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Permalink Reply by Bret Teegarden on January 24, 2008 at 8:59am

I would think you would have to set a new sync point for each song and have accurate tempos in order for the grid to line up. That's assuming you have a click on tape to reference. Do you have an anolog master stripped with SMPTE that you want to lock ProTools to? If there is a click just copy it over to PT to set new sync points and tempos for the songs. If there is no click, you can calculate tempo via the kick or snare track, but either way you have to copy something over to ProTools for reference.

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Permalink Reply by Glenn Spinner on January 24, 2008 at 9:08am

Doesn't work and I'll tell you why. PT sees a timecode blast and basically runs at that initial speed that it sees. Once you go into record it clocks internally and stays a constant speed whereas the tape is constantly fluctuating in speed which in turn makes the clicks drift as time goes on. It's not a huge discrepency but one nonetheless. If I'm doing a straight dump it's pretty close but if I try to use PT as a slave and punch the clicks never line up because once the tape starts up again it sees a different TC speed which causes the clicks to not even line up or even be close for that matter.

The thing I'm wondering about is something like a digital time piece that can accept code, spit it out to PT plus spit out a clock source that will adjust with the tape machine speed and in turn help PT adjust accordingly. This one has me scratching my head.

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Permalink Reply by Bret Teegarden on January 24, 2008 at 9:47am

Well, what if you used a sync to lock the analog to the PT instead of trying to get PT to chase a variable source? Just scratching with you... but I think you sort of said that. Just make sure you have plenty of space in front of a cut to get the analog up to speed. I think most transfers to ProTools are done by locking the analog source to PT as a master. If they aren't - they SHOULD be!

But once you have your PT session with a locked click from the analog, you should be able to set a sync point but you may have to adjust tempos in PT here and there if it gets off - I know - hassle, but it may be your only choice.

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Permalink Reply by Jed Hackett on January 24, 2008 at 9:56am

Hi Glenn, I don't have a sync I/O here at home so I don't have access to all of the sync menus to check it out but Pro Tools use to have an option in the sync menu to resolve the Pro Tools clock to incoming code. Without checking this box Pro Tools would do just as you said, lock to code then release to it's own clock. I ran into that transfering 48 tracks of analog into Pro Tools and that "resolve to time code" option fixed things for me. Since I can't access the full sync menu I'm not sure if that option is still there. -Jed

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Permalink Reply by Glenn Spinner on January 24, 2008 at 11:23am

Went looking for that and it doesn't appear to be there. The only thing I could find is under the time code rate there is an option for auto match pull factors. I couldn't find anything that said "resolve to time code" in the sync window.

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Permalink Reply by Mark Capps on January 24, 2008 at 3:26pm

Bret has the right idea. I always lock the analog to Pro Tools using a Studer TLS (tape lock system) It has a lot more give with the variance in the analog time-code. Then make your tempo map from there. It's old big and bulky, but it works better than the Zeta or Lynx modules and least with a Studer A800.

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Permalink Reply by Aaron Swihart on January 24, 2008 at 5:07pm

Two works:

Lynx modules.

been screwed by NOT using that before...oh back in the day when I was ignorant.....

;)

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Permalink Reply by Glenn Spinner on January 24, 2008 at 11:41pm

I'm starting to think the analog being the slave is the way to go. This seems to be the advice I've gotten the most.

You'd figure for the amount of money spent on a PT rig that you could lock it as a slave and it would drift with the tape machine accordingly.

Thanks for all help on here and via phone today. It is appreciated.

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Permalink Reply by Jim Dineen on January 24, 2008 at 11:50pm

Yes, analog is way happier chasing a stable PT-clocked code, BUT...do yourself a favor and print a tuning note on the analog when you track!

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