Subject: digital / analog tape recorders

arienne dwyer cites a comment of rober englebretson that is pessimistic about the advantages of dat compared with cassette tapes regarding digitization : > i do n't know that dat would be any less time-consuming . unless you > have a soundcard which supports direct digital input ( in which case > there will probably be issues with sampling rate ) , most people find > they end up connecting the line out from their dat into the line in on > the computer - - essentially re-digitizing the analog signal from the > dat line-out . there is a simple ( and not particularly expensive ) alternative to either of these rigmaroles , which we employ in my lab . we have a dat drive on our local network for data storage ( backups etc . ) , but it can also be used to read dat audio tapes , allowing dat digital audio to be transferred to the computer without going via an intermediate analogue stage . - john coleman director , oxford university phonetics laboratory 41 wellington square , oxford ox1 2jf , uk home page : http : / / www . phon . ox . ac . uk /
