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Maintenance and Troubleshooting, Chapter 18
18-8 ALESIS M20 REFERENCE MANUAL 1.06
18.3 TAPE MAINTENANCE: SAFE TAPE
18.3
A TAPE WEAR
Head maintenance of the ADAT should be based on the ERROR Indicator (or Error
Count Display) or if the unit begins to behave erratically. However, these same
symptoms may appear in an M20 with clean heads if the tape being used is worn out or
defective.
To determine if a high error rate is being caused by dirty heads or by a defective or
worn tape, keep a “benchmark” tape from the first weeks of operation set aside in a safe
place (see section 4.11). If the ERROR Indicator lights frequently when playing back
this tape, it is likely that head cleaning is needed, particularly if several hundred drum-
on hours have elapsed since the last cleaning.
But if errors appear only with certain tapes, that tape is experiencing dropouts or
other wear. Make a digital backup immediately onto a new tape and use the backup
for future work.
18.3B CARE OF ADAT TAPES
ADAT tapes are no different than any standard tape: they must be treated with care.
Never expose ADAT tapes to temperature extremes, strong magnetic fields (such as
speakers), high humidity, dust and so on. High humidity is a particular problem with
magnetic media, as it causes the binders to soften, increasing wear and depositing tape
oxide on the heads.
You should always practice “SAFE TAPE”:
• At the end of every session you should rewind the tape all the way to the leader,
stop, eject the tape, remove it from the ADAT and place it in its protective case.
This cuts down on the amount of dust that can enter the transport and keeps wear
on the tape at a minimum.
• Don’t leave your tapes near speakers, power amps or other potential magnetic fields
such as televisions or electrical devices.
• Don’t subject your tapes to extreme temperatures or wild temperature fluctuations.
• Don’t expose your tapes to high humidity, moisture or high dust levels.
• Don’t leave your tapes on the dashboard of your car. (In fact, never leave ADAT
tapes in a car EVER. Keep them with you at all times!)
• Certainly, no matter how tempted you are to open the shutter to see what is inside,
NEVER TOUCH THE TAPE. The magnetic particles on your ADAT tape need to be
preserved in the condition in which they were recorded. The oils from your fingers
may damage your tapes as well as get on the heads and get them dirty.
• Never turn off the ADAT power while the tape is threaded. This leaves the tape
bent around the rollers and head. Eject the tape or press STOP until the tape is
unthreaded (STOP button blinking) before turning off power.