JL Cooper PPS-1

[James HE]

I just got a PPS-1. (ebay for $10.50!) Well not here yet but... Has anybody used this unit? I've never worked with MIDI clock or MTC before so I'm a newbie here. What I'm trying to accomplish is to record to Hard Disk and to casette four track simultaneously, and sync them up later all to disk-

I'm confused cuz I'm not actually sure how this is possible? The striped SMPTE track would be the MASTER to the MIDI clock from my software. So if I fly in the tracks from the four track to the Hard Drive would the tracks still sync up? OR would I have to "bounce" the tracks on disk to new tracks?

Do I have the right idea? Has anyone tried this before? or am I flying into some unknown territory here?

-jhe

 

[Emeric]

I have used the pps-1 and 2. But I was using it for syncing a Korg 01W synth to a TSR-8 8 track. So that, when you hit play on the 8 track, the synth would link/sync up, and give me all the synth's "virtual" tracks in time with what was recorded on the 8 track.

So, in your case, you could use the computer as your virtual tracks, and your 4 track to get 3 additional synced tracks with track 4 striped - somehow syncing it to the midi clock in your multitrack software. From here I guess you could route the 4 track and soundcard outputs into your mixer and mix down to 2 tracks. Or you could send the 3 tracks back into a multi-input soundcard, and I suppose they would sync to the virtual tracks you already had down? I think this is possible, interested if you get it to work, and whether it would sync well enough with tape drift and what not!

 

[Emeric]

After looking at jlcoopers web site, I think I was using there "smart FSK" for striping, but I can't remember for sure.

 

[James HE]

Yeah Emeric I'll defintly let you know if it works out for me! I hope it does! I'm trying do this this so that I can record the whole band live and still use all four inputs on my (soon to be) sondcard for drums- if I can get it all to sync together, when I re-record the guitar and bass, we wont be totally blind! It sucks to have to sit and record a litts scratch track 10 times to cue in on timing issues with the performance- if it's all there from the live take it will be so much easier.

-jhe

[This message has been edited by James HE (edited 07-26-2000).]

 

[Riverdog]

This should work well for you... Remember though that if you're going to record your band live with the 4-track, ONE track has to be used for the striped SMPTE track...

You'll need to bounce the 4th track over to one of the other tracks to get a full 4 tracks of use...

Basically, all you'd have to do is record your stuff on the 4 track -
Stripe the 4th track of the tape -
Set your sequencer to recieve the signal from the PPS1 -
Plug in your outputs of the 4 track into the soundcard input -
And record one track at a time into the hard drive -
The computer should shuttle along with your movements using the 4track...