Mini-Disk or DAT?

["Richard J. Fabbri" <fabbri@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Dear Christel,

The main difference between Mini-Disk and DAT goes beyond the clear
difference in recording media (Disk versus Tape) ... you might include
the DCC (Digital Compact Cassette) too, as it is quite similar to Mini-Disk
preprocessing of audio information.

DAT is a true (linear) sampling recorder that acquires and stores 16-bit
Stereo samples.  I personally own and use a DAT (Sony TCD-D3).
The recording technology of DAT is essentially identical to the common,
commercial Compact Disk.  In fact, you can copy an audio CD on DAT
with the digital optical fiber cable supplied with DAT !

The Mini-Disk (and DCC) are truly ingenious in that they each
post-process their digital samples for frequency/amplitude content
and perform a detailed Masking assessment so as to record only
those frequency components our hearing can "perceive" ... thus, a
Real-Time, Psychoacoustic Masking analysis of live audio is done
in these tiny (technological marvels!) recorders ... subsequent
recording on the Mini-Disk (or, DCC tape cassette) records only the
"perceivable" frequencies we "hear".  The commercial goal of this
amazing technology was to produce a small ("mini" disk) or
inexpensive (DCC) medium to record Hi-Fi Stereo.

Thus, be aware that much of the stereo microphone wave form will
not be recorded on either a Mini-Disk or DCC !

Your goal is to (post) analyze audio recordings for:
        1) Harmonic-to-Noise ratios
        2) Jitter
        3) Shimmer.

But, Mini-Disk or DCC purposely avoids recording much of the Stereo
waveform so as to reduce the subsequent data storage necessary for
Hi-Fi Stereo playback.  Thus, the Stereo data you wish to capture is
probably missing in a Mini-Disk or DCC recording.

DAT is a portable, 16-bit audio, linear sampling recording technology.
DAT simply records Stereo waveforms as 16-bit samples.


Best Regards,
Rich Fabbri