tdk xp-pro s-vhs tapes

[dr.colossus]

o.k i've donje a little study and it seems not many of you guys like using non-adat specified tapes....

i have an xt and where i am adat tapes are hard to come by... in a pinch i used a very old s-vhs tape and had some drop out spots and i think the counter was a little out of whack with the tape (some sort of time code problem?)

anyhow i'm just wondreing if tdk xp-pro (apparantley a higher quality than the regular consumer line) tapes would be suitable for the adat? do you need a specific length tape? any comments at all would be useful... i just don't want to have to travel 200km to my nearest quantegy stockist or pay exhorbarant (sp) freight costs... but if you guys insist i'll do what i have to do

[tuna]

I own a blackface one, and have been using Maxwell s-vhs black tapes for a while... No problem that I've seen.
Of course, I'm no ADAT expert, so, ppl can tell you better than me.
Tapes are hard to find overhere, and quantegy ones cost 3 times more than Maxwells...

[Blue Bear Sound]

The problem with stock S-VHS tapes is that the coating is not designed for the use the ADAT machine will put on it and it sheds easily (high-dropouts and therefore, loss of data)... as well, the tape formulation itself is not designed to the same tolerance as for digital recording use and as such, you risk the symptoms of an unstable digital media (again, loss of data, loss of timecode)...

IMO, it's not worth the saving of a couple of bucks to not be sure that your media won't fail you during a session...........

[tuna]

BB is right...
I forgot to say, I'm no professional studio owner. Just do my home recordings. So, you might stick with quantegy if working with a paying client. I had the luck of buying a good maxwell batch, but its not always what happens.
regards

[eh91311]

I'm no ADAT expert either, but I've only used Quantegy ADAT tapes twice, and both times the tape jammed/self-destructed in my blackface ADAT. I use TDK Super Pro S-VHS and I haven't ever had a problem. BASF pre-formatted ADAT tapes work well too, but they are much more expensive.

[Wireneck]

eh91311,
maybe something is up with your machine? Ive pretty much used quantegy tapes exclusively for the past year and a half in my Adat Xt and Lx-20 and never had a problem that was tape related.

[eh91311]

Wireneck, you could be right, it might be my machines, not the Quantegy tapes. TDK Super Pro's work for me and cost less than Quantegy or BASF. I haven't experienced any problems related to tape shedding with the TDK's. Stick with what works for you.