Alesis ALESIS M20 owner manual 18.1A Head Cleaning Cassettes Optional

Maintenance and Troubleshooting, Chapter 18

18.1A HEAD CLEANING CASSETTES (OPTIONAL)

For preventative maintenance, you may use a DRY VHS head cleaning cassette if you wish, but Alesis does not see these as a substitute for thorough manual cleaning. Dry cleaning tapes are simply VHS video tapes purposely made with a slightly coarse surface. We recommend:

Sony Video Cleaning tape (model V-25CL) TDK Video Head Cleaner (dry type only)

3M VHSHC Black Watch Head Cleaner Video Cassette

3M ASD HC Digital Audio Head Cleaning Cassette

Insert the tape into the M20 every 10-20 drum hours, play the tape through once, (normally 2-3 minutes) rewind it, then eject it. Most of these tapes are encoded with a video signal; you may erase that by formatting the cleaning tape. If you play the tape without formatting it, it will still do the job, but various error messages may appear during the process.

Dry head cleaning tapes become less effective each time they are used; many brands recommend a new tape after 20 passes through the machine. While they are mildly abrasive, they do not wear the heads significantly when used properly.

On the down side, head cleaning cassettes are seldom effective on a head that is already dirty enough to cause significant errors. In an emergency, you may use a cleaning tape several times in a row to get the heads clean enough to get through a session, but a complete cleaning by a qualified service technician will still be needed.

∙Do NOT use any other type of head cleaning cassette. They are abrasive and will damage or wear out your heads.

∙Do NOT use head cleaning cassettes that require any kind of liquid.

∙Do NOT attempt to clean the heads yourself unless you are a skilled technician experienced in the maintenance of video cassette recorders. Information for such technicians is available below and from Alesis Product Support. ADAT head cleaning requires different materials and procedures from analog head cleaning, similar to VCR maintenance. Cleaning the heads with a cotton swab, or rubbing in the wrong direction, will destroy them. Opening the case of your ADAT will void the warranty.

18.1B MANUAL HEAD AND TAPE PATH CLEANING

If the error count is high, or more than 250 “drum on” hours have elapsed since the last complete cleaning, a manual cleaning of the head drum and tape path is recommended. If you are experienced in VCR maintenance, you may clean the heads of the M20 yourself. Otherwise, this service may be performed by an Alesis service center for a nominal charge.

Eject the tape, turn the POWER switch off, and unplug the M20 from

AC power before opening the unit!

18-6 ALESIS M20 REFERENCE MANUAL 1.06