TECHNICAL NOTE - RISK OF OVERLOAD WHEN USING A DIGITAL-AUDIO-TAPE RECORDER (DAT) TO RECORD HIGH-AMPLITUDE IMPULSIVE SOUNDS

Impulsive sound signals outside and inside hearing protectors were rec orded during the shooting of police pistols. Signals were simultaneous ly recorded onto the two channels of a digital audio tape recorder (DA T) through the microphone inputs. The recordings of the high-amplitude impulsive signals outside the protectors were subsequently found to b e overloaded, but without any warning by the DAT recorder's overload i ndicator. To avoid this kind of overload, because of its capability fo r linear response to greater input voltages and the design of the over load detector, line-input channels instead of microphone-input channel s should be used when recording high-amplitude, short-duration impulsi ve signals on a DAT or other magnetic tape recorder. (C) 1994 Institut e of Noise Control Engineering.