OK...what the heck is clock and why do i need it?

[silverlode]

I'm getting ready to expand my home studio and am guessing I need a midi time piece or something. WHat the heck is clock and why do I need a clock generator?

Thanks.

 

[PapillonIrl]

I know next to nothing about MIDI as I have never used it, but I had my questions about Word Clock devices kindly answered answered by Messrs Blue Bear and Track Rat recently here :

http://www.homerecording.com/bbs/showthread.php?threadid=40356

Have a feeling it may be a different beast to a MIDI clock, I'm sure somebody else may be able to clarify this.

pAp

 

[old guy]

Clock

If you're looking to syncronize a number of devices, one of them had to be the master, the others, the slaves. Kinda like life ain't it???
Clock is your units way of asking you "Okay...who's in charge here, who marking time on this piece?" That's the basics. It does get more in depth depending on your devices, their age, and whether they internally recognize the master clock. An example of this would be some of the older tape (what's that???) formats where you'd have to record a strip for timing purposes only.
I'm syncing a T3, a T1, a Roland R8, and a Korg D8. The D8's in charge, all the other units follow the time set by the D8. Make sure your time signatures are common throughout the chain.
Hope this helps. Good Luck.

http://sh-boom.freehomepage.com/index.html

 

[lognibene]

SMPTE and/or Word Clock

I think I'm ok about the Master/slave relationship using world clock but I guess I've got another wrinkle to iron out.

I'm building my system at this point (pc based) but I've got to deal with video overlap and am having to deal with SMPTE codes. Can I use one of the audio tracks for the SMPTE stripe or do I need to go another way.

I've seen a Midiman product (8x8 with dedicated SMPTE in but my main thing is live multitrack primarily analog (maybe some MIDI enhancement in post production)

I've been researching for months and either I'm not looking in the right places for the info or my basic approach is screwy.

Thanks, and since I'm new to this BBS and don't really know how replies are notified.... lognibene@infoave.net or work is leno@orchidinternational.com

 

[AlChuck]

You only need to record SMPTE to an audio track if you have a tape-based system. Computer sequencing applications (well, the high-end ones, anyawy) handle SMPTE code directly. Well, technically they really output MIDI Time Code, which is converted to SMPTE via a high-end MIDI interface like the Midiman model you mentioned. But it's pretty transparent to the user once the right hardware is set up in the right way. But again, the only reason you need SMPTE is to record a synch track to tape. So if the video work you do involves using VHS tape and VCRs, then you'll need SMPTE. If you can digitize the video, you can work much more readily on it without worrying about MTC-to-SMPTE generation at all.