Surely u can get DAT audio only into FCP 5.1????

But according to creative cow, a decklkink extreme will only take a complete video and audio signal...can DAT be captured in FCP 5.1 using firewire and a digital analog converter??? Phil...and thanks as always..

sure.

absolute simplest way is if your DAT player has an optical out.
then you can go straight into the optical in of a G5.

otherwise i used an M-Audio AES-EBU to optical converter (the CO2) to hook up a DAT and a G5.

uh, oh.. looks like the unit i used isnt available anymore...
this one does more, but it's a bit more expensive:
[www.m-audio.com]


nick

Phil,

what DAT machine are you using and with what connections?

In the meantime; I gave up on importing DAT awhile ago. Settings can be tricky, stuff can go wrong, and it's far easier, faster and cheaper to have your audio guy or an audio facility transfer the DAT tapes to data CD in .aiff format, and then just bring in the files. No reason for you as an editor to fumble with the gear involved and sit around waiting for it to import in realtime.

Clay

Thanks guys, I have a sony PCM 70 40 - 3. I dont know what Optical ins and out are. I always use AIFF cds but!!!....this the camden crawl, 50 bands all done on these big sony DAT machines and here the catch...very small budget...Could you help on another method of going into a computer and turning the whole lot 50 hours by the way on to CD...

Phil,

50 hours means 50 hours plus time for logging, loading, testing so even with 10 hour+ days.... Go figure. At least a week of nothing but playing in audio.

In your situation I'd get in touch with the audio guy who recorded the DAT material and see what options he can offer. I'd bet cash money he has a simple solution and the gear to deal with it properly. Also, do you need to retain Timecode or are all the scenes slated with a proper clap in picture to synch to?

Clay

Yes but I've synced with AIFFs without...I think we will go with transfering the lot to DV tape...there is also HDV involved...got the G RAID, got the FCP 5.1 upgrade

>>I think we will go with transfering the lot to DV tape<<

well, that's going to mean 50+ hrs to transfer and 50+ hrs to log and caputre, = over 100 hrs plus tape stock. For the time and money involved, you could easily get the DAT audio transferred to CD, and then be able to edit that onto DV or HDV or whatever you want. The g-raid and the 5.1 upgrade don't make the process any faster.

DAT has been interesting to play with. More than one person has taken a DAT machine on location to record the primary show along with a safety protection recording on Something Else. Many people got forced into using the Something Else when the DAT tapes wouldn't play back.

DAT uses the video technology of rotating heads and precision control tracks and tape motion--but without the problems of reliability and long life.

Many people have also resorted to the desparation method of an analog transfer cable between the DAT machine and the outside world. No timecode or digital quality, but you will be able to rescue the show. You'll need to log each take manually which should double the time to transfer the takes.

Did someone write down the good takes? If they didn't, you can get the producer to sit with you when you log the takes for hundreds of hours and they won't do that again.

Koz

the 7040 has both analogue and AES EBU outputs.

what is your system
and what inputs does it have?

If you don't have a digital out on the DAT machine, then your decision is going to be time vs. money. If you're broke, thendoing the realtime transfer is the cheapest; if you a a sound log with circled takes then your capture time won't be so bad.

If you need to keep the SMPTE code your better off going analog out of the DAT right into a DV deck or some other AD converter and capturing out of that.

Downconverting to 44.1 Khz (for aiff on CDs) and back to 48 (when in FCP) might make the digital sound more brittle.

DAT was always considered to be a transitional technology in sound; none of the pros expected it to last long. Most of the guys I know are going to hard drive recorders and burning DVDs or CD-roms (as opposed to music CDs) keeping the files in Broadcast Wave (BWF), which is combatible with both FCP and Avid.
These machines can go as high as $15000, but there are some lower priced ones on the market. Check out SOund Devices.
M-Audio has some simple digital recorders that are inexpensive and will keep you in a digital realm.
Or check out Boom Recorder, a Mac-based software that is inexpensive and will record up to 32 tracks of 16 or 24 bit audio at sample rates up to 192.
Guys are using it on location with either laptops or Mini-Macs, then burning discs.

The only issue is how to get digital audio into the computer. You need some form of A/D converter that you can schlep around and won't cost too much.
The ProTools M-Box will work , as will the Apogee Mini-Me (around $300).
Some of the new digital mixers are coming equipped with either Optical (lightpipe) and/or firewire outs.



Andy Rovins

I've been known to record lectures with a borrowed audio console feed from the stage sound people and my PowerBook running the Audacity audio program.

Audacity is free and that system will record anything at analog line (not microphone) level.

Koz

one of my favorite hacks of all time:
I was on an HD feature not to long ago; I basically had a bag of DVCAM dailies tapes and DATs dropped on my desk. No budget to pay for a protools session or the like to bring the DATs in properly, so I was charged with loading everything.
I had a DAT with AES/EBU output and a capture card with no AES input. So I passed the AES through a dvcam deck that had AES in, put a slug tape in the dv deck and captured via firewire. Use capture now; hit play on the DAT, then REC/PLAY on the DV deck right afterward.
Pros:
all-digital path with no quality degradation
cheapest possible solution, as far as I know.

Cons:
all of the original DAT T/C is lost (back up your data!!)
had to capture whole tapes, then subclip takes to match the picture.

that's the best reccomendation I can give. It was my first assistant job and I logged and loaded the whole show in both sound and picture, and sunk every single take by hand. Still cringe a bit when I think about it.