SYNCH ISSUE-MTC TO SMPTE

[beardeddubster]

i have a potential client who has just bought an 001 system, and has a Fostex G24 1 inch 24 track tape machine and an Atari running Notator. He needs to get the 3 running together. The G24 is synched to the Atari using SMPTE, and the Atari has additional MIDI ports which will send SMPTE. He is not sure if Notator, through the Atari will send MTC to pro tools. He really wants to use the tape machine as master, thinking that this will make the synching easier and quicker to lock up. Is this the case? Does he need additional hardware to get MTC to pro tools? and will pro tools drift out of time, as one retailer suggested. The hardware which has been suggested so far is the JL Cooper PPS2 or the Philip Rees TS1. If one of these bits of kit are needed, will they do the job well enough--i.e. will they keep all three units in time?

[beardeddubster]

sorry, I was not clear--the atari is slaved to the g24 using SMPTE

[dkrausz]

In order for any system to sync "lock" including LE you need to have both clock and positional reference. LE can receive clock via it's S/PDIF i/o or optical i/o and gets it's position reference (MTC) via midi i/o. If LE only receives MTC alone then it will drift or "free wheel" over time. The best solution is to use a Master Clock like a MOTU Digital Time Piece. This unit works well because it has the S/PIDF i/o, smpte i/o and midi i/o. The DTP is also great for video work as well because it has video black i/o as well.
I use it to gen-lock LE to a VTR.

dk

[dkrausz]

And if he wants to use the 24 track as master. Just sent the smpte out from it to the Master Clock and simply distribute from there the timing information to all the other devices. The DTP has all the i/o you need to accomplish this. Should be swell. [img]images/icons/cool.gif[/img]

dk