DDS Tape Drive on Mac SE(/30)?

[Daniël]

A while back, I got a really cheap SCSI Archive DDS-1 tape drive. I had hoped that this model would be flashable to a special firmware to allow it to play and record audio DATs, but I later found out this model hasn't been confirmed to work for this purpose. However, in the meantime, I found a nicely working Sony SDT-9000 DDS-3 drive for this purpose, leaving this Archive drive practically unused. 

Recently as I've looked into getting SCSI devices for my Macintosh Plus, SE and hopefully soon to be fixed SE/30 (boots after recap, but no video, so waiting on a replacement 74LS166 to show up), I've wondered if there's any software out there for System 6 and/or 7 that would allow me to use the tape drive for its original purpose of backing up data. While not massively useful, it would be fun to use such gear on my Compact Macs, with the help of my little SCSI 50 pin to DB-25 adapter.

So, does anyone know if there is a tape drive program that would work with DDS? I know Apple shipped Retrospect with their QIC drives, but I haven't been able to really see if that software works with DDS drives or not.

 

[Unknown_K]

Yes Retrospect works with SCSI DDS 1 drives. There is also an A/UX version of Retrospect that shipped with A/UX 3 on the Apple Workgroup Server 95 which had a DDS1 drive standard.

 

[Daniël]

Thanks! That's great, especially since I do intend to tinker with A/UX at some point on the SE/30. Having a native A/UX version of Retrospect is crucial, as from what I understand, System 7 apps running on A/UX 3.x.x can't directly access hardware, so it wouldn't be surprising if the Sys7 version of Retrospect running on A/UX wouldn't be able to access SCSI devices. Anyways, I'll have to dig that up

 

[trag]

Retrospect running on Mac OS 7 was able to access DDS drives.    I think it was version 2.3 or something like that.    I ran a backup system in the early 90s with a IIci, a DDS2 drive and Retrospect.     IIRC, there was full Retrospect which included tape drive support and there was a "lite" version of Retrospect (can't remember the name designator) which did not support tape drives.   Anyway, there's no need for A/UX unless you want to run A/UX.

 

[Daniël]

I am aware, what I was saying is that using the Mac OS 7 version of Retrospect on top of A/UX would likely not be able to access the DDS-1 drive. SSW7/Mac OS 7 apps can run on A/UX, but whatever solution Apple designed for doing this, strips the ability for said apps to access hardware directly, so if you ran Retrospect for Mac OS 7 on A/UX, it likely wouldn't be able to access SCSI devices. That point is moot when running Mac OS 7 software on Mac OS 7, or A/UX software on A/UX.

And yes, I do want to run A/UX, for fun 

 

[Franklinstein]

A while back, I got a really cheap SCSI Archive DDS-1 tape drive. I had hoped that this model would be flashable to a special firmware to allow it to play and record audio DATs, but I later found out this model hasn't been confirmed to work for this purpose. However, in the meantime, I found a nicely working Sony SDT-9000 DDS-3 drive for this purpose, leaving this Archive drive practically unused. 

The only big Mac program that I know used DDS drive audio was called StudioDAT (originally at http://www.demon.co.uk/gallery/StudioDAT.html), available bundled in a complete system built from a 9600 or similar and an Archive DDS-2 drive, IIRC. There were a few other playback programs (one resource was here) but none that had as much power as StudioDAT. I tried desperately to find a copy of the software years ago but have never located anything; the original developers still existed at the time but didn't have the software mentioned anywhere and didn't respond to an inquiry. I'd still like to find a copy.

What software were you looking to use?

 

[Daniël]

The only big Mac program that I know used DDS drive audio was called StudioDAT (originally at http://www.demon.co.uk/gallery/StudioDAT.html), available bundled in a complete system built from a 9600 or similar and an Archive DDS-2 drive, IIRC. There were a few other playback programs (one resource was here) but none that had as much power as StudioDAT. I tried desperately to find a copy of the software years ago but have never located anything; the original developers still existed at the time but didn't have the software mentioned anywhere and didn't respond to an inquiry. I'd still like to find a copy.

What software were you looking to use?

For the SDT-9000, I would use WaveDAT, a Windows program by the Japanese developer Efu. My Mac plans are specifically to do data storage on DDS-1 tapes with the Archive 4520NT drive, though, which I'll use the Mac and A/UX versions of Retrospect for.

 

[Daniël]

The only big Mac program that I know used DDS drive audio was called StudioDAT (originally at http://www.demon.co.uk/gallery/StudioDAT.html), available bundled in a complete system built from a 9600 or similar and an Archive DDS-2 drive, IIRC. There were a few other playback programs (one resource was here) but none that had as much power as StudioDAT. I tried desperately to find a copy of the software years ago but have never located anything; the original developers still existed at the time but didn't have the software mentioned anywhere and didn't respond to an inquiry. I'd still like to find a copy.

A five year bump on my thread, but I recently found that someone did actually upload Gallery's DATStudio to the Macintosh Garden. Specifically, a DVD image of a bunch of PowerPC Mac audio applications including DATStudio:

https://macintoshgarden.org/apps/ppc-audio-software-os7-osx58-some-68k-apps

I did try it with my audio firmware Sony SDT-9000, but it just acts weird with it and won't actually play or control the tape. Guess it's very specific to the Archive drives that can be audio firmware flashed, and not just any drive that is capable of audio features (which are just the Archive/Conner/Seagate and Sony drives, though).