Beneath a Steel Sky Audio Restoration Project

joostp · Post by **joostp** » Sun Nov 20, 2005 5:55 pm

uncle.f wrote:I have a very good friend of mine who is studying sonology (all about sounds) in Den Haag
http://www.koncon.nl/public_site/220/SOmain.html
I asked him if he had access to DAT equipment and he told me that there are loads of those machines where he is studying. I am quite sure that he cannot send you a DAT player, but as far as I remember Den Haag is 20 minutes (or so) by train from Amsterdam so you could meet up and do it all there.
The only thing is that my friend is on holidays in another country and won't be back until February, however if it is really urgent he can ask his classmates to arrange something.
Let me know if you are interested.

Thanks!
February is a fair while off, but I'll consider it as an option if I haven't been able to sort a Sony SDT-9000 (or compatible) by then.

loki1985 · Post by **loki1985** » Sun Nov 20, 2005 8:27 pm

i am just informing myself about this SDT-9000, and it seems it is some internal streamer drive. does this mean this thing can read audio data recorded by some DAT Recording device as well as normal files?

joostp · Post by **joostp** » Sun Nov 20, 2005 8:42 pm

loki1985 wrote:i am just informing myself about this SDT-9000, and it seems it is some internal streamer drive. does this mean this thing can read audio data recorded by some DAT Recording device as well as normal files?

From what I gathered; yes, it can, if you've flashed it with the special firmware.

Maybe this site will explain it a bit better: http://kickme.to/sdt9000

loki1985 · Post by **loki1985** » Mon Nov 21, 2005 11:26 am

joostp wrote: Maybe this site will explain it a bit better: http://kickme.to/sdt9000

thanks. this really clearified the issue.

OTOH, there are these big standalone players/recorders (looking similar to a standalone tape deck).

of course they can record and playback from/to analog ports, but would there be a way to transfer the audio data from such a device to a PC without D/A-changing? and if, how?

i read in ebay about some Digital audio ports which those machines have, maybe there is some adapter/converter which enables to connect those machines to e.g. USB or similar.

for some pictures:
http://cgi.ebay.de/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vie ... 7365751601

one of the lower pictures shows "digital ports" on the backside.
dual cinch and dual "optical".

if someone knows how to connect one of those to a PC without "analogisation", this would be great.

(i bet those freakin expensive studio soundcards would do the job, but if there is a cheaper alternative this would be much better

)

if it all works, i will try to get such a device rather than a streamer drive.

if until then nothing else worked for you, maybe i can help with this issue, tho it could take some time for me to get one such machine.

LogicDeLuxe · Post by **LogicDeLuxe** » Mon Nov 21, 2005 2:14 pm

Since several years, the PC mainboard usualy has SPDIFF on board. (You should be able to connect a CD-ROM drive with it, in order to find out how well it works. Compare the SPDIFF input with a ripped audio track. They should be exactly the same. Unfortunately, a digital connection might resample internally and it is not bit exact then. (For this test, you have to disable digital CD playback in Windows 2000/XP!) Check that out before purchasing a soundboard! If you can verify that you have bit exact input at SPDIFF, it should work fine from a external digital cinch line as well.
Some PC boards also have optical SPDIFF on the back panel, though those aren't very comon.

DerSchrauber · Post by **DerSchrauber** » Mon Nov 21, 2005 5:07 pm

Are you sure, those DAT tapes are normal audio (consumer) DAT tapes and not ADAT (Alesis/eight track)?

I own 2 DAT recorders (Sony DTC-670 and Sony DAT-57ES) which I could lend to you.
I live in Germany - I'm not sure about shipping costs to the Netherlands.

joostp · Post by **joostp** » Mon Nov 21, 2005 6:18 pm

DerSchrauber wrote:Are you sure, those DAT tapes are normal audio (consumer) DAT tapes and not ADAT (Alesis/eight track)?

I own 2 DAT recorders (Sony DTC-670 and Sony DAT-57ES) which I could lend to you.
I live in Germany - I'm not sure about shipping costs to the Netherlands.

Yep, they're regular DATs.
Thanks for the offer, but I just purchased a Sony DST-9000. So I'm afraid it's slightly too late.

What I could use though is a pre-recorded DAT to experiment with, so I can test the drive and software without risking any of the precious BASS tapes.

Post by **sev** » Mon Nov 21, 2005 6:42 pm

joostp wrote:I just purchased a Sony DST-9000

Wow! Let's see how it will turn out.

Eugene

SumthinWicked · Post by **SumthinWicked** » Mon Nov 21, 2005 11:57 pm

joostp wrote:I just purchased a Sony DST-9000

Oh happy day

theneb · Post by **theneb** » Wed Nov 23, 2005 12:14 am

Very good to hear this guys, I've always had something for the BASS music and an enhanced version would be ace.

olki · Post by **olki** » Wed Nov 23, 2005 12:38 am

theneb wrote:Very good to hear this guys, I've always had something for the BASS music and an enhanced version would be ace.

This isn't for the music. The music is midi. The restoration project aims to enhance the speech of BASS.

dpolsrod · Post by **dpolsrod** » Wed Nov 23, 2005 10:21 am

I'me really looking forward to seeing this project finished. I love BASS and I always felt the speech had too low quality, but the game as a whole was great.
Maybe you should update the status in the first post of this thread now that you have a DAT player?

It's also great to see a game company who's willing to cooperate so well with fans of their games. Maybe LEC should be taking notes?

Keep up the good work guys.

joostp · Post by **joostp** » Wed Nov 23, 2005 11:17 am

dpolsrod wrote:Maybe you should update the status in the first post of this thread now that you have a DAT player?

I will, once I actually have it in my possession.
The plan is to pick it up tonight.

SimSaw · Post by **SimSaw** » Wed Nov 23, 2005 5:29 pm

Since somebody made fun of me, I got a little angry, but maybe you need software. (I don't know if you bought a DAT player or a DAT streamer, I guess the later.) If you need software, you'd better ask me - firmly.

joostp · Post by **joostp** » Wed Nov 23, 2005 10:26 pm

SimSaw wrote:Since somebody made fun of me, I got a little angry, but maybe you need software. (I don't know if you bought a DAT player or a DAT streamer, I guess the later.) If you need software, you'd better ask me - firmly.

What's this supposed to mean?
If you want to be a prick then you can get lost - firmly.