BRC to MMC Conversion

[frederic]

Greetings,

I have an Alesis BRC, an ADAT, and several AKAI DR8 recorders with MMC capability (as well as RS-422). I'm looking for a device that will allow me to connect the BRC to the Akai units via RS-422 or Midi, makes no difference to me.

Connecting midi out on the BRC to Midi in on the Akais, and vice versa, results in being able to arm/disarm tracks, but the transport controls on the BRC do not seem to work, nor does the SMPTE time on the BRC increase when the AKAIs move forward (by pushing play on the Akais).

I have long since lost my manuals to the BRC, but I did download the pdf from Alesis, read it thoroughly, and appropriately enabled MMC/MTC. But, the BRC still can't do anything more than arm/disarm tracks on the Akai units.

Anyone have experience with a combination like this to either assist with setting up the BRC, or recommend a product that takes the 9-pin ADAT sync connector and converts it to RS-422 or MMC?

I called several local music stores and received dumb looks (but polite ones!).

Thanks in advance,

Frederic

[frederic]

Originally posted by sonusman
Are you sure that the Akia's support MMC?

If so, are they setup to be "slave" to incoming MMC?

Ed

I had to look at the units real quick, but the master akai is set to MMC/MTC slave, and connected to a JL Cooper cuepoint and that works just fine. Akai #2 connects to the master akai via its proprietary cable, and follows suit.

Works with the JL Cooper, but not with the BRC. I asked in the Alesis forum because I thought if I pushed "Play" on the BRC, it would start counting forward, regardless what it is attached to.

Am I close?

Thanks for your reply Ed!

[frederic]

Originally posted by sonusman
I suspect that somewhere in the setup, something is not set right. I know that the BRC spits out MMC info.

Possibly, you might need the JL Cooper unit in between the BRC and Akias. That may not make sense, but much of the whole ADAT thing doesn't anyway....

Keep us posted.

Ed

Well, I think what i'm going to do is attach the BRC midi out to the PC, turn on cakewalk, and see whats coming out. Hopefully, I see some timecode and/or button pushing (other than track arm/disarm).

Thanks for the help!