DAT Archiving -Sound Forge - PC - MAGIX Community Forums Archive

Subject:DAT Archiving Posted by: Soundbyteop Date:12/8/2009 7:27:04 PM Hello: I have a client that wants me to convert 200 Sound Effect DAT tapes to wav files, then go in and pull sections from the giant file to create individual sound effect files. And then create DVD catalog's. I would be working off cue sheets, so finding the sections is not an issue. The issue is that the DAT's are 2 hours long, which translated to 400 hours total dubbing time. What I need to know is can Sound Forge record 2 hours of continuous program. Also, can anyone suggest a more streamline approach to this instead of eating up my entire hard drive. I was thinking of using an external HD. Or, is there a machine out there that dubs DAT's to DVD's. I have seen that type of equipment with VHS tapes. Anyway, I would greatly appreciate any ideas on how to make this work without driving me completely nuts. Thanks: Rich
Subject:RE: DAT Archiving Reply by: Chienworks Date:12/9/2009 4:05:43 AM Sure. Standard 44.1KHz 16 bit stereo is about 606MB/hour so a 2GB .wav file is about 3 hours 20 minutes. 2 hours would be about 1211MB. 400 hours would be about 237GB. You can get 500GB drives for under $60 these days; maybe $80 for an external unit. On the other hand, if you copy enough tape to fill a DVD and then purge you probably won't ever need more than 6GB available for this project at any one time. I'm guessing that by "DVD catalog" your client merely wants a 4.7GB disc full of .wav files, rather than a video DVD which would be a bit pointless. Depending on how well you pack the files on the discs you may need about 55 DVDs to hold it all. There's equipment that dubs audio straight to audio CDs, but anything for doing it to data DVDs is probably custom made special order stuff. The devices you've seen for dubbing VHS make video DVDs which isn't what you want. Assuming there isn't too much gap between the effects, Sound Forge has a function to split up a large file into individual smaller files at marker positions. You can insert the markers as you record by clicking the little M button in the record window. Don't worry about being too precise or missing as you can add and move the markers around after the recording is done. Labelling the markers with the cue names is handy as the splitting function will use those labels to name the files.
Subject:RE: DAT Archiving Reply by: Soundbyteop Date:12/9/2009 5:54:05 AM Thanks for your help. Fortunately, I won't have to sit there listening to each and every DAT as they record. They are sound effect DAT's, so there would be 20 thunder claps, then 20 car engine starts and such. So, I think the way it will go about it is just start the tape, walk away, and come back 2 hours later. Then with the full wav file on the computer, I would go in and grab thunder clap 12, car engine 15 and so on. The client is providing time sheet cues for each sound. Then highlight it, name it and save just that one sound as a separate file. Then when I have enough files, put it all on CD's. So instead of creating full DVD's of each DAT, I will just sell the external hard drive to the client. Bada-Bing, Bada-Boom. I really appreciate your help with this. Rich
Subject:RE: DAT Archiving Reply by: Geoff_Wood Date:12/9/2009 3:19:44 PM Oh, of course you ARE using SPDIF for this, rather than to analogue and back ? geoff
Subject:RE: DAT Archiving Reply by: Soundbyteop Date:12/9/2009 4:58:46 PM Good Call. Thanks for reminding me. Rich

Subject:DAT Archiving

Posted by: Soundbyteop

Date:12/8/2009 7:27:04 PM

Hello:
I have a client that wants me to convert 200 Sound Effect DAT tapes to wav files, then go in and pull sections from the giant file to create individual sound effect files. And then create DVD catalog's. I would be working off cue sheets, so finding the sections is not an issue. The issue is that the DAT's are 2 hours long, which translated to 400 hours total dubbing time. What I need to know is can Sound Forge record 2 hours of continuous program. Also, can anyone suggest a more streamline approach to this instead of eating up my entire hard drive. I was thinking of using an external HD. Or, is there a machine out there that dubs DAT's to DVD's. I have seen that type of equipment with VHS tapes. Anyway, I would greatly appreciate any ideas on how to make this work without driving me completely nuts.
Thanks:
Rich

Subject:RE: DAT Archiving

Reply by: Chienworks

Date:12/9/2009 4:05:43 AM

Sure. Standard 44.1KHz 16 bit stereo is about 606MB/hour so a 2GB .wav file is about 3 hours 20 minutes. 2 hours would be about 1211MB. 400 hours would be about 237GB. You can get 500GB drives for under $60 these days; maybe $80 for an external unit. On the other hand, if you copy enough tape to fill a DVD and then purge you probably won't ever need more than 6GB available for this project at any one time.

I'm guessing that by "DVD catalog" your client merely wants a 4.7GB disc full of .wav files, rather than a video DVD which would be a bit pointless. Depending on how well you pack the files on the discs you may need about 55 DVDs to hold it all. There's equipment that dubs audio straight to audio CDs, but anything for doing it to data DVDs is probably custom made special order stuff. The devices you've seen for dubbing VHS make video DVDs which isn't what you want.

Assuming there isn't too much gap between the effects, Sound Forge has a function to split up a large file into individual smaller files at marker positions. You can insert the markers as you record by clicking the little M button in the record window. Don't worry about being too precise or missing as you can add and move the markers around after the recording is done. Labelling the markers with the cue names is handy as the splitting function will use those labels to name the files.

Subject:RE: DAT Archiving

Reply by: Soundbyteop

Date:12/9/2009 5:54:05 AM

Thanks for your help. Fortunately, I won't have to sit there listening to each and every DAT as they record. They are sound effect DAT's, so there would be 20 thunder claps, then 20 car engine starts and such. So, I think the way it will go about it is just start the tape, walk away, and come back 2 hours later. Then with the full wav file on the computer, I would go in and grab thunder clap 12, car engine 15 and so on. The client is providing time sheet cues for each sound. Then highlight it, name it and save just that one sound as a separate file. Then when I have enough files, put it all on CD's. So instead of creating full DVD's of each DAT, I will just sell the external hard drive to the client. Bada-Bing, Bada-Boom. I really appreciate your help with this.
Rich

Subject:RE: DAT Archiving

Reply by: Geoff_Wood

Date:12/9/2009 3:19:44 PM

Oh, of course you ARE using SPDIF for this, rather than to analogue and back ?

geoff

Subject:RE: DAT Archiving

Reply by: Soundbyteop

Date:12/9/2009 4:58:46 PM

Good Call.
Thanks for reminding me.

Rich