What Was Tascam's Version Of The Fostex 4030/4035?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Mark7
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Closest thing would be the ES-50 and ES-51 controller.
 
Mark7 said:
Would a Fostex unit work if there wasn't one?
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Depends on the machine you are wanting to sync and the protocol it uses. And as always cabling is the biggest headache about using any synchronizer with machine control to chase lock a tape machine as slave.
 
What kind of cables would be needed for the ES50 and 51?
 
Depends on what you are interfacing and what you are trying to accomplish. It’s never off-the-shelf unless you can find hen’s teeth original sync cables for your exact setup. The ES-50 uses Amphenol style cinch connectors. I’d have to look at the manual to refresh on pin count. Then you have to find the connectors for the machines you are synchronizing and then you have to find the cable stock itself and then you have to find the cable schematics. It’s not pin-to-pin. There are additional components, diodes, resistors etc you have to build into the cable set. What machines are you wanting to chase-lock? Bottom line, on a scale of 1-10 where 10 is “please don’t torture yourself”, building up custom sync cables is about an 8 in my book. If you decide to pay somebody else to make the cables expect to pay maybe $300USD…maybe more?

What brings you to consider chase locking machines?
 
Just an idea I had for a project I'm planning to work on with Mike and Nick from The Brothers Nylon which would involve syncing an Otari MX5050 8 track and 2 388s (mine and theirs'). Only, now I'm guessing I'd have to stripe a sync code on my tape with the same equipment... So it's probably a no goer anyway.

Also, I remember a thread posted by Doug the Eagle (can't remember names off the top of my head) in which he discussed doing the same thing and it piqued (not peaked) my curiosity.
 
Oh okay. Well, yes, first of all the first step whenever you are going to sync two or more machines, besides getting the synchronizer and making the cables, is to stripe a track (usually the last track) on each machine in the sync array with timecode using the synchronizer’s time code generator. You have to do that first before recording any audio.

Neither the ES-50 or Fostex 4030 will do what you are considering. In order to sync three machines you’d need something like a Timeline Micro Lynx with the third machine option card. The ES-50 and 4030 only manage a master machine and one slave machine. In any case the Otari would need to be your master (a code-only master) because it doesn’t have machine control capability…can’t chase-lock. I’d use it as the master anyway just because of the wider track width and transport speed.
 
The example in the 388 manual for A/V shows the 388 connected, via an unnamed synchroniser, to both a C-format 1" VTR and a 3/4" U-matic VCR. Since both systems appear to be tape based would it be reasonable to assume that anything that can be used to transmit timecode from a VTR or U-matic could also be used to transmit timecode from an audio tape machine? or would such a device have to have been made specifically to sync two audio tape decks together? I expect it goes without saying that an MTS-30 (or even 1000) wouldn't cut the mustard.

I don't think we could sync all three machines. The 80-8 only has the one tape speed and I suspect that trying to sync a machine running at 15 IPS with one running at 7.5 would be a nightmare (the Otari does 15 and 7.5).
 
The example in the 388 manual for A/V shows the 388 connected, via an unnamed synchroniser, to both a C-format 1" VTR and a 3/4" U-matic VCR. Since both systems appear to be tape based would it be reasonable to assume that anything that can be used to transmit timecode from a VTR or U-matic could also be used to transmit timecode from an audio tape machine? or would such a device have to have been made specifically to sync two audio tape decks together?
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I’m not totally sure I understand your question and it’s just semantics…not sure what you mean by “transmit time code”…VTRs have audio tracks. Some VTR formats have dedicated time code tracks as well. So time code is striped to whatever appropriate track on the VTR and then the output jack of that track is connected to the time code in jack for that machine on the synchronizer. VTRs, as you said, are tape-based and have tape transports like an analog audio tape machine, so VTRs, given they have the functionality, can interface a synchronizer just the same as your 388, for instance, and either be slave or master or code-only master in a sync array.

I expect it goes without saying that an MTS-30 (or even 1000) wouldn't cut the mustard.
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The MTS-30 doesn’t do machine control. It is a MIDI tape synchronizer. It takes time code striped to your tape machine and converts that to MTC for triggering actions and events and such on your MIDI device, like a sampler or sequencer or whatever. It doesn’t have any ability to control a tape transport. It only allows you to slave a MIDI device to time code on the tape machine.

The MTS-1000 however does the MIDI thing but can also interface two tape transports and either set them up in chase-lock or slave them to incoming MTC. The Micro Lynx does this also, but can also, depending on the options installed, control three machines, and interface other protocols.

I don't think we could sync all three machines.
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You can if you have the right synchronizer. As I mentioned in my last post the TimeLine Micro Lynx can do this, if the third machine option card is installed.

The 80-8 only has the one tape speed and I suspect that trying to sync a machine running at 15 IPS with one running at 7.5 would be a nightmare (the Otari does 15 and 7.5).
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Wait…where did the 80-8 come from? You said there was an Otari 5050-8, and two 388s…?

Tape speed has nothing to do with sync as far as what the machines in the sync array are running. If you record time code from a time code generator simultaneously to a tape machine running at 7.5ips, and another running at 15ips, and then reproduce the time code from each at the same respective transport speeds, the time code will reproduce the same from both. If you switch the 15ips machine to 7.5ips after striping the time code, now it’s not going to work. Set the transport speeds where definable to the speed that best suits the projects as far as the audio tracks. Stripe time code. Lock them up and start tracking.
 
I did, I was assuming you couldn't sync a 15 IPS machine and a 7.5 IPS machine. Which is why I didn't initially mention the 80-8. I forgot there are 4 machines involved here. It's just that three of them are in one location and the fourth (mine) in another.

Timeline Micro Lynxes are thin on the ground, though maybe Reverb and Ebay aren't the best places to look? Also do they generate time code or is that a separate device? And would this work for the syncing operation?
 
Does that make sense though what I’m saying about the irrelevance of differing transport speeds? That what’s important is to ensure that the speeds at which the machines in the sync array are set when time code is striped, regardless of what those speeds are, is not changed once time code is striped?

Micro Lynxes are just thin on the ground period…hard to find. They do generate time code.

I don’t think the CB Electronics SR-424 will work. I don’t know that for sure, but it uses RS-422 protocol for control which is not what the 388 uses.
 
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