NoFo Mystery

[CAC]

Would anyone be kind enough to offer their knowledge concerning the following? I would be grateful...

Have two practically new ADAT 20 Bit XT's. Acquired them very recently and used them approximately 4 hours. 96 total hours on them and this is verifyable.

Recently in my studio, I powered them up, and to my complete shock, one h unit registered the NoFo error message on new, 20-bit formatted and just recorded on tapes. Within an hour or so, the other unit rendered the same error. Symptoms are identical....can't read ANY tapes on them now. What the..........

Any suggestions?

 

[tuna]

Your adat might be needing a cleaning. Mine did it ( black face, new heads too ), and I followed some instructions I found over the web and in this forum to clean it's sync head and other parts. Just be careful.

 

[Blue Bear Sound]

Yes... maintenance is critical on these machines. Not only for head cleaning, but also changing the idler wheel every 6 months or so (depending on usage.)

I would also recommend using the preformatted tapes, instead of formatting them yourself. Alignment differences from machine to machine often cause tapes formatted with one machine not to be readily interchangeable with other machines.

 

[mixsit]

..Alignment differences from machine to machine often cause tapes formatted with one machine not to be readily interchangeable with other machines.

Doing your own formatting adds head hours, a down side, but for that consideration I used to keep each deck's formatted tape it's own.
But I've wondered how the factory does them. Somehow I can't imagine stacks of ADAT's...

Wayne

 

[Blue Bear Sound]

I don't know for sure, but if they do in real time, their calibration is pretty spot on, because I've never had an issue swapping pre-forms from machine to machine!

 

[mixsit]

My last ventures with ADATS were long live sessions -20 tapes/per -a no brainer there yeah sure.