Mitsubishi

Mitsubishi

The Mitsubishi Group , Mitsubishi Group of Companies, or Mitsubishi Companies is a Japanese multinational conglomerate company that consists of a range of autonomous businesses which share the Mitsubishi brand, trademark and legacy...

's ProDigi is a professional audio

Professional audio

Professional audio, also 'pro audio', refers to both an activity and a type of audio equipment. Typically it encompasses the production or reproduction of sound for an audience, by individuals who do such work as an occupation like live event support, using sound reinforcement systems designed for...

, reel-to-reel, digital audio tape

Digital Audio Tape

Digital Audio Tape is a signal recording and playback medium developed by Sony and introduced in 1987. In appearance it is similar to a compact audio cassette, using 4 mm magnetic tape enclosed in a protective shell, but is roughly half the size at 73 mm × 54 mm × 10.5 mm. As...

 format with a stationary head position, similar to Sony

Sony

, commonly referred to as Sony, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan and the world's fifth largest media conglomerate measured by revenues....

's Digital Audio Stationary Head

Digital Audio Stationary Head

The Digital Audio Stationary Head or DASH standard is a reel-to-reel, digital audio tape format introduced by Sony in early 1982 for high-quality multitrack studio recording and mastering, as an alternative to analog recording methods. DASH is capable of recording two channels of audio on a...

, which competed against ProDigi when the format was available in the mid 1980s through the early 1990s. Audio was digitally recorded linearly on the tape and is guarded by a powerful error correction scheme of cyclic redundancy check

Cyclic redundancy check

A cyclic redundancy check is an error-detecting code commonly used in digital networks and storage devices to detect accidental changes to raw data...

s to ensure integrity of the signal even if data is lost during playback. Prodigi recorders were available in 2-track variations, which used 1/4" tape; 32-track variations, which used 1" tape, and a 16-track version using 1/2" tape. All of the machines require the use of metal-particle magnetic tape

Magnetic tape

Magnetic tape is a medium for magnetic recording, made of a thin magnetizable coating on a long, narrow strip of plastic. It was developed in Germany, based on magnetic wire recording. Devices that record and play back audio and video using magnetic tape are tape recorders and video tape recorders...

.

2-track recorders:

• X-86
• X-86HS (capable of recording and playing back at 88.2 kHz and 96 kHz sample rates as well as the X-86's 44.1 kHz and 48 kHz)
• X-86C (for "compatible"; the X-86C could play back 50.4 kHz tapes made on the X-80 as well as normal X-86 tapes)

16-track recorder:

• X-400

32 track recorders:

• X-800
• X-850
• X-880
• Otari
  Otari
  Otari may refer to:* Otari, Nagano, Japan*Muhammad Naji al-Otari, Prime Minister of Syria...
  
   DTR-900 (an X-850, rebadged for Otari).

Mitsubishi and Otari collaborated on the design of the X-850 and X-880. The tape transport of both machines was derived from the Otari MTR90 Mk II, modified to handle 1" tape. Some mechanical parts were interchangeable between the X-850 and MTR90, the PC cards in the transport control section were manufactured by Otari and with two exceptions (the capstan servo and master CPU cards) were interchangeable between the Mitsubishi and Otari machines. The section of the X-850 service manual concerning transport adjustments was a verbatim reprint of the corresponding section of the MTR90 service manual.

The ProDigi format was extremely popular for use in Country music

Country music

Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...

. Specifically, at studios in Nashville

Nashville, Tennessee

Nashville is the capital of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat of Davidson County. It is located on the Cumberland River in Davidson County, in the north-central part of the state. The city is a center for the health care, publishing, banking and transportation industries, and is home...

, Tennessee

Tennessee

Tennessee is a U.S. state located in the Southeastern United States. It has a population of 6,346,105, making it the nation's 17th-largest state by population, and covers , making it the 36th-largest by total land area...

, where nearly all of the large recording studios used Prodigi machines.

X-80

The Mitsubishi X-80 2-track 1/4 inch digital recorder from 1980 predated the ProDigi format and has many similarities, although it used an unusual 50.4 kHz sample rate, and is not directly compatible. However, Mitsubishi did build the capability to play back tapes created on an X-80 into the X-86 series machines. Only 200 X-80's were manufactured.