ADAT

Alesis Digital Audio Tape or ADAT, first introduced in 1991, was used for simultaneously recording eight tracks of digital audio at once, onto Super VHS magnetic tape - a tape format similar to that used by consumer VCRs. Greater numbers of audio tracks could be recorded by synchronizing several ADAT machines together. While this had been available in earlier machines, ADAT machines were the first to do so with sample-accurate timing - which in effect allowed a studio owner to purchase a 24-track tape machine eight tracks at a time.