Whats better to mix down to CD or DAT?

> > > Whats better to mix down to CD or DAT?

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Member Since: Jul 22, 2002

I am curious about what will give me a better sound. I am going to mix my project down and I am thinking of purchasing myself a DAT machine and mixing to it from Cakewalk. I already have a CD-R and I've been mixing to that but this is the finally and I want as much punch when I send it for mastering as I can get. What is better? Will the DAT give it more nuts and punch?

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Administrator
Since: Apr 03, 2002

Aug 29, 2002 03:06 pm

No, they will both theoretically sound exactly the same, there is no "nuts and punch" to DAT, it is digital data just like your CD-R. Nut and punch come from good mastering.

SM7b the Chuck Noris of Mic's
Contributor
Since: Jun 20, 2002

Aug 31, 2002 06:24 pm

db , a quick question , I've been concered about DAT recorders , being that i'm unfamilar wuith them. If you use your PC for most aplications , there really is no point to having a DAT is there ?

Administrator
Since: Apr 03, 2002

Aug 31, 2002 06:30 pm

Wwwweeeeeellllllllll, that is up for debate really. I have one, but only for professional reasons, I do get the occassional client that sends DAT's for me to master, so it is necessary. I have used it enough to pay for it a few times over, so it's all good. But, for us home recording folks, it isn't totally necessary until you go to have your recording mass produced buy a replication house. Some houses do, or at least did, prefer to use DAT. That may have changed as PC's and home studios have become so much more common.

Also, in another frame of mind, a DAT backup is far more stable and durable than a CDR backup of your music. I am sure we have all had CDR's that corrupted after burning or had weird things happen. A DAT is still very helpfull for a good backup copy of stuff as well. I recently gave away the last copy I had of my last band's studio-recorded album, because I knew I have that DAT backup to make another copy from. Years later it still works, not so with CDR's all the time.

SM7b the Chuck Noris of Mic's
Contributor
Since: Jun 20, 2002

Aug 31, 2002 07:13 pm

thanks db , I will do a lttle reserch on em but the DAT is not on my high priority list .

> > > Whats better to mix down to CD or DAT?

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