When DAT ruled the world | Sony DATstation PCM-E7700 - The only Playstation you needed

[@r4x2]

I’m a sucker for amber monochrome displays, and for lots of Sony audio products (their old cheap mics, and the high end current mics, as well as I have a rack multieffect unit that is super cool). This is awesome. DATs have an interesting sound to them as well. Sweet find and great taste as usual, Espen.

[@ASH-ou4cg]

I still remember, being in my teens in the late '90s and being really excited when I got my hands on a Fostex D5, where I would record all my tracks and bring them down to the dubplate cutting studio, here in Toronto. Definitely good times. I finally sold the D5, about 10 years ago, as a trade in towards a Virus Ti.

[@TheDeathBeatsOfficial]

My first DAT machine was the Sony DAT Walkman which I think I got in 1995 after many months of saving money from my after school job. I still have my Sony full size DAT as well as a full size Fostex. Cheers!

[@matthewmcree1992]

This is yet another remarkable example of the kind of overengineered equipment that Japanese tech companies made for professional usage. I always find these sort of (often large) machines utterly fascinating, especially now that purpose-built equipment like this DAT recorder are rarely made anymore, now that personal computers have become so powerful that they can work as the hub of a massive setup of peripheral devices that don’t take up tons of space. While the days of super expensive and hyper-specialized audio and video equipment are over, geeks like me will always find them interesting (especially because I was a young child in the early 90s when these types of equipment began their decline in relevance and usage). Digital Audio Tape was an awesome media format, but sadly never adopted by the masses because the recording industry didn’t want it to succeed (because of the lack of copy-protection that meant one could make perfect copies onto a blank DAT from the digital audio data on the original DAT tape). It’s really cool how commonplace the use of the DAT format was within professional settings though. And fun fact, in the 90s apparently DJs of Goa Trance music in Goa, India used DAT for playing music at outdoor raves rather than using vinyl records, reportedly because the high temperatures sometimes literally melted vinyl records while DAT was unaffected. And from what I have heard, many of these DJs didn’t even bother DJing live due to the difficulty of mixing/beatmatching via tape live, often instead creating a whole set in the studio and recording to DAT and then just playing the tape from end to end.

[@xa1a]

Ha! I used to use DAT for live shows. I had a Tascam, and it would play all the drums and bass lines, while we played overtop! Classic format!

[@JohnnyMatrixproducerdj]

Loved my Tascam DA 20 MK2 in the 90s:-). Your Sony looks absolutely awesome.

[@andersfrend5365]

New Order Technique in the background - love that album 😊🎹

[@poofygoof]

I love this late 90s era when purpose-built machines still existed before general-purpose computers started taking over everything. Seems like this could possibly be used as a mastering deck with some creative patching? I assume it is possible to play one deck out the AES/EBU and simultaneously record the other AES/EBU?

[@jakobole]

Indeed it was

[@atmobeat]

I bought a DAT recorder way back in 1992, the Yamaha DTR-2. It was meant for professional use mainly, with 19" rack mounts each side, however, I used it at home. Actually, if it wasnt for the numerous cases of tape jam this one caused, I would have loved it: recordable audio cassettes in Bonsai format but with the sound quality specifications of a CD. That was it... a couple of years later, Philips introduced the dcc and Sony came up with MiniDisk, however, both formats were not regarded professional. I finally "ended up" with a hand-sized square-shaped MiniDisk-Walkman of Sony which I bought in mid 2001.

[@lundsweden]

DATs time in the sun was pretty short, it's heyday was definitely late 80s/early 90s. I had a DCC tape recorder in 1996, anyone remember that VERY short lived format?! The other home studio recording device was the MiniDisc, never had one of those though. If memory serves me correctly, by 1997/8 CD writers became cheap enough that they became the home studio format of choice until cheap flash drives/hard drives became the way to record and store your songs!

[@EspenKraft]

Depends on how you define "short". DAT kept going as the main way if storing and archiving for at least 10 years in the pro audio world.

[@lundsweden]

@@EspenKraft Yeah, I'd agree it was at its peak of professional use for about 10 years. I think that is short compared to reel to reel (about 40 years roughly) and direct to disk, which also was popular before reel to reel.

[@Bishka100]

I still have my DCC 300, it doesn't work any more, but I'm loathed to get rid of it. Maybe it was all in my head, but, I felt it did something to the recording which I liked.

[@lundsweden]

@@Bishka100 Funny you should say that, I thought back then stuff I recorded from CD sounded better on DCC. The DCC machines are increasing in price now, I'deven hang on to a broken one.

[@Bishka100]

@@lundsweden I think my unused/unopened DCC tapes are worth more that the machine. But I think the DCC sound came from the coppresion they used. Shame they never came-out with a four track DCC to rivel the MiniDisc four track 😞

[@rjbush7955]

I still have a Sony TCD-D8. Last used 31/12/1999 for a millennium party. I was asked to mix to a 4hour LP (8 hrs play) for my friend. Worked a treat. All you need now is Spotify😢

[@frequincyrecording4286]

That’s amazing. I have never seen one of those before. I remember at the recording trade school I attended one of the instructors was commenting on drawers full of DAT that he owned and several tape brands had deteriorated some and he was concerned about transferring them onto a HDD. This was in 2003. There was a lot of talk around then about Quantegy ending tape production, but I do not remember the tape brands he was referring to. Also I know the deck can often have more to do with destroying a tape than the actual tape quality, although tape storage conditions are crucial. Love seeing a DAT player playing in 2023!

[@darkwinter6028]

Yeah, DAT’s right. 😉

[@midimoog]

Amazing! This is a piece of equipment that I wanted so badly. I had no use for tape-to-tape editing, but I still remember wanting one very badly just for the sake of collection and preservation. So cool... Another such item is the PCM-9000 which recorded onto MO discs.

[@_P_M_]

Wow. Those are insane! I used to use 2 Panasonic SV series decks to record recitals at the university I was attending (my college job was working in the music building). I loved using them and still have a bunch of cool tapes I recorded from those days but no way to play them. We also had one that recorded to Beta tape that I used for remote gigs. Unfortunately those formats die out and you are stuck with media that cannot be played anymore. Glad we're just dealing with file formats now.

[@adkywun]

It was a nightmare back then, They do chew up your only one master tape.🤣🤣🤣, then the mighty MD came out, ( Sound Designer , ) Sample the sound on a S900 mono twice and try to sent it over midi later on the S1000 with extra ram card, that's how I did the vocal turnning with midi sync and pitch bend🤣🤣🤣, Then come the Audio Media Nubus card on a IIci,then Adat at the same time........ Then....... Those were the day. 😅😅😅 , Thanks for the great memory lane.

[@marcelofp75]

hoping to see that machine in action!

[@gonzinigonz]

Blimey, not seen one of those in years. I did have one back in the 90's which got sold, got sent to Japan or China i can't quite remember. Only recently sold a Sony PCM M1 which has been kicking about for years.

[@markstevens5442]

I never got into DAT, I went the Digital Compact Cassette route instead. DCC didn't last long on the market as Mini-disc became the preferred standard. I still have my DCC player/recorder and the tapes to go with it :)

[@EspenKraft]

You're talking about the consumer market of course.

[@markstevens5442]

@@EspenKraft - True but it did the job. One of my friends is still gigging using Mini-discs for his backing tracks :)

[@EspenKraft]

Sure, but MiniDisc sounds absolutely awful and it had no place in pro audio. That said, I have a player myself as I always wanted to test new tech back in the day, no matter how bad. ;-)

[@Shred_The_Weapon]

When I read the title of this upload, it got me giggling over the idea of parodying Coldplay’s “When I Ruled the World”. Seriously, DAT was something I only observed while it was in the mainstream of recording and backing up sound. Just like reel machines, I kind of missed out. It has though they only became affordable at the moment when technical support for them had become discontinued, and that made it not worth the effort to try getting your hands on them.

[@M1k1haus]

Can it run doom tho? Interesting piece of gear.

[@computrhead]

Wow. I have the wrong station. PlayStation. 😂 But honestly, I love how this machine looks.

[@SeverityOne]

Let me guess: they were going to throw them out, and somebody (maybe one of your viewers, or a contact at the state broadcaster) thought of you? Back in the late 1990s, I went to a music shop for a pair of monitor headphones. So they handed me a pair of AKG240M, and connected them to a DAT deck. It's like I'd been listening through cotton wool before. Such clarity, detail, and accuracy. I never bought a DAT deck, but I did go home with the AKGs.

[@retro-dademusic6403]

Came to comments to see if any dis on DAT 😎

[@ezquimal]

In the 90 when you need to send the full mix to mastering you donwload to a dat or past the mix to a twpe film 2 tracks

[@brianhintze6440]

What a funky piece of gear. I hope to find one at a garage sale here in Ohio for $5.00 or so…I may just buy it! Hahaha. Cool video….I like these odd equipment vids.

[@CraigRodmellMusic]

I don't think I ever even saw one of those.

[@pekkagronfors7304]

nrk was high tech back in the days

[@ChrisCebelenski]

Was DAT more popular in the euro zone? I did see DAT from time to time here in the States, but analog cassette was very much cheaper and more widely available - I remember using DAT to transfer from studio to studio, but demos and rough edits were always on regular cassette tape. Then there was ADAT of course, and not really the same thing but was huge for multiple years. DAT was cool, but not really that prevalent at clients, so you have to confirm first that it was acceptable.

[@EspenKraft]

The entire pro audio world, in terms of studios and broadcasting corporations used DAT extensively. There were no other way of recording music in CD quality at the time. 16 bits @44.1 khz or 48Khz. In the US as well as the rest of the world. Analog cassette was only used in the pro world as a fast way of taking home the "mix for the day" to listen to. Not ONE single pro recording studio in the states missed out on DAT. ;-)

[@venomslair137]

The 80's and 90's are the Peak of music and technology. MDs are neat-o as well, but Sony wants to kill it off for no reason 😢.

[@RosalvoParadella]

Uau. Que máquina linda.

[@FLH3official]

Congratulations for the machine you have, impressive. On the 3 dat players I have (all of them consumer grade) only one is still working "ish" (a little portable sony). 🥲 I also have of lot of material on these DATs, personnal recordings and backups of my S1100s libraries. I hope I will find one day someone abble to service one of my machines (difficult task when you live in the countryside)