Vintage Digital

Optical Disc

Classic Recording Studio Equipment

The Magneto Optical Disc (MOD) and CD (Compact Disc) recording formats represent significant milestones in digital data storage technology. Developed by Sony and Philips in the early 1980s, the CD format transformed the music industry by providing a high-quality, compact medium for storing audio data. CDs utilize laser technology to read and write data on a reflective disc, ensuring precise reproduction of sound without degradation. Similarly, the Magneto Optical Disc (MOD) format, developed by Sony and Hitachi, utilizes magneto-optical technology for data storage. MOD discs employ a combination of laser and magnetic fields to read and write data, offering high reliability and longevity. While CDs revolutionized music distribution, MOD discs found applications in data backup, archival storage, and professional recording. Together, these formats have significantly influenced digital data storage and remain relevant in various industries despite advancements in technology.

The Studer D424 is a Magneto-Optical, 2 channel digital recorder with amazingly easy editing functions, suitable for all broadcasting, recording studio and theatre applications.
Studer dedicated over twelve years to CD research and development and the Studer D741 CD Recorder, enhances and finalises their range alongside existing models like the D730, D731, D731 QC, and D732 CD Players. CD technology held a firm footing in broadcast and studio domains, with none rivalling its widespread use across both consumer and professional spheres.
By the late 1990s, there was a noticeable trend towards seeking superior sound quality in professional digital audio processing, resulting in a shift from using 16-bit systems to those with 20-bit resolution. Sony was at the forefront of this shift, having already introduced a CD Mastering system. Sony in 1999 unveiled the Sony PCM-9000 Digital Master Disc Recorder, which employs an MO (Magneto-Optical) disc as its recording medium.
It’s simple. It’s fast. And it’s fully professional. It’s the Yamaha CDR1000 Professional Audio CD Recorder, a fully professional CD recorder that’s fully compatible with CD-R and CD-RW. Finally, the convenience of tape-based recording formats has come to the CD.
The Tascam CD-RW700 was Tascam’s budget-minded CD recorder, but features came first when the product was designed. Like most products in this price range, the Tascam CD-RW700 offered unbalanced I/O, and S/PDIF digital I/O in coax and optical format.
The Tascam CD-RW2000 at the time of its release was the most advanced stand-alone CD recorder available. Building on the success of Tascam’s CD-RW700 and CD-RW5000, the CD-RW2000 came with a host of professional features, including comprehensive audio I/O, word sync input, call function for checking play cues, digital gain adjustment and digital fade in and fade out.
The Fostex DV40 DVD Master Recorder is a professional-grade DVD recorder designed for high-quality recording and mastering of audio. With excellent converters built-in, the Fostex DV40 is a superb sounding recorder.
The next generation of standalone multitrack recorders arrived with the Fostex DV824, and it provided supreme quality 8-track recording to standard-size DVD-RAM discs in a unique package representing the very forefront of multitrack recorder design.
The TASCAM DV-RA1000 recorder is a professional solution for recording high-resolution audio – up to 192kHz/24-bit – to inexpensive DVD media.
The Fostex CR500 not only allows for professional mastering of stereo recordings onto CD-R/RW, but it also provides the unique capability of directly recording Broadcast WAV files onto a UDF formatted disc.
The Tascam DV-RA1000HD shatters the price barrier to recording mixes and TEC award winning DV-RA1000HD masters to Direct Stream Digital, Sony’s 2.822MHz/1-bit “Super Audio” format that must be heard to be believed. The stereo recorder captures audio from 44.1kHz to 192kHz as WAV files. In addition, the breakthrough DSD recording format adds incredible detail with all of the depth and imaging of quality analog recording.