Pitch Changes on different ADATS

[ido1957]

I have an LX ADAT that I record at 16 Bit so it's compatible with my friends old blackface ADAT. He also has an XT ADAT.

So the other day I bring a couple of ADAT Tapes recorded on my LX to his place.

Tape #1 plays back no problem on both machines - even able to record a track on the tape using his XT.

Tape #2 - completely different story. He put it in the XT and the pitch was different - several BPM faster. "Chipmunks" he called it. So he ejected the tape and reset it (off/on) and it worked okay (pitch ok)...

We bring it upstairs and play it on his blackface and we get pitch problems again. I had to turn the pitch selector to -85 to get it close to the original pitch.

As far as I know I never fiddled with the pitch on my ADAT ever.

I took an ADAT out of the blackface to an IO26 then firewire to SONAR 6. I recorded at the reduced pitch and although it sounded right out of the speakers (line off the IO26) the resultant wav file still played fast. So unless I can solve this problem, I can't do any mixing using SONAR.

Anyone ever experience this kind of problem? Any suggestions as to how to get the pitch to line up on the blackface and why it lined up okay on the XT?

 

[ido1957]

I have an LX ADAT that I record at 16 Bit so it's compatible with my friends old blackface ADAT. He also has an XT ADAT.

So the other day I bring a couple of ADAT Tapes recorded on my LX to his place.

Tape #1 plays back no problem on both machines - even able to record a track on the tape using his XT.

Tape #2 - completely different story. He put it in the XT and the pitch was different - several BPM faster. "Chipmunks" he called it. So he ejected the tape and reset it (off/on) and it worked okay (pitch ok)...

We bring it upstairs and play it on his blackface and we get pitch problems again. I had to turn the pitch selector to -85 to get it close to the original pitch.

As far as I know I never fiddled with the pitch on my ADAT ever.

I took an ADAT out of the blackface to an IO26 then firewire to SONAR 6. I recorded at the reduced pitch and although it sounded right out of the speakers (line off the IO26) the resultant wav file still played fast. So unless I can solve this problem, I can't do any mixing using SONAR.

Anyone ever experience this kind of problem? Any suggestions as to how to get the pitch to line up on the blackface and why it lined up okay on the XT?

Just an update... We recorded additional tracks on the same tape (#2 with the pitch problems) on Saturday and the same issue happened when we brought it upsatirs and played it through the Balckface to transfer to computer.

We set the pitch control to -180 in order to get it right on pitch with the original.

Tape #1 still plays back no problem on both machines - even after recording another track on the tape using his XT.

Still would like to know if anyone has any idea why this would do this....

Thanks

 

[michaelst]

Without sounding like a wise-ass, might I suggest that you make sure the track specs are the same regarding bit depth and resolution. I've had similar issues when playing back files recorded at 48/24 (or 96/24) and 44/16. You need to make sure they are all the same.

 

[ido1957]

Without sounding like a wise-ass, might I suggest that you make sure the track specs are the same regarding bit depth and resolution. I've had similar issues when playing back files recorded at 48/24 (or 96/24) and 44/16. You need to make sure they are all the same.

I'll check the tape specs out tonight when I get home. I usually always format my ADAT tapes using a bit rate of 16. That allows me to use the tape(s) on all three machines (LX, XT, Blackface). Blackface only does 16 bit. So if I used 24 bit by mistake that might explain it.

 

[Track Rat]

16 or 24 bit won't affect pitch. Different sampling rates however (44.1 as oppossed to 48k) absolutely will. Look at where the sampling rates are set on all your machines.

 

[ido1957]

Thanks Track Rat - I'll check the sampling rates when I get home.

 

[ido1957]

16 or 24 bit won't affect pitch. Different sampling rates however (44.1 as oppossed to 48k) absolutely will. Look at where the sampling rates are set on all your machines.

I inserted the problem tape (#3) into my ADAT LX machine. The sampling rate showed as 44.1k. When I put in the other two tapes (#1 and #2) the sampling rate changed to 48k on the display screen.

So I don't remember ever playing around with the sampling rate but I must have inadvertently when formatting the tape. Since the blackface recognizes the 48k okay, the next time I format a tape I will make sure the sampling rate is set to 48k.

Interesting.....thanks Track Rat!