midi tape sync box?? What kind, I am not sure

[yetipur]

Hello ,
I Know nothing about Midi, I am learning on the fly while making a record with our band. Situations rise and I am just trying to solve problems , I had no idea I needed anything midi until the problem presented itself.

I am scouring the forums and piecing together as much info on syncing and info on SMPTE as I can get, so please don't beat me up midi people, someone commented and called me a dumbass over in the rack section.

Uh, I think it says NEWBIE next to my name, and yeah I am when it comes to recording
I am a newbie when it comes to even asking questions about recording.
I hope I can word this properly enough for you meanies so you wont leave mean comments in response to my newbiness.

Here's my deal. I am trying to record individual, separated drum parts from a zoom rt123drum machine onto separate tracks of a multi track tape recorder . Kick, snare, hh ect. one part per each track, like a real drum set.

I need a midi tape sync box right? Do I need anything else as well?
Is there an inexpensive solution or certain brand I should aim for? Is JL cooper PP52 okay?

Is it the type of equipment you can be frugal on, and still get something good? I just want to lay down the drum tracks so they are in time.

I was doing it manually track by track, recording the drum machine for awhile, but either I have lost my touch as far as lining everything up, or my tape is slowing down.

 

[mikemorgan]

The JL Cooper will do fine. You need to "stripe" a track on your recorder first. This becomes the SMPTE track that every other device must adhere to, regardless of tape speed. This box is connected to your computer and recorder by midi connectors and audio as well. The signal that is sent from your recorder is acknowledge by your computer's software as audio, with embedded SMPTE. You choose the frame rate that is best for your situation, probably leave it at 30 frames per second. I am no expert an the subject, but if you Google "striping tape to smpte" you'll get some expert instructions.

 

[yetipur]

Thanks for the info , I have another question,
after you stripe a track , and are done syncing what you need to sync, can you then record over the stripe ?

 

[mikemorgan]

Yes, you can record over that track any time you like. Simpte time code is actually an audio file that looks a lot like this - - - - - - - -. Nothin special really, just a metronome audio track that produces no sound.