What to do with an ADAT?

[Bedfordstop]

Put the ADAT on top of your cat, then upload a photo to:

www.stuffonmycat.com

[vsr600]

sorry if this sounds dumb but what's the difference between "black face" adat and "not black face" adat.... is that like a fender twin blackface hehe....
I have, I'm guessing a non-black face recorder... does that make it even more worthless?

[joelpatterson]

"Blackface" was the original 16-bit ADAT recorders, from the early 90's.

It was only in retrospect, after the ADAT faceplates turned silver, they were called "blackface."

It wasn't like the ADAT was part of some vaudeville revival.

[vsr600]

ok I just noticed said ADAT recorder only has 91 hours on the heads....
I could probably get at least $300 for it because of that... hmmmm...

[vsr600]

Ok I'm not gonna use this and I need the money to fix an EV PL20 (see other posts), sooo it's going on ebay:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... 7398013587

[wiggins]

I've heard of using them for a nice, clean delay for pushing room mics back etc. Haven't really tried it yet.

I use mine for already stated purposes - bouncing from my 388 to 3 or 4 tracks instead of only 2, "field" recordings, and (literally) doorstop.

My lx20's were simply too unreliable to use - there's a few Marietta band's cds floating around out there with this crazy digital fizzle cause the tape would crinkle on the edges. I don't feel like paying twice what I bought them for to get em fixed.

They're still good to have around, though.

[mingus2112]

Put the ADAT on top of your cat, then upload a photo to:

www.stuffonmycat.com

you just killed my entire afternoon by sending me that link. i'm going to be at my desk forever!

[alex matson]

I'm thinking about getting one, for use as an improvisation-catcher. There seem to be several models - is there one that's generally considered to be the most reliable? Or is it just a matter of going for the one with the lowest hours?

[jmoose]

I'm thinking about getting one, for use as an improvisation-catcher. There seem to be several models - is there one that's generally considered to be the most reliable? Or is it just a matter of going for the one with the lowest hours?

Most reliable?

Hands down, the M20 is the one to get if you want a really solid, tricked out Adat. Otherwise it's kind of a crap shoot from box to box. Since they record digital information to VHS tape at 3 to 4 times the speed it was originally designed to be played at on what's basically a slightly beefed version of a basic VCR transport, the whole deal is kinda shakey at best.

It's a small miracle that they work as well as they do overall!

I ran four of those fukker's for waaaaay too many years to keep three machines going. Overall, I got a LOT of milage out of them...made many many records for a lotta people and they were generally pretty solid, didn't eat too many tapes until the very end. At one point in early 2001 it seemed like ALL of the machines went mad at once & were in & out of the shop once every few weeks...repeat offenders.

My main gripe wasn't even sound quality...though they DO sound pretty bad when compared to good digital like a Radar or real analog...it was the fucking lockup times! Hit play and one machine with 8 tracks, then 2 seconds later your next 8 tracks would come in...another 2-3 seconds for the next 8 tracks...THEN you can punch-in.

I swear...when I moved from Adats to 2" we spent far less time waiting for the decks to shuttle around that the 'time saved' vs. 'tape cost' over the course of a 30-day record MORE then paid for the tape on analog records. A few hundred bucks for tape is nothing when studio time at $500 a day starts adding up over a few weeks...

I've sold all but one of my Adats...don't even know if it works or not! LOL

I also have a BRC here that I should sell. make an offer that makes me want to vist FedEx & it's yours! moose@mooseaudio.net

Anyway...the linage as it were...

-Blackface Adats (early 90s-'95?) These are pretty obviously spotted by the entirely black metal face. Analog in's are 1/4" rather then the RCA on later versions & also has the Elco. They've got pretty dirty & rather horrible sounding (IMO) 16-bit converters & record 16-bits to tape. These are all at least 10-15 years old at this point. Not worth much & I wouldn't trust 'em for anything important.

Interesting note - With the blackface machines, the polarity of the signal at the digital level is opposite of the rest of the series. So a tape recorded on a blackface machine but played back on anything else would be like going from "pin 2 hot? to ?pin 3 hot? but at the digital level.

-Adat XT (95-98?) Had a better transport then the blackface, still ate tapes though. FF runaway was a pretty common means of death... The stlighty better converters were I think 20-bit on one side & 18 on the other, but they still recorded 16-bits to tape. Overall, not a horrid sounding thing but nothing great either. Kinda throws back whatever you give it, but smaller & harsher with ZERO love. I tracked the basics of a record with one of mine in 2003 or 2004 before dumping over to 2" 24 for overdubs & mix. It worked.

-XT20 & LX20 (late 90's - ??) These have sort of a yellow gold sheen to the metal...pretty easy to spot. Now with 20 bit converters & writing 20-bits to tape they actually sound "decent". The LX has a cheap-ass lightweight frame that was prone to bending while in stressful transport & would thereby render the machines transport useless. Not the thing you'd wanna toss in the van for a 10 month tour...they also have analog I/O at -10dB which is a drag. The XT's have a better frame & still retain the Elco +4dB operating level. This is the one to get if you need an extra 8 channels of A/D/A on lightpipe...find one with a dead transport and use it as a converter box.

-M20 & Studer (V8???) - Also mid-late 90's...these were VASTLY remade "upscale" Adat's for the "pro" market. GREAT machines...but too little too late. After years of begging for it they finally created an Adat with a "real" transport, jog/shuttle wheel, instant lock-up, analog I/O on XLR's & all that cool stuff...priced it at like $6K per machine & I think almost put Alesis out of business. The Studer is pretty cool...supposedly sounds better & is a little slicker then the Alesis but I've used one or even seen one in the flesh...The M20 is way more common but still kinda rare.

The BRC has always been the BRC.

Poor little thing.

It really could use an update...BRC v2 to go with the HD24? Make it a Radar killer?

Ah well.

[;ivlunsdystf]

Thank you Mr. Moose for the fascinating history of the ADAT - interesting. They remind me of old British sportscars, albeit rather less charming.

[emrr]

I gotta say I miss all the tricks a BRC would do with a stack of ADAT's. I'm running the HD24XR now, and it's clearly a step back to pre-1992 in terms of functions and memory. Of course the sound kills the old units. The BRC is a dream for storing lots of data, and quickly and efficiently at that. The BRC only works a little bit with the HD24XR, and it screws up a bunch of other features, so it got retired. Unwillingly. Somehow, I still trust my 10-12 year old ADAT tapes to play back more than I do a DVD back up from 6 months ago. The DVD's are the ones that have already failed, and I (fingers crossed) have yet to lose an ADAT master to ANY cause. I know this defies all logic....

[snatchman]

I still use Adats for my main capture machines..!... ..They do have that locking issue thing but...Hey, I'm not in that big of a hurry! I think that's good thing these days...Slow down, write a better song, and take advantage of the time it takes for them to park..!.. ....With the improvement/price of today's outboard converters, mic pres, etc., even tho they print 16/20 bit, they do the job "ok" for me! ( and a few clients) Not that I wouldn't mind having a HD24-XR, it's that I kinda put the bit-rate/conversion deal further down the list, after better technique, mic pres, mics etc. But I've been there ...done that.. conversion thing tho'... ..YMMV

[emrr]

Not to knock the old machines, I used them forever, but if you have the cash, you'll really like the sonic upgrade of the HD24XR. Assuming you want it to work with the old ones at times, and it makes more sense than any other possible recorder for your situation. Every generation of ADAT tape machines sounded noticably better than the last, and it does also.