Editing Digital Audio Tape (section)

=== Predecessor formats ===
DAT was not the first digital audio tape; [[pulse-code modulation]] (PCM) was used in [[Japan]] by [[Denon]] in 1972 for the mastering and production of analogue [[phonograph record]]s, using a [[Quadruplex videotape|2-inch Quadruplex]]-format videotape recorder for its [[transport (recording)|transport]], but this was not developed into a [[consumer product]]. Denon's development dated from its work with Japan's NHK Broadcasting; NHK developed the first high-fidelity PCM audio recorder in the late 1960s. Denon continued development of their PCM recorders that used professional video machines as the storage medium, eventually building 8-track units used for, among other productions, a series of jazz records made in New York in the late 1970s.{{fact|date=July 2022}}

In 1976, another digital audio tape format was developed by [[Soundstream]], using {{convert|1|in|mm|1|spell=in}} wide [[reel-to-reel tape]] loaded on an [[instrumentation]] recorder manufactured by [[Honeywell]] acting as a transport, which in turn was connected to outboard digital audio encoding and decoding hardware of Soundstream's own design. Soundstream's format was improved through several prototypes and when it was developed to 50&nbsp;kHz sampling rate at 16 bits, it was deemed good enough for professional classical recording by the company's first client, [[Telarc Records]] of Cleveland, Ohio. Telarc's April, 1978 recording of the Holst Suites for Band by [[Frederick Fennell]] and the Cleveland Wind Ensemble was a landmark release, and ushered in [[digital recording]] for America's classical music labels. Soundstream's system was also used by [[RCA]].{{fact|date=July 2022}}

Starting in 1978, [[3M]] introduced its own line and format of digital audio tape recorders for use in a [[recording studio]]. One of the first prototypes of 3M's system was installed in the studios of [[Sound 80]] in [[Minneapolis, Minnesota]]. This system was used in June 1978 to record [[Aaron Copland]]'s "Appalachian Spring" by the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra conducted by Dennis Russell Davies. That record was the first Grammy-winning digital recording. The production version of the 3M Digital Mastering System was used in 1979 to record the first all-digital rock album, [[Ry Cooder|Ry Cooder's]] "Bop Till You Drop," made at Warner Brothers Studio in California.{{fact|date=July 2022}}

The first consumer-oriented PCM format used consumer video tape formats (Beta and VHS) as the storage medium. These systems used the EIAJ digital format, which sampled at 44.056&nbsp;kHz at 14 bits. The Sony PCM-F1 system debuted in 1981, and Sony from the start offered the option of 16-bit wordlength. Other systems were marketed by Akai, JVC, Nakamichi and others. Panasonic, via its Technics division, briefly sold a digital recorder that combined an EIAJ digital adapter with a VHS video transport, the SV-P100. These machines were marketed by consumer electronics companies to consumers, but they were very pricey compared to cassette or even reel-to-reel decks of the time. They did catch on with the more budget conscious professional recordists, and some boutique-label professional releases were recorded using these machines.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://mixonline.com/TECnology-Hall-of-Fame/1981-sony-pcmf1/ |title=1981 Sony PCM-F1 Digital Recording Processor-Mix Inducts Sony PCMF1 Processor into 2007 TECnology Hall of Fame |access-date=2011-03-23 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110314050116/http://mixonline.com/TECnology-Hall-of-Fame/1981-sony-pcmf1/ |archive-date=14 March 2011}}</ref>

Starting in the early 1980s, professional systems using a [[PCM adaptor]] were also common as mastering formats. These systems digitized an analog audio signal and then encoded the resulting digital stream into an analog video signal so that a conventional VCR could be used as a storage medium.{{fact|date=July 2022}}

One of the most significant examples of a PCM adaptor-based system was the [[Sony PCM-1600]] digital audio mastering system, introduced in 1978. The PCM-1600 used a [[U-Matic]]-format VCR for its transport, connected to external digital audio processing hardware. It (and its later versions such as the PCM-1610 and 1630) was widely used for the production and mastering of some of the first Digital Audio CDs in the early 1980s. Once CDs were commercially introduced in 1982, tapes recorded on the PCM-1600 were sent to the CD pressing plants to be used to make the glass master disc for CD replication.{{fact|date=July 2022}}

Other examples include [[dbx, Inc.]]'s [[Dbx Model 700 Digital Audio Processor|Model 700]] system, which, similar to later [[Super Audio CD]]s, used a high sample-rate delta-sigma modulation rather than PCM; Decca's 1970s [[PCM]] system,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.mancini99.freeserve.co.uk/Decca_1.html |title=The Decca Digital Audio Recording System |author=G. Mancini |date=March 2004 |access-date=25 October 2007 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071026152024/http://www.mancini99.freeserve.co.uk/Decca_1.html |archive-date=26 October 2007}}</ref> which used a videotape recorder manufactured by [[IVC (videotape recorder)|IVC]] for a transport; and [[Mitsubishi]]'s X-80 digital recorder, a 6.4&nbsp;mm ({{frac|1|4}}&nbsp;in) [[open reel]] digital [[Audio mastering|mastering]] format that used a very unusual sampling rate of 50.4&nbsp;kHz.{{fact|date=July 2022}}

For high-quality studio recording, all of these formats were effectively made obsolete in the early 1980s by two competing [[reel-to-reel]] formats with stationary heads: [[Sony]]'s [[Digital Audio Stationary Head|DASH]] format and [[Mitsubishi]]'s continuation of the X-80 recorder, which was improved upon to become the [[ProDigi]] format. (In fact, one of the first ProDigi-format recorders, the Mitsubishi X-86C, was playback-compatible with tapes recorded on an X-80.) Both of these formats remained popular as an analog alternative until the early 1990s, when hard disk recorders rendered them obsolete.{{fact|date=July 2022}}