The AKAI DD1000 Magneto Optical digital mastering recorder. I almost bought one back in the day or at least drooled over owning one after seeing one in use at a studio. This unit was used by TV and other studio companies to edit audio and transfer to and from DAT etc; I beleive that the BBC Radiophonic unit had one for example. You could bolt it on to a mac also & use the QMAC editing software.
The unit had 4 tracks which allowed stereo edits to be done between 2 different stereo tracks.
OPTICAL & AES/EBU I/O, WORD CLOCK, SMPTE, MIDI, SYNC, 2 IN/4 OUT - 32k, 44.1k, 48k.
In this image the unit is with the optional DL1000 Digital Editing Controller sitting on top. They were a bit of a nightmare to use like any hardware LCD screen unit, but they did the job very well and it was a huge step up from the old splicing block and tape!
From the AES org's website:
Without doubt, the future of digital mastering lies in the use of hard disk based systems and it might be easy to assume that tape has had its day.
The biggest problem with digital mastering on tape, of course, has been editing. DAT is cheap and produces excellent results but it is not an easily editable medium and so analogue tape has to be used if any editing is to take place, and in these days of extended mixes and alternative mixes, analogue still remains king when the scissors and Sellotape are taken out!
Even something simple like removing the hi-hat count-in is almost impossible on DAT and it must also be pointed out that there are doubts as to DAT's long term stability and reliability. Despite this, however, mastering onto tape is still an attractive option because it is a removable medium and can be freely transported from one location to another. 
Read 2 comments
Add review/comment