DP7 + Audio Track Sync

[stevelees]

Hi all, here is my problem I am hoping you can help me with.

I have a MIDI file imported to DP7, and I have audio tracks transferred from a Tascam 238 8 Track with the audio files to go with the above mentioned MIDI file.

Track 8 is on the tape is MIDI time code.

How can I get DP7 to be be synchronised to the incoming track 8 time code so that when it records the audio tracks it is in sync with the audio?

[stevelees]

Anyone??

[jkramlofsky]

Hi Steve,

let's see if I can be of some assistance. Having MIDI Timecode recorded on Tape sounds a bit unlikely to me. I think it probably is SMPTE Timecode which must be converted to MIDI Timecode. It's been quite some some time since I had to work with such a setup. Everything had to be outboard converters. Today I think it could be easier. Here is a little free tool that can convert SMPTE to MIDI from any audio input of your Mac. http://nobusiness-soft.com/smptereader/
Then you can send the MIDI Timecode to any MIDI port on your Mac. I haven't tried it myself but I think it should work. Give it a try.

Cheers.

P.S.
Oh and of course inside DP you have to sync to the incoming MIDI Timecode via the MIDI Port (IAC for example) you have chosen.

[Dwetmaster]

If by MIDI Time Code, you mean any type of click track, you can have DP analyze the beats and tempo on that track and sync to that.
Just select the click soundbite, once it's fully analyzed and got to: Audio/Adjust Sequence to Soundbite tempo.

[jkramlofsky]

Hi,

I found that on the WEB. Maybe it is helpful.

SMPTE (Society of Motion Pictures and Television Engineers) is still in use in Film and Video today and is embedded right into digital video so no tape tracks are required. In the days of tape recorders, we used SMPTE and striped it on the last track of the tape recorder. On playback, a standard audio cable took the output to a MIDI interface and controlled the sequencer from it.

MTC stands for MIDI Time Code. Its a series MIDI messages that tells other devices what time it is at any given moment in hours, minutes, seconds and frames. MTC is simply understood as a conversion of SMPTE timecode that goes down a MIDI cable. It is sent in quarter frame intervals as MIDI system exclusive data.

Greets.

[Armageddon]

All the Tascam MIDIStudios (of which this sounds like one) did actually have MIDI Time Code that you could stripe on Track 8 to sync with your computer/sequencer through the MIDI/PortaStudio's MIDI port. It wasn't really the same as SMPTE, since there was no SMPTE-to-MIDI conversion taking place, I think it's really just an audio version of a beat clock. All you had to do was hook up your computer's MIDI out to the Tascam's MIDI in, make sure you were transmitting clocks to the Tascam, set up your Tascam to record/convert the incoming clocks on Track 8, record the entire song's clocks in one pass and you were good to go. You then simply had your computer's sequencer (or hardware sequencer) act as a slave to the MTC recorded on the tape (MIDI out on the Tascam to the computer or hardware sequencer's MIDI in). You can do this easily enough in DP by setting up the MTC preferences, and should then be able to slave DP to your eight-track. I used to own a MIDIStudio 688 and, while that thing was a monstrous terror, my PowerBook Duo 210 running Master Tracks Pro synced to it like a champ.