keeping older formats (Adat etc)

[thingsbreak]

Just wondering if you keep old format players around so you can recall clients old tapes (Adats, Dats, etc) - How long do you hang onto clients multitracks for?

[dale116dot7]

I still have my pair of DA88's from when I started. I still have all of my tapes. I started recording in 2000. I actually keep the DA88's not so much to recall old projects which is rare, but when I need more tracks - I slave them to SMPTE.

[joelpatterson]

To answer your first question, the thought flits through my mind whenever I see some old ADAT machine in the classifieds, "y'know, I really ought to have one around..." and then my mind drifts on to the Peluso mics and Pacifica's people are unloading.

To answer the second, a solid layer of ADAT tapes against the wall does do a bit of soundproofing, it's not perfect but it doesn't hurt.

[Jay Kahrs]

I kept my Adats around for a lotta years even after I retired them from full time use, just because I had hundreds of tapes from old clients and you never know when people might resurface...

Over the last few years with moving around the country & a change in the direction of my career I dumped a lot of tapes, keeping the ones of people I still knew or those who had a solid chance of resurfacing...

In late 2006 I transferred a few things to the DAW, made DVD backups... and dumped my last machine & BRC.

My DA30mkII DAT deck is still going... it's in a 4-space rack with a Roll Super Stereo compressor that gets hauled out to shows & patched in to document the board mix... but the next time it blows up I'm not going to fix it.

Not unless the parts are $20 or less.

[joelpatterson]

Every so often I do have the odd reason to bring something back to life from an old DAT tape, so I haul out my trusty Porta-Dat from its cryogenic freezer... man I treat the thing like the ancient relic it is, very delicately...

[phaqu]

I just finished dumping all (60 or 70?.. something like that) of my ADAT tapes, mostly me and my old bands stuff, into pro tools a few months ago. Man that took forever. I didnt have the tapes labeled real well either . What really sucked was that I only have 1 ( out of 3 ) ADAT machines that still works. But, I had a chance to listen to some stuff I havent heard in almost 10 years or more. It was pretty cool to be able to piss around with some of the tunes that never got finished. I actually got 2 almost there, so, it was worth it to me.
Since disk drives are getting cheaper every day, I bought an extra 320 gig drive and external housing and stored them all in there. It takes up WAY less space than 60 ADAT tapes.
But anyway, it now lives in the closet with all the other things I dont really use, but still have just in case.

[ddp]

I sold most of my old adats and da78 tapes at my last garage sale

Da78s are still fetching $800 on ebay!

[nnajar]

Originally Posted by ddp

I sold most of my old adats and da78 tapes at my last garage sale

Da78s are still fetching $800 on ebay!

really? hmmm maybe i should dump mine. it hasn't been turned on in 2 years. it has pretty good converters though.

N