Anyone used the Tascam ATS-500?

jpmorris

jpmorris

Tape Wolf
My continuing quest to synchronize two TSR-8s is still not going well although it's considerably closer.

The TSR-8s are both hooked up to the ATS-500 via the Accessory 2 cables. It is able to drive both machines and appears to be getting tach signals from both.
When put into CHASE mode it will duly bring the machines into alignment.
The problem is after that it is making NO effort to keep the machines in sync. The amber speed light is off on both machines so it would seem that it is not putting the capstan under external control. Any ideas why this might be?

By displaying the relative difference and manually adjusting the capstan on the slave I can achieve a great manual sync (beat perfect on the drums), but it makes actually mixing the song down rather difficult since I have to keep a constant watch on the frame difference and it should not be necessary in the first place :mad:

Has anyone got the ATS-500 to actually do what it says on the tin?
 
Not the ATS-500, but I can tell you the TSR-8 will slave using the MTS-1000 just as advertised. At least we can say the machine side works, so you can eliminate the TSR-8 as the point of failure (unless your individual machines just don’t work). That just leaves the ACC2 cable or the ATS-500 to wonder about.

I have heard of people crossing pin 13 to 8 on the ACC2 cable to work with the ATS-500, but I’ve never done it. So, it only has rumor status, but is worth passing along.

:)
 
Beck said:
I have heard of people crossing pin 13 to 8 on the ACC2 cable to work with the ATS-500, but I’ve never done it. So, it only has rumor status, but is worth passing along.
Click to expand...
I think I'll try that (can't remember which pins those are offhand).

I'm pretty sure the data link is okay because it's sending commands to the decks - sometimes lunatic commands like "Fast Forward to some weird point way past the end of the song" when CHASE is enabled, but usually sensible ones. It also identified the attached machines as TSR-8s.
The tach signal would appear to be okay because if the data cable isn't connected (on the master - I was attempting a code-only sync that time) the setup system will say "NO TACH!", which it doesn't do with the cable attached.
 
Hah! I have finally achieved full lock synchronisation! :D

The problem was this: the ATS-500 manual is full of lies. The pinout is WRONG and does not carry the servo control line, so obviously it isn't going to work properly.

I rebuilt the cables according to this spec which I found by accident:
https://homerecording.com/bbs/showpost.php?p=1110368&postcount=5

..and it now works like a charm! I guess I can rerecord some of my songs to take advantage of this - the benefit being that I can lay down the new tracks on the slave and simply mute the old ones.
 
Okd thread here I know but does anyone have the ATS500 correct pin out diagram the above link doesn’t work. Thanks
 
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