bad distortion on tape

[redheadedboy]

I had a brand new, self-formatted ADAT tape. I recorded two guide tracks on 7 & 8 for a drummer to play to. these recorded fine and sounded fine when we played them back. So, we set up and started recording drums (tracks 1-6). About a minute in, the levels went through the roof (track by track on 2, 3, and 4) for about 10 seconds, then they came back down and stabilized.

we tried rolling back and re-recording, but the noise happened in the same exact place. So, it would appear to be the tape...but the formatting seems fine and there aren't any visible munchies on the tape.

the adat we're using has about 400 hours on it... is this indicitive of dirty heads? a bad tape? has this happened to anyone else?

i need to try a new tape, but haven't made it to guitar center yet...

thanks for any help

[mnicoletti]

Press and hold SET LOCATE and TRACK 3 to display the errors then see what the error count is at that spot on the tape. If the error count jumps up at that point then comes back down you have a bad tape or it formatted badly in that spot...try reformatting and see what happens....

Mike

[redheadedboy]

thanks mike!

i will try that tonight.

[redheadedboy]

okay... for some reason i can't enter that error count mode.
i have an original ADAT (black) running version 4.03 software.
i can turn on and off the tab protection with SET LOCATE and TRACK 2, but when i try SET LOCATE and TRACK 3, it just enters the 'track arm' mode.

???

[mnicoletti]

Ooops, sorry, I did not know it was a black ADAT.....there is no way to display the errors on those.

But if it happens in the same place on the tape, I would reformat and see if that helps; otherwise, another tape, which is what you said to begin with! Glad I can help!

Mike

[redheadedboy]

thanks for all your help anyways!

--tim