How do I sycn tracks?

[Mace_Hacker]

Hey!
I recorded a drum track in sonar 6 and on a reel to reel at the same time. I then recorded the reel to reel track in sonar. I can get the tracks lined up perfectly at the beginning but as the reel to reel track plays it goes out of sync. It appears slightly behind the digitaly recorded track. How do I get them to sycn up correctly?

 

[Tifstorey]

So you recorded the drums with R2R aswell as Sonar? Can you explain the set up you used?

Chances are, if you already have your track in Sonar and then import the R2R track, it won't be perfect. Can you not allign it up within Sonar to sync correctly after it's been imported?

 

[Mace_Hacker]

Ok, here is how I did it:
I ran the mics to my mixer. I ran a line from my mixer to my M-Audio Quattro/PC input and one to my reel to reel. I then switched the R2R from out to in on the mixer and recorded it in sonar.
I now have the digital track on #1 and the analog on #2 zoomed in so I can see the wave profile very well, especially the stick clicks counting in the beginning. The "Count In" lines up perfectly like below:

--------^---------^---------^---------^---------||||||||||||||||||||||||||

--------^---------^---------^---------^---------||||||||||||||||||||||||||

But as the song progresses the analog track falls behind there by going "out of sync". This is my problem:

--------^^^---^^^---^^^---^^^---^^^---^^^---^^^---^^^----

----------^^^---^^^---^^^---^^^---^^^---^^^---^^^---^^^--

The pictures I have attached show the start and what it looks like at +50 seconds into the song.

 

[Tifstorey]

It's most likely just the latency of you recording via R2R then routing it back through the desk into your computer.

Might be worth a shot recording onto the R2R without routing it back via the computer, then after you've done the recording, play the take back from the R2R and record it into your computer.

Is there a reason why your wanting to record via the R2R in the first place?

__

Looking at your waveforms - you say that's just drums?

 

[Mace_Hacker]

I did record to the R2R directly, not via the PC. I used the "Tape Out" on my Mixer to feed the R2R, the main sends on the mixer went to the PC. So, both the R2R and the PC got the same signal at the same time.

 

[Mace_Hacker]

I forgot to add;
The reason I want to use the R2R is I like the way it sounds. It has a completely different compression.

 

[Tifstorey]

I did record to the R2R directly, not via the PC. I used the "Tape Out" on my Mixer to feed the R2R, the main sends on the mixer went to the PC. So, both the R2R and the PC got the same signal at the same time.

You recorded to the R2R directly from the mixer, but did you then have the PC recording the R2R signal aswell as the original signal from the mixer?

Ie, Drums > Mixer > R2R > Mixer > PC
--------------------PC

 

[Mace_Hacker]

This is what I did. I recorded the PC track first. Then I transfered the recording from the R2R to the PC. the pictures below show the setup and steps.