Alesis ADAT-XT manual Recording Digital Audio from Other Sources, To make a backup tape

Chapter 5: Multiple ADAT-XT Operation

XT tapes can be backed up for safety by copying all eight tracks to another XT (or ADAT compatible machine) via the digital bus. The result is a perfect digital duplication of the original. It’s a good idea to make backups on a regular basis, whenever you finish work for the day, or complete a project. The backup can either be sample accurate to the time reference or not. This depends on whether or not the two machines are synchronized together via a 9-pin connector cable. It is recommended, however, that you do have the Sync cables connected between the machines, as described in the section entitled Synchronizing Machines on page 56.

When making a backup, the tape you are backing up is normally inserted into the master machine. The tape you are backing up to is inserted into one of the slave machines. This is recommended since the slave machine comes after the master machine in the system chain. NOTE: [TRACK COPY] is not used to make digital tape backups from machine to machine. Track Copy is only used to copy between tracks on the same machine.

To make a backup tape:

¿Connect a male/male, 9-pin D connector cable between the [SYNC OUT] of the master XT and the [SYNC IN] of the slave XT.

This synchronizes the two machines; the master XT becomes the master (ID 1) and the slave machine becomes the slave (ID 2).

¡Connect a fiber optic cable between the [DIGITAL OUT] of the master XT and the [DIGITAL IN] of the slave XT.

This routes the digital audio from the master XT to the slave machine.

¬Connect a fiber optic cable between the [DIGITAL OUT] of the slave XT and the [DIGITAL IN] of the master XT.

This routes the digital audio back from the slave XT to the master machine.

÷Insert the tape to be backed up into the master XT.

ƒInsert a blank tape into the slave machine.

ªPress the [DIGITAL INPUT] button on both the master XT and the slave XT. The DIGITAL icon will be lit on both machines.

DPress all RECORD ENABLE buttons [1] – [8] on the slave XT.

The RECORD LEDs for tracks 9–16 (all eight of the slave machine’s tracks) will flash. J Be sure that the RECORD ENABLE buttons are switched off for tracks 1–8 of the

master XT and the write-protect tab (or record tab) is removed (open).

«Press both [PLAY] and [RECORD] on the master XT.

Since this is the master machine (ID 1), it will simply enter play (since none of its tracks are in record-ready) while engaging record on the slave machine.

»Press [STOP] on the master XT after backing up is complete. Both machines will stop.

If a tape is in very bad condition, you may have difficulty copying it from the master XT to a slave. If the error count is so high that the XT momentarily loses sync during playback, all following slaves will be taken out of record automatically. In this case, put the new tape into the master, and the damaged tape in the slave, and copy from the slave to the master.

RECORDING DIGITAL AUDIO FROM OTHER SOURCES

Recording digital audio onto the XT from a source other than an ADAT Compatible device requires a digital audio interface, like the Alesis AI-1. The AI-1 converts either AES/EBU or S/PDIF digital audio protocols into the Alesis Multichannel Optical

60 ADAT XT Reference Manual