synching 688's

Bobby Darko

Bobby Darko

New member
I am so not into midi synching, but I have two 688's and I can pick up the ES 50 tascam synchroniser with the cable. Will this be enough to synch these units or do I need more stuff? Thanks!
 
The ES-50 is a SMPTE only machine. It does not speak MIDI. I'm also not certain that you'd be able to sync two 688's with it using SMPTE striped on both...not sure if the capstan control conventions are compatible. Ideally you are probably looking for an ATS-500, though I believe that is also SMPTE only, or the MTS-1000.
 
thanks sweetbeats,
mm those are very rare and expensive! And I'm not buying if I'm not sure it will work. I really love 8 tracks to work with, but I have bands coming in that need just a few more. I am not into bouncing to much (maybe except for drums to cd then back to L-R on track 1 and 2), so I guess I have to stick with 8 tracks for now...
 
I think your best bet may be to stick with 8 tracks, then when you have the money move up to a larger mixer and a 16 track machine like the MSR-16. 1/2" tape is a lot cheaper than 1" or 2" tape, and if you like the sound quality of the 688 you'll like the MSR.

-MD
 
hey maddog,
oh i know I will like the msr (I would fucking love it), but that's just not an option now. The biggest problem is my techinical abbilities (lack of). It would cost me a fortune on maintenance alone...I'm being realistic. Anyway I have a tascam 388 that's not in full working order. BUt no one in this country seems to know analog tape machines...

I will stick to the 688 for now!:(
 
Just a thought!

I know when I was using a smaller format machine I was hung up on getting more tracks by attempting to sync more than one machine, but ended up going to a machine with more tracks and haven't turned back since.

Good luck!
-MD
 
just a quick update for anyone who cares: this morning I finally succeeded in synching two 688's with the Tascam Midiizer. 14 tracks of analog! I'm happy:)
 
Hurrah. I'd been wondering how you were getting along with that project Hermann. It's nice to have success. We'll look forward to hearing some 14 track tunes soon I hope. :)
 
thanks guys,
sure, I'll be posting some video's and sounds somewhere next year. It's so cool to operate two 8tracks with one controller. Looks rather fancy too, considering it's only cassette!
 
Hello,



I'm running into trouble trying to hook up two tascam 688's with a midiizer (the last machine is new to me).

Both 688 are fully services and I have the manual of all machines involved.

I link all machines as described in the midiizer manual.

The first thing I find is that the master688 won't send the tc-gen signal trough to the slave deck.

I checked all connections, even changed slave and master to rule out a defect in the 688's, but it won't work as the manual states.

No real problem there, since i just stripped both tapes seperately.



Then I ran the SET UP-mode so the midiizer coud learn the tape characteristics, after that, the "chase" mode shoud provide a locking of the two systems.

This, I coud never achieve.(i tried it 25 times)

First of all, let me tell you the dip-sitch settings, to see they are right (according to the manual they shoud be).



On the mdiizer I've set the servo frequency on 9.6kHz to match the 688's, this because the manual states most machines use this frequency, the 688's manual doesn't state anything about frequentie, I hope I got that right?

Of course it is set for a serial/serial set up.

The time base on the midiizer is 96 ppq, the 688 switches are set on 96000bps, does this match?

Both 688 are set to "external sychronisation" and "fixed tape speed", (other settings gave even worse result, but the 688's manual and the midiizer manual contradict on this issue, I followed the midiizer's manual)

I striped both tapes with 30 ndf, is this advisable for casette tape?



They just never "lock" after a "set up" run, the slave follows the master after 2 or 3 seconds, if I play forward or play back, the slave does this with start-sto-start-stop movements.

Than I noticed something weird:

while running the master seperately the time code display showed 24 instead of 30 frames?

the slave was reading 30.

If I change the master slave position of the two 688's, the same thing happens, everytime the master reads 24 the slave 30, so it must be the midiizer reading something wrong, but what?

Just to make shure, I did everything again from scratch, erased the tapes and striped them again with 30ndf, with the same result, they won't lock, master and slave show different timecode (wich I saw as the reason why they coud not lock).

The next morning, without changing a thing, suddenly both machines show a 30ndf timecode???? (as they shoud), but still they won't lock????(I hate machines that do their own thing:-(



What a I doing wrong, can anyone help me out?

are my settings ok?



many thanks for your time, effort and willingness!
 
hi, on both machines set the sync witch to external. Leave the tape speed switch on your master on fixed and the tape speed switch on your slave to external. It should work now. If not, try swapping machines.

ps. if you get it working without running into speed problems, let me know, cuz hell I tried!!! It' s a beautiful moment when the machines lock up, but after that it was all downhill for me.
 
Hello Bobby Darko,

Thanks a lot for your reply!!!I'm in the dark here:-)
I believe I tried all what you suggest, the midiizer's manual and the 688's manual state different things about the settings of motorspeed and sychronisation.
The best result I had with both machines on ext.synchr, and both on fixed tape speed.
If I set the slave on external tape speed, it just started to rewind without contol over it.
I check it all again and swapp machines again, though i'm shure I did all this about 10 times ...:-(
You can bet I will be jumping in the air if they lock, perhaps to soon after sink trough the ground when they go out of sync:-)

The story is not over yet!

I really apreciate your support, it seems we are the only two on the internet that have given it a try!

greetings,
yvan
 
make some pictures, especially the cables you connected on the machines/midiizer. Maybe I can spot what's wrong. I know I forgot to run one cable from the midiizer to the slave. Took me a while to figure that out. And I don't mean the control cable, but the rca from the midiizer to the slave.
 
my 238s have the ats-500, they seem to lock at first and then go out of time with each other..........sounds like we are all having the same problem, anyone get it fixed?
 
Hello Herman(Darko), and other 688 users,



The closer I get to syching, the further I got lost...

Last night, after checking all the connections again and again (I have no digital camera for pictures of the wiring, but got it exact as the manual states, inclusive the two din fiches from the slave and the two from the master, and checked all wires for errors).

I got one din-wire from the midiizer tc gen out to the master's in, from the master out to the midiizer's master tc in, then from the master tc loop out (on midiizer) to the slave deck's in, and from the slave deck's out back to the midiizer's slave loop in+ of course the two big interface cables wich are wired correctly)

I tried the set up as you suggested, with the slave in tape speed external, and the master with fixed mode (both on external synchronisation).



And lo and behold: for the first time the 'lock" light went on!!!!!!!!!!!!

The slave didn't start the same moment as the master, it always comes one or two seconds behind, but when it starts it takes only 3 seconds to lock (I can hear the servomotor being adjusted.)

When I speed for/or backwards they start at the same moment but the slave reacts 3 seconds later than the master when i push stop.

I coud do this for ten minutes, then tried the same with the master and slave switched position and never "locked" again...

Is this "locking", I haven't gotten to the section were I can make insertpoints, I know you need to have 30 seconds prerolltime for the machines to synch, is that why they never start or stop at the same moment?



Anyway, as I tries the same with master and slave switched around(yes, carefully switchin all the cables around too, aso changing the tpespeed external selector), the midiizer want back to it' own game as before , wich that when I push start, the master starts and the slave goes into rewind and won't react to the midiizer anymore, this I had seen unnumereous times before.

So I switched the machines around one more time, but with quasi the same result, the slave won't react properly, with the only differnce that with this setup it goes into fast forward instead of backwards.



I start to think the midiizer is not ok, since it started reading 30 as 25 timecode (see previous revieuw), I does things on it' own, wich I hate!!!



Just to make shure I got all switches set right, does 96ppq on the midiizer equals 96000bps on the 688?

With what kind of timecode did you stripe the tapes?

How was the setting of the tascams output volume of the timecode, the trimpot on the back of the 688? (I got them both full on, I tried other settings but no better result).

Did you ever twist the little screw on the midiizer (dc servo offset).

I wish i just coud lend someones midiizer for one day, just to rule out that mine is broken...but fat chance to find that é:-)

I had someone telling me though that he suffered too from timecode misreadings, so that is confirmed a as midiizer "normal" behaviour.

What am I doing wrong ?????!!!! (oh god:-)
Does anybody have expierence with this tascam, it is a pay-site site:http://tascamforums.com/index.php
is it an official site?, do they know old machines?(i haven't registered yet since I can't vieuw what they have to offer.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top