Recording vinyl and tape to DSD?

[Shakedown]

A recording engineer reccomended I capture my reel to reel collection in DSD format, that DSD better captures the depth of analog over a standard PCM USB ADC.

What are your thoughts on this? Would DSD be a good choice for supurb digital conversion? Anyone have luck with it?

 

[Shakedown]

Personally I was thinking about looking out for a good Tascam DV-RA1000 that is capabale of capturig DSD.

At the moment I have a USBPre 1.5 ADC, and a Focsurite 2i2. If DSD is really all the hype they say it is, I would be highly interested in going down that route.

 

[analoge4ever]

DSD is the best, but is it really necessary? PCMI already exceeds the capability of vinyl and most tape, however it is difficult to compare because at that level you will also be comparing hardware so how will you know what is due to the file format and what is due to the equipment?

I guess you should do some comparison listening before you invest too heavily into the project.

 

[mfrench]

Personally I was thinking about looking out for a good Tascam DV-RA1000 that is capabale of capturig DSD.

At the moment I have a USBPre 1.5 ADC, and a Focsurite 2i2. If DSD is really all the hype they say it is, I would be highly interested in going down that route.

View attachment 1044550

I wish that I still had the video where I took a pick-axe to my DVRA1000, and I tore it to small shards. It was entertianing and cathartic.
This after it screwed me for the last time in a live mastering destroying of the master disc.
I would avoid that deck like the plague.

 

[mfrench]

There are a couple of small portable recorders now that do DSD; Korg and Sony(?). They'd be miles more reliable than that Trashcan unit, and likely less cost.
I'm not familiar with which units support DSD, as I've not researched them. I was a bit put-off in my DSD experience (2005).

 

[mfrench]

At the time of the purchase, Tascam made a software available that allowed you to edit the DSD tracks, and split them into tracks. It also allowed for a resampling from DSD to PCM format. DiscWelder Bronze, I think it was? It was free to the purchaser, but cost like $600 to buy if not.
The prob with the DVRA1000 was likely firmware related; but, it would randomly destroy the table of contents of the master disc, rendering it unplayable on the unit. The unit would not recognize it as its own source data. It did this to me a couple of times at the very end of live recordings, and rendered those efforts dead; fortunately I had backup tracks rolling.
I found out just this year, 6 months ago, that those recordings that I thought were destroyed, were in fact still viable as data on the master discs. So I am now able to extract them, and, now rendering to PCM in those instances where I still needed to do so. processing,....

 

[Shakedown]

At the time of the purchase, Tascam made a software available that allowed you to edit the DSD tracks, and split them into tracks. It also allowed for a resampling from DSD to PCM format. DiscWelder Bronze, I think it was? It was free to the purchaser, but cost like $600 to buy if not.
The prob with the DVRA1000 was likely firmware related; but, it would randomly destroy the table of contents of the master disc, rendering it unplayable on the unit. The unit would not recognize it as its own source data. It did this to me a couple of times at the very end of live recordings, and rendered those efforts dead; fortunately I had backup tracks rolling.
I found out just this year, 6 months ago, that those recordings that I thought were destroyed, were in fact still viable as data on the master discs. So I am now able to extract them, and, now rendering to PCM in those instances where I still needed to do so. processing,....

Does that RA1000 allow you to record into a DSD file direct to your computer without the use of a disc?

 

[mfrench]

Does that RA1000 allow you to record into a DSD file direct to your computer without the use of a disc?

It only allowed to record to DVD+RW as DSD, or, PCM
Later versions had an onboard harddrive.

 

[Shakedown]

Okay, so you would basically have to get a device that would be able to pull the DSD/ISO files off of the DVD.

 

[Shakedown]

I'm really looking for a DSD ADC, so I can skip the dreaded PS3 step.

On one note, under $600 category an am willing to buy on the used market.

 

[mfrench]

Okay, so you would basically have to get a device that would be able to pull the DSD/ISO files off of the DVD.

Thank you.
As soon as I realized that I could extract them,.. that process has already begun.

 

[Nightwisher]

With the capabilities of standard lossless recording (particularly FLAC), and the complications and expesnse that arise from DSD, I'd choose lossless every time (and I do). Recording to FLAC is also cheap with a good ADC (like on a soundcard) and the free Audacity.

 

[Shakedown]

Has anyone used the Sony PCMD100 portable mic, apparently has DSD capability?

 

[mfrench]

check out www.taperssection.com
There is tons of information there.
And that is the Sony unit that I was suggesting earlier, but, couldn't recall the model number.

 

[Shakedown]

The one thing I like about the Tascam is it's XLR ports, absent from Sony and Korg.

 

[Wildcat]

Tascam DA-3000 fits the bill:

http://tascam.com/product/da-3000/

Records to a standard SDHC card, in either PCM or DSD. I'm using a cheaper Tascam portable to record needle drops to 24/96 (can't play my rekkids in the car otherwise), but eventually will make my way to the DA-3000.

 

[phantomrebel]

The one thing I like about the Tascam is it's XLR ports, absent from Sony and Korg.

The DA-3000 is quite good. I have a friend who swears by his for digitizing his tapes.
He prefers it over his Korg MR-2000s.

 

[Shakedown]

I guess that is the best option in my price range, only downside to the DA-3000 would be it's FAT-32 file system that clips to a new track every 25 minutes.

Would love the option to record @DSD128 for one hour straight, have many live concert reels that have just been sitting in my basement waiting to be archived.

Tascam DS-98's on good old digital tape are extremly rare to find, but you can record till the end of the tape.

 

[restorer-john]

I had a Tascam DA-88, 8 track, what a beast it was, but that 98 with DSD looks cool too.

I just trust rust on plastic more than optical one off disc mastering. Linear is the go IMO- you can recover from that.

 

[blownsi]

Boytris is correct in that all of these captures will need editing at some point even if it's just to chop them into tracks. DSD software is not only hard to come by but more labor intensive than your average PC/Mac will be happy with. Many folks are capturing in DSD but then convert to PCM for editing. I don't see the point when it's so easy to just use something like a Focusrite or Apogee to capture in PCM.