anonymous
14 March 2002
I am considering purchasing an analog reel-reel 8 track recorder and using it along with my DAW which consists of a Gadget Labs 824 soundcard and N-track. I would like to record bass and drums on the reel-reel and the rest on the DAW, can these two machines be accurately synced together? How does one go about doing this? I know I could always record analog and then record that onto the DAW, but I would like to have both running synced and separate until mixdown. Can this be done? My soundcard does have word clock output, is this relevent? I'm very unfamiliar with syncing, thanks.
Ian
Comments
I don't know anything about your specific gear, but do you have
I don't know anything about your specific gear, but do you have a midi-interface that can read and write SMPTE? If you do, you are all set. (If not, you can get one for not too much bread).
Record a SMPTE tone from your Midi interface from beginning to end on Track 8 of your tape. (Called "striping"). Then slave your DAW to SMPTE. Once you figure out how this is done in your specific system, any time you start the tape (with track 8's audio output connected to SMPTE input on your interface), your DAW will lock up to the same time code. (Sometimes this takes a few seconds.)
You may have to be careful what, if anything, you are able to record on track 7, especially if cross-talk is a bad on your tape deck - it may affect the readability of the time code on track 8.