The Digital revolution of the 1980s continued the use of the cassette and disk and magnetic tape. In1986 Sony/Philips introduced Digital Audio Tape, or DAT, as a result of efforts of the 81-member firm R-DAT consortium to develop a recordable version of the optical compact disc. Because of copyright problems, electronics firms delayed development of consumer products and DAT remained a high-priced professional medium. In 1991 the Alesis Corporation of Los Angeles introduced its new ADAT machine that recorded 8 tracks of digital audio to a standard S-VHS videocassette using the same helical scan technology that created the videocassette boom in the 1970s. With a list price of $3995, and cassettes at $15, the ADAT made multitrack digital recording affordable for the small studio, with the ability to connect together up to 16 ADATs for a total of 128 synchronized tracks. 20,000 were sold in its first year from October 1992 to November 1993 and 80,000 sold by 1998. The Electronic Musician declared in Oct. 1992 that "ADAT is more than a technological innovation; it's a social force." In 1992 Sony began sales of the MiniDisc that had been announced May 30, 1991. The MD was a recordable magneto-optical disc encased in a plastic cartridge with the same 74 minute capacity as the CD but at half the size and with greater compression. The MD was intended to replace the CD and the compact cassette. Sales of cassette tapes began to decline in1989, and Sony felt that the compact cassette system was nearing the end. In1993 the Tascam division of Teac introduced in February the DA-88 digital 8-track recorder for $4,499, the first modular digital multitrack (MDM) recorder to use the Hi-8 videotape. In1997 sales began of the Digital Video cassettes following the DV and miniDV standard introduced by Panasonic & Sony. In 1999 Panasonic announced Digital-VHS (DVHS), the first VCR capable of recording all 18 Digital TV format including HDTV. Just as computers continued to use magnetic hard disks to store data, audio recording continued to use magnetic tape and cassettes for the new era of digital sound.
