Bad Gear- ADAT Machines

My buddy gave me three of these Alesis ADAT machines. I thought I might bounce some tracks to ADAT and see what happens, but all I got was feedback and mostly didn't work.

[@vonholland64]

They were really good , I’m wanting redo an album project I have stored away from back in the day. Plotting it out now. Getting the old mixer board back Is the first step

[@CeZero4]

I need some of these and im looking around (not so often😜). Would be wonderful to get a few. Not so great is that, they have consumer connectors. Fortunately i would use them to connect my synths - mostly they unbalanced. Some years ago i found some for sale, but prices were crazy for that kind of gear - useless for almost everybody.

[@chrisnealis4270]

I have three of these machines aging away in my studio. Up until this past spring I was using them strictly as expansion tools. All having ADAT that linked flawlessly with modern gear, I could use these strictly as A/D converters with patched in mic pres. For that these machines are absolutely spectacular. You machine does appear to be one of the later soft button units, which are terrible IMO(one of mine is like this). But the slightly older XT20 mechanical button models seem to last forever, as long as you're not using them with tape. I've never had an issue with syncing them, that was the easy part. Basically, if you have an interface with ADAT inputs, keep this around and get a 4-8 channel rack mount analog mic pre and patch it into one of these units. You'll have clean and reliable digital conversion/expansion. Don't forget, these were pricy machines when new, so the components inside are usually on par with high end gear today... just not the tape part. lol.

[@jacobwest-vd7op]

I really want to get some but idk where to look!

[@sonicbrush]

@chrisnealis4270 Hi there. I only have one XT20 left out of the 3 I had in the 90s. I use it as you do, an expansion unit for a motu 2408/828 system. I'm trying for hybrid mixing with this gear. But how do you patch DAW tracks though lightpipe? What switch do you hit? I could run 8 tracks from the DAW though 2408 or 828 analog out to mixer and I can patch additional DAW tracks through optical adat but will not pass audio to lightpipe fiber from 2408/828 even if optical light says there's traffic going out. On the xt20 face there's digital or analog button and clock choice, tried all buttons, nothing. Lightpipe passes audio to the DAW when tracking, no problem. But back out to the mixer, unlike modern adat interfaces, won't do it. I'm stumped. Any ideas? Much appreciated.

[@chrisnealis4270]

@@sonicbrush Which DAW are you using? Make sure the DAW, 2408, and the xt20 are set to the same sample bit/sample rate. You may also have to play around with clock source settings. I'm also looking over all of my old patch notes and photos at the moment.

[@sonicbrush]

@@chrisnealis4270 Thank you, also found out 2408 could be in stand-alone mode. But that forces to use 2408 as timing master and 828 (no stand-alone mode) as slave and connect with optical. Sonar Producer 8, Cakewalk by BandLab, Cubase 10.

[@pcallas66]

I have the LX20 and it records great. The only issue that I've really had is sometimes the tape won't load. Sometimes the guides get stuck but for the most part, it's been working fine. I actually used it today to lay a couple tracks down and I think the sound quality is really good.I guess my question for you is how are you hooking this up to your mixer and what are you defining as feedback? Is it "squealing" when you turn the volume up when you're arming record channels? The deck itself doesn't have record level adjustments on it so you would do that with the mixer. Anyway, those are very nice decks. I think if I read correctly, Alanis Morrisette used the ADAT to record Jagged Little Pill. Anyway, I hope you get your issues resolved.

[@urbannpa]

I figure since you made this video a year ago you can help me with my ADAT issue. I have a ALESIS XT and recently while connecting to a Patch bay notice that channels 3-8 are not working as inputs. If I plug up channels 1-2 input from my mixer AUX out I can press the individual channel Record buttons and see the audio metering for those channels. I used an audio signal tester to check each input but get nothing from 3-8.

[@schlechtj1]

The ADAT machines are digital (that's what the D stands for) I remember drooling over these in the early 90s when I only had a 4 channel cassette portastudio. A bump from just good enough to professional. But at $4,000, way out of the question.

[@SONORSQ2guy]

I don’t miss these machines the Tascam units broke down just as much they’re not vintage they are junk

[@scottantonsmith]

I remember having one of these in my high school and it never worked.

[@bobsbits5357]

HI i have some as well saved be bin all the SVHS tapes and the hi-fi top end vhs tapes note i am very good at fiving them up betacam adat i do like as alot are now don't like this gear any more i worked on alot of cool analog gear over the years ADAT has lot of hr's in them left i have a fix the the bad rubber sorry rubber re new is a bad news you have to change the rubber O ring i do have to turn it down with the right tools