Swapping steel tracks via VS-1680.

John Lacey · From: Black Diamond, Alberta, Canada

I just got a call from a client I've been working with. Normally, he ships up an ADAT tape for me, I go into my friends' studio and record a steel track on one of the ADAT tracks and ship it back to him, extra billing for my friends' studio. This time around I told him to send a DAT stereo tape with the bed tracks on the left side, I will download it to my 1680 onto one track, record on another, then dump it back digitally to the DAT tape. Will that work? If somebody has a definitive answer, please also email me directly as he is Purolating this DAT tape up to me today.

mtulbert · From: Plano, Texas 75023

John,

That should work. Getting your track to sync with the master will be the real trick when he attempts to transfer your steel track to his adat.

With the adat you were always in synch with the band. Now you are "freewheeling". Depending on the complexity of the song, it won't be that tough.

Good Luck and best regards,

Mark T.

Michael Johnstone · From: Sylmar,Ca. USA

One problem would be if sample rates varied between 44.1 and 48 during the various transfers-and I'm talking about A to A transfers.Even if everything is done D to D at the same rates,without time code.....well my experience with that kind of thing is you're gonna encounter drift.Unless the guy is gonna put it together on Pro Tools or something where he can nudge it,chop it up and fly it around,I smell trouble.

Jerry Gleason · From: Eugene, Oregon, USA

This is something I'm curious about also. My understanding of this is a little fuzzy, but from what I've been able to glean from the pro audio forums and newsgroups, It seems that in order for two digital devices to sync exactly to each other, one device needs to be designated as the master "clock". this can be accomplished with a sync cable from the "word out" connector if one exists on the desired master device. If there is no "word clock" syncronization, drift can occur.

As I said, my understanding of all this digital voodoo is a little unclear, so hopefully someone can correct me if I'm wrong, or provide a more complete technical explanation of digital syncronization. This might be a good question to post on "rec.audio.pro". I'll bet someone there could give an answer.

Michael Johnstone · From: Sylmar,Ca. USA

Word clock is nothing more than video black burst - which makes sense because DATs,ADATs,DA-88s,etc are basically just video tape machines modified to record audio.So,in the same way that sync generators are fed to multiple video machines to keep their vertical intervals together,we use it to align samples between digital audio machines.Word clock is only part of it though.You also need to generate and print time code-either SMPTE,MTC or so-called "absolute time" which you automatically get when you format an ADAT or DA-88 tape.Then you need a syncronizing device which reads the time code on both machines and also controls their transports - constantly comparing time codes and keeping both machines resolved to word clock.It's the only way to achieve and maintain sample accurate sync between two tape machines - be it audio,video or a mixture of both. -MJ-

John Lacey · From: Black Diamond, Alberta, Canada

Last nite I downloaded the rhythm track (left side) off my client's DAT tape via the optical connection. Connected channel 1 up with the digital in button, armed the track then recorded. That left my bed tracks on track one, recorded steel on track 2, panned beds hard left, steel hard right and re-recorded it back to the DAT tape going over the old recording. Sounds VERY stereo, discreet and fine. Thanks for the input from my audio friends.

erik · Posted 26 Aug 2000 3:09 pm

Would this work?

You get the DAT tape with rhythm on one track, sync code on the other - record both to your multi-track, then add your steel on the third track, then record your steel plus sync code back to DAT on seperate channels, leaving off the rhythm track. Send the DAT back and your steel should lock up with the other tracks. Yes, no, maybe?

Michael Johnstone · From: Sylmar,Ca. USA

Erik-
That would work assuming that the steel track and the time code was transfered from DAT to an ADAT tape in such a way that the ADAT tape with steel/time code & the ADAT tape w/the bed track would lock up.See,the problem is,that the most commonly used way that multiple ADATs lock up is with the absolute time code that is imbedded in the formatting process(NOT on one of the 8 audio tracks).It can't be "overdubbed" later.You COULD print time code on an audio track and slave everything else to that machine but you would need a special syncronizer beside what most guys normally use.You might also be able to just play your theoretical DAT and feed the code track to an ADAT BRC and slave/chase one or more ADATs to it.Once it all locked up,you could bounce your steel track to an ADAT track and you'd be home free - maybe.....
The reason I'm so cynical about these things is that I've spent 20+ years syncing various audio and video machines and computers together and I'm something of an initiate when it comes to technical nightmares.You think it's confusing now,you should have tried it in 1977 using a primitive BTX box where you had to program SMPTE offsets with a row of microswitches and store EDLs on punch tape!

John Lacey · From: Black Diamond, Alberta, Canada

Erik, I think that I've sort of provided my own solution to sync problems by syncing the bed track with the steel track ON the 1680. They are intrinsically linked together, then recorded hard-panned back onto the DAT machine. Listening back they are in perfect sync. This is a good way to distance-market yourself if you're a studio player in a remote area, like I am. Whether other studios will bite, I don't know. A lot of producers love to have you right there where they can browbeat a session out of you.

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