ADAT Err-7 Issue

[Frisco]

I have two ADAT tapes that were given to me by a friend at the church,
and we were hoping that I could import it into my hard-disk
multi-track and save it as WAV files for him, or at least remix them
down (the original mixes have issues that need some fixing).

The premis is sound - I tried it with some old ADAT tapes I have,
played them in my ADAT and took the digital-out into my Fostex VF-16
and then saved them as WAV files. No problems there...

But when I put my buddy's tapes into my Alesis ADAT , all I get is
Err-7. All my tapes play fine, so I'm thinking that maybe the
original recording heads on the other ADAT were aligned differently
than on my ADAT, or maybe the guy who had the tapes for the last
year-and-a-half set them on a speaker or something that partially
erased the data on them.

Thoughts? Any ideas I can try to save the music on these ADAT's?

Thanx,
Paul

[Rick Powell]

Frisco > wrote in message >...
> I have two ADAT tapes that were given to me by a friend at the church,
> and we were hoping that I could import it into my hard-disk
> multi-track and save it as WAV files for him, or at least remix them
> down (the original mixes have issues that need some fixing).
>
> The premis is sound - I tried it with some old ADAT tapes I have,
> played them in my ADAT and took the digital-out into my Fostex VF-16
> and then saved them as WAV files. No problems there...
>
> But when I put my buddy's tapes into my Alesis ADAT , all I get is
> Err-7. All my tapes play fine, so I'm thinking that maybe the
> original recording heads on the other ADAT were aligned differently
> than on my ADAT, or maybe the guy who had the tapes for the last
> year-and-a-half set them on a speaker or something that partially
> erased the data on them.
>
> Thoughts? Any ideas I can try to save the music on these ADAT's?
>
> Thanx,
> Paul

Paul,

There are 2 things you can try.

1. Do a thorough head cleaning (using the manual method).
Instructions are available at several places including
www.studio-maint.com. Sometimes a squeaky-clean machine will play a
tape that has higher than usual errors.

2. Try to borrow your friend's ADAT machine for the transfer; if the
machine was out of whack in alignment (and tapes were formatted and
recorded as such) it might be your only bet.

RP

[Rick Powell]

Frisco > wrote in message >...
> I have two ADAT tapes that were given to me by a friend at the church,
> and we were hoping that I could import it into my hard-disk
> multi-track and save it as WAV files for him, or at least remix them
> down (the original mixes have issues that need some fixing).
>
> The premis is sound - I tried it with some old ADAT tapes I have,
> played them in my ADAT and took the digital-out into my Fostex VF-16
> and then saved them as WAV files. No problems there...
>
> But when I put my buddy's tapes into my Alesis ADAT , all I get is
> Err-7. All my tapes play fine, so I'm thinking that maybe the
> original recording heads on the other ADAT were aligned differently
> than on my ADAT, or maybe the guy who had the tapes for the last
> year-and-a-half set them on a speaker or something that partially
> erased the data on them.
>
> Thoughts? Any ideas I can try to save the music on these ADAT's?
>
> Thanx,
> Paul

Paul,

There are 2 things you can try.

1. Do a thorough head cleaning (using the manual method).
Instructions are available at several places including
www.studio-maint.com. Sometimes a squeaky-clean machine will play a
tape that has higher than usual errors.

2. Try to borrow your friend's ADAT machine for the transfer; if the
machine was out of whack in alignment (and tapes were formatted and
recorded as such) it might be your only bet.

RP

[RL,nyc]

Frisco > wrote in message >...
> I have two ADAT tapes that were given to me by a friend at the church,
> and we were hoping that I could import it into my hard-disk
> multi-track and save it as WAV files for him, or at least remix them
> down (the original mixes have issues that need some fixing).
>
> The premis is sound - I tried it with some old ADAT tapes I have,
> played them in my ADAT and took the digital-out into my Fostex VF-16
> and then saved them as WAV files. No problems there...
>
> But when I put my buddy's tapes into my Alesis ADAT , all I get is
> Err-7. All my tapes play fine, so I'm thinking that maybe the
> original recording heads on the other ADAT were aligned differently
> than on my ADAT, or maybe the guy who had the tapes for the last
> year-and-a-half set them on a speaker or something that partially
> erased the data on them.
>
> Thoughts? Any ideas I can try to save the music on these ADAT's?
>
> Thanx,
> Paul

paul,

you are probably going to have to make a clone of the whole tape. if
the original was recorded on an adat machine that had dirty heads (or
had been formatted with dirty heads), then it will read error 7 all
day long. the only hope is to make a digital transfer from one adat
machine to another. it is laid out in the adat manual. sometimes the
problem is so bad it doesn't work, and then you have to start erasing
tracks in reverse chronological order. if one track was recorded with
dirt on the heads, the whole tape will start reading err7. i have had
this problem and it is not fun. i wish you all the very best luck.

rl,nyc

[RL,nyc]

Frisco > wrote in message >...
> I have two ADAT tapes that were given to me by a friend at the church,
> and we were hoping that I could import it into my hard-disk
> multi-track and save it as WAV files for him, or at least remix them
> down (the original mixes have issues that need some fixing).
>
> The premis is sound - I tried it with some old ADAT tapes I have,
> played them in my ADAT and took the digital-out into my Fostex VF-16
> and then saved them as WAV files. No problems there...
>
> But when I put my buddy's tapes into my Alesis ADAT , all I get is
> Err-7. All my tapes play fine, so I'm thinking that maybe the
> original recording heads on the other ADAT were aligned differently
> than on my ADAT, or maybe the guy who had the tapes for the last
> year-and-a-half set them on a speaker or something that partially
> erased the data on them.
>
> Thoughts? Any ideas I can try to save the music on these ADAT's?
>
> Thanx,
> Paul

paul,

you are probably going to have to make a clone of the whole tape. if
the original was recorded on an adat machine that had dirty heads (or
had been formatted with dirty heads), then it will read error 7 all
day long. the only hope is to make a digital transfer from one adat
machine to another. it is laid out in the adat manual. sometimes the
problem is so bad it doesn't work, and then you have to start erasing
tracks in reverse chronological order. if one track was recorded with
dirt on the heads, the whole tape will start reading err7. i have had
this problem and it is not fun. i wish you all the very best luck.

rl,nyc