Jl Cooper PPS-2 Sync Box & Tascam 48 with DAW

[hithere123]

Hello all!

Many months later and with a very generous mixing board donation from the forum's own Miroslav, I have my little new analog recording space up and running very nicely.

I have the setup spitting out all 8 tracks into my recording interface nicely, but wanted to experiment with a sync box to open up some more possibilities of using more than 8 tracks without having to bounce down within the deck.

I purchased a PPS-2 after reading some old forum posts on the topic.

I had no problem striping to the tape, but am having issues getting it to work in both Logic & Pro Tools.

Both DAWS are reacting similarly when I record ready my DAW and press Play on my 48. The DAW plays and stops repeatedly. With both the Play & Stop button in the DAW activating and deactivating over and over again.

I am thinking maybe I am confused on the initial striping. I used the PPS-2 alone to stripe the tape as stated in the manual. Am I supposed to be sending SMPTE signal from the DAW -> PPS-2 -> Track 8 of my 48 deck.

Thanks again for all the help of this forum. Has been invaluable to me

 

[sweetbeats]

If you are setting up a sync relationship where the DAW chases the tape, which is your only option with the PPS-2, you stripe the tape deck, then set the DAW to reference incoming SMPTE timecode. Depending on the DAW you can then point the DAW to which input is carrying the timecode signal (that is reproduced from the striped track on the tape machine), or in many cases the DAW won’t sync directly to incoming audio SMPTE timecode, but rather it wants MIDI timecode (MTC) coming in via a MIDI cable via a MIDI interface connected to your computer. I’m rusty on the PPS-2. I think this is how it works with that interface? Does it have a MIDI out jack? If so, then the striped track is connected to the master timecode in on the PPS-2, and then the MIDI out jack connects to the MIDI in jack if your PC MIDI interface, and then you set the DAW to reference incoming MTC and you point the DAW to the respective MIDI channel on your MIDI interface.

Hope that makes sense and gets you moving in the right direction.

 

[fstrat76]

I don't sync much anymore, but I have a Tascam 38 connected to the PPS-2 into Logic. Essentially sweetbeats is correct. The PPS-2 connects via MIDI. I stripe track 8 on the 38. Make sure your recorded stripe level is not too hot (you don't want that to bleed into other tracks) and not too low so that the PPS can interpret consistently. Logic sees the MIDI and I believe each project settings synchronization > sync mode must be set to MTC. Set your smpte offsets accordingly.