DASH

Another music industry acronym. DASH stands for Digital Audio Stationary Head and pertains to a format of digital recorders. Back in the days when digital recording was in its infancy it was not yet clear whether most recorders would use rotating heads (like DAT machines) or stationary heads. Early on DAT was called R-DAT for just this reason. There was also S-DAT, but it was far less used in favor of the DASH acronym that was already in use (and because stationary head DAT machines never got off the ground). Most of the real high-end digital audio multitrack machines (those made by the likes of Sony and Mitsubishi) are DASH machines. These big machines use a reel of special digital tape that runs past a stationary head at (relatively) high speeds. They look almost like analog reel to reel machines to the uninitiated, but generally cost three or four times as much money.