DAT Tapes

Earlier this year, I purchased 1,300 DAT tapes that came from a major recording studio in Glen Cove, NY.   

Did you ever wonder what original master DAT tapes sound like?

Lighthouse Family - 'Lifted'


Sissel - 'In My Soul (Ruff Mix)'


Sissel - 'Don't Go Outta Here (Ruff Mix)'


To The Moon Alice - 'Lost - live soundboard DAT'


David Charvet - 'Sometimes it Rains - Demo'


The version of 'Lifted' I have was never released, although I think it sounds better then the version they did release. It was labeled 'DH Choice', which DH was the mixing/recording engineers initials. Here's the version they released:



The two Sissel songs were demos that were never released. Sissel Kyrkjebø is a Norwegian singer who is considered to be one of the world's top crossover sopranos. She recorded these 'rough demos' at the point in her career where she was trying to find her 'voice' and style. Compared to the songs she sings now, these are very dark sounding and very different. I often wonder what her fans would think if they were released.

The 'To The Moon Alice' song was a direct DAT recording from the soundboard of a live concert. It was released as one of the last two songs on their last album.

The David Charvet recording is a demo of him playing the song on a piano and singing. It was recorded 5 years before he actually released the song. I actually prefer his demo recording to the commercial release. Here's the music video of the song as it was recorded and released:



What the heck happened to his voice? 

All of these were originally 48K/16bit masters that I imported digitally and converted to 320k .mp3 files. I have over 1200 tapes with tons of stuff that was never released, demo recordings and alternate mixes. The sound quality is very good. I just don't know what to do with them. They sound to good to just erase them.

One thing that stands out to me is the quality of the sound. Remember, these are raw recordings, so there is no mastering or 'brick wall' compression/expansion applied to ruin the sound. They sound very pure and sweet with wide imaging and dynamics.

What do you think?

I just got done scanning the covers of all the tapes in the first of three boxes. Two more boxes to go!

[smg id=369]

Here's three more samples from a band called 'Drill' that broke up before their last album was released:

Drill - "Into You"

Drill - "Complicated"

Drill - "Looking for Strange"


All of these songs were never released. The band broke up and went their separate ways. Some of you may recognize the lead singer - Lucia Cifarelli - who went on to join KMFDM.

The thing I like best about these DAT tapes is the purity of the audio quality. The recordings are uncompressed with very good dynamics. Since they are studio masters, they don't exhibit any of the flaws most consumer CD releases have (compressed dynamics, sibilance, excessive loudness, normalization, etc.).   

I found another interesting set of DAT tapes that were marked 'Chloe' as the artist. It turns out, these are songs that Celine Dion ended up singing for one of her albums, but who's singing this version? Were these songs submitted by another unknown artist as demos and Celine purchased the rights to sing them as her own? The recording dates are months before the Celine Dion versions were recorded, so in a way, whoever is singing these two demo songs is the original artist and recorded them before Celine.

IMHO, Chloe sings them better than Celine does. 

Chloe - 'Love is on the Way' & 'Only One Road'


Cline Dion's version:


What do you think?

just finished listening to all the samples.

you're right! great sound quality.
Sissel and To the moon is good stuff. Drill sounds like a softer/lighter version of Garbage to me (but still enjoyable).

Here's another sample:

Ella Enchanted Soundtrack - 'It's Not Just Make Believe' by Kari Kimmel



I did something a little different with this sample, I took the vocal track and synched it to the finished song and bounced between them so you can hear the difference of how she sounds with the band and by herself. To my ears, it sounds like she had a cold because there's a nasal sound underlying her singing that is masked by the music. 

Here's the music video for the song:

God, this is truly a treasure