brainditch
New member
Sadly, the TimeLine company is no more (they closed shop sometime in 2000 according to Bloomberg). In their day they produced some excellent products for the synchronization of various pieces of professional and semi-professional studio gear, particularly Analog Tape Recorders (ATR's), and later- Digital Tape Recorders (DTR's).
Two companies continued on, headed by former employees of TimeLine - Session Control (maker of the T/L Sync unit)- lead by Gerry Lester; and T/L Services - lead by Bill McMeekin (TimeLine product manufacturing, testing and servicing), but they too closed shop (approximately 2009 was the last internet prescence noted of either of them).
With the closing of those two shops, all remaining hope for the servicing and maintaining of these useful products (many still utilized daily) was lost... until now!!
Although there isn't any official company that can perform vital repair and maintenance for the products, with the right information, you, or a competent electronics tech in your local area can perform basic repairs and upkeep to keep them running for possibly another several decades, until the world-wide supply of parts diminishes to zero.
It is up to us to support each other. It is only through the collective power of the end users that the TimeLine legacy can continue, and as many threads on this and other sites have proven: there is no practical limit to the ways in which even small, personal efforts have proven invaluable to the world-wide group of users as a whole.
An example: as of just 4 weeks ago, very little remained on the internet (therefore publically and easily available) of any extensive TimeLine Microlynx documentation, such as the critical information to make cables for the unit... then BAM! Along come this very forums' members- miroslav, sweetbeats, timkroeger, jpmorris, evm1024, cjacek, pianodano and others, and long lost documents, experience, and other critical information are provided to the entire world! It only took them having foresight years ago to collect such information and store it in their memories or personal archives, and then later graciously help another potential user (myself) out in a public way, and all users everywhere can reap the rewards. Wow! Go Team!
The purpose of this thread is to provide a centralized knowledgebase for the products produced by TimeLine, Inc. (later known as TimeLine Vista). All submissions are welcome, particularly any information or documentation regarding these rare and useful products.
Ever heard of a company called Tascam? How about Alesis? TimeLine co-produced or fully produced several products (marketed by both named companies, possibly others)
such as the Tascam MX-2424 Modular Digital Multi-track recorder (MDM)and MM-8 Digital Dubber (for film and video editing), and the Alesis AI-2 ADAT Synchronizer.
Ever heard of Apogee, Avid, Logic? Their early Manuals, Application Notes and other documentation either specifically called out the TimeLine Lynx, Lynx-2 and Microlynx, or inspired built-in features into to their DAW-related products to accomodate or integrate their systems with TimeLine products (or systems like them such as the Adams-Smith Zeta 3, or Tascam's own ATS-500 and MTS-1000 Midiizer).
Ever wonder where DAWs such Pro-Tools, Logic, or Cubase got the idea (or need) to utilize a "clock" that described time in Hours:Minutes:Seconds:Frames? It was because they needed to be taken seriously by the engineers, producers, etc. of the era that used SMPTE timecode to run their large-frame ATRs, Video Tape Recorders (VTRs), and other film and audio production equipment. The engineers needed to synchronize, "slave", "resolve" or otherwise control and co-ordinate the running of multiple machines in a larger professional studio system, and products such as the ones produced by TimeLine allowed them to accomplish this.
Indeed, some would say that if Pro-Tools hadn't found a way of synchronizing itself in a studio environment using SMPTE, DAWs as we know them wouldn't have been able to gain acceptance by the major film and audio producers; and serious, affordable digital recording might have been delayed by quite some time for us all.
Many of the current and potential users out there might not see the point to this thread, until a problem arises with their units, or they need to use one to try to slave their older ATR to their DAW with better stability and accuracy than other methods, or they need to maintain studio sync for Out of The Box (OTB) mixing, etc. I can say that to some, the in-depth technical stuff might be dry, boring, or otherwise make their "eyes glaze over" (thanks for that point miroslav), but when you need to build that cable to get that widget to work, here's where you can possibly find the answers.
I would like to take a moment to pay my deepest respects to former forum member pianodano (Danny Skittlethorp), and my condolences to all who knew and loved him.
You were "one of the good guys" as sweetbeats said, and your contributions here and elsewhere will be sorely missed. As I've posted once before:
"May the keys you now tickle awe the harps to silence!" R.I.P.
Onward and upward, all!
Two companies continued on, headed by former employees of TimeLine - Session Control (maker of the T/L Sync unit)- lead by Gerry Lester; and T/L Services - lead by Bill McMeekin (TimeLine product manufacturing, testing and servicing), but they too closed shop (approximately 2009 was the last internet prescence noted of either of them).
With the closing of those two shops, all remaining hope for the servicing and maintaining of these useful products (many still utilized daily) was lost... until now!!
Although there isn't any official company that can perform vital repair and maintenance for the products, with the right information, you, or a competent electronics tech in your local area can perform basic repairs and upkeep to keep them running for possibly another several decades, until the world-wide supply of parts diminishes to zero.
It is up to us to support each other. It is only through the collective power of the end users that the TimeLine legacy can continue, and as many threads on this and other sites have proven: there is no practical limit to the ways in which even small, personal efforts have proven invaluable to the world-wide group of users as a whole.
An example: as of just 4 weeks ago, very little remained on the internet (therefore publically and easily available) of any extensive TimeLine Microlynx documentation, such as the critical information to make cables for the unit... then BAM! Along come this very forums' members- miroslav, sweetbeats, timkroeger, jpmorris, evm1024, cjacek, pianodano and others, and long lost documents, experience, and other critical information are provided to the entire world! It only took them having foresight years ago to collect such information and store it in their memories or personal archives, and then later graciously help another potential user (myself) out in a public way, and all users everywhere can reap the rewards. Wow! Go Team!
The purpose of this thread is to provide a centralized knowledgebase for the products produced by TimeLine, Inc. (later known as TimeLine Vista). All submissions are welcome, particularly any information or documentation regarding these rare and useful products.
Ever heard of a company called Tascam? How about Alesis? TimeLine co-produced or fully produced several products (marketed by both named companies, possibly others)
such as the Tascam MX-2424 Modular Digital Multi-track recorder (MDM)and MM-8 Digital Dubber (for film and video editing), and the Alesis AI-2 ADAT Synchronizer.
Ever heard of Apogee, Avid, Logic? Their early Manuals, Application Notes and other documentation either specifically called out the TimeLine Lynx, Lynx-2 and Microlynx, or inspired built-in features into to their DAW-related products to accomodate or integrate their systems with TimeLine products (or systems like them such as the Adams-Smith Zeta 3, or Tascam's own ATS-500 and MTS-1000 Midiizer).
Ever wonder where DAWs such Pro-Tools, Logic, or Cubase got the idea (or need) to utilize a "clock" that described time in Hours:Minutes:Seconds:Frames? It was because they needed to be taken seriously by the engineers, producers, etc. of the era that used SMPTE timecode to run their large-frame ATRs, Video Tape Recorders (VTRs), and other film and audio production equipment. The engineers needed to synchronize, "slave", "resolve" or otherwise control and co-ordinate the running of multiple machines in a larger professional studio system, and products such as the ones produced by TimeLine allowed them to accomplish this.
Indeed, some would say that if Pro-Tools hadn't found a way of synchronizing itself in a studio environment using SMPTE, DAWs as we know them wouldn't have been able to gain acceptance by the major film and audio producers; and serious, affordable digital recording might have been delayed by quite some time for us all.
Many of the current and potential users out there might not see the point to this thread, until a problem arises with their units, or they need to use one to try to slave their older ATR to their DAW with better stability and accuracy than other methods, or they need to maintain studio sync for Out of The Box (OTB) mixing, etc. I can say that to some, the in-depth technical stuff might be dry, boring, or otherwise make their "eyes glaze over" (thanks for that point miroslav), but when you need to build that cable to get that widget to work, here's where you can possibly find the answers.
I would like to take a moment to pay my deepest respects to former forum member pianodano (Danny Skittlethorp), and my condolences to all who knew and loved him.
You were "one of the good guys" as sweetbeats said, and your contributions here and elsewhere will be sorely missed. As I've posted once before:
"May the keys you now tickle awe the harps to silence!" R.I.P.
Onward and upward, all!
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