Duplicator

Claim 2

A duplicator for duplicating an analog signal, comprising: at least first and second discs; said first disc having recorded thereon a first digital representation of a first pair of said analog signal; said second disc having recorded thereon a second digital representation of a second part of said analog signal contiguous to said first part; means for simultaneously reproducing said first and second digital representations at a first rate; first and second memory means effective respectively for storing the reproduced first and second digital representations; means for sequentially reading out the stored first and second digital representations from said first and second memory means at a second rate substantially higher than said first rate; and means for converting the first and second digital representations into a reconstructed analog signal suitable for recording.

Claim 3

A duplicator according to claim 1, further comprising third and fourth memory means and switching means, said switching means being effective to enable simultaneous storing of digital representations at said first rate in said third and fourth memory means while digital representations are sequentially read out of said first and second memory means at said second rate and vice versa.

Claim 4

A duplicator according to claim 1, wherein said means for simultaneously reproducing includes means for driving said digital discs in parallel and synchronously.

Claim 5

Apparatus for duplicating a recorded analog signal at a duplicating speed substantially exceeding a recording speed at which the analog signal was recorded, comprising: a plurality of digital disc recording devices; means for reproducing said analog signal; means for digitizing sid analog signal to produce a digital signal; means for cyclically applying succeeding portions of said digital signal to succeeding ones of said plurality of digital disc recording devices; a plurality of synchronized digital disc reproducing devices each effective to reproduce digital data from one digital disc recorded by said digital disc recording device; a plurality of pairs of time axis modifying memories, each pair of memories being alternately effective to write therein one of said portions of digital data from a predetermined one of said digital disc reproducing devices at a first data rate and to read out said portion of digital data at a second data rate higher than said first data rate; means for controlling reading out of said memories so that succeeding portions of said digital signal are sequentially reproduced to reconstruct said digital signal at said second data rate; and means for converting the reconstructed digital signal to at least one analog signal suitable for recording on at least one analog recording device.

Claim 6

Apparatus for duplicating a recorded analog signal at a duplicating speed substantially exceeding a recording speed at which the analog signal was recorded, comprising: a plurality of digital disc recording devices; means for reproducing said analog signal; means for digitizing sid analog signal to produce a digital signal; means for cyclically applying succeeding portions of said digital signal to succeeding ones of said plurality of digital disc recording devices; a plurality of synchronized digital disc reproducing devices each effective to reproduce digital data from one digital disc recorded by said digital disc recording device; a plurality of pairs of time axis modifying memories, each pair of memories being alternately effective to write therein one of said portions of digital data from a predetermined one of said digital disc reproducing devices at a first data rate and to read out said portion of digital data at a second data rate higher than said first data rate; means for controlling reading out of said memories so that succeeding portions of said digital signal are sequentially reproduced to reconstruct said digital signal at said second data rate; and means for converting the reconstructed digital signal to at least one analog signal suitable for recording on at least one analog recording device.

Claim 7

A slave tape recording method for recording an analog signal comprising the steps of: converting said analog signal into a digital signal; recording a first portion of said digital signal on a first disc recorder; recording a second portion of said digital signal contiguous to said first portion on a second disc recorder; simultaneously reproducing the first and second digital signals at a first rate; separately storing the reproduced first and second digital signals; sequentially reading out the stored first and second digital signals at a second rate higher than said first rate; combining the sequential first and second digital signals; converting the combined digital signals into an analog replica of said analog signal; and recording said analog replica.

Claim 8

A slave tape recording method for recording an analog signal comprising the steps of: converting said analog signal into a digital signal; recording a first portion of said digital signal on a first disc recorder; recording a second portion of said digital signal contiguous to said first portion on a second disc recorder; simultaneously reproducing the first and second digital signals at a first rate; separately storing the reproduced first and second digital signals; sequentially reading out the stored first and second digital signals at a second rate higher than said first rate; combining the sequential first and second digital signals; converting the combined digital signals into an analog replica of said analog signal; and recording said analog replica.