Apart from U-Matics for transferring masters, there was no videotape technology involved.Ĭlick to expand.It’s evident to you (and only you!) because you’ve only investigated one part of the history, which unsurprisingly appears to be according to your personal agenda of video. Sony also demonstrated a prototype recorder based on reel-to-reel stationary head linear-scan (DASH) technology in 1977, although they didn’t bring it to market until 1982 but along with ProDigi’s reel-reel stationary head recorder they almost completely dominated the professional studio (digital) recording industry for over a decade. Sony developed a videotape based professional audio recorder (U-Matic), which ran at 44.056kHz and is the only videotape format which achieved mainstream professional use but not for recording, it was used exclusively for transferring masters. 3M’s entry to the market also ran at 50kHz (and again was not based on videotape).

The most important/influential development was by SoundStream in 1976, because it demonstrated commercial usability, but it was not based on videotape, it was based on a 16 track “instrumentation tape recorder” by Honeywell, originally running at sampling rate of 37kHz but the commercial models a year later ran at a 50kHz sample rate. Denon’s original recorder operated at 37.5kHz and Decca’s at 48kHz for example.

Although the first digital recorder was based on videotape and that became a line of development for some companies in the 1970’s, none of those systems operated at 44.1kHz. Click to expand.I don’t believe that’s true.

Sony audio studio