ADAP II

In 1989 from Hybrid Arts came the ADAP II which offered D2D recording, much like Digidesign's Sound Designer II and Sound Tools package, or the offering from Plasmec, the company behind the ADAS-ST which came a couple of years later.  Again the ADAP II was a 16-bit machine, of which there were a few revisions.   Firstly the ADAP II 'Sound Cube', which consisted of an analogue board dressed in a rack, the DSP again in a rack, an Atari ST Mega 4 racked up in a Hybrid Arts case, and a racked Hybrid Arts hard drive.  

The ADAP II Portable followed, which turned out to be the prototype of the upcoming Digital Master.  Again there were a few revisions of the ADAP II Portable, the all in one box 2U rack designs, the one I own which plugs into the cartridge port.  According to one of the leading designers, Chuck Peplinski, there are known to be 2 of these with serial numbers 00001-X which is my machine, and 00002-X, the first 2 Portables.  I am aware of one more version housed in a 3U designed rack with a SCSI interface and an internal hard drive, more or less the same design which led to the Digital Master.  

The ADAP II is considered the first D2D recorder for the Atari platform, and as attested by Bob Moore the founder of Hybrid Arts, the first D2D recorder outright on any home computer platform.  Of course this technology in turn has spawned the DAWs we see today, yet with Sound Tools released for the Mac in the same year of 1989 from Digidesign, and DAME around potentially '88 to '89 for the ST, the first affordable professional D2D recorder for any home computer platform is contested between these three significant pieces of technology in the evolution of the DAW.

Incidentally, the first commercial standalone D2D or HD recorders were appearing around 1987 to '89 (some claim earlier which is possible, however I remain reserved with those claims) from the likes of AMS Neve and their AudioFile (claimed '84), New England, Digital Audio Research's Soundstation II, the Lexicon Opus, WaveFrame AudioFrame and Fairlight and their MFX for example.  Of course the concept of digital audio was not new at this time, but an evolution, thanks to the innovations credited to the father of the same, Alec Reeves, and post experimentations from Dr. Thomas Stockham.  However it was Digidesign's SoundTools, more so Hybrid Arts' ADAP II, and speculatively OMT's DAME which broke the 'affordability barrier' for digital audio recording technology.

Thank you to James Wilkinson, owner of the Facebook group Atari ST Musicians Network, and ex Hybrid Arts employee Chuck Peplinski, both who made it possible for me to obtain my ADAP II Portable.

Overview

• Name: ADAP II

• Type: D2D Recorder

• Bit Depth: 16-bit

• Sample Rate: Up to 48 kHz

• Sound Quality: Stereo

• Hardware ADC: Yes

• ADC Connection Type: Cartridge Port

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