ADATs gone to hell, the collective is f*cked

  • Thread starter Thread starter johnnydanger
  • Start date Start date
J

johnnydanger

New member
Shared studios SUCK!
I'm an engineer at the local university radio station, and have been assisting in demo production for a local collective of bands. EVERY SINGLE BAND is in the middle of the process, overdubbing and getting things together nicely.
Well, another engineer- well, hardly, just some dumbass punk who comes in and screws sh!t up all the time- (and his "Korny" band)was obviously on to another technical "feat" and screwed up the 16 bit ADAT.
Damn tapes won't even read! something comes up on the readout- (not sure what, this is second hand from another staff person).
My question is - The heads? has it seen too much action , too much redlining (like I mentioned before,the kid that last used it before the incident is a F*ck up). The tapes? We use quantegy- and I read the thread about about the maxell's being more reliable.
I'm feeling dumb for not paying attention to all the use it's seen lately.
We (the station) have trickle down funding and it takes a month for a check to clear- I need this bitch to function for another month (or 2weeks)untill we can get a new 20 bit.
Any suggestions? thanks
 
Ed?????
sonusman will know..come to the rescue sonusman!!!!

just keepin your post in circulation :)

Tony
 
If the tapes don't "read", I always try reinitializing the machines. You do this by pressing Record and Play together while you turn on the machine and hold them for at least 5 seconds. If they still won't read the tapes, there is a number of problems that could be going on, and really none of them involved a suggested fix from me except taking them into the shop.

I don't know how many hours are on the head stacks, or what kind of cleaning the machines have had, so I cannot say if the head stacks are bad (unlikely if both machines went bad at the same time) or if it is a lesser problem. That is the kind of thing Alesis tech support is there for (if you don't mind the 30min wait on the phone... :( )

Ed
 
Thanks for the replies, tutton, Ed.
Too many hours on that machine, and it has never been serviced, as I found out. No cleaning ever documented. It may be fixable, but after hearing this I am extremely doubtful.At least they will be aware of servicing once a semester when the bill for the new machine is handed to them. Damn shame.
 
It MAY be something as simple as just cleaning the head. This is something that MAY be done by the user. But the head stacks are very delicate, and extreme care should be taken if you decide to clean them yourself. A call to Alesis Tech Support will produce a list of what you would need to clean the head.

Ed
 
It's worth a shot, anyway ...
When I find a good site, I try to share it as much as possible :) ... so check out: http://www.tangible-technology.com/helical/swabbing.html

Some really good advice there. Be careful if you try this, though. New heads are pretty expensive. But if it's headed for the can anyway ... it may be worth a shot.

Good Luck
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top