BM> Things seems to be settling down, so I'm ready to jump into digital.
BM> I'm prepared to buy a digital 8-track recorder yesterday, but I can't
BM> decide between the TASCAM DA-88 and the Alessis ADAT.  I do professional
I think this question rates up there with 'What's the meaning of life?'  :)
But ever since the beginning I've been using the ADATs in my studio.  I've 
definitely gone through some interesting moments with them during the past 
.5
years.  I can only tell you about the DA88s from second-hand experience, 
magazine reviews, etc.
The Alesis ADAT uses the SVHS format and runs at about 3x's normal video 
speed.  Therefore, you get 40 minutes out of a 120 minute tape.  The maximum 
time you'll get on one tape is 60 minutes if you use a T-180 tape.  Because 
f
the faster tape speed, it takes a longer time to fast forward and rewind.  If 
you have the patience, then it shouldn't bother you that much.  The DA88s use 
Hi8 tapes and give you about 108 minutes of recording time on a T120 tape.  
This is useful for extended live recording or scoring films (longer than 60 
mins.).  The DA88's tape speed is slower than the ADAT's, so the 
rewind/forward time is less.  There's also a shuttle/job wheel on the remote 
controller for the DA88s -- not found on the ADATs.  This may be useful for
locating points on the tape.  There's one thing about the DA88s that may shy 
some people away...  it uses 4 stereo tape heads, similar to those found on 
TASCAM's DA-30 DAT machine, to record 8-channels of audio.  This means that 
every time you record something on track 2, the information on track one is 
being read and re-written to the tape.  You can see that there's potential 
or
data loss here, but I haven't heard of any tragedies *yet*.  Another useful 
feature of the DA88 is the recording frequency selector button -- 44.1kHz or 
48kHz.  The ADATs normally record at 48kHz, but you can vary it from about 
39kHz to 50kHz -- it's almost impossible to know what frequency you're at in 
between unless you do some funky calculations.  
The ADATs also has a proprietary digital fiber optic cable that allows you to 
route a track from one machine to any track on another machine (with the BRC 
remote controller).  The DA88's use a 25-pin cable which only allows you to 
bounce from one track on one machine to the same track on antoher machine.  
For example, you must bounce from track 1 on machine A to track 1 on machine 
B -- you can't go to track 8 on machine B.  However, I must mention that you 
can buy a digital router (for extra $$$) which will route the data to any 
track like the ADATs.
ADATs support ELCO-style balanced connections as well as unbalanced TS 1/4"
connections.  The DA88 on the other hand, has unbalanced RCA connectors (not 
really professional-like) and a D-sub 25-pin +4dBu balanced connector.  
I should also mention that the Alesis BRC (Big Remote Control) offers control 
of up to 16 ADATs totalling 128 tracks.  It also offers MIDI timecode 
sync/gen, SMPTE sync/gen, video sync, and 48kHz sync/gen.  The TASCAM RC848
remote controller offers control of 48 tracks, plus the jog/shuttle wheel.  
t
doesn't provide all the sync capabilities of the BRC.  The SY-88 is an add-on 
board you slip into your master DA88 machine to provide SMPTE timecode 
sync/gen, video sync, and Sony 9-pin RS-422 interface so you can control your 
DA88s from your video edit controller.  I should mention that the Alesis AI-2 
interface provides RS-422 control for the ADATs as well.
Personally I feel the Hi8 format is the wiser choice (maybe because I've only 
worked with SVHS).  If you're going to go with Hi8, I would definitely look 
into Sony's new 8-track digital recorder -- not sure of the model number.  It
looks very similar to the DA88, but I hear it has XLR connectors in the back.
It may have some other improvements over the DA88.  If you're going to go 
ith
SVHS, you might want to take a look at the FOSTEX 8-track recorder.  It has 
some more built-in features that the Alesis ADATs don't, but you can always 
find those in the BRC.  All the Hi8 recorders are of course compatible with 
the other Hi8 recorders, and all the SVHS recorders are compatible with the 
other SVHS recorders.  
For radio applications, I would think that a jog/shuttle wheel is important 
(therefore you should buy into the Hi8 format).  Then again, it's more 
cost-effective to purchase an ADAT since they recently went down in retail
price.  I should also mention the Alesis Worldwide Network.  I'm not sure 
exactly what that is, but somehow Alesis owners communicate and exchange 
knowledge/tapes that way.  
So there you have it.  :)
--- Renegade v10-05 Exp
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