adat questions

ivebeentired

New member
hi, i have a few questions that are probably easy for you guys to answer.

im pretty much new to any real recording, ive only done little 4 tracks stuff.

but i have a yamaha mg mixer, and some decent mics. so my first questions is: would that set up so far be well enough to get started with adat?

2. how do i hook up my mixer to the adat? im guessing adat will get me stereo sound, but im not sure how to do that. ive seen these chords that have a thing that will fit into the input thats in the middle of the back of the adat, and it has 16 1/8 plugs on the other end, but im not sure if that goes to the mixer or what?

3. can i record for than one track at once? like if i wanted to record a show, and i wanted to have each instrument on a seperate track. or if i could get certain drums on seperate tracks so that after i record a drum track i can go back and change the levels of just the toms, or just the snare.

i hope these questions arent too stupid, im sure they are though. but any help would be greatly appreciated. ive been trying to get some good advice but people keep telling to go daw and they give me a link to some digital software that costs a lot of money, and needs a better system than i got, and they dont really tell me if its able to do anything that i asked. okay i have to watch the sox. thanks, pete
 
A Yamaha MG mixer and a couple of ADATs is my setup right now, and it works just fine. You can use one of those ADAT snakes if you like, but you can also just run regular 1/4" cables from the busses on your MG to the 8 inputs on the ADAT. You can also run the outputs back to different channels on the mixer. So yeah, you can definitely record in stereo, and you can also record up to 8 tracks simultaneously.
 
more ?'s...

I have some questions too...

I'm considering grabbing some adats. I'd like to get a computer DAW set up going but it's a lot of money to pool together at once, and messing with adats might be more within my budget...

1) I've heard that ADATS often die out of the blue. Has anybody seen this as a chronic problem with Adat recorders? I've heard of bands going through several ADAT machines in the process of recording an album. But seeing as how cheap you can get them used for on ebay, it seems like more of a nuicance than a disaster.

2) How risky is it buying an ADAT on ebay? I've never had any problems with gear bought off ebay, but if the rumours of ADATS dying suddenly without warning, I'm nervous.

3) Are Adats seen as reaching the end of their line? With so many people opting for protools, are Adats being phased out? Will Adat tapes' production be phased out in the next couple years?

4) How tricky is it to upload adat recordings to pro tools via an MBOX? I'm assuming that since adats are midi-synched, you could upload 2 tracks at a time until they're all there and they'll stay in synch. Am I right? Anybody have any experience with this? REcording drums on adat and uploading them through MBOX and recording the rest of the band through mbox would be a lifesaver...

Any help anyone could give would be appreciated.
THANKS!
 
I'm still pretty new with the ADATs, so I can't offer much help on their longevity, other than the fact that I bought both of my machines from a member of this BBS (thanks again DDev!) and they work perfectly after he had logged literally 1000's of hours on them. He took perfect care of his ADATs and as a result, they're working fine for me. You'll definitely want to check into what kind of maintenance was done on used ADATs because they do require an "oil change" every now and again--idler wheels, cleaning, etc. These are not expensive to have done, but they are necessary.

You won't have to worry about ADAT tapes becoming outdated. They used standard S-VHS tapes--the same you would throw in a VCR (but a high quality version). Maxell, TDK, and others make them and you can find them anywhere
 
Adats that have been maintained will last you plenty of years. Look at all the "Blackface" models that are still out there in circulation. As with any piece of gear there is a chance of it dying "out of the blue" but it is highly unlikely. Adats are fairly easy to diagnose since they will normally display an error code if something goes wrong.
The risk is definitely there as far as buying equipment from ebay. You will want to get a read out of the number of hours as well as receipts for routine cleaning or anything of that nature. I bought an Adat Xt to use as a Backup off ebay and that was over 2 years ago. I haven't had any problems so far. I think you should be able to find a legit studio selling adats on ebay (they always are) that will have all the info I mentioned above and isn't out to cheat anyone. Thats the way I would go if it were me.
The popularity of adats has definitely dropped but I don't see them falling completely off the face of teh earth anytime soon. The sooner everyone forgets about them, the sooner I can pick up another one for dirt cheap haha.
I don't know anything about the M-box but Adat transfers can be done through the Lightpipe jack. There are quite a few soundcards that support this. You can dump up to 8 tracks at a time unless of course you have more than one card or have a card that has more than one light pipe input.
 
one of my adats is up to 2000 hours, still works like it did the day i bought it......................but some have been known to die out. Its just a matter of their environment and how regularly they were serviced

::EDIT:: Oh ya, I have been servicing my ADATS every 200 hours, and always disengage the head when im not using it.
 
what is this "disengaging the head" stuff ? Does it relieves the pressure on the idler whell ?
btw, I have 1 blackface.

regards
 
Push stop again. This disengages the head (unthreads the tape from the motor) and you'll the motor clicking and whirring. It just saves a little wear and tear on the machine when you want to rewind/fast forward etc.
 
Oh, I know that. I supposed it was those transporting modes that I heard of, and got curious if it might help to avoid wearing when it's not in use for some weeks.
 
Only XT adats have the plug on the back for the elco connector. If the elco connector is used the machine will be recording at +4DB, if using standard cabling the unit will run at -10DB
 
dragonworks said:
Only XT adats have the plug on the back for the elco connector. If the elco connector is used the machine will be recording at +4DB, if using standard cabling the unit will run at -10DB

Wrong. The only model that doesn't have ELCO is the LX20
 
So is the Blackface the one that records on tapes end to start rather than start to finish?
 
tgs said:
Wrong. The only model that doesn't have ELCO is the LX20

is the lx20 only for adding to other adats?

they are cheap, but im not exactly sure why?

i know it says 8 tracks, and 128 oversampling, but im not sure what over sampling means.
 
The lX 20 can function alone. They were cheaper because they cut some corners to get the price down. The buttons are rubber and not the hard plastic? that the other machines use. It has less locate points and its missing the Elco connection.
I own one Lx 20 as well as an Xt and the LX has performed as good as the XT. No problems.
 
Wireneck said:
The lX 20 can function alone. They were cheaper because they cut some corners to get the price down. The buttons are rubber and not the hard plastic? that the other machines use. It has less locate points and its missing the Elco connection.
I own one Lx 20 as well as an Xt and the LX has performed as good as the XT. No problems.

oh cool thanks.

but what does oversampling mean?

i was just wondering if i can only record 8 tracks with it, or if thats just at once?
 
nope, you can record 8 tracks all at once. The backs of them have 8 rca connectors (except for the blackface ones, the have 1/4 inch). 8 going in, and 8 going out. Pretty sweet for the price if you ask me.
 
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