The following question recently was asked of our technical support staff:
“I just purchased a Alesis ADAT-LX20 and was trying to find out how to reset the machine by holding buttons down when I powered up. I tried several combinations of buttons and now the machine is eating tapes! What can I do? Help!”
Pressing LOCATE 0 during power up will default the service adjustments for the head and brakes. This will cause tape spilling and very high head errors (usually error 7) to occur. Once this happens the unit must be sent to an authorized service center for recalibration. You can do an automatic recalibration of the brakes by going through the procedure we described in the 11/23/98 issue of inSync, but that will still not take care of the head calibration, which can only be done by a qualified technician.
The correct procedure to reset the LX20 is holding down the “RECORD” button when powering up.
The moral of this story: Don’t randomly hold down buttons trying to do hard resets or find hidden functions of your gear. You just may find one and cost yourself some time and money. That’s why they are called “hidden” functions.