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[ Follow Ups ] [ Post Followup ] [ The Recording Website Message Board ] [ FAQ ] Posted by JC on June 08, 2000 at 09:46:27:
In Reply to: Agreed.... posted by Steve S. on June 08, 2000 at 08:51:34:
It's not a problem with ADAT tracks- on analog or digital outputs.
The reason why is because digital recording formats include a timing signal which is consistent from one end of the tape to the other- so if the ADAT tape stretches the varispeed motors will increase or decrease speed to keep the timing consistent. So, if your song starts at 00:00:30.10 and ends at 00:04:20:00 then every track will be that length- start and ending, etc.
On analog tape, with *every* time the tape is played back the speed at which the song goes by varies a tiny bit. Depending on how badly the tape stretches or how good the transport and motors (and by association the power supply) are at keeping constant speed and tension on the tape, your length might vary by a second or more which will play havoc with tracks not transferred simultaneously- in other words, the first pass might give you tracks of 00:04:20:00 in length and the next might yeild 00:04:19:10. Not much but you'll defiantely hear it. Most people compensate by timecompressing or timestretching the tracks to fit but this is not really a great solution because you can never know at what point the tracks are loosing or gaining speed and timestretching/compressing only takes into account a constant speed change.
The reason you don't notice this when listening only to the deck is that all the tracks vary their speed at the same rate: they're all on the same tape.
This is why the best method for transferring analog is to pull all the tracks in one pass to the computer and then overdub/edit/mix etc on the computer. The second best method would be to stripe SMPTE or other timecode to a track on the tape, thus loosing a track. You then "slave" the computer to the tape- the computer reads the incoming timecode from the tape and varies it's playback speed (hopefully, and it won't correct massive timing errors..) to match the tape, based on the timecode.
When transferring digital, as long as you know when the song starts, it'll remain constant from one end of the song to the other, whether you transfer one track at a time or all at once. And you can be certian that EVERY time the song plays each track will remain the same length.
So with digital: no timing variations. That's the nature of digital, no matter whether it's MD, HD, ADAT, DAT, DA-88, whatever. With analog: timing inconsistincies: whether it's your portastudio or a Studer (admittedly the Studer would be more consistient!).
- Sorry.... Steve S. 10:11:44 6/08/00 (1)
- more clarification... JC 12:02:47 6/08/00 (0)