Adat Edit And Purchasing An Adat

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Hmurray

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Hi everyone,

I would like to ask for some advise about purchasing an adat and the Adat Edit Card.

I want to purchase either the XT20 or LT20 ADAT to expanded my
studio. I currently have a Delta 1010 with two 1604 mackies. I want to also purchase the Adat Edit card so that I can have 16 tracks.

Will this setup work for 16 tracks?, also has anyone had any problems with a delta1010 and using it with XT or LT20 using the
Adat edit card?

My Computer System:
Ram: over 300
Athlon Processor 1000
Motherboard: Abit

Thanks
 
If you can afford it choose the XT, I can't help with edit card. I like the extras on the XT.

I think AMS has adats for around $600, Close outs I think.
 
I own the ADAT/EDIT and wish I didn't. The fact that it doesn't work with Win2k or Xp really bugs me. And I don't think Alesis even supports it anymore. I had a real hard time getting them to send me the software (it wasn't included with mine.) I suppose it works all right to get tracks onto the computer from the ADAT but I think that there must be something that works a lot better.
 
I went through a couple of ADAT Edit cards and they never functioned as advertised. I like Alesis products but that card was DOA.
What are you trying to accomplish? Sixteen simultainious recording tracks?
 
I would stay WAAAAAAAAAAY away from the ADAT PCI card!!! Like Track Rat, I could never get it to work as advertised. Alesis claimed I needed VERY expensive LVD SCSI drives to do what I wanted to do, and so I got them, and STILL it didn't work as advertised.

Use ANY other solution, but buyer beware if you purchase that card. I can assure you that Alesis will mostly give you the run around about solving any problems you will have with it, and none of them are going to work.

IF you only need a way to interface 8 channels of ADAT lightpipe, and don't need to actually transfer tracks to and from an ADAT machine, it might work out okay for you.

Ed
 
I would like to thank you all for the advise.

Has anyone bought the new delta 1010 box that allows you to hook up an adat to the delta 1010 sound card? If so, has anyone had any problems?
 
Have one at the studio that we don't use anymore. If you are interested in buying one, let me check with the studio owner to see if he will sell his. It was used maybe 4 or 5 times in the last 2 years. Will let you know if he wants to sell it.

Oh yeah. It worked quite well too.

Ed
 
I am using the ADAT PCI card w/ Samplitude, using the ADAT as A/D converters. It works flawlessly.
I was not, however able to transfer tracks to and from my IDE drive from the ADAT, I could only do that using my SCSI drive. But w/ this new set up I dont even use ADAT tape anymore.

I was interested in trying a similar set up to yours i.e. using something like the Delta and then using the ADAT PCI card as an extra eight ins. I was warned that there might be clocking issues between the two cards.

I never have had a chance to figure it out. If you get this set up working, please let us know.
 
i have 3 adat xt20's and a the adat edit pci card and have had no problems transfering tracks to and from adat with IDE harddrives. i dont know what is up with you guys... in fact, since the only remote i had was the LRC, i used the adat transfer software for transport control. it was quite nice, all i had to to was type in the exact location i wanted to go to and BAAM! i was there. i had this card co existing nicely with my gadget labs wave pro 828 with no problems. i have since moved to a motu 2408mkIII. it is nice to be able to transfer all 24 tracks at once....
 
what were some of the specific problems you guys had with the card?
 
Hey Forevervain4,

I have been eyballing the MOTU 2408 for a while now. Hoave you ever had the occasion to use it and the ADATs at the same time while tracking in to the PC?

Or have you ever used the ADATs
as an extra set of A/Ds via the MOTU while using its analog ins?





thanks for any information.
 
yes i have. it worked flawlessly. however, it was only 16 tracks. i used the 8 analog and 8ch of LP from the adats. the only thing is that you would not be getting a full 24 bit A/D conversion. i love my motu, but i didnt at first. i had alot of trouble getting the thing to actuallly work. alot of frustration, but it was worth it. the problem was motu's initial drivers. they have since released an update.
 
thanks man, thats waht I wanted to hear ( I think)!

I have heard from many people that getting the MOTUs to work was a bit of a nightmare.

So just to clarify(sorry to be a pain) you are saying that: you have bussed the ADAT tracks through the MOTU for a total of 16 track (8 being 24bit and the other 8 from the ADAT being 16bit or 20bit, depending on the model) sucessfully?

OR

That you have run 8 tracks throught the MOTU and 8 via the ADAT PCI card into your PC at the same time?

thanks again
Twonky
 
i do not use the adat edit card anymore. it was 16trks via motu using the 8 analog and 8 of the lightpipe (converted by the adat). this will show up in your software and be written as a 24bit file, but the last 4 bits are just blank, cause the adat converters are only 20 bit. the lightpipe channels appear in your software just like analog channels. another bit of info that you might like, it IS possible to record 24 bit onto your adat xt20. you have to have external converters, and you will only have 6 tracks instead of 8. it puts the extra bits onto the higher tracks. so, if you had, say, a 24bit digital mixer doing your A/D conversion and you went via lightpipe to your recorder.
 
also, when using your adat as a converter, make sure your sample rates match. :) this will save you some headache!
 
foreverain4 said:
i have 3 adat xt20's and a the adat edit pci card and have had no problems transfering tracks to and from adat with IDE harddrives. i dont know what is up with you guys... in fact, since the only remote i had was the LRC, i used the adat transfer software for transport control. it was quite nice, all i had to to was type in the exact location i wanted to go to and BAAM! i was there. i had this card co existing nicely with my gadget labs wave pro 828 with no problems. i have since moved to a motu 2408mkIII. it is nice to be able to transfer all 24 tracks at once....
Click to expand...

At one point, I considered the possibilities of a class action suit against Alesis over the PCI card. I asked in this forum, and several others for people to email me their experience's with that card good and bad. I didn't want to bark up the wrong tree. I wanted to make sure that the majority of users were having problems using the card in the manner that Alesis claimed it would work.

I got maybe 40 or 50 responses. All but 3 or 4 were from people that shared the same bad experience trying to transfer tracks to and from ADAT's using their card. Most just took the card back and looked for something else. I got screwed because the place I bought mine from wouldn't take it back because the software had been opened!!! I couldn't believe that and tried to explain that I couldn't even attempt to use the card without installing the software!!! They claimed that they could not return the card to Alesis if the software was opened. I emailed Alesis about this and never recieved a response. I wound up selling the card for $150. I lost $200 on a card I never successfully used. The new owner of the card has had very mixed results using the card. He can transfer usually about 2-4 tracks at a time with only occassional problems. Any more than that and the transfers are unreliable.

But, back to the point. A few people were able to make the card work. There didn't seem to be any one hardware configuration that was common in it working reliably.

Like I stated earlier, if you only need it as a I/O only card, you might be able to get it worked more reliably. But as a way to transfer ADAT's track to a from the computer, the consensus is that it is mostly unreliable in that use. If it worked out for you foreverain4, count your lucky stars!!! You were the exception rather than the rule.

The MOTU box seems to be about the most reliable "cheap" solution for ADAT transfers. While other cards will do 8 tracks at a time reliably, there IS the problem with sample accurate transfers of multiple tapes that few seems able to address.

In the many tech supports calls I made and emails, it seems that the ADAT PCI card would work better for ADAT transfers IF you used the Logic Lite software to do so. I never got that far, and didn't feel that I should have to use Logic Lite to do the job that the ADAT Connect software claimed it should do. I didn't want to use Logic Lite. So, I never pursued that route. Maybe it does work. Maybe it doesn't.

In the end, based upon the post in this thread, and precendent set in the past that I have documented in this forum fully (you might want to go back about 2 years to find those) the ADAT Edit PCI card has a better chance of NOT working for you than it does of working out.

Ed
 
were you expiriencing dropouts and such? for the longest time, i had this problem, where i would get done transfering 8 tracks, only to find that some of them were several samples shorter than the others. i figured out, there is a place to set the clock of the card to external. i did this and everything was rock solid after that. you still used the adat connect for transport though.
 
I knew about clocking issues before ever purchasing the ADAT Edit card.

Trust me, I tried EVERYTHING. I made SEVERAL calls to Alesis in regards to this card. I gave them all my system specs, made every "tweak" to the OS they suggested. I even went and bought a SCSI UW2 card and Seagate Cheetah 10k rpm drives, etc....Did EVERYTHING they asked me to do.

It just plain wouldn't work reliably. I tried the same card in another computer. Had all the same problems. Yet another computer, same problems.

I could transfers up to 2-4 tracks at a time after all the tweeks fairly reliably. Every once in a while, I could get 6-8, but the more tracks I tried at once, the less reliable it was.

My problems corresponded exactly with many other users of this card. I originally thought that possibly the card itself might have been defective, but after talking with many people that had the same exact problems, I eliminated the card being per se "defective".

Frankly, the card is just plainly a poor design. The Connect software uses NO buffers for transferring. The problem with this is that if there are ANY problems during the transfer, the transfer is blown. Alesis claims that if you use the Logic Lite software for doing the transfers that Logic would use buffers on the computer, thus, the transfers would be more reliable. Bah!!!! Maybe that is true, but Alesis lists "minimum hardware/software" requirements, and I MORE than exceeded them. Still, it didn't work the way Alesis claimed it would.

Like I said earlier foreverain4, your success with the card is actually rare! I am glad it worked out for you. Really. But based upon my experience, and having heard from so many people that were unsuccessful in using this card, I have to recommend to anybody considering purchasing one that they don't!

It is too bad really. If that card would have worked out, it would have been a god send to the many ADAT users that wanted a cheap way to transfer tracks between ADAT's and computer for clean up and editing and what not. I REALLY wanted mine to work. I TRIED to make it work (to the tune of purchasing about $1000 of SCSI devices!!!) It just didn't. Too many others had the same bad experience.

Ed
 
sonusman said:
Have one at the studio that we don't use anymore. If you are interested in buying one, let me check with the studio owner to see if he will sell his. It was used maybe 4 or 5 times in the last 2 years. Will let you know if he wants to sell it.

Oh yeah. It worked quite well too.

Ed
Click to expand...

I asked the studio owner if he was interested in selling his MAudio ADAT interface box. He says he wants to hold on to it "just in case" we need to do quick transfers to the computer from one ADAT tape, plus he didn't feel that he could get enough selling it used. Oh well.

Ed
 
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