User Guide

• Never unplug a cable by pulling on the wire itself. Always unplug by firmly
grasping the body of the plug and pulling directly outward. If you experience
difficulty in removing the plug, sometimes a slight rotating motion while unplugging
will solve the problem.
• Keep the cable contacts clean at all time. Oxidation may lead to intermittent
contacts, degraded sound quality, or even distortion. DO NOT USE AN
ABRASIVE TO CLEAN A DIRTY PLUG. This may remove some of the plug’s
conductive plating. Instead, spray contact cleaner on a clean, lint-free cloth and
vigorously rub the plug until the oxidation is gone.
2.2 AUDIO—UNBALANCED INPUTS
2.2A Input Jack Characteristics
ADAT includes eight unbalanced, 1/4” phone jack inputs. These are compatible with
the low-impedance, unbalanced, -10 dBV outputs typically emanating from equipment
such as mixers, synthesizers, samplers, direct boxes, etc. Guitars, microphones,
and other low-level/high-impedance output devices require a preamp or should be
routed through a mixer with mic preamps.
The unbalanced input jack wiring convention is:
• Tip: signal hot
• Sleeve: shield and ground
2.2B Typical Input Jack Hookups
The input jacks are typically hooked up in one of three ways:
• To the console’s direct tape outs (these patch a single channel directly to
tape, bypassing most mixer circuitry). This is preferred when the signals going
to tape require none of the mixer’s features (effects, grouping, routing, etc.).
• To eight mixer bus outputs. You can use the mixer for grouping, premixing,
effects, etc. This puts more circuitry between the input signals and ADAT,
although since most routing can be done at the mixer, you’ll seldom need to do
any repatching.
• To a combination of direct outputs and bus outputs. Some situations require
a combination of the two approaches. Example: Consider a live gig you want to
record with two vocal mics, four mics on drums, two direct feeds from guitar and
bass amps, and one direct feed from keyboards. The vocals, bass, guitar, and
keyboards could be taken direct and go to five ADAT tracks. The four drum mics
can be mixed to stereo within your mixer sent to the submix outs, then go to two