Synchronising ProTools with 1" Analogue Reel Deck

[weighbor]

Hello,
I am new to this forum.

I'd like to ask a few silly questions about recording my electronic sounds from my laptop to 1inch analogue tape recorder (reel deck). My homerecording equipments are Digidesign Mbox, Beringer 4 channel mixer and KORG MS 2000R.

I am hugely interested in the analogue tape machine thesedays as I am looking for the way to enhance the depth of grain for the sounds generated on my powerbook and there is also an urge to leave a substantial output rather than saving in the form of data.

Mbox is including SPDIF in/output
Is there anyway I can deal with synchronisation to an analogue reel deck (of such firms as studer, tascam) with my Mbox ProTools LE? or should I be more properly equipped to go through with those devices? including things like Bridge

ProTools LE provides Maximum quality of 24Bit /48khz , but if it is possible to make a link between my Mbox with an analogue tape recorder (without things like bridge or sometihng) can I convert the original mixed down track inside the tape with my Mbox? or are these things only possible in proper TDM systems?

Would you please recommend me a good reference to the instruction of synchronising analogue recorder / device with ProTools / Hard Disc Recording?
Please help me building an ideal Hardware I/O settings for these.

Or would you provide me some fundamentals of the introduction to this recording set-up? such as the speed of the reel deck spin (my poor english) or some analogue recording devices recommendable and ideal for home recording quality (hopefully at reasonable price as I am a teenager pupil who's learning now)

My favourite icelandic band Mœm seems to have used this device for their latest recording of the album 'Summer Make Good'

http://noisedfisk.com/mumweb/photos/tapemachine.jpg

Hehe, I am tottering around thesedays whether to take part in the Sonic Arts degree. As I found it being :-0 extremely creative and acrobatic at once.

Thank you & Have a nice day!

 

[joro]

You can run all of your sources into your Mbox for recording and then loop back through your behringer and send to the 1" tape machine input for recording.....

Of course you are adding steps to your signal chain here....


Perhaps you might want to send all analog sound to the 1" and then bring it back into PT and mix with your MIDI files.
Midi might as well stay digital....sending it to the 1" sort of seems redundant to me because you have to convert to analog to do it.

 

[weighbor]

Thank you very much for the reply.

May I ask one more?

Do you mean I have to record software synth sounds (I use softwares like kontakt, battery) with Mbox 'in advance' then play it to send it to 1" via my mixer? or can I just use my Mbox as a hub for the output of the software sounds to directly record the sounds from my laptop without hard disk recording?

Should I also set up for converting midi into analogue for the sync with 1" for the direct recording from a softsynth (AUX tracks enabled by things like DirectConnect on PT) to 2, 4 or 8 track Analogue Tape Machine (I am sure there must be accurate mix down process so I assume that MIDI-Sync is necessary)? (I want to use 1" for recording both for bringing the warmth texture by substantial documentation and preventing the range of sounds from frequency limitation of the hard-disk recording, not only for backup, mastering purpose. I want to sort of blend hard disk recording data with analogue tracks and mix down in 1" to make the final source)

Hehe :-0 I am ignorant in both English and Recording :-0 I am sorry for the inconvinience and my poor command in english. (Maybe I am asking once again as I could have probably not fully comprehended what you answered)

 

[joro]

Hi again,
The 1" is an analog device.
It only records analog signals.
If you want to record your MIDI tracks to 1" you must convert the digital signal to analog and send to the input of the 1".
You can do it without a recording software but, you will be limited to the soundfont pallette of your soundcard (usually general MIDI.)

Once converted to an analog signal, you will no longer have the ability to assign soundfonts....what you hear is what you get.


Yes, you can use you M-box as a hub to select source and send signals.

Hope that helps.
Joe...

 

[weighbor]

Thank you :->

Thank you joro for your kind and fast reply it's been very helpful