Cynics are bound to be thinking that there must at least be something wrong with the ADAT apart from stiff transport controls and a couple of slow-to-react autolocate buttons but really there isnt. Affordable digital multitrack is here and it works. OK, I did find one thing but I doubt whether you are going to come to grief over it. A pair of ADATs have the facility to clone any or all the tracks on a tape digitally onto another tape (which is great for back ups). The clone can be given the same sync reference as the original so if it was part of a master-slave pair and you cloned all eight tracks it should be totally interchangeable with the original tape. In fact the digital clone will play back approximately 20µs later than the original - I spotted this accidentally and did a rule of thumb measurement on my oscilloscope. If you did by chance split up a stereo pair of tracks by cloning one of them and then mixed them into mono you might notice a loss of very high frequencies, but this would be a very unlikely chain of events. With all normal copying and track bouncing operations everything else is perfect (and 20µs is in fact within Alesis single sample synchronisation accuracy specification).
Although I have no way of knowing for sure how well the Alesis ADAT will stand up to the rigours of studio use, I feel confident in saying that future musicians and engineers will look upon it as a milestone in audio development. Its not the first digital multitrack, and it certainly wont be the last, but its the first one the ordinary person in the home or small studio can seriously consider owning. High end professional digital multitrack users will be keeping an eye on this development too. Its unlikely that anyone will be throwing away their DASH or PRODIGI reel-to-reel multitracks because they are both proven formats with a very strong user base. But just as we now have an alternative to a Tascam or Fostex analogue multitrack in the small studio, ADAT is showing the Sonys, Mitsubishis and Otaris of this world that there is an alternative way of doing things. Well done Alesis.
Come on the FREE COURSE TOURThe twelve modules of this course cover the basic controls and functions of the compressor, stereo linking, side chain operation including de-essing, transient shaping and control, including dynamic range control, enhancement of instruments and voices, and compression and limiting of a completed mix. Learn more...
This course covers the principles of MIDI, synthesis and sampling that can be applied in any DAW, any synthesizer, and any sampler.The course covers principles that can be applied to all DAWs, synthesizers and samplers so that students can work comfortably with any software or hardware with such functions. Learn more...
The course adds twelve further practical assignment projects covering topics from drums, through acoustic guitars, electric guitars, bass guitar, vocals, background vocals, keyboard and synthesizer arrangement, production and recording. The practical assignment projects work through the imitation of sections of recordings that have had great commercial success. Learn more...
Great home recording starts with a great home recording studio. It doesn't need to be expensive if you know how to select the right equipment for your needs.