Why does everybody hate ADATs?

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Jettison
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Post by Jettison » Thu Sep 18, 2008 1:04 pm

I'm not ever going to spend a dime on repairing an ADAT. I'll just go to the reserve. And ten tinker around with the broken one myself for fun. Maybe someday I'll write a song about it called "Me and my ADAT" a la Vanderslice's "me and my 424". You know, parts and spares. Ha.
My levels are where they should be. I'm sure good mixes can be gotten with a limited track count in LE. I just have a lot of tracks going sometimes. Sometimes not.

If a shootout were to go down between 24-32 tracks of ADAT and 24-32 tracks of PT LE to 16ch of Lynx conversion, same song into same deck, same clock, same mixdown medium, then the ADATs would win hands down. Deeper, clearer, no mud - not less mud-
Maybe somebody'll go to the trouble of doing that.
And everybody ARE correct ADATs do suck. PT LE sucks worse.
You traded the Cadillac for a microphone?

RefD
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Post by RefD » Thu Sep 18, 2008 1:44 pm

which is part of why i don't use any flavour of PT.
?What need is there to weep over parts of life? The whole of it calls for tears.? -- Seneca

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Brian
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Post by Brian » Thu Sep 18, 2008 1:58 pm

I mixed a record for a large blues group in the mid-late nineties on 3 adats through a solologic board in a shed behind a drugstore that was converted into a studio in the middle of nowhere and they loved it.
In fact, they went to Ardent in Memphis a few years later for their next one and said, " the engineer looked like you, he knew stuff like you, you would have liked him, but, he didn't record anywhere near as well as you and he didn't mix anywhere near as well either".
They handed me the tracks and I heard them. They were "just OK" nothing special. Bland.
They have recorded many other places since and even opened their own place, and they still say to this day, "man, I wish we could record another one like the one we did in the shed". Sadly, that's how I always record bands I have a little say in how they do it and it always makes magical sounds as it is basically an open door for it, but, I digress.
Ardent has the full blown PTHD thing, big boards with mega-expensive pre's and and name engineers and producers there I would have expected much better from them.
Their Adat album still beats anything they've done anywhere else.
Harumph!

RefD
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Post by RefD » Thu Sep 18, 2008 2:04 pm

so it's not the gear, it's the people who use the gear?
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farview
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Post by farview » Thu Sep 18, 2008 2:43 pm

RefD wrote:so it's not the gear, it's the people who use the gear?
Who knew?

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johnny7
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Post by johnny7 » Thu Sep 18, 2008 2:51 pm

I am not sure why I just read this thread.

RefD
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Post by RefD » Thu Sep 18, 2008 3:52 pm

farview wrote:
RefD wrote:so it's not the gear, it's the people who use the gear?
Who knew?
wow, this is sooo cosmic.

:D
?What need is there to weep over parts of life? The whole of it calls for tears.? -- Seneca

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johnny7
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Post by johnny7 » Thu Sep 18, 2008 4:44 pm

That elephant rocks!

mertmo
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Post by mertmo » Thu Sep 18, 2008 5:34 pm

Yeah, man. Great avatar, one of the best ever IMO

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Brian
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Post by Brian » Thu Sep 18, 2008 5:37 pm

RefD wrote:
farview wrote:
RefD wrote:so it's not the gear, it's the people who use the gear?
Who knew?
wow, this is sooo cosmic.

:D
Yes, the expertise trumps the gear almost every time. It's just too weird a concept, I know, I'm freakin out about it too!

I used to make recordings on a cassette deck, multitrack stuff before multitrack cassette decks like the tascam 8 channel thing came along. We had to bounce from reel to reel to to another reel to cassette and back and forth all the while adding in live tracks in, so, the musicians had to play really well. The recordings were OK at best, but, they beat the pants off the local MCI 24track studio's stuff and I learned a ton about noise reduction and, they got me a great internship, which got me some great gigs.
Then one day I ended up in front of these ADATS.
What was i talking about?
Oh yeah.
Point is, ADATS can work just fine as a recording medium.
I'm sure if I'd had a PT rig It would have sounded marginally better, but, I wasn't disappointed with the results and I got exactly what I was shooting for without any expensive pre's or PTHD7 or anything like it. One day we had sync issues, 4 times they would chase till they locked. Beats a "shadow lock" system we had on the Studer A820's we used to use to sync 2 machines.
I wish I had a picture of the place, I'll email the guy who owned it, it's a laff and a wow all at once.
Harumph!

RefD
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Post by RefD » Thu Sep 18, 2008 5:58 pm

Brian wrote:
RefD wrote:
farview wrote:
RefD wrote:so it's not the gear, it's the people who use the gear?
Who knew?
wow, this is sooo cosmic.

:D
Yes, the expertise trumps the gear almost every time. It's just too weird a concept, I know, I'm freakin out about it too!

I used to make recordings on a cassette deck, multitrack stuff before multitrack cassette decks like the tascam 8 channel thing came along. We had to bounce from reel to reel to to another reel to cassette and back and forth all the while adding in live tracks in, so, the musicians had to play really well. The recordings were OK at best, but, they beat the pants off the local MCI 24track studio's stuff and I learned a ton about noise reduction and, they got me a great internship, which got me some great gigs.
Then one day I ended up in front of these ADATS.
What was i talking about?
Oh yeah.
Point is, ADATS can work just fine as a recording medium.
every last bit of that (including the cassette deck bouncing but minus the interning) has been my experience as well.

it's just so rare to read anyone on here copping to the "it's the craftsman, not the tools" thing who doesn't also have a studio full of gear worth several million doll arses.
?What need is there to weep over parts of life? The whole of it calls for tears.? -- Seneca

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Brian
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Post by Brian » Thu Sep 18, 2008 6:03 pm

I specialize on using cheap gear that works and now recording fuckheads as bluesman once told me.
Harumph!

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Post by rwc » Thu Sep 18, 2008 9:47 pm

I have a thing for recording mediums that consistently eat my work.

is all

:cry:
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b3groover
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Post by b3groover » Thu Sep 18, 2008 9:54 pm

Digital recording technology has improved by leaps and bounds in the last 17 years since the original ADAT was introduced. To say that an ADAT is going to sound better than modern, high-quality converters is either the result of a lack of experience with modern digital technology or being contrary for the sake of being contrary.

In order to make the ADAT vs. Lynx converters + ProTools LE comparison completely valid, both would have to be mixed through the same outboard analog mixer, rather than mixing the ProTools tracks in the box, right? With that caveat especially the Lynx + ProTools would sound infinitely better.

24bit trumps 16bit or 20bit any time. Bar none. There is no comparison.

My guess (as someone already alluded to), if you honestly believe what you're saying, is that you need to read up on correctly setting the levels on a 24bit recording system. In the 16bit world, the ideal is to slam the signal as close to digital zero as possible. Do this in 24bit land and your mixes will sound like poop, pure and simple.
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RefD
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Post by RefD » Thu Sep 18, 2008 10:08 pm

johnny7 wrote:That elephant rocks!
mertmo wrote:Yeah, man. Great avatar, one of the best ever IMO
awr, shucks! :oops:
?What need is there to weep over parts of life? The whole of it calls for tears.? -- Seneca

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