Welcome (y)

Today my studio is on rollers, open backed and my racks all tilt. I love it. Modest or not, racks that "roll & tilt" to where you want them works well. I could never work as well with out that option now.
The ones I use are cheap and solid enough. Ultimate and Hosa make them and I'm sure other brands are similar in cost and design.
http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/RMT152
http://tomleemusic.ca/99265

aspsa, post: 440970, member: 49972 wrote: Will mounting them at a steep incline negatively impact playback?

Good question

Hope that helps.

audiokid, post: 440971, member: 1 wrote: Welcome (y)

(its a modular world these days) Today my studio is on rollers, open backed and my racks all tilt. I love it. Modest or not, racks that "roll & tilt" to where you want them works well. I could never work as well with out that option now.
The ones I use are cheap and solid enough. Ultimate and Hosa make them and I'm sure other brands are similar in cost and design.
http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/RMT152
http://tomleemusic.ca/99265

Good question

Hope that helps.

Thanks for the reply and the links.

I appreciate your response, but my key question was if a severe incline will interfere with the ADAT's performance. Honestly, I do not plan on using my ADATs for anything other than playing back recorded content with the express purpose of digitally archiving the content. Since I have a great deal of content, I am considering placing one or more ADATs in my console's rack modules. I can just a easily place them elsewhere near or atop the console in a fully upright position, but this is not an optimal solution. Once I'm done archiving the content, the ADATs will go; I have no need for them to occupy my racks.

Thank you again.

(y)
Kurt Foster

I've got some ADAT archiving to do too. I just can't force myself to make time for it. I know I'm going to have to service them.

All other things being equal, I don't think it would matter if they were tilted. The tape mechanism is pretty 'captive'. It holds the tape pretty securely in place, and the transport and guides should let the tape track the same at any reasonable angle. As always though, before I started archiving each tape, I'd FFwd all the way to the end of the tape, and then REW back to the beginning to let the tape pack itself consistently.

If the machines have been sitting idle for a long time, I'd be more worried about the condition of the rubber parts. (Pinch roller, idler tire, belts, etc.) If in doubt, I'd remove the cover and put in a tape I didn't care about and watch to make sure the tape was rolling smoothly. The idler tire is a delicate balance between sufficient grip and the right amount of slippage. If the machine has done a lot of stopping and starting, and repetitive punch-ins (especially if it was a slave deck), the idler gets pretty chewed up. The master deck was bad enough, the slave(s) were always 10x worse, due to all the rapid-fire gyrations they had to go through to sync back up to the master.

aspsa, post: 440970, member: 49972 wrote: The desk's rack module configuration places the ADATs at a radical incline, should I choose to rack-mount them in the desk.

define 'radical"?

I can't see that they would suffer when mounted in a rack that had an "average" tilt ... heat buildup is probably more of a concern, so I'd make sure the rack had an open back and not an enclosed one, and, if possible, I'd leave space between them.

If you are still wary, you could contact Alesis and ask them: 401-658-5760

Also, here's a PDF of the manual, should this interest you:

http://www.pgtonstudio.ch/Adat_Manual.pdf

dvdhawk, post: 440976, member: 36047 wrote: I've got some ADAT archiving to do too. I just can't force myself to make time for it. I know I'm going to have to service them.

All other things being equal, I don't think it would matter if they were tilted. The tape mechanism is pretty 'captive'. It holds the tape pretty securely in place, and the transport and guides should let the tape track the same at any reasonable angle. As always though, before I started archiving each tape, I'd FFwd all the way to the end of the tape, and then REW back to the beginning to let the tape pack itself consistently.

If the machines have been sitting idle for a long time, I'd be more worried about the condition of the rubber parts. (Pinch roller, idler tire, belts, etc.) If in doubt, I'd remove the cover and put in a tape I didn't care about and watch to make sure the tape was rolling smoothly. The idler tire is a delicate balance between sufficient grip and the right amount of slippage. If the machine has done a lot of stopping and starting, and repetitive punch-ins (especially if it was a slave deck), the idler gets pretty chewed up. The master deck was bad enough, the slave(s) were always 10x worse, due to all the rapid-fire gyrations they had to go through to sync back up to the master.

dvdhawk, post: 440976, member: 36047 wrote: I've got some ADAT archiving to do too. I just can't force myself to make time for it. I know I'm going to have to service them.

All other things being equal, I don't think it would matter if they were tilted. The tape mechanism is pretty 'captive'. It holds the tape pretty securely in place, and the transport and guides should let the tape track the same at any reasonable angle. As always though, before I started archiving each tape, I'd FFwd all the way to the end of the tape, and then REW back to the beginning to let the tape pack itself consistently.

If the machines have been sitting idle for a long time, I'd be more worried about the condition of the rubber parts. (Pinch roller, idler tire, belts, etc.) If in doubt, I'd remove the cover and put in a tape I didn't care about and watch to make sure the tape was rolling smoothly. The idler tire is a delicate balance between sufficient grip and the right amount of slippage. If the machine has done a lot of stopping and starting, and repetitive punch-ins (especially if it was a slave deck), the idler gets pretty chewed up. The master deck was bad enough, the slave(s) were always 10x worse, due to all the rapid-fire gyrations they had to go through to sync back up to the master.

> As always though, before I started archiving each tape, I'd FFwd all the way to the end of the tape,
> and then REW back to the beginning to let the tape pack itself consistently.
Yes. In fact, since it's been quite some, I'd take it one step further. My tapes are all rewound. However, I will take two additional precautions:

1. Turn on the ADAT units and let them 'warm up' for at least 30 minutes.
2. Run each tape in normal play mode for at least 5 minutes before I FF and REW them.
   > If in doubt, I'd remove the cover and put in a tape I didn't care about and watch to make sure
   > the tape was rolling smoothly.
   Good point. That's a wise precaution.

   Thanks for your feedback.

DonnyThompson, post: 440977, member: 46114 wrote: define 'radical"?

I can't see that they would suffer when mounted in a rack that had an "average" tilt ... heat buildup is probably more of a concern, so I'd make sure the rack had an open back and not an enclosed one, and, if possible, I'd leave space between them.

If you are still wary, you could contact Alesis and ask them: 401-658-5760

Also, here's a PDF of the manual, should this interest you:

http://www.pgtonstudio.ch/Adat_Manual.pdf

> define 'radical"?
45 degrees from vertical.

> ...heat buildup is probably more of a concern, so I'd make sure the rack had an open back and not an enclosed one,
> and, if possible, I'd leave space between them.
True.

> If you are still wary, you could contact Alesis and ask them: 401-658-5760
Thanks for the number.

> Also, here's a PDF of the manual, should this interest you:
Thank you. I still have both blackface and XT20 user manuals.

I appreciate your response.