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Are DATs Still Worth Buying?

Posted by Cliff on from the media-types-slated-for-extinction dept.

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)."

1 of 71 comments (clear)

  1. Harddisks by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Harddisks are the cheapest way to store just about any kind of data these days. Alesis (alesis.com), Mackie (mackie.com), Tascam (tascam.com) and many others sell dedicated recorders that take removable harddisks. Unfortunately all the examples of these I know of are large multitrack rackmount beasts, which is maby not what you're looking for. I would try searching google for harddisk recorders though.

    Another option you might consider is using a notebook computer. M-Audio (midiman.com) and Digidesign (digidesign.com) both sell relatively small USB audio interfaces that are better than any laptopss built-in sound. Mark of the Unicorn (motu.com), Presonus (presonus.com) and Echo Audio (echoaudio.com) all sell bulkier-but-nice firewire and pcmcia interfaces.

    If you want something that you can carry around in your pocket then minidisc is probably the way to go.