DA-88! Who Do We Appreciate?
NAMM TEC Awards Hall of Fame inducts the TASCAM digital multitrack recorder.
20 June 2022
TASCAM has announced that its DA-88 Digital Multitrack Recorder has been inducted into the NAMM TEC Awards’ TECnology Hall of Fame. Founded in 2004 and developed by George Petersen, the TECnology Hall of Fame honours and recognises audio products and innovations that have made a significant contribution to the advancement of audio technology. The award ceremony took place during this year’s NAMM Show in Anaheim.
Introduced in 1993, the Tascam DA-88 was a 16-bit recording system with sampling rates of either 44.1kHz or 48kHz. The system used Hi8 8mm cassette tapes, which offered a superior metal tape formulation that provided higher density recording than any competing digital systems at the time. A single Hi8 tape could record for 108 minutes in the DTRS (Digital Tape Recording System) format.
As a modular multitrack recording system, it was possible to link upwards of sixteen DA-88 recorders to achieve 128 tracks of digital recording with extremely fast lockup among the machines. While the DA-88 was initially introduced as a new digital recording system for the serious home recording enthusiast or project studios, it also became tremendously successfully in the audio postproduction community for both TV and film applications. Whereas it is not the least bit uncommon for film production to include a hundred or more tracks of sound effects, the DA-88 became a terrific solution for the creation of mix stems, whereby sound effects tracks were sub-mixed into smaller, more manageable groups.
With the DA-88’s first rate audio performance and its rapid and highly accurate synchronisation capabilities, the recorder re-defined many aspects of audio postproduction. This year’s NAMM TEC Awards’ TECnology Hall of Fame ceremony included five inductees. Paul Youngblood, Tascam Director of Product Marketing, was on site to accept the award on behalf of Tascam. He reflected on the success of the DA-88 and its induction into the NAMM TEC Awards’ TECnology Hall of Fame, “All of us at Tascam are honoured to be included in the NAMM TEC Awards’ TECnology Hall of Fame. The products that were inducted this evening are truly innovative and have had a profound impact on music and audio production. This award is indicative of all the thought and engineering effort that went into the creation of the DA-88 and to have it recognised in this manner is very special to us. Thank you.”
3-5 June 2022
Anaheim Convention Center • Southern California
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