What to do with an ADAT?
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Garthplinko
- gettin' sounds
- Posts: 104
- Joined: Wed Sep 24, 2003 10:05 am
Yeah, I have to admit that I still have my 3 XTs and a BRC - I'm just paranoid that my computer is going to take a massive dump on me one day.
People hate on ADATs all the time and I agree that I used to own 3 just to keep 2 in operation because one was always at the shop but I got a lot of work done on those things. A lot of people did. And for a home studio, I still have no complaints about the sound. Weell...I used the conversion on my DA7 and had everything clocked from a Lucid word clock but still I think ADATs are underrated - especially for how cheap they can be gotten for these days.
Or have I already forgotten how many times I wanted to yank those XXXXsucking mother XXXXers out of my rack and chuck 'em the god damn window?!?!!? ADATs SUCK!
(but I still use my 'good one' for live shows sometimes)
People hate on ADATs all the time and I agree that I used to own 3 just to keep 2 in operation because one was always at the shop but I got a lot of work done on those things. A lot of people did. And for a home studio, I still have no complaints about the sound. Weell...I used the conversion on my DA7 and had everything clocked from a Lucid word clock but still I think ADATs are underrated - especially for how cheap they can be gotten for these days.
Or have I already forgotten how many times I wanted to yank those XXXXsucking mother XXXXers out of my rack and chuck 'em the god damn window?!?!!? ADATs SUCK!
(but I still use my 'good one' for live shows sometimes)
"Just because you don't like it don't mean it ain't no good."
The sound of ADATs is completely underrated. I'm sorry, but I've made too many good sounding recordings on them to believe they suck as bad as everyone likes to think they do, it doesn't make sense. Are they totally hi-fi? Hell no, but they do have a sort of gritty mojo that sounds just fine I think. (I'm talking blackface here...)
Reliability... you either get lucky or you don't with these things, I've been insanely lucky with one of mine and not so lucky with the other. My good one has literally never given me one moment of trouble in over ten years. EVER.
The other one would eat tapes...
Here's what I'm using mine for:
If you record yourself like I do, you could use one to free yourself from being tied directly to your ProTools LE system. I have a little adat setup with a tiny mackie mixer that rolls around on a cart. I can cruize anywhere in the studio (or at my house, or...) and record all by myself without messing with the computer and without running back and forth, or needing someone else's help. The second ADAT is in the control room, hooked up to the PT rig, I just run in there with the tape and listen to what I've done, or dump it in to PT. I'm making a new record like this right now, and I'm loving not being tied to my control room, it's awesome.
16 bit recording would be the con in this scenario... But like I said, I actually think they sound OK, so what the hell.
Reliability... you either get lucky or you don't with these things, I've been insanely lucky with one of mine and not so lucky with the other. My good one has literally never given me one moment of trouble in over ten years. EVER.
The other one would eat tapes...
Here's what I'm using mine for:
If you record yourself like I do, you could use one to free yourself from being tied directly to your ProTools LE system. I have a little adat setup with a tiny mackie mixer that rolls around on a cart. I can cruize anywhere in the studio (or at my house, or...) and record all by myself without messing with the computer and without running back and forth, or needing someone else's help. The second ADAT is in the control room, hooked up to the PT rig, I just run in there with the tape and listen to what I've done, or dump it in to PT. I'm making a new record like this right now, and I'm loving not being tied to my control room, it's awesome.
16 bit recording would be the con in this scenario... But like I said, I actually think they sound OK, so what the hell.
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Garthplinko
- gettin' sounds
- Posts: 104
- Joined: Wed Sep 24, 2003 10:05 am
I agree. And if you use good outboard converters they sound even better.
I have had the exact same experiences w/ my ADATs - one unit NO problems, the other two had FREQUENT problems. It was like that at the studio I worked at too.
You know...this reminds me of an argument I had with a guy a long time ago that insisted that his cassette 8-track sounded BETTER (whatever that means) than ADATs (because Steve Albini said that analog is better than digital) I told him he'd missed the point of the argument and to go buy some q-tips and ear candles. Talk about taking the argument too far. I agree that cassette 4 track and 8 track have their charms but I wouldn't put anything out that has been recorded on one except for effect. Thinking about this guy still makes me angry.
I have had the exact same experiences w/ my ADATs - one unit NO problems, the other two had FREQUENT problems. It was like that at the studio I worked at too.
You know...this reminds me of an argument I had with a guy a long time ago that insisted that his cassette 8-track sounded BETTER (whatever that means) than ADATs (because Steve Albini said that analog is better than digital) I told him he'd missed the point of the argument and to go buy some q-tips and ear candles. Talk about taking the argument too far. I agree that cassette 4 track and 8 track have their charms but I wouldn't put anything out that has been recorded on one except for effect. Thinking about this guy still makes me angry.
"Just because you don't like it don't mean it ain't no good."
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knobtwirler
- suffering 'studio suck'
- Posts: 464
- Joined: Wed Jan 25, 2006 8:18 pm
- Location: NYC
What are the chances of Michael Beinhorn and Frank Fillipetti weighing in on this one?mertmo wrote:The sound of ADATs is completely underrated. I'm sorry, but I've made too many good sounding recordings on them to believe they suck as bad as everyone likes to think they do, it doesn't make sense. Are they totally hi-fi? Hell no, but they do have a sort of gritty mojo that sounds just fine I think. (I'm talking blackface here...)
Why those two?What are the chances of Michael Beinhorn and Frank Fillipetti weighing in on this one?
I really don't want to have instigated an "adat is crap, no it's not..." argument. Lord knows there have been enough of those. I wish I had stuck to talking about how I'm using mine. I just get all riled up when I read the adat hate, that's all. Let's do our best to stick to the original poster's direction for this thread. Sorry for my partial derailment, I will shut up about the ADAT already.
So umm... yeah, use it as a mobile recorder, perfect for that!!!
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knobtwirler
- suffering 'studio suck'
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- Location: NYC
Cause it seems it would be hilarious. They have created a reputation for themselves (especially by working together) for only working with the best sounding digital and analog equipment and only after extensively auditioning all the possibilities.mertmo wrote:Why those two?What are the chances of Michael Beinhorn and Frank Fillipetti weighing in on this one?
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joel hamilton
- zen recordist
- Posts: 8876
- Joined: Mon May 19, 2003 12:10 pm
- Location: NYC/Brooklyn
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I made some really fun records on ADAT, when protools was just sound designer, which is what we mixed to because it was "like a DAT you could edit easily!!!"
The coolest thing about ADAT is that it was treated like a tape machine: ADAT requires a console, and other outboard gear to be used as a professional recording device.
The fact that it was a modular option meant we could buy one, then two then three (!!) and have 24 tracks of decent, quiet, sort of stable digital audio in the studio as an alternative to tape. The tape costs themselves were minimized, and the format "grows with the project" by adding another tape with 8 more tracks as needed.
The 20 bit ADAT XT's and the M20's were actually quite useable, especially if you used locate points for EVERYTHING. They locked a lot better if you made a locate point for where the punch was gonna happen...etc... Rather than FF and rewind.
I have actually used them in recent years (with outboard converters) for 20 bit/48k clones of analog 2track mixes. Sometimes the ADAT wins, and you can print 4 pairs of mixes right along side each other (i.e. the mix 1, vocal up, kick up, and instrumental all "right next to each other.")
Especially with a single machine running, with no lock time issues, it can be a pretty robust mixdown format/ The fact that it is removable, and NOT a hard drive is pretty attractive as well, especially for copies. Picture printing your mixes through a stereo compressor, then to two tracks of ADAT as an alternative to the "bounce to disk." Maybe even feeding an ADAT during the bounce to disk via optical as a hard copy of your mix! Totally cool, and stays in the digital domain so wwho cares what the converters sound like at that point?
In a pinch, I have ued an ADAT XT as 8 more inputs for a protools session as well, and i never had a problem with the conversion, even with 192 converters for the rest of the tracks. The ADAT sounds better than the AI3 for SURE. Way more headroom, and some actual metering is nice as well. If I only had a lightpipe compatible interface and I was on a tight budget, I would look into using an ADAT XT as a converter, because they sound better than the 001 converters, and actually sound better than the 002 converters to me for big transient information (music?).
Using a good clock source, the ADAT XT converters actually sounded quite good in comparison to my PTHD converters for drums/bass/gtr rock I was doing.
Anyway, I think the ADAT will be useful even without any tape in it... just use the elco connectors for a real balanced I/O path to your analog gear, and get on with the recording!
The coolest thing about ADAT is that it was treated like a tape machine: ADAT requires a console, and other outboard gear to be used as a professional recording device.
The fact that it was a modular option meant we could buy one, then two then three (!!) and have 24 tracks of decent, quiet, sort of stable digital audio in the studio as an alternative to tape. The tape costs themselves were minimized, and the format "grows with the project" by adding another tape with 8 more tracks as needed.
The 20 bit ADAT XT's and the M20's were actually quite useable, especially if you used locate points for EVERYTHING. They locked a lot better if you made a locate point for where the punch was gonna happen...etc... Rather than FF and rewind.
I have actually used them in recent years (with outboard converters) for 20 bit/48k clones of analog 2track mixes. Sometimes the ADAT wins, and you can print 4 pairs of mixes right along side each other (i.e. the mix 1, vocal up, kick up, and instrumental all "right next to each other.")
Especially with a single machine running, with no lock time issues, it can be a pretty robust mixdown format/ The fact that it is removable, and NOT a hard drive is pretty attractive as well, especially for copies. Picture printing your mixes through a stereo compressor, then to two tracks of ADAT as an alternative to the "bounce to disk." Maybe even feeding an ADAT during the bounce to disk via optical as a hard copy of your mix! Totally cool, and stays in the digital domain so wwho cares what the converters sound like at that point?
In a pinch, I have ued an ADAT XT as 8 more inputs for a protools session as well, and i never had a problem with the conversion, even with 192 converters for the rest of the tracks. The ADAT sounds better than the AI3 for SURE. Way more headroom, and some actual metering is nice as well. If I only had a lightpipe compatible interface and I was on a tight budget, I would look into using an ADAT XT as a converter, because they sound better than the 001 converters, and actually sound better than the 002 converters to me for big transient information (music?).
Using a good clock source, the ADAT XT converters actually sounded quite good in comparison to my PTHD converters for drums/bass/gtr rock I was doing.
Anyway, I think the ADAT will be useful even without any tape in it... just use the elco connectors for a real balanced I/O path to your analog gear, and get on with the recording!
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;ivlunsdystf
- ghost haunting audio students
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joel hamilton
- zen recordist
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- Joined: Mon May 19, 2003 12:10 pm
- Location: NYC/Brooklyn
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I was using a blackface ADAT as 8 more ins. Now a have a Mackie Onyx 880R. I'm defintly keeping the ADAT around. I may at some point need the D/A (the mackie dosen't have this) if I ever want more than 12 outs that is. And it will be my mobile setup for sure.
It has occured to me to use it at mixdown. I do have a question about that though. Can we bit-split an ADAT stream (S-mux) and record it to ADAT tape? like to 4 tracks at 96K or even 8 at 192? And then port it back in the same way to master and burn to a cd?
I usually record at higher sample rates (96k) but I'm using 44.1 currently to maximize my inputs. I'd like to experiment with summing through my little soundcraft board with some outboard effects, and was thinking mixing to the ADAT, and if possible at a higher sample rate. I guess I'll just try it and see!
It has occured to me to use it at mixdown. I do have a question about that though. Can we bit-split an ADAT stream (S-mux) and record it to ADAT tape? like to 4 tracks at 96K or even 8 at 192? And then port it back in the same way to master and burn to a cd?
I usually record at higher sample rates (96k) but I'm using 44.1 currently to maximize my inputs. I'd like to experiment with summing through my little soundcraft board with some outboard effects, and was thinking mixing to the ADAT, and if possible at a higher sample rate. I guess I'll just try it and see!
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knobtwirler
- suffering 'studio suck'
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joelpatterson
- carpal tunnel
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