An astute inSync reader gives us an interesting follow up to our recent Tech Tip about upside down waveform displays when bringing tracks from ADATs into a DAW (see inSync 5/8/01).

"The writer mentioned loading an ADAT recording into a DAW and finding a reversed wave display compared to the original recording. It could be that one of the recorders used was an original blackface ADAT. I believe that they reversed the polarity of the signal going to tape and then restored it back to correct polarity on playback. This happened when using the Elco balanced in/outs. And if tracked in balanced and then played back through the unbalanced I/O connectors, it was also reversed. Starting with the XT, this practice was supposedly stopped, though I never tested it. But it meant that any tape cut on one had to be polarity reversed on the other to play back correctly when the different era machines were mixed."