Akai DL1200 (1989)

The DL1200 is one of those models that survives mostly as a component of a system. What the record shows: it was the programmable auto-locator in Akai's A-DAM (Akai Digital Audio Multi-track) system, introduced in 1989. Studio Sound (October 1989, p.11) spelled out the lineup — the DR1200 Digital Multi-Track Recorder, the DL1200 Programmable Auto-Locator, and the DM1200 Meter Unit — three rack units that together formed Akai's bid for an affordable, expandable digital multitrack recorder.

Details specific to the DL1200 itself — how many locate points it stored, how it talked to the DR1200, what its front panel looked like — are not in the sources we have. The system around it got more coverage. Akai's launch advertising, printed in Recording Engineer (August 1989, p.19), said A-DAM recorded to 8mm video tape, offered 16-bit linear resolution at 44.1/48 kHz sampling rates, claimed more than 90 dB dynamic range, and could expand from 12 to 36 tracks. The same ads called it the first professional, expandable digital multitrack system in a compact package, and the most affordable digital multitrack on the market at the time.

If you own a DL1200 or its manual, this page deserves better than the trade-press scraps above.