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Are DATs Still Worth Buying?
Anonymous Coward asks: "DATs are currently the standard for recording legal concerts like Phish and the Grateful Dead. However, they're absurdly expensive even on eBay and are no longer being developed actively by any companies. Are there any alternatives that are more cost effective than DATs (Sony has a D100 out for 700 USD) and maintain the same quality? (DATs can sample up to 48kHz)."
Can you really hear the difference? Especially since live recordings generally suck anyway, even with good quality (i.e. $$$) mikes.
Yes. Most professional soundcards are recording at 96kHz or higher. Some of them are probably portable. Ask your local music store.
Because I'm used to higher sampling rates than 44 KHz with my Delta 66 (4 track USB card) but it's not portable by any means.
So, because you are "used to" higher sampling rates, you think you need them? Why? Is your mics and other recording equipment of so high quality that you can actually hear the difference?
44KHz is fine for recording sine waves up to maybe 16 KHz but not any high frequency signal with harmonic content.
Ever noticed a fairly common consumer recording product called a CD? It uses 44.1kHz/16bit, and is accepted as quite good by both normal listeners and audiophiles. 44.1kHz is more than adequate for recording live concerts, where sound quality can never be premium anyways...
If you can actually hear the difference between 44kHz and 48kHz than you either have unusually good hearing, or you are blaming it on the wrong reasons. It is more likely that what you hear are the differences between cheap recording equipment (which usually only handles 44.1kHz) and more expensive recording equipment (which usually also offers 48kHz). And having the recording in 44.1kHz gives you better quality if you decide to burn to a CD (downsampling reduces quality in noticeable ways).
Seriously, unless you are mastering for a mix, there are almost no reasons to use anything but 44.1kHz/16bit. The main reason for offering higher sample-rates and bit-depth in professional recording gear, is because these recordings will later be subject to digital processing. There's no way any physical recording gear will give you quality good enough for 96kHz/24bit to make sense. The extra bits are there for the same simple reason we use extra digits for intermediate calculations before we round off to get the final result.
Sure, a laptop with a 24-bit, 96-khz sound card.
If you're doing field recordings, though, I somehow doubt that you need such fidelity. Then, portable MD recorders are pretty attractive...
Yep, and the main reason most DAT drives only recorded at 48KHz was to prevent us from making digital copies of our CDs.
Nothing to see here; Move along.