Here’s one that has reoccurred over the years: “After doing a digital transfer from my DAT machine to my DAW, the sound file plays back too fast. What is causing that?”
The only way for digital sound files to play at different speeds is for the sample rate to change. If you make a recording at, say 44.1 kHz and play back at 48 kHz your file will sound faster (and higher pitched). When doing transfers you need to make sure the sample rate in your DAW matches the sample rate on the DAT. In most instances a digital transfer can’t be accomplished unless the sample clocks are synchronized. Meaning you usually can’t take a 48 kHz digital output and record it at 44.1 kHz. So it is mostly a matter of making sure you are playing back the file at the same rate it was recorded, whatever that was. If you have a DAT that is at 48k and you want to get the audio in your computer at 44.1 k (because you want to make CD’s) you will have to convert the sample rate. Some software has pretty decent algorithms for this, but there is usually some loss of sound quality. Unless you can afford the expensive tools that do this with little or no loss of quality you are probably better off making these transfers in the analog domain.