Syncing Tape Decks
Just a slight amount of information, to liven things up:
First -- just to clarify what you probably already understand -- when you sync two recorders, you make one the master, and one the slave. Being the master is relatively easy; being the slave is tougher.
Yes, some (emphasis on
some) analog tape decks can be slaves.
The Tascam TSR8, MRS16 and MSR24 come to mind (all reel decks), as do the 238 and 688 (both cassette decks). I know that some Fostex models also have slave capabilities: generally the later ones, I think. I'm pretty confident the "E" series do. The manual should give at least a clue or brief explanation. If you don't have a manual, another clue may be gleaned from the presence of a multi-pin port with a funny label on the back of the tape deck. On the Tascam machines, there are two types of ports: an "Accessory 1" (parallel) and "Accessory 2" (serial). Some machines have one or the other, some have both.
Now here's the bad part: typically, the deck doesn't do it by itself. It needs a separate synchronizer. Tascam synchronizers include the ES50,
ES60, ATS500 and
MTS1000 "Midiizer." Unfortunately, nobody makes these anymore, but used ones float around. Depending on whether the person selling it knows what it is, you should be able to buy one of these for $150 to $500. If the seller doesn't know what it is, he might give it to you for free.
So, your Fostex machine might be able to chase your other machine, with the proper hardware. You'd get 14 tracks (I'm assuming you have 8 on each deck to start with), because
both decks will need to have a track striped with SMPTE (or some other type of timecode), unless the MD8 will output SMPTE on its own.
Yes, you can synchronize two different types of recorders. Don't let the fact that they will sound "different" (slightly different) stop you. You might
want that!
