Avid-DS Nitris/Symphony, ProTools HD2, & Alesis HD

[baw578]

I work at a PBS station and we are going HD-5.1 in our production truck and in editing. We do have a limited budget. My question is how would you sync the Alesis HD24 to the timecode from a master clock so when I bring the files into ProTools, the audio will be synced when using the DigiTranslator? We are going to be recording to the Alesis HD24 using optical from a Yamaha DM2000V2. A guy from Alesis said I should record the Timecode feed onto one of the 24 tracks, when I bring it into ProTools, it will take that track and translate it's timecode. Will this work? Should I consider other sound boards, hard disc recorders, or external syncing devices to get the best working setup? Thanks, Ben

[Chief Technician]

Does the Alesis have a timecode input? If so, does it stamp the start of each file with the timecode value?

[DigiTechSupt]

> Should I consider other sound boards, hard disc recorders, or external syncing devices to get the best working setup?

I would say, yes.

At minimum, get your hands on a recorder that will lock to timecode if the Alesis doesn't. It sounds like it doesn't if the Alesis rep is telling you to record timecode to an audio track.


How many tracks of audio do you need to record?


In a perfect scenario, this is what I would do....

If the track count is low, say 24 or less, I would try to record to a (or two if necessary) field record such as a Diva. While recording each track separately, also record a stereo mixdown track of all of the tracks.

You could also use a software version such as Boom Recorder on your Pro Tools hardware, but I'm not sure what the max track count is for Boom Recorder.

Give this stereo mix to the Avid editor to marry to their picture (via timestamps provided by the Diva) BEFORE they start editing.

Once this is done, all of the OMF/AAF exports from the Avid will carry the metadata from the field record, thru the Avid and back to Pro Tools so if you need to choose different channels at any time during your mix, it's as easy as a right mouse click.

If it's a live concert and/or more than 24 tracks, I would probably record to a Pro Tools system directly while locked to timecode. I would also do the Stereo mix down and give it to the Avid editors BEFORE they start editing.

Two cents,
Jon Connolly
Digidesign Product Specialist

[philper]

I work at a PBS station and we are going HD-5.1 in our production truck and in editing. We do have a limited budget. My question is how would you sync the Alesis HD24 to the timecode from a master clock so when I bring the files into ProTools, the audio will be synced when using the DigiTranslator? We are going to be recording to the Alesis HD24 using optical from a Yamaha DM2000V2. A guy from Alesis said I should record the Timecode feed onto one of the 24 tracks, when I bring it into ProTools, it will take that track and translate it's timecode. Will this work? Should I consider other sound boards, hard disc recorders, or external syncing devices to get the best working setup? Thanks, Ben

If you are rolling longish takes, like concerts, this will not work. Recording the TC to a track of the Alesis machines just gives you an audio track of TC, the machine is not paying any attention to the clock of the video TC from the cameras. You need to derive a usable word clock signal from the truck's video sync generator or TC generator, which can be done in a number of ways. Having done this you can record the TC to an audio track if you have the track to spare and that will give you a positional reference, but I think that it ends up being just as easy to ear-and-eye sync the multitrack to the scratch mix that was recorded on the video camera audio tracks. We derive word clock from video TC via a MOTU Traveler, but there are a number of solutions out there which might work better w/ your setup.

Philip Perkins

[deardaddy]

Here at the Belgian national public television, we've been using a Tascam MX2424, wich records locked to wordclock and TC.
The avid editor gives us an EDL and we conform the rough tracks from this EDL with Editrace.
The editor gets his mixdown to work with from the beta tapes recorded on location.