Editing Digital Audio Tape (section)

== Uses ==
=== Professional recording industry ===
DAT was used professionally in the 1990s by the audio recording industry as part of an emerging all-digital production chain also including digital multi-track recorders and [[digital mixing console]]s that was used to create a fully digital recording. In this configuration, it is possible for the audio to remain digital from the first AD converter after the [[mic preamp]] until it is in a [[CD player]].{{fact|date=July 2022}}

=== Pre-recorded albums ===
[[File:Kenwood DAT-140218-0002WP-crop.jpg|thumb|upright=1.25|DAT Recorder (Kenwood DX-7030)]]
[[File:Sony PCM-7030 of DR 20111102a-crop (cropped).jpg|thumb|upright=1.25|DAT was also used in professional environ&shy;ments like [[recording studio]]s and [[broadcasting]] institutions. The depicted device is a professional Sony PCM-7030 DAT recorder which had a recommended retail price of 8000 [[US dollars]].<ref>[http://www.datrecorders.co.uk/pcm7030.php Data on Sony PCM-7030] at datrecorders.co.uk</ref>]] 
In December 1987, ''The Guitar And Other Machines'' by the British post-punk band [[The Durutti Column]], became the first commercial release on DAT. Later in May 1988, [[Wire (band)|Wire]] released their album ''[[The Ideal Copy]]'' on the format.<ref>{{Cite journal | title=Back in the Days of '88 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5oyYjDeNc_AC&pg=PA71 | journal=[[Spin (magazine)|Spin]] | volume=4 | issue=9 |date=December 1988 | page=71 | access-date=29 April 2011| last1=Media | first1=Spin L. L. C. }}</ref> Several other albums from multiple record labels were also released as pre-recorded DATs in the first few years of the format's existence, in small quantities as well. [[Factory Records]] released a [[Factory Records discography|small number of albums]] on the format, including [[New Order (band)|New Order]]'s best-selling compilation ''[[Substance 1987]]'', but many planned releases were cancelled.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.cerysmaticfactory.info/dat_and_copycode_q.php|title=DAT and Copycode (Q Magazine article c.1988) – Factory Records|work=cerysmaticfactory.info}}</ref>

=== Amateur and home use ===
[[File:Original Sony DAT Walkman.JPG|thumb|upright=1.25|Sony DAT Walkman TCD-D7]]
DAT was envisaged by proponents as the successor format to analogue audio cassettes in the way that the compact disc was the successor to vinyl-based recordings. It sold well in Japan, where high-end consumer audio stores stocked DAT recorders and tapes into the 2010s and second-hand stores generally continued to offer a wide selection of mint condition machines. However, there and in other nations, the technology was never as commercially popular as CD or cassette. DAT recorders proved to be comparatively expensive and few commercial recordings were available. Globally, DAT remained popular, for a time, for [[Taper (concert)|making]] and [[Tape trading|trading]] recordings of live music (see [[bootleg recording]]), since available DAT recorders predated affordable CD recorders. In the 1990s, fans of [[jam bands]], such as the [[Grateful Dead]] and [[Phish]], recorded and stored high-quality audience recordings of live concerts on the format.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Lei |first1=Richard |title=The Hottest Band the World Has Never Heard |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/style/1994/10/16/the-hottest-band-the-world-has-never-heard/a93436d8-b450-4d95-a995-ab2ac6ecfb12/ |newspaper=The Washington Post|access-date=26 November 2019 |date=16 October 1994}}</ref>

=== Computer data storage medium ===
{{Main article|Digital Data Storage}}
The format was designed for audio use, but through the ISO Digital Data Storage standard was adopted for general data storage, storing from 1.3 to 80&nbsp;GB on a 60 to 180 meter tape depending on the standard and compression. It is a sequential-access medium and is commonly used for [[backup]]s. Due to the higher requirements for capacity and integrity in data backups, a computer-grade DAT was introduced, called DDS (Digital Data Storage). Although functionally similar to audio DATs, only a few DDS and DAT drives (in particular, those manufactured by [[Archive Corporation|Archive]] for [[Silicon Graphics|SGI workstations]])<ref>{{cite web|url=http://ask.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=99/09/29/0451243|title=Can you Rip DAT audio? (Ask Slashdot forum thread)|publisher=Slashdot|access-date=25 October 2007|date=1 October 1999}}</ref> are capable of reading the audio data from a DAT cassette. SGI DDS4 drives no longer have audio support; SGI removed the feature due to "lack of demand".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://homepage.ntlworld.com/adrian.rixon/personal/ade/dat-dds/drives.html |title=DAT/DDS hardware |date=26 March 2003 |access-date=25 October 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071016202400/http://homepage.ntlworld.com/adrian.rixon/personal/ade/dat-dds/drives.html |archive-date=16 October 2007 |url-status=dead}}</ref>