the list know if it works or doesn't work for you, and what variables you think have an effect on things. I am still amazed that this might solve the problem! I wonder if there's any way of forcing the issue using software, as opposed to all the voodoo above... there must be... given that DAT2WAV seems to work on Windows. (BTW, wdat doesn't work at all on my system, either with the Sony or the Seagate. It gives an error "Unable to set device to AUDIO mode." and exits.) -- Bob ------------------------------ From: "hiroyuki" Subject: U2 Seattle shows Date: Tue, 3 May 2005 08:09:27 +0900 Hello, I taped U2 Seattle shows(4/24 and 4/25). I used Sony TCD-100 and DSM6S, good sound. If someone is interested in my tape, please contact me. I am looking for low generation DAT　of U2, Neil Young, King Crimson etc Please send me your lists for a quick trade. Thanks Hiro ------------------------------ From: "Steve Novy" Subject: Akai GXC-760D Date: Mon, 2 May 2005 18:26:09 -0400 Anyone have one of these? I'm looking for a manual & any input about this deck. I've recently acquired one. Please reply off line. Thanks, Novy ------------------------------ From: todd romero Subject: Re: Looking for some remastering help... Date: Mon, 2 May 2005 20:33:10 -0400 (EDT) hi, what kind of software do you have? its pretty basic/easy with the right software tools. I prefer Wavelab with the the "Waves" dx plugins, and other plugins like bbe sonic maximizer, uv22hr, etc etc. On Sun, 1 May 2005, Jeff Roy wrote: > I'm looking for someone who can help me with some > remastering of 2 shows I recently recorded.(Lenny > Kravitz & Motley Crue) I dont have the capabilities > nor the know-how to do them myself. Any help would be > appreciated. I can provide more info upon request. > > Thanks for the advance help, > > Jeff > > > CHECK OUT MY U2 LIST AT: > http://www.geocities.com/massu2 > > __________________________________________________ > Do You Yahoo!? > Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around > http://mail.yahoo.com > ------------------------------ From: "Gabriel Luna" Subject: FS: Denecke AD-20 PreAmp/AD converter in Ebay Date: Mon, 2 May 2005 22:50:48 -0500 heres the link: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=7319994085 Thanks Gabriel > Denecke AD-20 PreAmp/AD converter, with (2)XLR to 1/8" plug adapter, BNC > adapter, i dont have the extra rechargable battery but i have the charger > and you can buy another same battery in Radio Shack and use this charger. > $220 > > and i can send you this for free > > > Various cables and accesories. > 1/8" to 1/8" 1mts. extension cable > 1/8" plug to 1/8" 1mts. extension cable > 1/8" to (2) RCA 1mts. cable > Small lamp > Small screw driver > > > P.S. i just can accept paymets with paypal account with a bank accounts, not > credit cards. > > Thanks > > > ------------------------------ From: "Gabriel Luna" Subject: FS: Denecke AD-20 PreAmp/AD converter in Ebay Date: Mon, 2 May 2005 23:06:47 -0500 heres the link: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=7319994085 Thanks Gabriel > > Denecke AD-20 PreAmp/AD converter, with (2)XLR to 1/8" plug adapter, BNC > > adapter, i dont have the extra rechargable battery but i have the charger > > and you can buy another same battery in Radio Shack and use this charger. > > $220 > > > > and i can send you this for free > > > > > > Various cables and accesories. > > 1/8" to 1/8" 1mts. extension cable > > 1/8" plug to 1/8" 1mts. extension cable > > 1/8" to (2) RCA 1mts. cable > > Small lamp > > Small screw driver > > > > > > P.S. i just can accept paymets with paypal account with a bank accounts, > not > > credit cards. > > > > Thanks > > > > > > > > ------------------------------ From: Colin Liston Subject: Cream? Date: Tue, 3 May 2005 09:46:33 -0400 (EDT) Did anyone tape Cream's tour opener last night? colin ------------------------------ ** FOR YOUR REFERENCE ** To unsubscribe from this digest, please send email to dat-heads-unsubscribe@datheads.phish.net If your email address has changed, you may (optionally) send the message to dat-heads-unsubscribe-oldaddress=olddomain@datheads.phish.net and the old address will be removed. Problems or questions about a subscription should be addressed via these avenues and then if needed to dat-heads-owner@datheads.phish.net or postmaster@datheads.phish.net never the list itself You can submit a message for inclusion in the next digest via this address: Internet: dat-heads@datheads.phish.net Archives of DAT-Heads digests and related files are available on the DAT-Heads home page: http://www.solorb.com/dat-heads/ End of DAT-Heads Digest ******************************