DATS

• Use good quality tapes of no more than 120 minutes. I personally prefer 90 minute tapes, with no more than 12 tracks per tape for the reasons, that many portable DAT decks reccomend not to use long (120 min+) tapes to prevent wear on the smaller heads and transport mechanisms of portables. Also, longer tapes are thinner, and more likely to stretch and produce dropouts.

• If you have a preference for a particular brand tape, let the trader know, although over time I have found that each person has their own personal favourite, and that they all often disagree. At the moment, I am slightly suspicious of TDK tapes, since I have heard of and personally experienced trouble with these tapes. I have had no trouble with any other brands, and have used Sony, Fuji, Ampex, BASF without problems.
  
  
• Try to avoid recording more than 12 tracks per tape. Apart from it taking a long time to cue up tracks when there are 18+ tracks on a tape, it is better to be able to fit the list of tracks on the tape on ONE side of the DAT J-Card, so that tapes can be quickly browsed for a track without having to open the DAT cover to see the track list.
  
  
• Allow 3 seconds between tracks on a DAT, and 10 seconds at the start of a tape. This makes it easier to cue tracks
  
  
• Do NOT cut off the end of tracks suddenly ! This is really annoying ! So many tapes I get have this done on them.. I know it's not always the traders fault, sometimes you get a track from some else that already has the end chopped off. It may not matter when DJ'ing it, since you usually mix out before the chop, but it is very harsh to listen to when not mixing, and I think it shows little respect for a track. If the original track mixed into another track, then try using the record level knob on the dat to do a fade as the track finishes.
  
  
• Be very careful with the recording level on DATs ! The infamous Sony D8 is already a little low in output level compared to most CD players, so you need to make sure your recording level is as high as can be done without clipping. For Psy Trance where the level is reasonably constant, I try to keep the VU meters around -4 to -2 during most of the track. Do NOT use auto-level recording, since this will record at -12 and the output will be very low. Also, if the track has a quieter ambient break, the D8 in auto, will turn up the record level during the quiet bit, and then turn it back down when the break finishes. which sounds really bad.. Do not allow the <OVER> meters to flash during recording, since this will produce digital clipping which sounds terrible.
  
  
• Make sure you record at 44.1Khz or 48Khz. Do NOT use Long Play (32Khz) recording. This will allow you to fit more music on a tape, but cuts off all high frequencies above 14Khz ! I presume you use a DAT for quality recordings, why throw it away by losing all the high frequencies ?
  
  
• If a recording is bad quality due to events beyond your control (tm), make a note on the recording. Sometimes a recording is from vinyl, or I've even received DATS that sound like they're made from Audio Tape ! Let the person you are trading with know if you think the recording quality is not good - before you trade.
  
  
• Do not turn the Sony D8 backlight on or off during recording, this can produce pops in the tape. In fact, its better to record with it off all the time, since it does produce a very slight but noticeable (in quiet parts) high frequency whine in the recording while it is on.
  
  
• Do not have mobile phones (especially digital ones) around while recording, since they interfere badly with the signal.
  
  
• Try to avoid recording through a mixer if possible, since even the best mixers usually add some hiss and hum to a recording. The best way (for analog) is the line-out of one dat, straight into the line-in of the other dat.
  
  
• Do not run both DATS off a common power supply. This can produce a ground-loop effect that shows up as a strange sounding intermittant hum the relates to the load on the power supply. Use seperate transformers (plug packs) for each DAT or run them on batteries.
  
  
• Try to ensure the Start-ID's on a track are as close as possible to the actual start of the music. The easiest way to do this on a sony D8 is to turn the Auto-ID Feature on. Do this by pressing STOP+RECORD at the same time while in stop mode. When Auto-ID is on, a start ID will be written whenever the D8 detects music starting afer 3 or more seconds of silence, rather than whenever you release the pause mode, as it normally does.