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hdp_rene
Inspiring
March 8, 2019
Answered

How to sync three adat tapes (24 tracks) into one audition multitrack?

  • March 8, 2019
  • 1 reply
  • 1868 views

An audio friend of mine re-found svhs adat tapes with original recordings of his own shows in the nineties. They synchronized three adats machines to make a 24 track recording possible. I only have one adat machine and an eight-channel analog/digital (adat/spdif) interface and which brings these eight tracks separated in real-time to audition perfectly. So I could do this copy action in three parts in a row to get the 24 tracks into one multitrack session. My question is how do I get these three tapes 100% synchronized into one Adobe Audition Multitrack session? How is the copying/synchronizing of the timecode or any other sync code done? Where/how can I read (about) this?. Does anyone has some experience with this? Thanks for reading and answering. Regards, René

    This topic has been closed for replies.
    Correct answer SteveG_AudioMasters_

    I'm presuming that this was originally done with three machines and a BRC to lock them and provide sync points. Now personally, if I had to do this, I'd get hold of an old BRC, because you can feed sync into that, and assuming that your sound device has a word clock output, everything should stay in sync if you do it this way - meaning that all you'd have to do is line up the three groups. There have been all sorts of conversations about this on the web, but nobody seems to have come up with anything other than a sort-of 'suck it and see' methodology for when you can't get three machines and a BRC together.

    Other things to note; Audition doesn't handle time-code, so you are absolutely relying on clock sources being locked, however you do this. But time-code locking was always a bit of a hit and miss affair at the best of times, and you'll probably get just as good a sync outcome just by eyeballing the tracks, quite frankly - which is what a lot of people seem to have done. But finding a way to lock the ADAT clock to your sound device is the key to this.

    1 reply

    SteveG_AudioMasters_
    Community Expert
    SteveG_AudioMasters_Community ExpertCorrect answer
    Community Expert
    March 8, 2019

    I'm presuming that this was originally done with three machines and a BRC to lock them and provide sync points. Now personally, if I had to do this, I'd get hold of an old BRC, because you can feed sync into that, and assuming that your sound device has a word clock output, everything should stay in sync if you do it this way - meaning that all you'd have to do is line up the three groups. There have been all sorts of conversations about this on the web, but nobody seems to have come up with anything other than a sort-of 'suck it and see' methodology for when you can't get three machines and a BRC together.

    Other things to note; Audition doesn't handle time-code, so you are absolutely relying on clock sources being locked, however you do this. But time-code locking was always a bit of a hit and miss affair at the best of times, and you'll probably get just as good a sync outcome just by eyeballing the tracks, quite frankly - which is what a lot of people seem to have done. But finding a way to lock the ADAT clock to your sound device is the key to this.

      SteveG_AudioMasters_
      Community Expert
      SteveG_AudioMasters_Community Expert
      Community Expert
      March 8, 2019

      I did a quick Ebay check - you can pick up working BRCs for silly money!

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