Mark of the Unicorn Digital Timepiece User's Guide

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Digital Timepiece

User’s Guide

Mark of the Unicorn, Inc.

1280 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge, MA 02138 Business voice: (617) 576-2760 Business fax: (617) 576-3609 Tech support fax: (617) 354-3068 Tech support email: techsupport@motu.com Web site: http://www.motu.com

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SAFETY PRECAUTIONS AND ELECTRICAL REQUIREMENTS

WARNING: T O REDUCE THE RISK OF FIRE OR ELECTRICAL SHOCK, DO NO T EXPOSE THIS APPLIANCE T O RAIN OR O THER MOISTURE. CAUTION: TO REDUCE THE RISK OF ELECTRICAL SHOCK, DO NO T REMO VE CO VER. NO USER-SER VICEABLE PARTS INSIDE. REFER SER VICING TO

QUALIFIED SER VICE PERSONNEL. WARNING: DO NO T PERMIT FINGERS TO T OUCH THE TERMINALS OF PLUGS WHEN INST ALLING OR REMO VING THE PLUG T O OR FROM THE OUTLET. WARNING: IF NO T PROPERLY GR OUNDED THE Digital Timepiece COULD CA USE AN ELECTRICAL SHOCK.

The Digital Timepiece is equipped with a three-conductor cord and grounding type plug which has a grounding prong, approv ed by Underwriters' Laboratories and the Canadian Standards Association. This plug requires a mating three-conductor grounded type outlet as shown in Figure A below .

If the outlet you are planning to use for the Digital Timepiece is of the two prong type, DO NOT REMO VE OR AL TER THE GROUNDING PRONG IN ANY MANNER. Use an adapter as shown below and always connect the grounding lug to a known ground. It is recommended that y ou have a qualiﬁed electrician replace the TWO prong outlet with a properly grounded THREE prong outlet. An adapter as illustrated below in Figure B is available f or connecting plugs to two-prong receptacles.

Figure A Figure B

Grounding lug

Screw

3-prong plug

Make sure this is connected to a known ground.

Grounding prong

Properly grounded 3-prong outlet

Two-prong receptacle

Adapter

WARNING: THE GREEN GROUNDING LUG EXTENDING FR OM THE ADAPTER MUST BE CONNECTED T O A PERMANENT GROUND SUCH AS T O A PROPERLY GROUNDED OUTLET BO X. NO T ALL OUTLET BO XES ARE PROPERLY GR OUNDED.

If you are not sure that your outlet box is properly grounded, hav e it checked b y a qualiﬁed electrician. NO TE: The adapter illustrated is for use only if y ou already have a properly grounded two-prong receptacle. Adapter is not allo wed in Canada by the Canadian Electrical Code. Use only three wire extension cords which ha ve three-prong grounding type plugs and three-prong receptacles which will accept the Digital Timepiece plug.

IMPORT ANT SAFEGU ARDS

1. Read instructions - All the safety and operating instructions should be read before operating the Digital Timepiece.

2. Retain instructions - The safety instructions and owner's manual should be retained f or future reference.

3. Heed Warnings - All warnings on the Digital Timepiece and in the o wner's manual should be adhered to.

4. Follow Instructions - All operating and use instructions should be followed.

5. Cleaning - Unplug the Digital Timepiece from the computer before cleaning and use a damp cloth. Do not use liquid or aerosol cleaners.

6. Overloading - Do not overload wall outlets and extension cords as this can result in a risk of ﬁre or electrical shock.

7. Power Sources - This Digital Timepiece should be operated only from the type of power source indicated on the marking label. If you are not sure of the type of power supply to your location, consult y our local power company.

8. Power-Cord Protection - P ower-supply cords should be routed so that they are not lik ely to be walked on or pinched by items placed upon or against them. P ay particular attention to cords and plugs, convenience receptacles , and the point where they exit from the Digital Timepiece.

9. Lightning - For added protection for the Digital Timepiece during a lightning storm, unplug it from the wall outlet. This will prev ent damage to the Digital Timepiece due to lightning and pow er line surges.

10. Servicing - Do not attempt to service this Digital Timepiece yourself as opening or removing covers will expose y ou to dangerous voltage and other hazards. Refer all servicing to qualiﬁed service personnel.

11. Damage Requiring Service - Unplug the Digital Timepiece from the computer and refer servicing to qualiﬁed service personnel under the following conditions.

a. When the power supply cord or plug is damaged. b. If liquid has been spilled or objects have fallen into the Digital Timepiece. c. If the Digital Timepiece has been exposed to rain or water. d. If the Digital Timepiece does not operate normally by follo wing the operating instructions in the owner's manual. e. If the Digital Timepiece has been dropped or the cabinet has been damaged. f. When the Digital Timepiece exhibits a distinct change in perf ormance, this indicates a need for service.

12. Replacement Parts - When replacement parts are required, be sure the service technician has used replacement parts speciﬁed by the manufacturer or have the same characteristics as the original part. Unauthorized substitutions may result in ﬁre, electric shock or other hazards.

13. Safety Check - Upon completion of any service or repairs to this Digital Timepiece , ask the service technician to perform safety checks to determine that the product is in safe operating conditions.

ENVIRONMENT

Operating Temperature: 10°C to 40°C (50°F to 104°)

A V OID THE HAZARDS OF ELECTRICAL SHOCK AND FIRE

Do not handle the power cord with wet hands. Do not pull on the power cord when disconnecting it from an AC w all outlet. Grasp it b y the plug.

INPUT

Line V oltage: 100 - 120 volts AC , RMS (US and Japan) or 220 - 250 volts A C, RMS (Europe). F requency: 47 - 63 Hz single phase. P ower: 7 watts maximum.

CAUTION: D ANGER OF EXPLOSION IF BATTER Y IS REPLA CED. REPLA CE ONLY WITH THE SAME OR EQUIV ALENT TYPE RECOMMENDED BYMANUFACTURER. DISPOSE OF USED BATTER Y A CCORDING T O MANUF A CTURER’S INSTRUCTIONS.

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CHAPTER

Chapter 1 –

5 5 5 5

Chapter 2 –

9 9

9 10 10

11 12

Chapter 3 –

13 14 Computers 16 Digital Multitrack tape decks 18 Working with the Tascam DA-88 22 Word Clock Devices 24 S/PDIF devices 27 Video 28 SMPTE time code devices 29 MIDI Time Code devices 29 Alesis LRC 30 MMC control surfaces

Chapter 4 –

33 34 34 36 36 36 36 36 36 37 37

Contents

About the Digital Timepiece

Packing list About this guide Register for technical support What is the Digital Timepiece?

Degrees of Accuracy

Before you go any further… Sample-accurate sync Frame-accurate sync with phase-lock Frame-accurate sync Frame-accurate triggering

Front Panel Quick Reference Rear Panel Quick Reference

Installation

Overview

Front Panel Settings

Overview About synchronization Choosing a time base mode Internal MTC LTC Video/Internal Video/MTC Video/SMPTE (LTC) Video/VITC Video/Sony

Word 1x/Internal

Word 1x/MTC

Word 1x/LTC

Word 256x/Internal

Word 256x/MTC

Word 256x/LTC

Word 1x/Video/Internal

Word 1x/Video/MTC

Word 1x/Video/LTC

Word 1x/Video/VITC

Word 1x/Video/Sony

S/P DIF/Internal

Control track 1 or 2

Word 1x/Control track 1 or 2

DA-88

Word 1x/DA-88

ADAT

Word 1x/ADAT

the SMPTE frame rate setting

The Word clock rate setting

Chapter 5 –

Chapter 6 –

Chapter 7 –

Example Setups

Overview

The Digital Timepiece as master

Video as time base master

Devices that cannot act as a slave

Using an Alesis BRC or Tascam RC-848

Converting/Generating Time Code

Overview

Starting playback

Deferred playback

Generating or Converting time code

Striping Time Code

Overview

General procedure

Striping frame-locked LTC onto video

Striping SMPTE on a multitrack tape deck

Regenerating fresh time code

Lengthening a SMPTE track

Regeneration and time code bits

Recording VITC

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Recording burn-in & other graphics

Chapter 8 –

Chapter 9 –

Chapter 10 –

MIDI Machine Control

Overview

How MMC works

A recommended scenario for MMC

MMC Device IDs

Setting up MMC slaves

Setting up a MMC transport master

MMC control of record functions

Digital Timepiece & Performer

Overview

Getting the Digital Timepiece to appear in Performer’s MMC window

Slaving Performer

Using Performer as transport master

MMC record commands

Video streamers

Controlling a DA-88/SY-88 with Performer

Digital Timepiece & Other

Sequencers

Overview

Establishing communication

Slaving your sequencer

Using your sequencer as transport master

MMC record commands

Chapter 11 –

Chapter 12 –

Chapter 13 –

Chapter 14 –

Digital Timepiece & OMS

Overview

ClockWorks and OMS

Preparing ClockWorks

Preparing OMS

Adding the DTP to your OMS setup

Using AV Controls

Digital Timepiece & Pro Tools

Overview

Pro Tools, ClockWorks, OMS & FreeMIDI

Enabling OMS emulation in FreeMIDI

Preparing OMS

Pro Tools as master

Pro Tools as slave

Pro Tools and Triple-sync

Transport control

Lockup time

Alesis LRC

Using an Alesis LRC

LRC button functions

LRC Calibration

Troubleshooting

Common problems and solutions

Customer Support

Replacing Disks

Technical Support

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CHAPTER

About the Digital Timepiece

Thank you for purchasing the Digital Timepiece™!

PACKING LIST

Your Digital Timepiece box should have the following items in it. If not, contact Mark of the Unicorn customer service at (617) 576-2760.

■

Digital Timepiece

■

Power cord

■

Digital Timepiece Manual

■

ClockWorks™ Manual

■

ClockWorks™ software installer disks

■

Registration card

ABOUT THIS GUIDE

This guide provides important information about installing and setting up the Digital Timepiece. There is a companion guide for the Macintosh software console that ships with the Digital Timepiece called the

ClockWorks User’s Guide

REGISTER FOR TECHNICAL SUPPORT

Before you go any further, take a moment to ﬁll out and mail in the registration card included in this package. Doing so entitles you to:

■

free, unlimited technical support via email

■

free newsletters

WHAT IS THE DIGITAL TIMEPIECE?

Think of the Digital Timepiece as the synchronization hub for your recording studio. It provides stable, centralized synchronization services for most analog, digital audio, and video equipment found in today’s recording studio. Until now, locking together ADAT™, DA-88™, Pro Tools™, word clock audio devices, S/PDIF devices, video decks, SMPTE time code devices, MIDI Machine Control devices and computers has been difﬁcult — if not impossible. The Digital Timepiece can connect to all of these types of devices and synchronize them with one another.

A computer is not required

You do not need a computer to use a Digital Timepiece. Essential settings are available directly on the front pane l. Once y ou choose an o perational mode with the TIME BASE controls, the Digital Timepiece will generate or convert all forms of synchronization necessary to keep all connected devices synchronized with one another.

Degrees of accuracy

■

new product information

Since Mark of the Unicorn can only provide customer service and technical support to registered users, please send in the card right away.

■

Sample accurate sync

■

Frame-accurate sync with phase lock

■

Frame-accurate sync with no phase lock

■

Frame-accurate triggering

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Synchronization ﬁrsts

The Digital Timepiece offers several synchronization ﬁrsts. For example, you can now synchronize a stack of Alesis ADAT™ recorders with a stack of Tascam DA-88™ recorders with ‘plug-and-play’ ease and sample-accurate timing. The Digital Timepiece also works with other devices that support the ADAT and DA-88 proprietary sync protocols, such as the Panasonic MDA-1™, SONY PCM-800™ and Tascam DA-38™.

The components of sync

The Digital Timepi ece s u p p lies all of the necessary components for stable, sample-accurate synchronization: address (SMPTE time code location and audio sample number), time base (word clock), and machine control (for transport and cueing). You choose an external source — or the Digital Timepiece itself — as a time base and address master, and then the Digital Timepiece continuously generates all other synchronization formats, locking together all connected devices with frame-accurate timing. Sample-accurate timing is achieved with devices that allow it, such as ADATs and DA-88s.

The ﬂexibility you need

The Digital Timepiece is more ﬂexible than most synchronizers because it allows you to choose different master so ur c es for time base, address an d transport, as best ﬁts your studio setup. For example, you co uld choose h ouse sync video as the master time base, the Digital Timepiece as the address (time code) master, and your computer software as the transport master.

All standard digital audio sync formats

Digital audio synchronization formats supported include word clock, Digidesign 256x ‘superclock’ and S/PDIF . These ind ustry standard formats allow the Digital Timepi ece to synchronize a wide variety

of digital audio systems, including Digidesign Pro Tools™ 4.0, Pro Tools Project™, stand-alone hard disk recorders, digital mixers, computer-based digital audio worksta tions, S/PD IF devices (such as DAT recorders) and Digidesign’s Audiomedia™ II and III cards.

Expensive add-ons are not needed

Because the Digital Timepiece directly supports third-party synchronization formats like ‘su per c lock’ an d ADAT Sync, it elimina t es th e need for expensive synchronization add-on equipment such as Digidesign’s SMPTE Slave Driver™, the Digidesign Video Slave Driver™, Alesis BRC™, Tascam SY-88™ sync card and others. The Digital Timepiece dramatically undercuts the cost and setup overhead of these other devices while offering most of the same features in a compact, efﬁcient, single rack-space unit.

All SMPTE time code formats

The Digital Timepiece can also generate and slave to all forms of SMPTE time code, including LTC, VITC and MTC (MIDI Time Code). All SMPTE frame formats are supported when generating and reading time code, including 29.97 drop and nondrop for NTSC video applications. These SMPTE sync features allow the Digital Timepiece to synchronize with computers, analog tape decks, stand-alone hard disk recorders, MIDI devices, and virtually anything that can either generate or slave to SMPTE or MIDI Time Code.

MIDI Machine Control

The Digital Timepiece supports MIDI Machine Control (MMC) transport and record functions. These features allow you to control your entire rig from a single source (such as your MMCcompatible computer software), eliminating the need for expensive, dedicated hardware control surface add-ons such as the Alesis BRC™ and Tascam RC-848™ for basic machine control tasks.

ABOUT THE DIGITAL TIMEPIECE

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SONY 9-pin machine control

The Digital Timepiece includes support for the SONY 9-pin machine control format. You can connect a SONY 9-pin compatible video deck, which can then be slaved to the Digital Timepiece. This allows you to control the video deck, along with all of your other gear, from your favorite MMC-compatible computer software or any MMC-compatible hardware controller. Conversely, the Digital Timepiece can slave to the 9-pin video deck.

Advanced video features

The Digital Timepiece provides many other essential video features. The rear panel has two BNC video jacks (IN and OUT) in addition to its SONY 9-pin connector. Internally, the Digital Timepiece has a built-in video sync generator, which can be synchronized with the Digital Timepiece’s audio phase lock engine or run independently of the Digital Timepiece’s synchronization features. The VIDEO IN jack allows the Digital Timepiece to slave to any NTSC or PAL video source, such as house sync video or VTR output. The VIDEO OUT jack can display whatever is being received on the input, or it can produce blackburst. In either case, the Digital Timepiece can o verla y up t o twelv e lines of text and information on i ts video output signal, in c luding a large and small SMPTE time code burn-in, status information (e.g. the Digital Timepiece’s current sample rate output), MIDI sequencer triggered streamers with punch, and numerous lines of userprogrammed text (such as client and project names). Text lines can be positioned vertically as desired.

44.1 and 48 kHz with pull up/down

The Digital Timepiece supports 44.1kHz and 48kHz sampling rat es. I t also su ppli es 0.1% pull-up and pull-down at both ra tes, an essen tial featur e for those of you who work with ﬁlm cues that have been temporarily transferred to video for music scoring or audio post production. By using a pull-

down rate while working with ﬁlm in video format, you can easily avoid synchronization and drift problems tha t arise from the 0.1% speed differ ence between the ﬁlm transfer rate of 30fps and the NTSC video playback rate of 29.97fps.

Proprietary technology

The Digital Timepiece delivers pristine sound and an extremely stable, high-resolution digital audio time base with no dithering, rounding, or software delays. This level of performance is made possible by custom-designed VLSI technology and a proprietary high-frequency phase engine.

Fast lockup time

Depending on the speciﬁc scenario in which the Digital Timepiece is being operated, its lock-up time can be as fast as one second. Fastest lockup times are achieved by s laving the Digital T imepi ece to house sync video (“blackburst”) or by running under its own internal clock. When slaving the Digital Timepiece to SMPTE or MIDI time code (without video as a time base), lock up time is typically 2-4 seconds, depending on the overall stability of the incoming time code.

Control track

A new, proprietary Mark of the Unicorn synchronization format, called ‘Control Track’, is supplied via two 8-pin circular DIN sockets on the Digital Timepiece rear panel. By means of high-resolution sample address information, Control Track can synchronize two Digital Timepieces with sampleaccurate timing.

Stand-alone and computer-based operation

The Digital Timepiece can be operated in a computer-based setup or as a stand-alone synchronizer . The front pane l sup plies b utto ns and status LEDs for making all of the necessary basic operational settings. You can choose the overall operating mode (called the ‘time base mode’), the sample rate (44.1kHz or 48kHz), sample clock pull-up or pull-down (0.1%), and SMPTE time

ABOUT THE DIGITAL TIMEPIECE

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code format (30, 29.97, 29.97 drop, 25 and 24). Status LEDs are also supplied to indicate communication between the Digital Timepiece and devices connected to it. A convenient S/PDIF THRU button allows you to easily bypass the Digital Timepiece when transf erring S/PDIF audi o from one device to another — without having to swap cables. The fro nt pane l also has a quarter inch phone jack for an Alesis LRC™ or compatible controller.

The Digital Timepiece rear panel

The Digital Timepiece rear panel has three input/ output pairs of BNC connectors for video, word clock and Digidesign superclock. A pair of RCA phone jacks supply S/PDIF input and output. Other rear panel connectors include a pair of standard ADAT 9-pin Sync In and Sync Out sockets, DA-88 15-pin Sync In and Sync Out sockets, a SONY 9-pin video sync jack, a pair of

quarter-inch phone jacks for SMPTE (LTC) input and output, two pairs of MIDI IN and OUT sockets, an RS-422 jack for optional connection directly to a Macintosh computer, and two additional circular DIN-8 sockets for the Digital Timepiece’s proprietary Control Track protocol.

Convenient software included

The Digital Timepiece™ ships with Macintosh console software that provides access to numerous additional features. For example, the console allows you to program SMPTE time code offsets for individual devices connected to the Digital Timepiece, such as a single ADAT within a chain of ADATs. You can even program individual track offsets for ADATs and DA-88s; track offsets can be speciﬁed as a number of samples. The console software also lets you control the Digital Timepiece’s video graphics features.

ABOUT THE DIGITAL TIMEPIECE

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CHAPTER

2 Degrees of Accura cy

BEFORE YOU GO ANY FURTHER…

Digital audio devices found in today’s studio support varying degrees of accuracy when it comes to synchronizatio n. The Digital Ti mepiece s uppli es the best possible accuracy for each type of device that it supports. Here is a brief overview of several basic categories of accuracy to which most digital audio devices belong, starting with the highest (best). After you look them over, think about each device in your studio and th e categ ory it belongs to . Doing so will help you mak e better decisi ons when installing the Digital Timepiece, which supports a wide range of synchronization scenarios.

SAMPLE-ACCURATE SYNC

When two devices achieve sample-accurate sync, the master device and slave device are in continuo us, samp le-accurate synchr onization with each other. Not only are their sample clocks continuously aligned (phase-locked), sample for sample, but they also locate to —and start playing or recording on — exactly the same sample every time. For example, if the master device cues to sample num ber 49,856,237 in a rec ordin g, the sla ve device will cue to exactly the same sample. Resolution is 44.1 o r 48 tho usand ths o f a second. A slight bit of skew might be introduced due to analog ﬁlter delays. But if so, the skew will be consistent, so it will not cause phasing.

continuous phase-lock). But even more signiﬁcantly, th e Digital Timepiece can also mak e a stac k of ADATs synchronize with a stack of DA-88s (which also support sample-accurate sync) at this level. The Digital Timepiece is the ﬁrst synchronizer to be able to do this.

FRAME-ACCURATE SYNC WITH PHASELOCK

When two devices achieve frame-accurate sync with phase-lock, mast er and sl ave device play back in continuous phase-lock with each other, sample for sample, with no phasing or drifting over time. However, the timing resolution at which the devices locate — and begin recording or playing back — is equivalent to the SMPTE time code frame rate being used (e.g. 30 frames per second). Digidesign Pro Tools is a classic example of a system that synchronizes at this level of accuracy. When slaving externally, Pro Tools locates and begins recording or playing according to MIDI Time Code it receives, which has a has a quarter frame resolution of 30 frames per second times four — or approximately a 120th of a second (or whatever time code frame rate is being used). Because MTC suffers from general MIDI delays and skewing, Pro Tools and systems like it also employ a software averaging scheme which helps with accuracy even further.

An example of devices that support this level of synchronization is a chain o f ADAT tape recorders via their proprietary ADAT sync protocol. If you record a stereo track pair from one ADAT to another in two separate record passes, the stereo image would remain in perfect phase. The Digital Timepiece h as the ab ility to drive a ch ain of ADATs at this level (sample-accurate locating with

Note, however, that Pro Tools — as a slave — also requires a sample clock (Digidesign refers to it as “superclock” or “slave clock”) to keep it phaselocked with its master once it starts. While “superclock” maintains phase lock at normal digital audio sample rates (44.1 or 48 thousand times a second), it does not provide single-sample locating as described in the previous section: it simply keeps the Pro Tools sample clock in phase

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with the master digital clock during playback or recording, sample for sample, to prevent phasing (which causes distortion) or drifting (which causes sync problems). Bu t the highest resolu tion at which Pro Tools can locate — and begin playing or recording — is one 120th of a second (quarterframe resolution). If you transferred a stereo track pair in two separate record passes into Pro Tools, the stereo image would not be transferred in perfect phase. In other words, Pro Tools cannot start at exactly the same sample as other digital audio devices, like ADATs can. (Future versions of Pro Tools may provide sample accurate synchronization capability.)

FRAME-ACCURATE SYNC

When two devices achieve frame-accurate sync without phase lock, master and slave remain in sync with each other, but their digital audio clocks are not kept in phase. Instead, they stay in continuous sync via time code, which has a resolution of a thirtieth of a second (or one of the other standard SMPTE time code frame rates).

This form of synchronization inevitably ca uses two digital audio devices to phase with one another as they play, since the timing reference (30 frame per second time code) has such a l owe r resol ution than their internal sample clocks.

An example of this type of sync would be a standalone hard disk recorder slaved to the Digital Timepiece via SMPTE time code only, with no word clock connection between the devices. The hard disk recorder would read the incoming time code and con tinually ad just its digital a udio o utpu t to stay in sync with the time code.

FRAME-ACCURATE TRIGGERING

With frame-accurate triggering, unlike any of the continuous forms of sync already discussed, the master device only tells the slave device where to locate (at a speciﬁc time code location). But when the slave begins p la ying or r ec or ding, it runs under its own internal clock, inevitably drifting out of sync with the master, given enough time. The time it takes for drift to become noticeable depends on the devices involved and the situation in which they are being used. Timing resolution is equivalent to frame rate being used (e.g. 30 frames per second).

Most devices today use one of the continuous forms of sync described earlier. You probab ly wo n’t encounter a device of this type in your work with the Digital Timepiece.

DEGREES OF ACCURACY

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When the S/PDIF THRU button is pushed in, the LED

illuminates and the Digital Timepiece passes digital

audio signal from its S/PDIF IN to its S/PDIF OUT jack.

The Digital Timepiece cannot slave to an incoming

S/PDIF signal when the THRU button is engaged.

The TIME BASE section of the front

panel is where you choose which

components of your system are the

time base master and the time code

(address) master. For example, if you

The LOCK indicators (Address and Word) glow

steadily when the Digital Timepiece has

successfully achieved and is maintaining

lockup to the current address and time base

sources. The Address LED glows when the

The TACH light blinks once

per second when the Digital

Timepiece is either generat-

ing or converting time code.

The LOCK light glows when

When the THRU button is released (turned off), the

Digital Timepiece can slave to an incoming S/PDIF

signal. In addition, it continuously generates its own

choose video+SMPTE mode, video

blackburst (house sync) could be the

time base master, while SMPTE time

Digital Timepiece is successfully reading and/

or generating time code. The Word LED glows

when the Digital Timepiece’s digital audio

the Digital Timepiece has

successfully achieved and is

maintaining lockup to

S/PDIF signal on its S/PDIF output jack, to which a

connected device can slave.

code (LTC) from a VTR could be the

address master.

phase loop engine has stabilized and is

currently generating or locking to a time base.

external time code.

Press the SOURCE button repeatedly to choose the o verall time base and time c ode

(address) source. There are 28 possible settings but only 11 LEDs, so many time

base modes are indicated by a combination of 2 or 3 illuminated LEDs (indicated

with a / sign below). Below is a brief summary of each mode:

Time base mode Explanation

When one of these ﬁrst

four LEDs is illuminated,

the Digital Timepiece

controls the global word

clock rate as determined

by the word rate settings

Press the RATE button

repeatedly to choose one

For time base modes

that require you to

■ 48 kHz

of six word clock rates as

shown by these four LEDs.

The six possible rates are:

manually choose

the SMPTE time

code frame rate,

press the FORMAT

The selected item is both time base and address (time

code) master.

Video serves as the time base master and the other

chosen source (Internal, MTC, LTC, or VITC) is the address

(time code) master.

Internal

MTC

SMPTE (LTC)

Video / Internal

Video / MTC

Video / SMPTE (LTC)

on its front panel (at left).

All other time base modes

derive the word clock rate

from their respective

external time base source.

■ 48 pull-up (+1%)

■ 48 pull-down (-1%)

■ 44.1 kHz

■ 44.1 pull-up

■ 44.1 pull-down

button repeatedly to

choose the desired

rate. However, for

time base modes

that make the

Digital Timepiece

(from the 9-pin deck or from house sync) is the time

base master and the 9-pin deck is address master (via

its 9-pin connection).

An external word clock device serves as the time base

master and the other chosen source (Internal, MTC, LTC,

control track, ADA T or DA-88) is the address (time code)

master.

Video (VITC)

Video SONY 9-pin This mode is indicated by a blinking Video LED. Video

Word 1x / Internal*

Word 1x / MTC*

Word 1x / SMPTE (LTC)*

Word 1x / control track 1 and 2

* Also available in

Word 256x format

for Pro Tools syst ems.

This word clock rate

setting only needs to be

set manually here when

you have selected the

Digital Timepiece, time

code or video as the time

base master (with the

TIME BASE controls on the

follow external time

code, this setting is

made automatically

by the Digital

Timepiece, which

senses the frame

rate of the incoming

time code.

An external word clock device serves as the time base

master. The external word clock master device and the

Word 1x / ADAT

Word 1x / DA-88

Word 1x / video / Internal

Word 1x / video / LTC

right). Other time base

modes derive the word

clock rate from their

respective external time

Digital Timepiece are both resolved to video, so that

both devices can achieve accurate video frame lock. T he

Word 1x / video / MTC

Word 1x / video / VITC

base source.

address master can be Internal, LTC, MTC, VITC or 9-pin.

Word 1x / video / Sony

master and the Digital Timepiece is the address (time

code) master.

The selected item is both time base master and address

(time code) master.

S/PDIF / Internal An external S/PDIF device serves as the time base

Control track 1 or 2

ADAT

DA-88

0 Front P anel Quick Referenc e

The COMMUNICATION

STATUS lights blink when

data is sent to and from

the Digital Timepiece.

Time code appears as a

steady glow. Polling and

“handshaking” messages

appear as ﬂickering.

If the Digital Timepiece is

currently set to Internal

mode (as shown by the

TIME BASE LED to the

The output status lights

show when data is being

sent to each output

destination. W hen the

Connect an Alesis LRC

or LRC-compatible

remote control here.

right) — which makes it

the address (time code)

Digital Timepiece is idle

(not generating or

master, pressing the

STRIPE button makes it

begin generating time

converting time code),

the output lights will

ﬂicker about once per

code (as well as all other

sync formats) at

0:00:00:00, unless you

have used the ClockWorks

console software to set

second as the Digital

Timepiece continuously

checks for devices

connected to it. If a

device is present, the

any SMPTE start time you

wish. If an external source

is currently chosen as the

Digital Timepiece contin-

ually checks for its

current frame location to

address master, pressing

this button won’t do

anything.

make sure it is in sync

with the Digital

Timepiece. When the

Digital Timepiece is

generating or converting

time code, the LEDs will

glow continuously.

Page 12

■ A MIDI interface connected to a

Use the MIDI ports to connect the following

types of MIDI devices:

To connect the Digital

Timepiece directly to a Macin-

tosh computer (without a

The Digital Timepiece must either be at the

beginning or end of a chain of ADATs.

Accordingly, never connect both the Sync In

computer (not necessary if the Digital

Timepiece is connected to a Macintosh

via the RS422 REMOTE port)

separate MIDI interface),

connect this RS422 port to the

modem or printer port of the

and Sync Out sockets at the same time. Only

use one or the other. In most circumstances,

you will want the Digital Timepiece t o be the

compatible device

■ Any MIDI Machine Control (MMC)

■ Any MMC controller, such as a JL Cooper

Macintosh. This allows the

Digital Timepiece to talk to any

MIDI software, and it acts as a

sync master over your ADAT (or chain of

ADATs). If so, connect the Digital Timepiece’s

ADAT Sync Out port to the Sync In of your

CuePoint™ or CS10™

that you would like to slave to MTC (MIDI

Time Code)

■ Any MIDI device or computer software

standard 1 MHz MIDI interface.

The Digital Timepiece even

allows MIDI devices connected

to its MIDI ports to communi-

ADAT, and, if you have others, chain them off

of the ﬁrst ADAT as directed in your ADAT

manual. The ADAT Sync In port allows the

Digital Timepiece to be the slave of an ADAT

sizer, sampler, drum machine, etc.

■ Any MIDI instrument, such as a synthe-

CONTROL TRACK is the Digital

Timepiece’s own, proprietary

synchronization format. It

carries all three components of

synchronization: word rate,

address and transport infor-

mation. Connect any device

that supports it, such as

another Digital Timepiece.

cate with MIDI software

running on the computer.

Connect a SONY 9-pin

compatible video

tape recorder (VTR)

here. This connection

allows the Digital

Timepiece to be

either a master of or

slave to a SONY 9-pin

compatible video

deck or other device.

(or at the end of a chain of ADATs), which, in

turn, could be controlled by a BRC. Note that

all of this applies to other ADAT-compatible

decks as well, such as the Fostex RD-8.

The Digital Timepiece must either be at the

beginning or end of a chain of DA-88s.

Accordingly, never connect both the Sync In

and Sync Out sockets at the same time. Only

use one or the other. In most circumstances,

you will want the Digital Timepiece t o be the

sync master over your DA-88 (or chain of

DA-88s). If so, connect the Digital

Timepiece’s DA-88 Sync Out port to the Sync

In of your DA-88, and, if you have others,

chain them off of the ﬁrst DA-88 as directed

in your DA-88 manual. The DA-88 Sync In

port allows the Digital Timepiece to be the

slave of an DA-88 (or at the end of a chain of

DA-88s), which, in turn, could be controlled

by a RC-848. Note that all of this applies to

other DA-88 compatible decks as well, such

as the Tascam DA-38.

0 Rear Panel Quick Refer ence

WORD 256x is Digidesign’s

own special ﬂavor of word

clock. It w orks with Digidesign

systems only — ones that

have word clock jacks with a

label on them something like:

If you want to slave the

Digital Timepiece to an

S/PDIF device, connect

the master S/PDIF signal

to the Digital Timepiece

S/PDIF IN connector. An

The SMPTE IN and OUT

jacks are standard tip/

ring, balanced +4dB

connectors for SMTPE

LTC. Connect a LTC

source, such as a

■ “Slave clock”

■ “Superclock”

■ “Word 256x”

S/PDIF device can be

slaved to the Digital

Timepiece via the S/

PDIF output connector,

multitrack tape deck

or the audio from a

VTR, to SMTPE IN. The

SMPTE OUT jack can go

Compatible systems include

Pro Tools™, Pro T ools Project™

(formerly called “Session 8”)

and Pro Tools III™.

which continuously

generates S/PDIF sync,

unless the THRU button

is pushed in on the front

panel, in which case it

to any destination,

such as a stand-alone

hard disk recorder, a

time code track on a

tape deck, etc.

Connect any standard

digital audio word

clock device, such as a

stand-alone hard disk

recorder, to these

connectors. Do not

connect Digidesign

hard disk recording

systems here. For

Digidesign systems,

use the WORD 256x

connectors instead.

simply passes input to

its output.

To VIDEO IN, connect any video

source, such as house sync black-

burst or a VTR. To VIDEO OUT,

connect any video destination,

such as a video monitor or any

device that requires video sync.

The Digital Timepiece ’ s time code

burn-in display and other video

display options are viewed from

its video output.

The Digital Timepiece has a built-

in video sync generator. For

important information about

how the video sync generator

interacts with the Digital

Timepiece’s synchronization

features, see chapt er 9, “Working

with Video” (page 67).

Page 13

CHAPTER

3 Installation

OVERVIEW

Because the Digital Timepiece supports a wide range of devices, this installation guide is divided into sections. Each section explain s how to c onnect an individual type of gear to the Digital Timepiece. It may also brieﬂy discuss other important information, such as special considerations or operating requirements you need to know to successfully operate the gear with the Digital Timepiece.

For sections that do not apply to you (you don’t own that speciﬁc piece of equipm ent, for exam ple), just skip over them.

Computers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .14

Digital Multitrack tape decks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .16

Word Clock Devices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .22

S/PDIF devices. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .24

Video . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .27

SMPTE time code devices. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .28

MIDI Time Code devices. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .29

Alesis LRC. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .29

MMC control surfaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .30

If your device isn’t speciﬁcally mentioned

If you have a device that is not speciﬁcally mentioned in this installation guide, read the general description of each device category to see if your device falls in that category. If it does, the general description pr ovided — toge ther with your device’s instructions — should be enough to get it working with the Digital Timepiece.

Also check these other resources for late-breaking information about new devices that can be used with the Digital Timepiece:

■ Inserts included with this manual

■ Our Web site (www.motu.com)

Page 14

COMPUTERS

The Digital Timepiec e serves as an excellen t wa y t o synchronize MIDI software and computer-based digital audio workstations with the rest of the gear in your studio. If your software supports MIDI Machine Control (MMC), you can control the transports of everything from your computer. If your software supports MMC record functions, you can accomplish basic recording tasks from your computer, too, such as arming tracks, recording on them, and even recording automated punch-ins.

The Digital Timepi ece does not r equire a c om puter to perform its basic synchronization duties. A computer does provide one important advantage: it allows you to run the Digital Timepiece’s control panel software, called ClockWorks™, which gives you access to features in the Digital Time p iec e that are not available from the front panel.

For information about installing and using the Digital Timepiece software console, called ClockWorks™, see the ClockWorks User’s Guide that accompanies this guide.

How it works

Comput er software co mmunica tes with the Digital Timepiece via either MIDI Time Code (MTC), MIDI Machine Control (MMC) or both (Figure 3-1). Software on the computer slaves to MTC generated by the Digital Timepiece. Converse ly, software that supports MMC can send MMC transport commands (play, stop, rewind, locate, etc.) to the Digital Timepiece.

☛ Digital audio workstations that involve

additional hardware installed inside the computer or connected externally to the computer may or may not require these MIDI connections in lieu of connections made directly between the hardware and the Digital Timepiece.

MIDI software

and/or

digital audio workstation

MIDI Machine Control

(MMC)

Figure 3-1: How a computer software communicates with the Digital Timepiece.

MIDI Time Code

(MTC)

Digital Timepiece

Connecting a Macintosh

There are two different ways you can connect a Macintosh to the Digital Timepiece:

■ With a standar d RS422 (cir cular “DIN-8”) cable

and the Digital Timepiece’s built-in serial port (Figure 3-2)

■ With MIDI ca bles an d a separa te MID I in terface

(Figure 3-3) There are no performance or operational

advantages either way, so the choice is a practical one. If you have an available serial port and a DIN-8 serial cable that will reach from the computer to the Digital Timep i ec e, it may be more convenient to connect directly, thus avoiding time code routing issues in y our MIDI interface. Also, if you use OMS, there are additional practical considerations that you may want to consider. See chapter 11, “Digital Timepiece & OMS” (page 79) for details.

INSTALLATION

Page 15

Connecting via the Mac’s modem or printer port

When you connect the Digital Timepiece directly to the Macintosh’s modem or printer port with a standard RS422 (DIN-8) cable (Figure 3-2), it acts as a standard 1 MHz MIDI interface. Set your MIDI software to 1 MHz on the serial port that the Digital Time Piece is c onnected t o , and al so be sure that your sequencer or DAW software has the ability to receiv e MTC fr om that serial port. U se the other serial port for your MIDI interface, if you have one.

Macintosh

computer

Digital Timepiece

Figure 3-2: An example of how to connect a Macintosh computer to the Digital Timepiece via their serial ports.

modem

port

printer

port

Serial

cables

(RS422)

MIDI interface

Connecting via a MIDI interface

When you connect the Digital Timepiece to a Macintosh via a MIDI interface (Figure 3-3), make sure that the interface is programmed to route MTC from the Digital T ime piece t o the M acin tosh. For example, some interfaces connect to both Mac serial ports and dedicate one serial port entirely to time code.

Macintosh

Digital Timepiece

computer

modem

port

Serial

cable

MIDI interface

MIDI

cables

If you have a MIDI Timepiece AV

The Digital Timepiece’s synchronization capabilities far exceed those of the MIDI Timepiece AV. Ther ef or e, y ou will probab ly wan t to make the Digital Timepiece handle synchronization chores while the MIDI Timepiece AV takes care of MIDI processing and networking. For optimum ﬂexibility, co nn ect the Digital T ime pi ece to your Mac using a combination of the connections in Figure 3-2 and Figure 3-3. Or connect it to the Net port of the MIDI Timepiec e AV.

To modem port on Mac

MIDI Timepiece AV

Using the MTP’s front panel LCD controls, set the ‘Net’ port to ‘Mac’ in the in the ‘Global Hardware’ menu.

Digital Timepiece

Figure 3-4: Connecting a Digital Timepiece to the Net port of a MIDI Timepiece AV.

Net port

Serial cables

(RS422)

Mac port

Remote port

Connecting an IBM-PC or compatible

The Digital Timepiece connects to a PC like any standard MIDI device: via MIDI cabl es and a MIDI interface (Figure 3-5). Connect MIDI OUT to IN and IN to OUT as shown. If the Win dows driv er for your interface provides a special sync port for MIDI Time Code (most of them do), make sure your MIDI software is properly addressing it.

MIDI interface

Digital Timepiece

Parallel

port IBM PC/compatible

computer

Printer

cable

MIDI

cables

Figure 3-3: An example of how to connect a Macintosh computer to the Digital Timepiece via a MIDI interface.

INSTALLATION

Figure 3-5: An example of how to connect a PC or compatible computer to the Digital Timepiece via a MIDI interface.

Page 16

DIGITAL MULTITRACK TAPE DECKS

This section explains how to use the Digital Timepiece with modular digital multi-track (MDM) tape recorders such as the following:

■ Alesis ADAT and ADAT XT

■ Tascam DA-88 and DA-38

other MMC con tr oller). The Digital Tim epi ece ha s many of the same capabilities as a BRC, making it unnecessary for basic synchronization and MMC remote control of ADATs. The Tascam DA-88 synchronizes with other devices via an SY-88 addon card. See “ABS time versus SMPTE offset with an SY-88” on page 18 for details.

■ Fostex RD-8 and CX-8

■ Panasonic MDA-1

■ SONY PCM-800

■ Other devices that support the ADAT sync

protocol, such as the Darwin hard disk recorder from E-mu Systems

ADATs and DA-88s have their own proprietary synchronization format, which is supported directly by the Digital Timepiece. MDMs from other manufacturers have, in some cases, adopted either the Alesis or Tascam sync format. One example is the F ostex RD-8. The RD-8 has adop ted the Alesis AD AT sync format and, as a r esult, can be connected directly to the Digital Timepiece in the same fashion as an ADAT. Check with the manufacturer of your device for compatibility.

Modular digital multi-track systems have their own means of chaining multiple units and synchronizing them with single-sample accuracy to form, in effect, one lar ge system tha t functions as a whole. The Digital Timepiece synchronizes multiple unit systems just as easily and effectively as a single unit. In fact, the connections and procedures for the Digital Timepiece are the same for single- and multiple-unit systems. The Digital Timepiece can even sync ADATs and DA-88s with each other with single-sample accuracy.

Modular digital multi-tracks also provide a way to synchronize to SMPTE time code. For example, ADATs and ADAT XTs require an Alesis BRC to synchronize to SMPTE or to follow MMC transports commands from comp ut er software (or

How proprietary synchronization works

ADAT s, DA-88s and any o ther devices tha t sup port the ADAT or DA-88 pro p rietary sync protocols are connected directly to th e Digital Timepiece via the ADAT and DA-88 Sync ports. This connection provides both a sample-accurate time base and frame-accurate address information (Figure 3-6). In addition, the multi-track recorders to be either master of or slave to the Digital Timepiece.

Digital Timepiece

proprietary,

sample-accurate

time base

and

address

Figure 3-6: How modular digital multi-track recorders like the ADAT, DA-88, DA-38 and RD-8 synchronize with the Digital Timepiece.

ADAT, DA-88, DA-38, RD-8

or other

modular digital multi-track

Refer to th e sections belo w fo r speciﬁc inf ormatio n about each device, including important considerations if you are also using an Alesis BR C or Tascam SY-88 sync card.

New MDM systems are frequently being introduced. If you have a device other than the ones discussed in the following sections, contact Mark of the Unicorn technical support as described in “Technical Support” on page 98.

INSTALLATION

Page 17

Connecting ADATs as slaves

In most circumstances, you will want the Digital Timepiece to be the sync master over your ADAT(s). If so, connect the Digital Timepiece’s ADAT Sync Out port to the Sync In of your ﬁrst ADAT using the sync cable supplied with the ADAT as shown in Figure 3-7. Don’t worry about setting the ADAT device ID: the Digital Timepiece sets it automatically.

Connecting the Digital Timepiece as a slave

If you hav e an Alesis BRC, and y o u wan t to use i t as your master control surface, you will need to connect the Digital Timepiece as the last device in your ADAT chain, as shown below in Figure 3-9, with the BRC as the master of the chain.

BRC

Digital Timepiece

ADAT

Sync

Out

ADAT

Sync In

Figure 3-7: Connecting an ADAT as a slave to the Digital Timepiece.

ADAT sync cable

port

If you hav e sev eral ADATs, you can chain the r est of them to the ﬁrst one as shown in Figure 3-8.

Digital Timepiece

ADAT

Sync Out port

ADATs

Sync In

Sync Out

Sync In

Sync Out

ADAT

sync cables

Sync Out

ADATs

Sync In

Sync Out

Sync In

Sync Out

etc.

Sync In

Sync Out

Digital Timepiece

Figure 3-9: Connecting a slaved Digital Timepiece as the last device in an ADAT chain.

ADAT

Sync In

ADAT

sync cables

Sync In

Sync Out

etc.

Figure 3-8: Connecting multiple ADATs.

INSTALLATION

Page 18

WORKING WITH THE TASCAM DA-88

There are several w ays to connect the DA-88 to the Digital Timepiece, depending on whether you are running the DA-88 under ABS time or SMPTE time (while under the control of a Tascam SY-88 sync card). The next section discusses ABS time versus SMPTE offset with an SY-88 card.

Connecting a DA-88 as an ABS slave

This type of sync can be done without an SY-88 sync card. The Digital Timepiece controls the DA-88. For example, from your computer sequencer, you can shuttle the Digital Timepiece, which in turn controls the DA-88. In this scenario, the DA-88 operates under ABS time only.

ABS time versus SMPTE offset with an SY-88

The Tascam DA-88 can measure time in two ways:

■ absolute time (also called ABS time)

■ SMPTE time with an offset (start frame)

Absolute time is a measurement of actual elapsed time since the beginning of the tape, where the beginning of the recordable portion of the tape (immediately after the tape leader) is zero. The front panel of the D A -88 displa ys ABS time, as d oes the MMC/Sync window in the Digital Timepiece’s ClockWorks software. For example, if you start recording at the beginning of the tape and record for 20 minutes, the ABS time display on the front panel of the DA-88 would display approximately 0:20:00:00.

If your Tascam DA-88 has an SY-88 sync card installed inside, the SY-88 card provides you with the ability to stripe (recor d) SMPTE time code on a special “sub-code” track on the tape. Once a tape has been striped in this manner, the S Y-88 card can then read the time code on sub-code track and generally pla y, locate, and o therwise cue the D A -88 according to the time code, rather than ABS time. For exam p l e, you c o ul d stripe the tape starting at a time other than zero — a common situation when working with audio fo r picture — suc h as one ho ur and ﬁve minutes (01:05:00:00). You can then choose the offset option on the front panel of the DA-88 to display SMPTE time inst ead o f ABS time in the DA-88’s front-panel counter. If you then record f or twen ty minutes starting at the beginning of the tape, the DA-88 counter would read approximately 1:25:00:00.

If you need to reference the DA-88 and Digital Timepiece to an external time code source, use one of the SY-88 related scenarios described in the following sections.

This scenario provides sample-accurate sync between the DA-88 and the Digital Timepiece.

When the Digital Timepiece has control over one or more DA-88s via the DA-88 sync connectors (using ABS time), it must cue in three-second intervals to maintain sample-accurate sync. For example, if you cue the Digital Timepiece to 5 minutes and 2 seco nds fr om th e transport con tro ls in your sequencer, and then start playback, the Digital Timepiece (and all devices under its control) will begin playing at the nearest 3-second interval (5 minutes, 3 seconds in this example).

If you are do ing d etailed work for which this threesecond interval is not acceptable, use one of the SY-88-related sync scenarios described in the following sections.

INSTALLATION

Page 19

In this scenario, connect the Digital Timepiece’s DA-88 Sync Out port to the Sync In of your ﬁrst DA-88 using the sync cable supplied with the DA -88 as sh own in Figure 3-10. I f you ha v e a single DA-88, make sure the device ID selector on the ‘System’ card on its rear panel is not set to zero. If you ha ve a ch ain of D A -88s, mak e s ure tha t non e of them are set to zero, and also make sure that each unit has a unique ID setting.

Digital Timepiece

DA-88

Sync

Out

Sync In port

DA-88 sync cable

DA-88

Any device ID except 0

Figure 3-10: Connecting a Tascam DA-88.

If you have several DA-88s, you can chain the rest of them to the ﬁrst one as shown in Figure 3-11. Note tha t you can c onnect both ADATs and DA -88s at the same time (not pictured).

Digital Timepiece

DA-88

Sync Out port

DA-88s

Device ID 1

Sync In

Sync Out

DA-88

sync cables

Connecting the Digital Timepiece as ABS slave

In this scenario, the DA-88 serves as the time base, address, and transport master. You control the Digital Timepiece, along with everything else attached to the Digital Timepiece, from the transport controls on the DA-88 itself. This scenario provides sample-accurate sync between the DA-88 and the Digital Timepiece.

There may be so me situatio ns in which y ou wan t to slave the Digital Timepiece to your DA-88 instead of the other way aro und. For exam pl e, if you have a Tascam RC-848 controller , and y ou wan t to use it as your master control surface, you will need to connect the Digital Timepiece as the last device in your DA-88 chain, as shown below in Figure 3-9, with the 848 as the master of the chain.

RC-848

Sync Out

ADATs

Sync In

Sync Out

Sync In

Sync Out

etc.

Sync In

Sync Out

ADAT

sync cables

Device ID 2

Device ID 3

Figure 3-11: Connecting multiple DA-88s.

INSTALLATION

Sync In

Sync Out

Sync In

Sync Out

etc.

Note: if you are using house sync, it should not be fed to the DA-88s in this scenario. House sync should be fed to the Digital Timepiece instead.

ADAT

Digital Timepiece

Figure 3-12: Connecting a slaved Digital Timepiece as the last device in a DA-88 chain. In this example, the RC-848 is master of the chain.

Sync In

Make sur e yo u set the R C-848 ID to zer o (0) so that it powers up as the master of the chain. Also make sure the DA-88s in the chain are set to unique IDs. The Digital Timepiece itself has no ID in this scenario.

Page 20

Using a DA-88 with an SY-88 sync card as the SMPTE time code master

If you would lik e to use the S MPTE time code track on a DA-88 deck equipped with an SY-88 card, then the DA-88 cannot operate as a slave to the Digital Timepiece. Instead, the DA-88 acts as the master and the Digital Timepiece slaves to it, a shown below in Figure 3-13. The word clock connection from the SY-88 card to the Digital Timepiece is optional, although it is highly recommended for tighter sync and faster lockup time.

This scenario requires an SY-88 card. The DA-88/ SY-88 combination serves as the master, feeding SMPTE time code (LTC or MTC) to the Digital Timepiece and other devices. You control the Digital Timepiece, along with everything else attached to the Digital Timepiece, from the DA-88. This scenario allows you t o sync the DA-88 — and

MMC compatible

sequencer or audio

software

bi-directional MIDI

for MMC and MTC

MMC remote control setup notes

To control this entire rig from your computer:

1. Set the Machine ID on the SY-88 card using the ﬁrst four DIP switches at location S2 on your SY-88 card. Refer to your DA-88 manual for details.

2. Connect a MIDI Out from your MIDI interface to the MIDI In on the SY-88 card so software can send MMC commands to the SY-88 card.

3. Be sure to feed MTC back to the computer, either from the SY-88 MIDI OUT port or from the Digital Timepiece (but not both!).

4. Make your software send MMC commands with the same ID you gave the SY-88 (not the Digital Timepiece). See “Controlling a DA-88/SY-88 with Performer” on page 72.

Digital Timepiece time base mode: Word 1x/LTC

Various forms of word clock and SMPTE time code distributed by the Digital Timepiece to other devices.

SY-88 Card SMPTE out

(LTC or MTC)

SMPTE IN

(LTC or MTC)

Digital Timepiece

the Digital Timepiece — to time code from other sources, such as a video deck, or the time code subtrack on a DA-88 tape.

DA-88/SY-88 as SMPTE and word clock master

This scenario is identical to the SMPTE-only scenario just discussed, except that you also feed word clock from the SY-88 card into the Digital Timepiece, in addition to SMPTE time code, as shown below in Figure 3-13. This produces faster lock-up times and tighter sync than the SMPTEonly scenario above.

DA-88/SY-88 setup notes

1. If you are using MTC, make sure the SY-88 is programmed to send MTC by checking the SY-88 card’s S2 location DIP switches (on the board

DA-88 with SY-88 Sync Card

DA-88

Word clock out

Word 1x IN

itself). The 8th switch should be “On”.

2. Make sure the Digital Timepiece’s frame rate and sample rate match the DA-88/SY-88. (Note: the DA-88 sample rate is visible on the front panel; the frame rate can be set by depressing the up/down arrows simultaneously. Use the up/down arrows to change the frame rate, if necessary. Depress DISPLAY & down arrow to exit.)

3. The SY-88’s rear panel MODE DIP switches must be set to enable MIDI Machine Control. All switches should be in the down position, except for #2

Figure 3-13: To use the time code track on a DA-88 equipped with an SY-88 sync c ard , the DA-88 serves as the time code master. In this setup , it also serves as the time base master. The Digital Timepiece slaves to the word clock and SMPTE it receives from the DA-88. The MMC remote control from the computer as shown here is optional. Figure 3-14 on page 21 shows this setup with everything referenced to house sync.

INSTALLATION

Page 21

Using house sync with the Digital Timepiece and a DA-88/SY-88 (“Triple-sync”)

If you would like to use the SMPTE “sub code” track on a DA-88 equipped with an SY-88 card as the master address source for your rig, and you would also like to use house sync video as a timebase for everything, connect the DA-88 to the Digital Timepiece as shown below in Figure 3-14.

In this setup, both the SY-88 card and the Digital Timepiece resolve to house sync. In addition, the Digital Timepiece resolves to the word clock generated b y the S Y-88 card. The S Y-88 card serves as the time code address master source.

This scenario is identical to the on e on the pr evious page (Figure 3-13), except for the video feed to both the DA-88 and the Digital Timepiece.

Of all the SY-88-r elat ed (non-ABS) sync scenarios, this one produc es the tightest lock-up between the Digital Timepiece and the DA-88.

You can control the transports of the entire rig (via the SY-88 card) from one of several possible transport control sources:

■ The transport buttons on the front panel of the

DA-88

■ An RC-848 controller connected to the DA-88

■ Computer software that has been set up to

control the SY-88 card via MIDI Machine Control Because the Digital Timepiece is so ﬂexible, you

can use various sources for time code, video, and word clock. For exam pl e, y ou c ould f eed SMPTE t o the SY-88 card and Digital Timep iec e fro m a video deck that is also referenced to house video, such that the video deck is the transport/address master.

Controlling a DA-88/SY-88 from Performer

You can trigger the entire rig shown in Figure 3-13 or Figure 3-14 from Performer. For step-by-step directions, see “Controlling a DA-88/SY-88 with Performer” on page 72.

Check the DA-88/SY-88 setup notes in

MMC compatible

sequencer or audio

software

Check the MMC remote control setup notes in Figure 3-13 for additional important info.

Figure 3-14: To use the sub code track on a DA-88 equipped with an SY-88 sync card as the address master while using house sync as the time base, connect the DA-88/SY-88 to the Digital Timepiece as shown here. Notice that the time base mode for the Digital Timepiece is Word 1x/ video/LTC (or Word 1x/video/LTC). The Digital Timepiece can resolve to both the house sync and the word clock from the DA-88/SY-88, which is also resolved to house sync, while at the same time following the SMPTE time code (LTC or MTC) from the SY-88 card.

INSTALLATION

bi-directional MIDI

for MMC and MTC

Digital Timepiece time base mode: Word 1x/video/LTC or Word 1x/video/MTC

Various forms of word clock and SMPTE time code distributed by the Digital Timepiece to other devices.

Figure 3-13 for additional important info.

DA-88 with SY-88 Sync Card

Video Sync In

SY-88 Card

SMPTE out

(LTC or MTC)

DA-88

Word clock out

Word 1x INSMPTE IN (LTC or MTC)

Video IN

House Sync

Video Generator

Digital Timepiece

Page 22

WORD CLOCK DEVICES

Word clock is a timing reference for digital audio devices. Word clock supplies common timing to multiple devices so that they can be synchronized with one another. We call a device that supports word clock — i.e. it has word clock connectors on it — as a word clock device. Here are a few examples:

■ Digital mixers

Digital Timepiece

Word clock

Time code (LTC or MTC)

word clock device

Yamaha 02R digital mixer

■ Stand-alone hard disk recorders

■ Computer-based digital audio workstations

■ Computer audio cards

The Digital Timepiec e sup ports two differ en t wo rd clock formats: Word 1x and Word 256x. Word 1x is an industry standard format and is supported by all devices except several systems made by Digidesign. Digidesign systems have their own word clock format, Word 256x, which they refer to as superclock, slave clock or word 256x. Always connect Digidesign hardware to the WORD 256x connectors on the Digital Timepiece. Connect all other word clock devices to the WORD 1x connectors.

How it works

When synchronizing two word clock devices, one acts as the master and the other serves as a slave. The slaved device follows the master to maintain sample-accurate synchronization.

Word clock is a time base reference only, providing an accurate measurement of the passage of time and the speed at which sam ples sho uld g o by. Word clock carries no address (time code) information (e.g. “we’re at 1:05:33:14”). Therefore, word clock by itself is not enough to synchronize two devices. Time code is also required so that each device knows where to go in time when you tell it to cue, play, record, stop and chase. An example is shown below in Figure 3-15.

Figure 3-15: How word clock devices synchronize with the Digital Timepiece. In this example, the Digital Timepiece is both the word clock (time base) master and address (time code) master.

Interestingly, though, the w or d clock master d evice does not necessarily have to be the address master. A word clock slave can be an address master, while the word clock master provides the overall time base. In the example shown in Figure 3-16, the Digital Timepiece is the word clock master, while the Akai DR8 hard disk recorder is the time code master. This setup would allow you to control the transports of everything from the DR8 fron t pan el (or a transport control surface connected to the DR8).

Digital Timepiece

Word clock Time code (LTC or MTC)

word clock device

(Akai DR8 hard disk recorder)

Figure 3-16: In this example, the Digital Timepiece is the word clock (time base) master and the Akai DR8 hard disk recorder is the address (time code) master. This allows you to synchronize the DR8 with other digital audio devices connected to the Digital Timepiece, while at the same time controlling the transports of everything from the DR8 (or a control surface connected to the DR8).

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Connecting a word clock device as slave

In most situations, you’ll want to connect your word clock device as a slave to the Digital Timepiece as shown below in Figure 3-17.

Digital Timepiece

word 1x

SMPTE

OUT

SMPTE

word clock

Word clock device

Figure 3-17: Connecting a word clock device. In this example, SMPTE time code is being fed to the word clock slave device via the Digital Timepiece’s LTC SMPTE output. Alternately, you could feed MIDI Time Code (MTC) from the Digital Timepiece’s MIDI OUT.

Connecting multiple word clock devices

If you hav e m or e than o ne w or d clock d evice, there are several possibilities for connecting them to the Digital Timepiece. First, the Digital Timepiece actually provides two w ord clock o utputs: a WORD 1x OUT and a WORD 256x OUT, and it is possible to use both at the same time. For example, you could connect a stand-alone hard disk recorder to the word 1x output and a Digidesign Pro Tools™ system to the word 256x output. (Just remember, only Digidesign hardware will work with the 256x output.)

But what if you already have a device connected to the 1x word clock output, such as a hard disk recorder, and you’d like to connect a second word clock device, such as a digital mixer? In this scenario, y ou can try chaining the second d evice to the ﬁrst, connecting the word clock output of the ﬁrst to the word clock input of the second. Keep in mind, however, that some devices don’t support this very well. For best results, try to keep the cable lengths as short as possible.

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S/PDIF DEVICES

S/PDIF is an industry standard format for transferring stereo digital audio from one device to another. While many devices on the market support S/PDIF, the term S/PDIF device as used in this discussion refers to a device that has no other way of synchronizing digitally with other devices. Examples of this kind of device are:

■ Digidesign Audiomedia I, II and III cards

■ DAT decks

Devices that hav e S/PDIF co nnectors, but also have word clock connectors, ADAT sync connectors, or other means of digital audio synchronization, should be incorporated into a Digital Timepiece system using these other sync formats.

How S/PDIF sync works

When synchronizing two S/PDIF devices, one acts as the master and the other serves as a slave. The slaved device follows the master to maintain accurate synchronization that won’t drift.

S/PDIF is similar to word clock in the sense that it is a time base reference, providing an accurate measurement of the passage of time and the speed at which samples should go by. S/PDIF can also contain embedded a ddress inf ormation (e.g. “we ’re at 1:05:33:14”). However, many S/PDIF devices, including most DAT decks, do not support embedded time code. In order to support as wide a range of devices as possible, the Digital Timepiece does not support embedded S/PDIF time code either . I nstea d, i t uses the S/P DIF sam ple c lock as a time base and relies on time code (SMPTE time code or MIDI time code) to make the S/P DIF device chase, locate and play in sync with the Digital Timepiece. An example is shown in Figure 3-22 on page 26.

S/PDIF devices cannot be chained.

S/PDIF thru

S/PDIF differs from word clock because it is not just a synchronization format: it consists of actual digital audio signal, which can be recorded from one device to another. As a result, the Digital Timepiec e has a S/PD IF THR U b utt on o n the fro nt panel that allows the Digital Timepiece to become transparent and pass any a udio signal it receiv es on its S/PDIF IN port directly to its S/PDIF OUT po rt.

When the THRU button is pushed ou t, the Digital Timepiece “swallows” incoming S/PDIF signal. If the Digital Timepiece is currently set to its S/PDIF time base mode, it will also slave to the S/P DIF signal that it swallows. When the THRU button is pushed in, th e THRU LED on the fron t panel ligh ts up and the Digital Timepiece ignores whatever it receives on its S/PDIF input, passing the signal through, unaltered, to its S/PDIF output as shown in Figure 3-18. The Digital Timepiece cannot slave to S/PDIF input when S/PDIF THRU is engaged.

This feature is supplied as a convenience, so you don’t have to swap cables for different situations. If you want to slave the Digital Timepiece to an S/ PDIF device, r el ease the THRU butto n. If you want to pass the device’ s S/PDIF signal to another device connected to the Digital Timepiece’s S/PDIF Out, push the THRU button in.

S/PDIF device A

S/PDIF In

S/PDIF Out S/PDIF In

S/PDIF device B

Figure 3-18: An example of bidirectional communication between two S/PDIF devices. When Digital Timepiece’s S/PDIF THRU button is pushed in (turned on), device A can send signal to Device B . When the

S/PDIF Out

S/PDIF In

S/PDIF Out

Digital Timepiece

S/PDIF THRU

turned on

(button pushed in)

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S/PDIF THRU button is pushed out (off), the Digital Timepiece “swallows” the signal from Device A. The Digital Timepiece can slave to Device A only when THRU is turned off.

Connecting S/PDIF devices

The S/PDIF connections you make to the Digital Timepiece depend on what devices you have. Here are a few examples.

Digital Timepiece

S/PDIF In S/PDIF Out

If you have two S/PDIF devices, you can connect them as shown in Figure 3-18 on page 24. But only Device B can be slaved digitally (via S/PDIF) to the Digital Timepiece.

Example: Digidesign’s Audiomedia card

Digidesign’s Audiomedia card serves as a useful example for how you can use the Digital Timepiece’s S/PDIF synchronization capabilities. The Digital Timepiece’s S/PDIF sync feature helps solve two problems for Audiomedia™ I, II or III users: drift and digital transfers to and from ADAT and other systems.

S/PDIF InS/PDIF Out

S/PDIF device

Figure 3-19: Connecting a single S/PDIF device to the Digital Timepiece.

If you have S/PDIF device, such as an Audiomedia card, and another device that is slaved to the Digital Timepiec e, such as an ADAT or DA-88, and you would like to do S/PDIF transfers between them, you would need to connect them like this.

Digital Timepiece (Internal mode)

S/PDIF

Digital

S/PDIF Out

Audiomedia

Sync mode:

Figure 3-20: Connecting an Audiomedia card bidirectionally with a DA-88 via the Digital Timepiece. The Digital Timepiece is the word clock and time code master. When recording from DA-88 to Audiomedia, engage S/PDIF THRU on the Digital Timepiece front panel (push it in). When rec or ding from Audiomedia to DA-88, disengage S/ PDIF THRU (push it out). This same scenario could be used for ADAT (with an Alesis AI-1 converter, which connects optically to ADAT).

Out

S/PDIF

Out

IF-88AE

converter

DA-88

Sync Out

TDIF-1

I/O

DA-88

Sync In

DA-88

The drift problem

The ﬁrst problem is drift. If you have an Audio media card, you ar e proba bly running it with a digital audio sequencer or a Digidesign software package like P r o Tools™ or Session™. But you have probably discovered that when you are slaving the software to external time code, long portions of audio (i.e.audio regions that are longer than a minute or so) can drift out of sync with time code. This is because the Audiomedia card triggers regions at the proper time during playback, but once they start, they’re on their own, playing at a rate determined by the Audiomedia card’s own internal clock. Because the Audiomedia card’s clock is not resolved to external time code, the audio inevitably drifts over time. To address this problem, most Audiomedia-compatible programs offer a software synchro niza tion f eature, wher e the software slaves to external time code and then drives the Audiomedia hard ware. But this fea ture is undesirable because it actually adds or removes samples as needed to stay in sync with external time code — not exactly a high-ﬁdelity solution. Another work-around is to chop lengthy audio regions into small p ieces — no t exactly con v enien t.

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MIDI Time Code source

MIDI Time Code

Figure 3-21: Before the Digital Timepiece, was available Audiomedia would either run on its own internal clock or be driven by software synchronization. The results were either drift or audio distortion.

Macintosh with Audiomedia card

running audio software

The Digital Timepiece solves these drift problems by supplying the Audiomedia card with a stable, external word clock time base (via S/PDIF output from the Digital Timepiece to the S/PDIF input of the Audiomedia card.), along with resolved time code, which is fed as MIDI Time Code (MTC) to the software running the card. The Audiomedia card slaves in perfect sync with the Digital Timepiece via its S/PDIF input, which continuously resolves the word clock time base. And since the Digital Tim e p iec e is providing these synchronization services to all other devices as well, the Audiomedia card can stay perfectly in sync with all other devices, too.

Digital audio transfers

The second problem for Audiomedia users has been successfully transferring audio digitally between Audiomedia and other devices that are slaved to their own word clock master. Before the Digital Timepiece, this type of transfer would be inconvenient because you would have to temporarily make the other device slave to the Audiomedia card for the transfer, which often involves physically plugging and unplugging cables. But the Digital Timepiece solves this problem because both Audiomedia and the other device can be connected to and slaved to the Digital Timepiece at all times, even during digital audio transfers between them.

A schematic example is shown in Figure 3-23 between the Audiomedia card and the Tascam DA -88 via the Tascam IF-88AE format con verter. A similar arrangement could be made with Alesis ADAT and Alesis AI-1 format converter.

The connections required for Figure 3-23 are shown in Figure 3-20.

Digital Timepiece

S/PDIF word clock MIDI Time Code

Macintosh with Audiomedia card

running audio software

Figure 3-22: The Digital Timepiece supplies stable, resolved S/PDIF word clock to the Audiomedia card, along with MIDI Time Code.

S/PDIF word clock

Macintosh with Audio-

media card running

audio software

Audiomedia sync mode

set to ‘Digital’

Figure 3-23: An example of making digital audio transfers to and from a Digidesign Audiomedia card. In this example, both the Audiomedia card and the Tascam DA-88 multitrack recorder are slaved to the Digital Timepiece. Transfers between the Audiomedia card and the DA-88 are made possible by the T asc am IF-88AE format conv erter (not shown).

MIDI Time Code

bidirectional

S/PDIF transfers

via

Tascam IF-88AE

format converter

DA-88 Sync

DA-88

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VIDEO

The Digital Timepiece can synchronize to any video signal, including blackburst (“house sync”) or a video feed from a standar d video tape reco rder (VTR). It can read and lock to VITC. It has video display features, including a SMPTE burn-in, which it superimposes over the video signal sent from its VIDEO OUT connector. Its VIDEO OUT can be either a thru from the input or video black, which can be generated by the Digital Timepiece’s built-in video generator. In either case, you can choose whether or not to include the Digital Timepiece’s video overlay display.

Connecting video devices

Connect any video source to the VIDEO IN of the Digital Timepiece. Typical sources include:

■ House sync

■ VTR output (with or without VITC)

■ Video distribution ampliﬁer

Connect any video destination to th e VID EO OUT of the Digital Timepiece. Most often this will be a video monitor, so you can see the time code burn in and other video display features of the Digital Timepiece. It could also be a video deck.

Accessing the Digital Timepiec e video f ea tures

The video features in the Digital Timepiece can be accessed using ClockWorks™, the Digital Timepiece’s console software. See your ClockWorks manual for details.

The advantage of house sync video

House sync video pro vides faster locku p times. Fo r details, see “Getting faster lockup time with house sync (blackburst) as a time base” on page 35.

Using the Digital Timepiece video generator

The Digital Timepiece has a built-in video sync generator. For important information about how the video sync generator interacts with the Digital Timepiece’s synchronization features, see chapter 9, “Working with Video” (page 67).

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SMPTE TIME CODE DEVICES

The Digital Timepiece is a SMPTE time code converter and generator. As a converter, it reads incoming longitudinal SMPTE time code (LTC) from a time code sour ce. As a generator, it produces time code that is recorded to a destination.

The Digital Timepiece is also a VITC reader and generator. For information, see “Video” on page 27.

When making the SMPTE time code connections described in the following sections, do n ot pass the signal through any type of signal processing equipment. Use shielded quarter-inch audio cables.

Connecting a SMPTE time code destination

Connect the Digital Timepi ece ’s SMPTE OUT port to the SMPTE time code input of any destination device that accepts SMPTE time code as shown in Figure 3-25.

For example, time code can be recorded on an outside track of a multitrack tape recorder so that everything can subsequently be synchronized to the multitrack. Other examples of a SMPTE time code destination are syst ems that ha ve the a bility to slave to SMPTE time code, such as stand-alone hard disk recording systems, digital audio workstations, or automated mixing consoles.

Connecting a SMPTE time code source

Connect any SMPTE time code source, such as the SMPTE time code track on an analog multitrack tape deck, to the SMPTE IN port on the Digital Timepiece as shown in Figure 3-24. (For information about r ecor ding time code tracks with the Digital Timepiece, see “Striping SMPTE” on page 90.)

Analog audio tape recorder Video tape recorder

REC

PLAY

Examples of a SMPTE

time code source

Audio or SMPTE out

Shielded, quarter-inch audio cable

SMPTE in

Figure 3-24: Connecting a SMPTE time code source.

Digital Timepiece

SMPTE out

Shielded, quarter-inch audio cable

SMPTE or Audio in

Examples of a SMPTE

time code destinations

Analog audio tape recorder

Figure 3-25: Connecting a SMPTE time code destination.

Video tape recorder

REC

PLAY

Digital Timepiece

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MIDI TIME CODE DEVICES

The Digital Timepiece provides MIDI Time Code (MTC) to any device (or computer software) that requires it. MTC is transmitted from the Digital Timepiece’s two MIDI OUT ports, as well as the RS422 REMOTE port (which would normally be connected to a Macintosh computer).

To slave a device to MTC generated by the Digital Timepiece, connect the MIDI OUT of the Digital Timepiece to the MIDI IN on the device. For computer connections, see “Computers” on page 14.

ALESIS LRC

The LRC REMOTE jack on the front panel of the Digital Timepiece can serve as an input for the Alesis LRC™ remote controller, or any device that emulates the LRC, su ch as the F oste x M odel 8312™ controller.

Digital Timepiece

LRC REMOTE jack

Alesis LRC

or similar device

Figure 3-26: Connecting an Alesis LRC remote controller.

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MMC CONTROL SURFACES

MMC control surfaces are hardware devices that provide generic MMC c o n trol s, such as transports, a jog/shuttle wheel, and time code display of some kind, record-enable buttons and often a host of other programmable controls.

Example of such devices are the JL Cooper CuePoint™ and CS-10™ workstations.

How it works

MMC controller devices issue MIDI Machine Control commands that control the Digital Timepiece. For example, the transport butto ns on a MMC controller send MMC commands such as play, stop and locate, to the Digital Timepiece, which follows them, generating sync for all connected devices. the Digital Timepiece also sends Time Code back to the controller so that its SMPTE counter can provide you with a running update of time code — And so the controller knows where the Digital Timepiece is at any time. You are, in effect, triggering the Digital Timepiece from your MMC controller, while the Digital Timepiece is actually the time code master.

MMC controller

Time Code (LTC or MTC)

MIDI Machine Control (MMC)

Digital Timepiece

Connecting a MMC controller

You need to establish bidirectional MIDI communication between the Digital Timepiece and the MMC con troller (fo r MMC — and MT C, if you are using it instead of LTC). To do so, you can connect the MMC controller directly to the Digital Timepiece MIDI IN and MIDI OUT jacks. Alternately, you could connect both the Digital Timepiece and the MMC controller to your multiport MIDI interface and route MMC internally from the controller to the Digital Timepiece.

Some controllers may require an LTC connection for time code instead of MTC. If so, connect SMPTE OUT from the Digital Timepiece to LTC IN on the controller.

From the standpoint of achieving MMC transport control over the Digital Timepiece, the above preparations ar e all you n eed. There ma y, of course, be other preparations necessary in the controller itself.

The factory default MMC device ID f o r th e Digital Timepiece is one (1). Make sure you program the transport controls on the controller for ID 1. Note, however, that the Digital Timepiece uses a 1-based ID numbering scheme (from 1 to 128), whereas your MMC controller may use a zero-based numbering scheme (from 0 to 127). If so, the Digital Timepiece ID setting in your MMC controller should be zero (0), i.e. the lowest ID value possible.

Other devices

slaved to the

Digital Timepiece

Figure 3-27: When the Digital Timepiece is the time code address master (i.e. it is in one of its Internal time base modes), you can control it (and everything connected to it) directly from a MMC hardware controller.

MMC record commands

Some MMC controllers have the ability to send MMC record commands to MMC devices. For example, you can reco r d-en ab le a track o n a MMC device by pressing a b utt on on th e con tro ller. So me controllers let you do more elaborate record functions, such as set automatic punch-in and punch-out recording.

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While the Digital Timepi ece itself is not a recor ding device, you can do all of these things with MMC devices that are connected to the Digital Timepiece, such as ADATs, DA-88s or SONY 9-p in video decks.

Record-r ela ted MMC c ommands s up ported by the Digital Timepiece and y o ur seq uen cer fall in t o tw o categories: global and device -speciﬁc. (For a summary, see “MMC control of record functions” on page 64.)

Global record functions

Global record commands, such as automated punch-in/out recording, require the same preparation as described earlier. As long as you’ve made these preparations, your MMC controller’s global record functions will work ﬁne with the devices connected to the Digital Timepiece.

Device speciﬁc record functions

How you set up remote control of track recordenabling varies by product. Please see your MMC controller’s documentation for details. However, the one important thing you need to know is that you shoul d use the ‘soft’ MMC device IDs assigned to each device by the Digital Timepiece. For complete information, see “Hard versus soft IDs” on page 61.

The goal here is to get your MMC controller to send record-enable commands to a speciﬁc track on a speciﬁc device connected to the Digital Timepiece, such as the second ADAT in a chain of four AD AT s.

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INSTALLATION

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CHAPTER

4 Fron t Panel Settings

OVERVIEW

The front panel settings on the Digital Timepiece determine how it will act as a synchronizer. This chapter begins with a brief explanation of the synchronization concepts and terms used in the rest of the chapter, which covers the Digital Timepiece’s front panel settings in detail.

About synchronization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .34

Choosing a time base mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .34

Internal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .36

Video/Internal. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .36

Video/MTC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .36

Video/SMPTE (LTC) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .36

Video/VITC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .37

Video/Sony. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .37

Word 1x/Internal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .37

Word 1x/MTC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .37

Word 1x/LTC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .37

Word 256x/Internal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .37

Word 256x/MTC. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .37

Word 256x/LTC. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .38

Word 1x/Video/Internal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .38

Word 1x/Video/MTC. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .38

Word 1x/Video/LTC. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .38

Word 1x/Video/VITC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .38

Word 1x/Video/Sony . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .38

S/P DIF/Internal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .39

Control track 1 or 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .39

Word 1x/Control track 1 or 2. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .39

DA-88 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .39

Word 1x/DA-88 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .39

ADAT. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .39

Word 1x/ADAT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .39

The Word clock rate setting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .41

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ABOUT SYNCHRONIZATION

The Digital Timepiece acts as a synchronization hub for your studio. It provides stable, centralized synchronization services for most analog, digital audio, and video equipment found in today’s recording studio. Using the Digital Timepiece is simple: once you choose a time base and address master, the Digital Timepiece generates all other sync formats.

Three realms of synchronization

The Digital Timepiece handles the three primary components of synchronization:

■ Time base

■ Address

■ Transport control

The Digital Timepiece generates a time base — a stable, accurate measurement of the passage of time from which various forms of digital and analog synchronization data are generated to keep all connected devices in sync with one another as tightly as possible.

In addition, the Digital Timepi ece p r o vides c en tral address — the current queue position or playback location for all devices, so that when you tell all of your devices to queue to one hour (01:00:00:00), for example, all devices will know exactly how to get there.

Choosing a master

In any synchronization scenario, there is a master, and there are slaves. The TIME BASE controls on the Digital Timepiece’s front panel let you choose which device in your studio will be the master. And the Digital Timepiece gives you many choices: nineteen different operating scenarios — we call them time base modes — are provided. For some modes, a single device, such as the Digital Timepiece itself, serves as the time base, address and transport master. Other modes, however, allow different devices to serve as the time base master, address master and transport control master. For example, you could choose video blackburst (house sync) as the time base master, the Digital Timepiece itself as the address (time code) master, and your computer sequencer as the MMC transport master.

CHOOSING A TIME BASE MODE

The Digital Timepiece offers nineteen different operating conﬁgurations, which are called time base modes. When you choose a time base mode, you are choosing a master time base source and a master time code (address) source.

How to choose the time base mode

The time base mode can be selected by repeatedly pressing SOUR CE b u tton on the front panel of the Digital Timepiece. Keep pressing it until the desired time base mode LED is illuminated.

The Digital Timepiece has the ability to play, stop, rewind, and cue devices with transport controls, such as tape decks, video decks, and MIDI sequencers — all from single source. For example, you can control your SONY 9-pin compatible video deck, rack of ADATs, and other MIDI Machine Control-compatible devices with the transport controls of a MIDI sequencer running on your com pu ter. Or yo u can run everything from an Alesis Little Remote Control (LRC).

Figure 4-1: The time base selection controls on the Digital Timepiece front panel.

The time base mode can also be selected by using the Digital Timepiece software, called ClockWorks. In ClockWorks, open the Sync/MMC window from the W ind ows men u, and then choose the time base mode from the pop-up menu provided, as

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shown in Figure 4-2. For more information about ClockWorks, see the separate ClockWorks User’s Guide that accompanies this manual.

Time Base setting

Summary of synchronization modes

The Digital Timepi ece o ff e rs 28 diff erent time base modes. Each mode provides a unique combination of sources for a time base master and an address (SMPTE time code) master. Here is a summary:

Time Base mode Time base master Address master

Internal Digital Timepiece Digital Timepiece MTC MIDI Time Code MIDI Time Code LTC LTC SMPTE LTC SMPTE Video/Internal Video Digital Timepiece Video/MTC Video MIDI Time Code

Figure 4-2: Choosing the time Base setting in ClockWorks software.

Advice about choosing a time base master

In general, you should try to set things up in your studio so that the master time base is either the Digital Timepiece or video house sync. Both are especially designed to provide an extremely accurate, stable time base. When you set things up in this fashion, SMPTE time code is used j ust as an address source, while timing stability is handled entirely by the Digital Timepiece.

Getting faster lockup time with house sync (blackburst) as a time base

House sync video is not only an accura te time base, it also provides a major advantage over other external time base sources: it allows the Digital Timepiece to provide the fastest possible lockup time. (Depending on what hardware you have connected to the Digital Timepiece, lockup time can be as short as one second.) When you use house sync, the Digital Timepiece has a non-stop time base, so it never has to “spin up” its digital audio phase lock engine — as would any digital audio synchronizer. All the Digital Timepiece has to do is lock to time code (or start generating it internally), which takes much less time.

Video/LTC Video LTC SMPTE Video/VITC Video VITC SMPTE Video/Sony Video SONY 9-pin Word 1x/video/Int. Video+word clock Digital Timepiece Word 1x/video/MTC Video+word clock MIDI Time Code Word 1x/video/LTC Video+word clock LTC SMPTE Word 1x/video/VITC Video+word clock VITC SMPTE Word 1x/video/Sony Video+word clock SONY 9-pin Word 1x/Internal 1x Word clock Digital Timepiece Word 1x/MTC 1x Word clock MIDI Time Code Word 1x/LTC 1x Word clock LTC SMPTE Word 256x/Internal 256x Word clock Digital Timepiece Word 256x/MTC 256x Word clock MIDI Time code Word 256x/LTC 256x Word clock LTC SMPTE S/P DIF/Internal S/P DIF word clock Digital Timepiece Control track 1 or 2 Control track 1 or 2 Control track 1 or 2 Word 1x/Ctrl track 1/2 1x word clock control track 1 or 2 DA-88 DA-88 sync input DA-88 sync input Word 1x/DA-88 1x Word clock DA-88 sync input ADAT ADAT sync input ADAT sync input

FRONT PANEL SETTINGS

Word 1x/ADAT 1x word clock ADAT sync input

Page 36

Below is a brief explanation of each mode.

INTERNAL

Choose this setting when you want the Digital Timepiece to be the time base master and SMPTE address master. This mode is highly recommended for stable sync. This mode is also recommended when you want t o use MIDI M achine Con trol fr om your computer sequencer or from any other external MMC control surface.

exception tha t i t cann ot distinguish between 29.97 and 30. Therefore, to ensure that the audio components in your system will be driven at the proper sample rate, be sure to set the Digital Timepiece to the proper frame rate (via its front panel FORMAT button) when using either 29.97 (drop or non-drop) or 30.

For an example studio setup that would use this setting, see Figure 5-4 on page 47.

For an example studio setup that would use this setting, see Figure 5-1 on page 45.

MTC

Choose this setting when you want the Digital Timepiece to slave to MIDI Time Code being sent from a device connected to one of its MIDI inputs or a computer connected to the RS422 REMOTE port. This mode offers the least amount of time base stability, so we recommend that you try to set things up so that you can use one of the other modes.

If you are thinking about MTC as a master source for time base and time code, try to rethink your synchronization strategy. For example, if you want to control everything from the transport control buttons in your compu t er so ftware, you don ’t need to transmit MTC from the software to accomplish this. In stead, transmit MMC commands fro m y our software to the Digital Timepiece and make the Digital Timepiece be the time code and time base master, while the software — and everything else — slaves to the Digital Timepiece, as shown in Figure 5-1 on page 45.

LTC

Choose this setting when you want the Digital Timepiece to slave to incoming SMPTE time code via the rear-panel SMPTE input. An example is an analog multi-track tape r ecord er with SMPTE time code striped on a track. Th e Digital Timepiece will automatically detect the frame rate, with the

VIDEO/INTERNAL

Choose this setting when you want the Digital Timepiece to genlock to video as a time base refere nce onl y, b ut wish the Digital T imep iece itse lf to be the address (time code) master. This mode is highly recommended for stable sync. Also use this mode when you would like to stripe frame-locked LTC on t o video . If the SMPTE frame format o n the front panel of the Digital Timepiece is set to 30 when you choose this video mode, it will automatically switch to 29.97.

For an example studio setup that would use this setting, see Figure 5-2 on page 46.

VIDEO/MTC

Choose this setting when you want the Digital Timepiece to genlock to video as a time base reference and to use MIDI Time Code (MTC) as the master address source. If the SMPTE frame format on the front panel of the Digital Timepiece is set to 30 when you ch oose this video mode, it will automatically switch to 29.97.

VIDEO/SMPTE (LTC)

Choose this setting when you want the Digital Timepiece to genlock to video as a time base reference and lock to LTC input received on its SMPTE input on the rear panel for the master address source. If the SMPTE frame format on the front panel of the Digital Timepiece is set to 30 when you choose this video mode, it will automatically switch to 29.97.

FRONT PANEL SETTINGS

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For an example studio setup that would use this setting, see Figure 5-3 on page 46.

VIDEO/VITC

Choose this setting when you want the Digital Timepiece to genlock to video as a time base reference and lock to vertical interval time code (VITC) embedded in the video signal. If the SMPTE frame format on the front panel of the Digital Timepiec e is set to 30 when you choose this video mode, it will automatically switch to 29.97.

☛ When slaving to VITC, the Digital Timepiece

Video So ur ce o p tion in ClockWorks must be set to either External or Auto. If you haven’t changed this setting in ClockWorks, you don’t need to worry because the factory default setting is Auto.

VIDEO/SONY

Choose this setting when you want the Digital Timepiece to genlock to video as a time base reference and lock to SONY 9-pin address as the master address sourc e. If the SMPTE frame format on the front pan el o f the Digital T im ep iec e is set t o 30 when you choose this video mode, it will automatically switch to 29.97.

This time base mode is meant for the following scenario: the time code master is y our SO NY 9-pin compatible video deck (i.e. you are shuttling everything from the video deck), and the video time base master is either the video deck itself or house sync video, which is being fed to both the video deck and the Digital Timepiece.

WORD 1X/INTERNAL

Choose this setting when you want the Digital Timepiec e to use an exte rnal word c lock device as a time base reference, while the Digital Timepiece itself serves as the SMPTE time code master.

WORD 1X/MTC

Choose this setting when you want the Digital Timepiec e to use an exte rnal word c lock device as a time base reference, while MIDI Time Code (MTC) being generated by either the same device or a different device serves as the time code address master.

WORD 1X/LTC

Choose this setting when you want the Digital Timepiec e to use an exte rnal word c lock device as a time base referenc e, while SMPTE time code (LTC) being generated by either the same device or a different device serves as the time code address master.

This mode is used when slaving the Digital Timepiece to a DA-88 equipped with an SY-88 card, where the DA-88 time code track is the address master for the system. This setup is shown in Figure 3-13 on page 20.

WORD 256X/INTERNAL

Choose this setting when you want the Digital Timepiece to use a word clock generated by a Digidesign hard disk recording system as a time base reference, while the Digital Timepiece itself serves as the SMPTE time code master.

WORD 256X/MTC

Choose this setting when you want the Digital Timepiece to use word clock generated by a Digidesign hard disk recording system as a time base reference, while MIDI Time Code (MTC) being generated by either the same system or a different device serves as the time code address master.

Use this mode when you want to drive your entire Digital Timepiece rig from the transport controls in Pro Tools. For an example of this setup, see Figure 12-2 on page 86.

FRONT PANEL SETTINGS

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WORD 256X/LTC

Choose this setting when you want the Digital Timepiece to use word clock generated by a Digidesign hard disk recording system as a time base reference, while SMPTE time code (LTC) being generated by either the same system or a different device serves as the time code address master.

WORD 1X/VIDEO/INTERNAL

Choose this setting when you want the Digital Timepiec e to use an exte rnal word c lock device as a time base reference, and you would also like the Digital Timepiece (and, optionally, the external word clock source) to be referenced to house sync video. The Digital Timepiece itself serves as the SMPTE time code master.

This mode allows the Digital Timepiece to phase lock to a Word 1x input, while at the same time referencing to a house sync to keep itself frame-locked with video.

This mode is recommended when you would like to synchronize the Digital Timepiece with another word clock device while referencing both devices to house sync.

For an example of how this mode can be used, see “Pro Tools and Triple-sync” on page 91 and Figure 12-7 on page 90.

WORD 1X/VIDEO/MTC

This mode is similar to “Word 1x/Video/Internal” above. Choose this setting when you want the Digital Timepiece to use an external word clock device as a time base referenc e, and you wo uld also like the Digital Timepiece (and, optionally, the external word clock source) to be referenced to house sync video. In this mode, however, a device other than the Digital Timepiece serves as the address (SMPTE) master, and the Digital Timepiec e sla ves to MID I T ime Code (MT C) fed to it from the master address source.

For an example of how this mode can be used, see “Using house sync with the Digital Timepiece and a DA-88/SY-88 (“Triple-sync”)” on page 21 and Figure 3-14 on page 21.

For another example, see “Pro Tools and Triplesync” on page 91 and Figure 12-7 on page 90.

WORD 1X/VIDEO/LTC

This mode is similar to “Word 1x/Video/Internal” above. Choose this setting when you want the Digital Timepiece to use an external word clock device as a time base referenc e, and you wo uld also like the Digital Timepiece (and, optionally, the external word clock source) to be referenced to house sync video. In this mode, however, a device other than the Digital Timepiece serves as the address (SMPTE) master, and the Digital Timepiece slaves to SMPTE Time Code (LTC) fed to it from the master address source.

For an example of how this mode can be used, see “Using house sync with the Digital Timepiece and a DA-88/SY-88 (“Triple-sync”)” on page 21 and Figure 3-14 on page 21.

For another example, see “Pro Tools and Triplesync” on page 91 and Figure 12-7 on page 90.

WORD 1X/VIDEO/VITC

This mode is similar to “Word 1x/Video/Internal” above. Choose this setting when you want the Digital Timepiece to use an external word clock device as a time base referenc e, and you wo uld also like the Digital T imepiec e to be re fere nced to video . In this mode, how ever, VITC (vertical interval time code) embedded in the video input serves as the address (SMPTE) master, and the Digital Timepiece slaves to it.

WORD 1X/VIDEO/SONY

This mode is similar to “Word 1x/Video/Internal” above. Choose this setting when you want the Digital Timepiece to use an external word clock

FRONT PANEL SETTINGS

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device as a time base referenc e, and you wo uld also like the Digital Timepiece (and, optionally, the external word clock source) to be referenced to house sync video. In this mode, however, a SONY 9-pin device connected to the Digital Timepiece serves as the address (SMPTE) master, and the Digital Timepiece slaves to it.

S/P DIF/INTERNAL

Choose this setting when you want the Digital Timepiece to use an external S/P DIF device as a time base reference, while the Digital Timepiece itself serves as the SMPTE time code master.

CONTROL TRACK 1 OR 2

Choose this setting when you want the Digital Timepiece to use a device connected to one of its control track ports, such as another Digital Timepiece, as both a time base master and address master .

WORD 1X/CONTROL TRACK 1 OR 2

Choose this setting when you want the Digital Timepiec e to use an exte rnal word c lock device as a time base referenc e, while using con trol track 1 or 2 input (from another Digital Timepiece) as the address master.

DA-88

Choose this setting when you want the Digital Timepiece to become part of a DA-88 sync chain. In this scenario, the Digital Timepiece is a slave device, along with all of the other DA-88s in the chain. It will be locked in sample-accurate sync with all the other DA-88s, and it will be controlled by whatever is controlling the DA-88 chain. Make sure that the master DA-88 is set to device ID zero (0). Remember, if you are using this mode, there should be nothing connected to the Digital Timepiece’s DA-88 Sync Out port. (At no time should both the DA-88 Sync In and Sync Out ports on the Digital Timepiece itself be connected at the same time.)

WORD 1X/DA-88

Choose this setting when you want the Digital Timepiec e to use an exte rnal word c lock device as a time base reference, while using DA-88 sync input as the address master.

This mode can be useful when you are doin g digital audio transfers between a DA-88 and other digital audio systems via a standards converter. Some standards converters requir e that they be the word clock master (rather than the Digital Timepiece or the DA-88). If this is the case, you can slave the Digital Timepiece to the word clock output of the standards con v erter, while a t the sam e time sla ving the DA-88 to the Digital Timepiece (as well as the digital audio system to which you are transferring audio).

ADAT

Choose this setting when you want the Digital Timepiece to become part of a ADAT sync chain. In this scenario, the Digital Timepiece is a slave device, along with all of the other ADATs in the chain. It will be locked in sample-accurate sync with all the other ADATs, and it will be controlled by whatever is controlling the ADAT chain. Remember , if you ar e using this mode, there sho uld be nothing connected to the Digital Timepiece’s ADAT Sync Out port. (At no time should both the ADAT Sync In and Sync Out ports on the Digital Timepiece itself be connected at the same time.)

WORD 1X/ADAT

Choose this setting when you want the Digital Timepiec e to use an exte rnal word c lock device as a time base reference, while using ADAT sync input as the address master.

This mode can be useful when you are doin g digital audio transfers between an AD AT and other digital audio systems via a standards converter. Some standards converters requir e that they be the word clock master (rather than the Digital Timepiece or the ADAT). If this is the case, you can slave the

FRONT PANEL SETTINGS

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Digital Timepiece to the word clock output of the standards con v erter, while a t the sam e time sla ving the ADAT to the Digital Timepiece (as well as the digital audio system to which you are transferring audio).

■ Video/Internal

■ Word 1x/Internal

■ Word 256x/Internal

■ Word 1x/Video/Internal

THE SMPTE FRAME RATE SETTING

The Digital Timepiece automatically detects the frame rate of incoming time code. That is, when the Digital Timepiece is put into a time base mode that requires an external time code source as the address master, such as LTC mode or Video/MTC mode, it scans the appropriate ports for incoming time code. As soon as it receives time code, the Digital Timepiece automatically sets itself to the proper SMPTE frame rate, based on the time code it receives.

☛ Automatic detection only occurs when

incoming time code is actually present. Until then, the frame rate setting will not change.

Similarly, if the SMPTE frame format on the front panel of the Digital Timepi ece is set to 30 when y ou choose one of the Digital Timep iece ’s video modes, the frame rate setting will automatically switch itself to 29.97. If you then feed the Digital Timepiece non-drop time code, it will remain at

29.97. But if you feed it drop frame time code, it will automatically switch itself to the 29.97 drop setting.

turning off auto-detection

If you ﬁnd your self in a situation where you would like to disable the Digital Timepiece’s automatic frame rate detection, you can do so using the ClockWorks software. See “Generate signal when stopped” on page 23 in the ClockWorks manual.

■ S/PDIF/Internal

■ S/PDIF

■ Control Track 1 or 2

■ ADAT

■ DA-88

To set the SMPTE frame rate manually, use the FORMAT button on the Digital Timepiece front panel as shown below in Figure 4-3.

Figure 4-3: Setting the SMPTE frame rate manually using the controls on the Digital Timepiece front panel. This is only necessary for the time base modes listed earlier in this section. For any time base mode that relies on an external time code address source, the Digital Timepiece automatically detects the SMPTE frame rate.

You can also set the frame rate manually using the Digital Timepiece software applet, called ClockWorks. In ClockWorks, open the MIDI Machine Control window from the Windows menu, and then choose the frame rate from the pop-up menu provided, as shown in Figure 4-4. For more information about ClockWorks, see the separate ClockW o rks User ’ s G uide that ac com panies this manual.

Setting the SMPTE frame rate manually

The following time base modes requir e that y o u set the frame rate manually:

■ Internal

SMPTE format

Figure 4-4: Manually choosing the SMPTE frame rate in ClockWorks software.

FRONT PANEL SETTINGS

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THE WORD CLOCK RATE SETTING

To set the word clock rate (i.e. the sample rate), use the RATE button on the Digital Timepiece front panel as shown below in Figure 4-5.

The pull-up/down sample rates are most commonly needed when working with ﬁlm that has been transferred to video for audio post production, where the audio will be transferred back to ﬁlm again. The pull-up/down features of the Digital Timepiece help the audio play back at the correct speed, ev en after it has been transf erred back to ﬁlm.

Figure 4-5: Setting the sample rate manually using the controls on the Digital Timepiece front panel. This is only necessary for the time base modes listed earlier in this section. For any time base mode that relies on an external word clock time base source, the Digital Timepiece automatically detects the sample rate.

You can also set the sample rate using the Digital Timepiece software, called ClockWorks. In ClockWorks, open the MIDI Machine Control window from the Windows menu. Open the extra settings panel as shown below in Figure 4-6, and then choose the frame rate from the pop-up menu provided. For more information about ClockWorks, see the ClockWorks User’s Guide that accompanies this manual.

Extra settings button in the MIDI Machine Control window

Figure 4-6: Setting the sample rate in ClockWorks software.

Using pull-up and pull-down

The pull-up and pull-down sample rate settings speed up or slow down the sample rate by 0.1%. For example, a sample rate of 48kHz plays 48,000 samples per second. 48kHz pull-down plays only 47,952 samples per second. (The difference is 48 samples, which is 0.1% of 48,000.)

Here is a brief, simpliﬁed explanation. Film runs at 24 frames per second. Video runs at 30 frames per second — almost, that is. NTSC video actually runs at 29.97 frames per second, which is 0.1% slower than 30 frames per second. To keep things from getting ridiculously complicated, ﬁlm is customarily transferred to video (in a process called telecining) by mapping every 24 frames of ﬁlm to 30 frames of video. But since the resulting video is actually played back at 29.97, the picture actually runs 0.1% slower than it does on ﬁlm.

Let’s say, for the sake of this simpliﬁed example, that you have shot a ﬁlm that is exactly 1,000 minutes long. (Perhaps you just couldn’t bring yourself to cut any of the original footage.) When you transfer the ﬁlm to video and th en p l ay it back on a video deck, th e actual ela psed time to p lay the ﬁlm in its entirety will now be 1,001 minutes, due to the 0.1% slower speed of video.

Now let’s say that you record all kinds of audio while slaved to the video — music, dialog, effects, etc. — at 48kHz. The result is a ﬁnal stereo audio mix that is 1,001 minutes long and that perfectly matches the video frame per frame (and SMPTE hit for SMPTE hit). So far, so good.

But now you try to simply dub your 48kHz mix back onto ﬁlm. And you are shocked and angered as you realize that your audio no longer matches the ﬁlm. The audio mix is 1,001 minutes long, but your movie is only 1,000 minutes long! The audio starts out in sync with the movie, but it slowly drifts out of sync with picture and ends one entire

FRONT PANEL SETTINGS

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minute later than the movie. (In fact, upon closer inspection, you see that audio is slipping by one entire frame for every thousand frames of ﬁlm that go by.)

Why did this happen? Because you recorded everything while locked to video, which runs at

29.97 — which runs one thousand th (0.1%) slo wer than the 30-frame-per-second ra te ass umed b y the ﬁlm-to-video transfer.

The Digital Timepiece solves this problem by allowing you to record audio, while you ’re working with video, at 48kHz pull-down, a sample rate that matches the slightly (0.1%) slower speed of video. When the time comes f o r you to transfer the audi o back to ﬁlm, the Digital Timepiece can pull the audio back up to a true 48kHz (using the straight 48kHz rate), which makes the audio precisely match the speed of the ﬁlm so that it will be in perfect sync with picture.

The same process can be ap plied to the base sam ple rate of 44.1kHz.

In summary: if you are working with ﬁlm that has been transferred to video, set the Digital T imepiece to a pull-down rate (e.g. 48kHz pull-down) for all of your recording, editing and mixing to video. Then, when you are creating your ﬁnal mix for transfer back to ﬁlm (onto DAT or whatever), switch back to the normal base sample rate (e.g. 48kHz).

Again, the same process can be applied to a base sample rate of 44.1kHz.

Actual sample rate output

When the Digital Timepiece is put into Internal time base mode, its actual sample rate output will always exactly match the word rate setting on its front panel. The Digital Timepiece has a very accurate internal clock that ensures an extremely accurate time base and word clock output.

When the Digital Timepiece is put into one of its

video modes, such as Video/Internal or Video/ SMPTE (LTC), it derives its time base from

incoming video and int ernally sets itself to a frame rate of 29.97 fps for NTSC video and 25 fps f or PAL. As long as the video speed is accurate, the Digital Timepiece’s actual sample rate output will exactly match the setting on the front panel.

For time base modes other than Internal or any of the video modes, the Digital Timepiece’s actual sample rate output depends on the external time base. A s lon g as the ext ernal time base correspon ds with the front panel settings of the Digital Timepiece, the Digital Timepiece’s actual sample rate output will exactly match the setting on its front panel. But if, for example, the Digital Timepiece is slaving to SMPTE (LTC), and the incoming time code is running at 29.97 fps, while the front panel is set to 30 fps, the Digital Timepiece’s actual sample rate output won’t match the front panel w or d rat e setting. In this e xamp le, if the front panel w as set to 48kHz (48000), th e actual sample rate output would be 47952 because the time code is causing the Digital T imepiec e to run at a slower rate.

Below is a chart summarizing the Digital Timepiece’s actual word clock output in various situations. The examples in this chart are given at

FRONT PANEL SETTINGS

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48000 Hz, but the results in the last column for when pull down occurs are the same for 44100 Hz (for which the pull down rate is 44,056 Hz):

DTP time base setting

SMPTE (LTC) 48K 30 30 fps 48000 SMPTE (LTC) 48K 30 29.97 fps 47952 (pull down) SMPTE (LTC) 48K 29.97 nd 29.97 fps 48000 SMPTE (LTC) 48K up 30 29.97 fps 48000 SMPTE (LTC) 48K dn 29.97 nd 29.97 fps 47952 (pull down) Video (NTSC) 48K 29.97 Video (29.97) 48000 Video (NTSC) 48K 29.97 nd Video (29.97) 48000 Video (NTSC) 48K dn 29.97 Video (29.97) 47952 (pull down) Video (NTSC) 48K dn 29.97 nd Video (29.97) 47952 (pull down)

Word clock setting

SMPTE format setting

Actual incoming time base

Actual word clock output

Running ADATs at 44.1 kHz

To run an ADAT or ADAT XT at 44.1 kHz instead of 48kHz, just set the desired sample rate on the front panel of the Digital Timepiece. Please note, however, that when you choose 44.1 kHz on a regular ADAT (this doesn’t apply to the XT), there is no indication its on the front panel that it is running at 44.1 kHz. Furthermore, the SMTPE display on the ADAT fron t pane l will not match the SMPTE display in ClockWorks or other software and hardware devices slaving to the Digital Timepiece. This discrepancy, however, is only a display issue: when you actually play music, the music on the ADAT will be in perfect time with the Digital Timepiece (and everything else being synchronized by the Digital Timepiece). Please contact Alesis for information about the availability of a ROM update that addresses this issue. Please note tha t this display discr epancy does not occur when the ADAT is running at 48K.

FRONT PANEL SETTINGS

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FRONT PANEL SETTINGS

Page 45

CHAPTER

5 Example Setups

OVERVIEW

The Digital Timepiece as master . . . . . . . . . . . . .45

Video as time base master. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .46

Devices that cannot act as a slave. . . . . . . . . . . . .47

Using an Alesis BRC or Tascam RC-848. . . . . . .48

Computer-based DAW

and audio sequencer

Pro Tools III

Digital Performer

MMC

Time Code

word clock

MIDI

commands

SMPTE

(LTC)

Digital Timepiece

256x word

clock

THE DIGITAL TIMEPIECE AS MASTER

If all of your devices have the ability to slave to one of the forms of time base offered by the Digital Timepiece, then you can choose any source as a time base master. We recommend choosing the Digital Timepiece in this case because it has an extremely accurate internal clock (Figure 5-1).

Digital Multitracks

ADATs or DA-88s

ADAT or

DA-88 Sync

Digital Timepiece time base setting: Internal

9-pin sync

Digital Mixer Yamaha 02R

Figure 5-1: If all of your devices can be driven by the Digital Timepiece, make the Digital Timepiece the time base master because of its extremely accurate internal clock. In this example, everything is being controlled from the computer.

SONY 9-pin compatible video deck

REC

PLAY

Page 46

VIDEO AS TIME BASE MASTER

The Digital Timepiece is ideal for slaving digital audio equipment to video. If you are working in an environment with distributed video house sync, the house sync serves as the time base master for the Digital Timepiece, which in turn, drives digital audio devices as shown in Figure 5-2. Since the Digital Timepiece is the address master, its time base setting should be Video/Internal.

word clock

or S/PDIF

Video Tape Recorder

Video

Digital Timepiece

MIDI

Time Code

REC

PLAY

SMPTE

(LTC)

ADAT or

DA-88 Sync

Digital Timepiece time base setting: Video/SMPTE (LTC)

Video should also be made the time base master if you work with a single video tape recorder (one that doesn’t support the SONY 9-pin synchronization prot ocol) as sho wn in Figure 5-3. B ut if yo ur video deck supports SONY 9-pin sync, make the Digital Timepiece the sync master instead, as shown in Figure 5-2. You can then shuttle everything from your c omp uter software via MMC commands sent to the Digital Timepiece.

Blackburst

Other miscellaneous devices that can slave to house sync

Computer-based DAW

and audio sequencer

Pro Tools III

Digital Performer

Time code (LTC or MTC)

256x word

clock MIDI

Time Code

MMC

commands

Digital Timepiece

word clock

Computer-based

Digital Audio Workstation

and/or MIDI/Audio software

Figure 5-3: If you are working with a single video tape recorder, video should the time base master as shown here.

House Sync

Blackburst

SONY 9-pin compatible video deck

Blackburst

REC

PLAY

9-pin sync

Digital Timepiece time base setting: Video/Internal

SMPTE

(LTC)

ADAT or

DA-88 Sync

ADATs or DA-88s

Digital Multitracks

ADATs or DA-88s

Digital Mixer Yamaha 02R

Figure 5-2: This setup is ideal because you can control all of the devices connected to the Digital Timepiec e from the computer, and you get the fastest possible lockup time, due to the continuous time base provided by house sync. Notice that additional video devices can be controlled by the Digital Timepiece — if they can slave to time code.

EXAMPLE SETUPS

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DEVICES THAT CANNOT ACT AS A SLAVE

If you have a multitrack tape deck or other device in your studio that cannot slave to time code, you must use this device as your time base and time code master and slave all other devices to it via the Digital Timepiece.

The most common examples of this type of device are an analog multi-track tape decks and video tape recorders.

If you have more than one such device (both an analog tape deck and a video deck, for example), you will not be able to synchronize both with the rest of your gear. Instead, you’ll have to choose one, and think about replacing the other with a similar

device that does have the ability to sync to an external time base. For example, you could keep your video deck and r ep lac e y o ur analog ta pe dec k with an Alesis ADAT or Tascam DA-88. These devices can be slaved to the Digital Timepiece, allowing you to drive them from your video deck (Figure 5-3).

Alternately, you could keep your multi-track and replace your video deck with one that supports SONY 9-pin synchroniza tion, which wo uld allow it to be driven externally from the Digital Timepiece as shown in Figure 5-4.

Conventional

multitrack tape deck

with SMPTE time code

striped on a track

SMPTE

(LTC)

MIDI

Time Code

Computer-based DAW

and audio sequencer

Pro Tools III

Digital Performer

Figure 5-4: If you have a multi-track tape deck that cannot itself slave to external time code, make it the time base master as shown here. Note that the video deck in this conﬁguration must support SONY 9-pin in order for it to be slaved to the Digital Timepiece.

EXAMPLE SETUPS

word

clock

word clock

SMPTE

Time Code

Digital Mixer Yamaha 02R

Digital Timepiece

DA-88 Sync

Modular Digital Multitracks

ADAT or

Digital Timepiece time base setting: SMPTE/LTC

9-pin sync

SONY 9-pin compatible video deck

PLAY

REC

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USING AN ALESIS BRC OR TASCAM RC-848

If you have an Alesis BRC or Tascam RC-848 remote con troller, y ou migh t pref er to use it as y our primary transport control surface, driving everything from the transport butt o n s o n th e BRC (or RC-848). I f so, the Digital T imepi ece become s a slave to the BRC or RC-848. In fact, it needs to be connected to the end o f the ADAT or DA-88 chain. In this scenario, the Digital Timepiece is synchronized sample-accura te ly with the BR C and all ADATs in the chain (or RC-848 and DA-88s, respectively).

Alesis ADATs with a BRC

BRC

Computer-based

Digital Audio Workstation

and/or MIDI/Audio software

Figure 5-5: In this example, the Alesis ADATs serve as the time base master so that the transport controls on the BRC can be used to drive everything.

Digital Timepiece

MIDI Machine Control Device with

ability to slave to MTC or LTC

SONY 9-pin compatible video deck

REC

PLAY

EXAMPLE SETUPS

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CHAPTER

6 Con verting/Generating Time Code

OVERVIEW

This chapter discusses how to convert or generate time code with the Digital Timepiece.

Starting playback . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .49

Deferred playback. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .49

Generating or Converting time code . . . . . . . . .50

If the status LEDs don’t glow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .50

SMPTE Offset . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .50

Freewheeling to avoid time code dropouts . . . .51

Displaying time code . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .51

Synchronizing to discontinuous time code. . . .51

Regeneration and time code bits . . . . . . . . . . . . .51

STARTING PLAYBACK

Connecting everything to the Digital Timepiece is nine tenths of the effort, so using it is easy by comparison. Once everything is connected, you simply:

1 Choose the desired time base mode on the front panel.

2 Choose the desired word rate, if necessary. 3 Choose the desired SMPTE format, if necessary .

Not all time base modes require a manual setting: some detect the SMPTE frame rate automatically. For a summary , see “Setting the SMPTE frame ra te manually” on page 40.

4 Start playback of time code. If the Digital Timepiec e is in one of its int ernal time

base modes, simply make it start converting time code. You can do so by pressing its STRIPE button on the front panel or by initiating playback from a

sequencer or other MMC-compatible software, or a hardware MMC co n troller tha t yo u ha ve set u p to control the Digital Timepiece.

If the Digital Timepiece is in a time base made for converting external time code, just roll the time code source.

DEFERRED PLAYBACK

The Digital Timepiece has a convenient feature called deferred playback, which means that the Digital Timepiece will wait for each device connected to it to locate to the current playback point before it begins generating time code. For example, if you cue the Digital Timepiece from zero to 15 minutes and then immediately initiate playback from that location, the Digital Timepiece does not immediately begin to generate time code. Instead, it waits for any devices that cannot locate instantly, such as ADATs and DA-88s, to fast forward to the 15 minute location. Once they cue up and are ready to play, the Digital Timepiece begins generating.

When you turn off deferred playback, the Digital Timepiece may , depending on the situa tion, begins generating or converting time code while ADATs and other devices with tape transports are still cueing to catch up to the current playback location. As soon as they reach it, they begin playing.

The Digital Timepiece can defer playback for any MMC or SONY 9-pin device connected to it. And you can choose to d ef er p la yback f or so me d evices, while not doing so for others. Doing so for all devices ensures that they all begin playing at the same time. B ut th e trade-off is that y o u will have t o wait for all of them to cue before playback begins.

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Here are some other reasons why you might want to disable deferred playback for a device:

■ The device is particularly slow.

■ You just don’t want to have to constantly wait for

a particular device to catch up.

■ You have several random-access systems that

can cue instantly, along with one device that has a tape transport, and you don’t want to wait for the one tape transport device.

To turn off deferred playback for a device:

1 Open ClockWorks. 2 Open the Sync/MMC window. 3 In the panel for the device, click its name to

highlight it. 4 Choose Set Machine Preferenc es from the Sync/

MMC window mini-menu. 5 Check the Wait for device on play option. You can turn it back on at any time.

appropriately set up to lock to whichever form of time code they are being fed from the Digital Timepiece.

When the Digital Timepiece begins generating time code, its red “TACH” LED blinks regularly once per second and the green ADDRESS light glows steadily as shown below in Figure 6-1. If the Digital Timepiece is locking to external time code, the green “LOCK” LED on the front panel glows steadily as well. The green MIDI and REMOTE OUT LEDs glow steadily as well, showing that MIDI time code (MTC) is being sent.

Red

TACH light

Green MIDI OUT and REMOTE OUT LEDs

Figure 6-1: Generating or converting time code. When the Digital Timepiece generates time code, the red TACH light blinks and the green ADDRESS light glows. If it is conv erting incoming time code , the LOCK light glows steadily as well. The green MIDI and REMOTE OUT light glow steadily as well, indicating that MTC is being transmitted.

Green LOCK light

Green

ADDRESS light

GENERATING OR CONVERTING TIME CODE

The Digital Timepi ece ships fro m the factory ready to generate or convert MIDI Time Code (MTC) and longitudinal SMPTE T ime Code (LTC) as soon as it begins running under its own clock or locking to external SMPTE time code.

The Digital Timepiece always sends LTC when conv erting or generating. I t is facto ry programmed to transmit MTC to both MID I OUT ports, as well as its REMOTE RS422 port (which would most commonly be connected to a Macintosh computer). Any devices or software connected to these ports can immediately begin locking to the Digital Timepiece. Make sure the devices are

If the status LEDs don’t glow

If one of the MIDI or REMOTE OUT ligh ts doesn’t glow, it could be that the Digital Timepiece’s internal time code routing to that port has been turned off somehow. To check this, open the ClockWorks software console for the Digital Timepiece and look in the Device Settings & Routings window.

SMPTE Offset

When reading time code, there ma y be times when you need to offset the Digital Timepiece — or one of the devices connected to it — by a certain amount from the time code you are feeding it. Digital Timepiec e offsets can be p rogrammed with

CONVERTING/GENERATING TIME CODE

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ClockWorks™, the consol e software for the Digital Timepiece. See your ClockWorks manual for details.

freewheel amount as low as possible (for responsiveness when stopping), but high enough to handle the dropout.

Freewheeling to avoid time code dropouts

When the Digital Timep iece encoun ters a dr op-ou t —a series of missing or unreadable frames—in the incoming time code that it is locked to, it “freewheels” past them, pretending that they were not missing by brieﬂy generating its own code to make up for the missing frames. The default freewheel value is 4 frames. This means that the Digital Timepiece will continue to generate time code for four more frames after it stops receiving time code. If it does not receive any more time code after four frames, it will stop converting.

The factory default setting of 4 frames provides quick response when you stop time code. H o wever, the Freewheel amount can be adjusted up to 32 frames. This allows the Digital Timepiece to maintain lockup even over lengthy SMPTE drop outs.

The freewheel amount is adjusted in ClockWork’s MIDI Machine Control window. See your ClockWorks manual for details.

If you encounter a time code drop out that causes the Digital Timepiece to stop converting for a moment, try increasing the freewheel amount, adding just a few frames at a time. Keep the

Displaying time code

You can display the SMPTE time code being generated o r co n v erted b y the Digital T i mepi ece in several ways:

■ A video monitor attached to the Digital

Timepiece’s VIDEO OUT jack

■ The Digital Timepiece’s ClockWorks™ software

console (see the ClockWorks manual for details)

■ Your MIDI sequencer or other software

■ Any device that is sla ved t o the Digital Tim epiece

and that also displays time code

Synchronizing to discontinuous time code

The Digital Timepi ece has the ab ility to stay in sync with discontinuous time code — that is, time code that has no gaps in it but does have jumps in its frame locations. Refer to the Frame Lock feature in your ClockWorks manual for details.

Regeneration and time code bits

The Digital Timepiece always regenerates fresh time code from its SMPTE out jac k. Tim e code user bits embedded in incoming LTC on its SMPTE input are not preserved.

CONVERTING/GENERATING TIME CODE

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CONVERTING/GENERATING TIME CODE

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CHAPTER

7 Striping Time Code

OVERVIEW

The Digital Timepiece can be used to stripe (record) bo th forms of SMPTE time code (LTC and VITC). It can also be used to stripe LTC while resolved to video, ensuring that time code does not drift out of sync with the video frames.

The Digital Timepiece can stripe time code while locked to another external SMPTE time code source or when it is running under i ts own clock as the address master. To ensure accurate results, we recommend striping time code from the Digital Timepiece when it is either running under its own time base (Internal time base mode) or resolved to an accurate video source, such has a house sync or blackburst generator.

When the Digital Timepiece is in Internal mode, you can initiate striping from the front panel STRIPE button, which always starts at zero hours, minutes, seconds and frames (0:00:00:00). Or you can initiate striping from ClockWorks™, the software console for the Digital Timepiece. Or you can initiate striping from an y MMC con trol surface or MMC-com patible so ftware pr ogram, which yo u have set up as a transport control master over the Digital Timepiece.

When the Digital Timepiece is locked to an external address source, you initiate striping by rolling the external time code source.

Note that the Digital Timepiece always generates fresh time code while reading existing time code. You can use this capability to:

■ Regenerate fresh time code that is based on

existing time code, and eliminate drop-outs in the original code

■ Lengthen existing time code tracks

For information about regenerating time code, see “Regenerating fresh time code” on page 55 and “Lengthening a SMPTE track” on page 56.

General procedure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .54

Striping frame-locked LTC onto video. . . . . . . .55

Striping SMPTE on a multitrack tape deck. . . .55

Regenerating fresh time code. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .55

Lengthening a SMPTE track. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .56

Regeneration and time code bits. . . . . . . . . . . . .57

Recording VITC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .57

Recording burn-in & other graphics . . . . . . . . .58

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GENERAL PROCEDURE

Use the procedure below to generate new code from scratch:

sequencer or other software program, or a hardware MMC controller) to cue the Digital Timepiece to the desired SMPTE start time.

1 Make the audio cable connections shown in Figure 3-25 on page 28.

We recommend that you do no t pass the time code output from th e Digital Timepiec e through a mixer or any form of signal processor. If you must go through a mixer, be sure equalization is ﬂat.

2 If you are regenerating time code from an existing source, make the audio connections shown in Figure 3-24 on page 28.

3 Set the Digital Timepiece to the appropriate time base mode. F or a r eview of the various modes, see “Summary of synchronization modes” on page 35. Here are a few common situations and the appropriate time base settings for each one:

Situation

You do not want the Digital Timepiece to reference external time code or an external time base while striping.

You want the Digital Timepiece to resolve to video while striping new code.

You want the Digital Timepiece to resolve to video and regenerate fresh code from existing code.

Time base mode to choose

Internal

Video/Internal

Video/SMPTE (LTC)

For more information, see “Choosing a time base mode” on page 34.

4 If you are recording time code on a tape deck, and your tape deck has dbx noise reduction, be sure to defeat the noise reduction on the track you are recording time code.

We recommend giving yourself at least 15 seconds of pre-roll from where you will actually begin working in the time code. To be safe, record at least a minute of pre-roll — just in case you decide la ter to add more material at the beginning of the cue.

6 If you are striping in one of the Digital Timepiece’s internal modes, choose the desired frame rate on the Digital T imep iece fr on t pane l (or from the MIDI Machine Control window in ClockWorks).

7 If you are running ClockWorks, adjust the SMPTE output volume with the output level controls in the MIDI Machine Control window.

8 Roll tape (or other record destination). 9 Initiate striping by doing one of the following:

■ Press the play button in Clockworks’ main

transport controls.

■ Press play on your MMC controller, sequencer

or other transport device that you are using to control the Digital Timepiece.

■ Start your external time code source (if

applicable).

■ Press the STRIPE button on the front panel of

the Digital Timepiece. This always starts at zero hours, minutes, seconds and frames (0:00:00:00) — and only if the Digital Timepiece is in a time base mode that makes it th e addr ess master (on e of the Internal time base modes).

5 If you are striping in one of the Digital Timepiece’s internal modes, set the SMPTE start time in the main counter of the MMC controller that you have set up to control the Digital Timepiece (ClockWorks, a MMC compatible

10 Striping will begin.

STRIPING TIME CODE

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11 To stop striping, press stop on your MMC transport controls or in ClockWorks. Or stop your external time code source. Or press the STRIPE button on the Digital Timepiece front panel.

STRIPING FRAME-LOCKED LTC ONTO VIDEO

The Digital Timepi ece can stripe SMPTE LTC onto video while resolved to th e video, ensuring that the LTC is frame-locked (i.e. LTC won’t drift out of sync with the video frames).

When you do this, you are recording SMPTE time code onto o ne o f the two a udio tracks o n the video tape. If you have a video tape recorder (VTR) that doesn’t allow you to dub audio separately from video, you’ll have to dub video at the same time, either through the Digital Timepiece or separately via some form of video distribution ampliﬁer. Below is an example of a typical dubbing scenario:

Source video

REC

PLAY

Video

OUT

Digital Timepiece

Video

OUT

Video signal with optional SMPTE burnin from Digital Timepiece, plus other optional video display features.

Video

REC

PLAY

Destination VTR

Figure 7-1: To record SMPTE time code onto video, you need a video deck that can dub audio onto an existing tape, or y ou need two video decks as shown here.

Video/Internal mode or

Video/SMPTE (LTC) mode

Video image

with optional

SMPTE burn-in

STRIPING SMPTE ON A MULTITRACK TAPE DECK

The goal when striping SMPTE time code is to generate an error-free signal strong enough for reliable lockup, but not so strong that the SMPTE bleeds through to adjacent tracks.

There are several ways to handle this. One way is to leave an em pty track on your m ulti-track tape deck as a buffer between the SMPTE and other tracks. With a buffer track, SMPTE can be recorded at very strong (“hot”) levels (above 0 VU) without risk of bleed through.

If your tape deck has no tracks to spare, a good level at which to record is around –3 VU. That is, the VU meter for the SMPTE track on your tape deck should read –3 when you stripe the SMPTE. This records SMPTE tha t is ho t eno ugh fo r r eliab le lockup and weak enough so that it will not bleed into adjacent tracks. -3 VU is only a rule of thumb, though, so don’t hesitate to use other levels if they work better for you.

REGENERATING FRESH TIME CODE

SMPTE is a proble m when you ar e cop ying tapes: it degrades rapidly every time you try to cop y it fro m one tape to another. Often, the SMPTE signal deteriorates so much that it will not be recognizable by any SMPTE-to-MIDI converter, including the Digital Timepiece, and you will no longer be able to lock to it.

The solution to this problem is to use the Digital Timepiece to regenerate fresh SMPTE time code that matches the original time code while you are copying the tape. Some people r e f er t o this p rocess as jam syncing. When the Digital Timepiece receives a SMPTE signal on its SMPTE IN cable, it always regenerates a fresh signal that exactly matches the incoming signal and sends it out the SMPTE OUT cable (except for drop-outs, which it eliminates with freewheeling).

STRIPING TIME CODE

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Tape Deck

Fresh SMPTE Time code

Digital Timepiece

Figure 7-2: Regenerating time code with the Digital Timepiece.

Original SMPTE Time code

To regenerate SMPTE time code: 1 Connect the original SMPTE track to the

SMPTE IN on the Digital Timepiece, and connect the SMPTE OUT from the Digital T imep iece to the destination SMPTE track (which could even be on a different tape deck).

Try setting it to between 2 and 8 frames, unless there is an obviously large dropout. If so, set it more than 8 frames. This ensur es tha t dro p-o u ts in the old code are not reproduced in the fresh code.

4 If the existing time code you are regenerating is discontinuo us (i.e. there are no b r eaks in i t, but the frame numbers are inconsistent or jump around), you can make the Digital Timepiece generate perfectly continuous time code by turning off (unchecking) the Frame Lock option in ClockWorks’ MIDI Machine Control window. See your ClockWorks manual for details.

This makes the Digital Timepiece jam to the existing time code while at the same time generating, fresh continuous frame numbers.

5 Roll tape and set SMPTE volume levels. 6 When the levels are set, roll tape and convert as

normal.

2 Choose the appropriate time base mode on the front panel of the Digital Tim ep iec e.Here are a few common situations and the appropriate time base settings for each one:

Situation

You are regenerating code from an analog multitrack tape deck.

You want the Digital Timepiece to resolve to video while regenerating code.

Time base mode to choose

SMPTE (LTC)

Video/SMPTE (LTC)

For more information, see “Choosing a time base mode” on page 34.

3 Set the freewheel option in ClockWorks’ MIDI Machine Control window to a high enough number of frames to cover any drop outs that may exist in the current time code.

The Digital Timepiece automatically creates fresh SMPTE time code that matches the original time code and its rela tion to the othe r tracks on the tape. In addition, the Digital Timepiece freewheels over drop-outs in the old time code so that the new, clean code has none. If you’ve unchecked the Frame Lock option in ClockWorks, the fresh code generated by the Digital Timepiece will be continuous, even if the frame count in the original code was discontinuous or jumped around.

LENGTHENING A SMPTE TRACK

If the time code on your SMPTE track ends too early and you need to add more code, you can use the One ti me jam sync option in ClockWorks. To do so, feed the original track into the Digital Timepiece and record the fresh code onto a new track. Be sure to start from the beginning so that you regenerate the entire length of the original

STRIPING TIME CODE

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track. When the Digital Timepi ec e reaches the end of the original SMPTE track, it will begin striping on its own.

REGENERATION AND TIME CODE BITS

The Digital Timepiece always regenerates fresh time code from its SMPTE out jac k. Tim e code user bits embedded in incoming LTC on its SMPTE input are not preserved.

RECORDING VITC

To record VITC and other optional graphics, a source video signal is fed through the Digital Timepiece into a recording VTR. The Digital Timepiece adds the VITC (and a burn-in window or other graphics, if desired) as the video signal passes through.

The Digital Timepiece generates VITC lines in its video output whenever it is generating its own time code or converting external time code.

Setting up the hardware

To set up your hardware, connect two VTRs to the Digital Timepiece as shown in Figure 7-1 on page 55. Make sure that the VTR doing the recording is set t o SP (Standar d Pla y) mode instead of EP (Extended Play) mode. VITC does not record well in EP mode.

Choosing a start time

If you chose an external source (MTC, LTC, VITC, or SONY 9-pin), the Digital Timepiece looks for the ﬁrst frame of incoming time code to determine at which frame time it will start.

If you chose Video/Internal, set the SMPTE start frame in the main counter of the MMC controller that you have set up to control the Digital Timepiece (ClockWorks, a MMC compatible sequencer or other software program, or a hardware MMC controller) to cue the Digital Timepiece to the desired SMPTE start time.

Initiating time code generation

If you chose an external source (MTC, LTC, VITC, or SONY 9-pin), the Digital Timepiece looks for the ﬁrst frame of incoming time code to begin generating. It then generates on its own, framelocked to video, according to the ﬁrst frame of external time code that it received. So to begin, just roll your external time code source.

If you chose Video/Internal, you can initiate the generation of VITC by one of the following methods:

■ Press the play button in ClockWorks’ main

transport controls.

Choosing a video time base mode

On the front panel o f the Digital Timep iece, ch oose one of the video time base modes shown below, depending on what you would like to use as a SMPTE address source.

Time Base mode SMPTE address source

Video/Internal Digital Timepiece Video/MTC MIDI Time Code Video/LTC LTC Video/VITC VITC Video/Sony SONY 9-pin

STRIPING TIME CODE

■ Press play on your MMC controller, sequencer

or other transport device that you are using to control the Digital Timepiece.

■ Press the STRIPE button on the front panel of

the Digital Timepiece. This always starts at zero hours, minutes, seconds and frames (0:00:00:00). (This only works when the Digital Timepiece is in an Internal time base mode).

Stopping

Regardless of how you initiated time code generation, you can stop time code generation by doing one of the following:

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■ Press the Stop button in ClockWorks’ main

transport controls.

■ Press Stop on your MMC controller, sequencer

or other transport device that you are using to control the Digital Timepiece.

■ Press the STRIPE button on the front panel of

the Digital Timepiece.

VITC lines

VITC is recorded on two consecutive, even video scan lines in the vertical interval between video frames. The Digital Timepiece always records VITC on lines 16 and 18 of each frame.

RECORDING BURN-IN & OTHER GRAPHICS

The Digital Timepiece provides both a large and small SMPTE time code burn-in overlay, which you can position vertically wherever you wish. All you hav e t o do is turn it on bef or e y ou r ec or d using the Digital Timepiece’s ClockWorks console software. The Digital Timepiece also provides many other video display features. For further information, see the ClockWorks User’s Guide that accompanies this manual.

STRIPING TIME CODE

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CHAPTER

8 MIDI Machine Control

OVERVIEW

As a synchronization hub for your studio, the Digital Timepiece has the ability to be remotely controlled from any device — or computer software — that supports MIDI Machine Control.

This capability allows you to locate, play, record, stop and cue everything from one master set of transport controls. For example, you could control everything from digital audio workstation software on your computer. Or you could control everything from a hardwar e MM C co n trol s urface, such as a JL Cooper CuePoint™.

Depending on what gear y ou ha v e, y ou can even d o both at the same time. For example, you could set up your computer software as one transport control master, and a hardware MMC controller connected via MIDI as another.

How MMC works . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .59

A recommended scenario for MMC . . . . . . . . . .59

MMC Device IDs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .60

Setting up MMC slaves. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .62

Setting up a MMC transport master. . . . . . . . . .63

MMC control of record functions . . . . . . . . . . . .64

HOW MMC WORKS

MIDI Machine Control involves all three components of synchronization:

■ time base

■ address

■ transport control

An MMC controller (which has tape deck-style transport controls) sends transport commands (play, stop, locate, etc.) to another MMC device

that serves as the address (time code) master. When the address master device responds to the transport commands, it generates time code to which all other devices chase and lock. The other devices do not need to be MMC devices; all they have to be able to do is slave to time code (LTC or MTC) in the usual fashion.

The MMC address master d evice may al so serve as the time base master, but it doesn’t necessarily have to. For example, video house sync could provide the time base, while the Digital T ime piece p ro vides address.

Digital Performer

or other workstation software

MIDI Machine Control

Figure 8-1: An example scenario for MMC control of your Digital Timepiece studio. Digital Performer (or any MMC-compatible software) sends MMC transport commands (play, stop , record, loc ate, etc.) to the Digital Timepiece, which responds to them by generating time code and, in some cases, redistributing the MMC commands (to devices like ADATs, DA-88s and SONY 9-pin decks).

(MMC)

MIDI Time Code (MTC)

Various forms

of time code

Other devices slaved to the Digital Timepiece

Digital Timepiece

A RECOMMENDED SCENARIO FOR MMC

You should try, if you can, to set up your rig so that the Digital Timepiece is the address master (by choosing one of its Internal modes). You can then control i t (and everything connected to it) directly

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from your MMC software or hardware controller. The MMC controller sends play, stop, start and cueing commands to th e Digital Timepiece and all other devices (including your computer software) chase and lock to time code being g enera t ed b y the Digital Timepiece.

You should also try, if you can, to use either the Digital Timepiece or house sync video as the time base master, which provide a highly stable time base with the fastest possible lock-up time.

Other MMC scenarios

In the recommended scenario described in the previous section, the Digital Timepiece receives MMC transport commands and serves as the address (time code) master for everything else.

Alternately, you could choose another MMC device to receive transpo rt commands and serve as the time code master. For example, the device would receive transport commands from your computer software and generate SMPTE time code (LTC). In this case, you would set the Digital Timepiece time base mode to LTC and feed the LTC into the Digital Timepiece, which would then drive all other devices.

There is no advantage to doing MMC this way; in fact, it will probably not provide as stable a time base as the Digital Timepiece does in the recommended scenario described in the previous section. You should only really use this setup if you have a MMC device that d oes not hav e the ability to be a time code slave and therefore must be the master.

MMC and video

If you are wo rking with video, and you wan t MM C control o f your rig from yo ur com puter so ftware or hardware co ntroller via the Digital T imepiece, y our video deck needs to support one of the following:

■ SONY 9-pin machine control

■ MIDI Machine control

■ SMPTE time code (as a time code slave)

Without one of these capabilities, your video deck cannot be a slave to the Digital Timepiece because the Digital Timepi ece would h ave n o way t o con trol its transports. If your video deck doesn’t have one of the above capabilities, you’ll have to use your video deck as the transport and address master.

MMC DEVICE IDs

According to the MMC (MIDI Machine Control) speciﬁcation, each MMC device must have a unique MMC ID (identiﬁcation) to facilitate communication among several devices. For your convenience, the Digital Timepiece has the ability to set MMC device IDs automatically — although there are a few exceptions, as well as some additional considerations you should know as discussed in the following sections.

The Digital Timepiece MMC ID

The factory default MMC device ID of the Digital Timepiece is one (in a one-based numbering scheme of 1-128). When you set up an MMC hardware controller, or your MMC-compatible computer software, as a transport master over the Digital Timepiece, j ust make s ure tha t it knows tha t the Digital Timepi ece’ s ID i s one (1) — unl ess yo ur controller has a zero-based numbering scheme (0-127), in which case you should set it to zero (0).

Zero-based numbering schemes

As mentioned above, some MMC devices think that the range of MMC device IDs goes fro m 0-127; others think the range is 1-128. ADATs and the Digital Timepiece use the one-based scheme. DA-88s use the 0-127 scheme. Regardless of the scheme your MM C con troller uses, you can be sur e that it will successfully communicate with the Digital Timepiece if you use the factory default ID of the Digital Timepiece (1) an d if yo u i dentify the Digital Timepiece in your MMC controller as the lowest ID possible (either 1 or 0).

MIDI MACHINE CONTROL

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Digital Timepiece’s ID can be changed by setting the “MMC ID” option in ClockWorks’ Sync/MMC window. However, the only situation in which you really need to change i t is if you ar e conn ecting two Digital Timepiec es together. Otherwise, just leav e it set to 1, and make sure that your MMC transport master device or computer software knows that the Digital Timepiece’s ID is 1 (or zero if it uses the 0-127 numbering scheme).

If you are experienced with using MMC, you may be thinking, “But don’t I have to make sure that no other MMC devices connected to the Digital Timepiece have the same ID as the Digital Timepiece?” The answer is no: you don’t have to worry about this because the Digital Timepiece automatically sets the device IDs of all ADATs, DA-88s and SONY 9-pin devices connected to it, as well as any MMC devices co nn ected to its MIDI ports. For more information, see the next section.

Hard versus soft IDs

This section discusses a few important details about how th e Digital Timep iece au toma tically sets device IDs of the devices connected to it. With the exception of the Tascam DA-88, there is nothing that you really have to do, other than connect the devices to the Digital Timepiece. (If you have one or more DA-88s, be sure to check out “Setting up DA-88s” later in this chapter.) This section is useful, however , because it explain s why the device ID numbers you see in ClockWorks might be different than the hardware ID settings, if any, on your MMC devices.

In order to successfully juggle the many possible MMC devices that can be connected to it, the Digital Timepiece actually sets up an in ternal set of MMC IDs for all attached devices. We call an internal ID a soft ID , and the ph ysical setting on the device itself as the hard ID. Soft IDs are the ones you see in ClockWorks’ Sync/MMC window, as shown below in Figure 8-2.

‘soft’ MMC ID

Figure 8-2: The Digital Timepiece automatically assigns an internal ‘soft’ MMC ID to each device, which is displayed in the Sync/MMC window in ClockWorks as demonstrated above.

As mentioned earlier, for ADATs and most other MMC devices, yo u don’t have to be co ncerned with setting the hard IDs on your devices, which have no effect on the soft IDs assigned internally by the Digital Timepiec e. (Ag ain, on e notabl e exc eption is the Tascam DA-88. If you have DA-88s, be sure to check out “Setting up DA-88s” later in this chapter.)

How to control the assignment of soft IDs

Soft IDs are assigned incrementally, starting at 1, in the order in which d evices conn ected to the Digital Timepiece are ﬁrst powered up. This process occurs the ﬁrst time you hook up your devices to the Digital Timepiece, turn it on, and then turn on the connected devices for the ﬁrst time.

If you would like to control the o rder in which soft IDs are assigned, wait several seconds after powering up a device before powering up the next one. ADATs take about 2-4 seconds to get detected by the Digital Timepiece. DA-88s take about 1-2 seconds, and devices connected to the MIDI ports take around 2 seco nds. A s a rule of thumb , y ou ma y want to wait a minimum of 5 seconds between devices.

Once assigned, soft IDs are reserved

When the Digital Timepiece assigns a soft ID to a device that it has detected for the ﬁrst time, it will permanently reserve the ID for tha t d evice — until you perform a hard reset of the Digital Timepiece or until the device goes off line and you click its Purge button in the Sync/MMC window in ClockWorks. (For details about the Purge button, see Figure 3-16 on page 25 of the ClockWorks manual.)

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Here is an example: let’s say that you have just installed your Digital Timepiece and you have powered it up for the ﬁrst time. Now it is time to power up all of the devices connected to it. First, you turn on your ADAT. It gets assigned soft ID 1. Then you switch on your DA-88. It gets assigned soft ID 2. Now, if you turn off the ADAT, its ID is reserved. If you now turn on a third MMC device with the AD AT still turned off, the third device will be assigned soft ID 3, while ID 1 remains reserved for the currently off-line ADAT.

Again, these ID assignment features are intended to be auto matic and of no concern to you as a user. But it is good for you to know how soft ID assignment is handled, in case a situation arises in which you might need to purge IDs or otherwise intervene manually. It also explains the ID numbers you see in ClockWorks’ Sync/MMC window.

Reassigning soft IDs

To reassign soft IDs, you must ﬁrst perform a hard reset of the Digital Timepiece to clear all current soft ID assignments.

To hard reset the Digital Timepiece and then reassign all soft IDs:

1 Power off the Digital Timepiece.

Now to reassign soft IDs, switch on the devices connected to the Digital Timepiece in the order in which you would like them assigned, waiting at least 5 seconds between each device.

SETTING UP MMC SLAVES

The following sections provide details for connecting various types of devices as MMC slaves to the Digital Timepiece.

Setting up ADATs (and compatibles)

ADATs are easy: all you hav e t o d o is c o nnect them as slaves to the Digital Timepiece. They do not require any further preparation. The Digital Timepiece takes care of setting their IDs and establishing communication with them.

Setting up DA-88s

After you have connected a single DA-88 as a slave to the Digital Timepiece, be sure to choose a hard ID other than zero (0) using the ID “dial” on its rear panel. (Zer o is reserved fo r the master d evice in the DA-88 chain, which in this case is the Digital Timepiece.) If you have a chain of DA-88s connected as sla ves to the Digital Timepi ec e, make sure that each one’s ID “dial” is set to a unique ID number and than none of them are set to zero (0). When these hardware ID preparations are made, the Digital Timepiece will be able to successfully assign a soft ID to each DA-88.

2 Turn off all MMC devices connected to the Digital Timepiece.

3 Hold down the SOURCE button on the Digital Timepiece’s front panel.

4 While holding down the SOURCE button, switch on the Digital Timepiece and keep holding down the SOURCE bu tto n until the SMPTE frame rate, Word rate, and T ime Base mode LEDs beco me steadily illuminated.

Setting up a DA-88 with an SY-88 sync card

If you are using the DA-88 as a SMPTE time code master over the Digital Timepiece as shown in Figure 3-13 on page 20 or Figure 3-14 on page 21, then the SY-88 card serves as a master over the Digital Timepiece. Therefore, instead of sending MMC commands to the Digital Timepiece, you need to send them to the SY-88 card. You can still control your entire rig from your computer software (or other MMC controller), but you’ll be doing so via the SY-88 instead of the Digital Timepiece, and the Digital Timepiece will simply act as a time code slave to the SY-88 card.

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To set up the SY-88 card as the target for MMC control:

1 Set the Machine ID on the SY-88 card using the ﬁrst four DIP switches a t locatio n S2 on y our SY-88 card. Refer to your DA-88 manual for details.

2 Connect a MIDI Out from your MIDI interface to the MIDI In on the SY-88 card so software can send MMC commands to the SY-88 card.

from the Digital Timepiece to SMPTE In on the device with standard, shielded quarter inch audio cables.

Some MMC devices may require that the Digital Timepiece sen d MM C transpo rt comman ds to the device. Just make the MID I connections described above. If you are working with MTC, you’ll be sending both MTC and MMC via the same MIDI connection.

3 Be sure to feed MTC back to the computer, either from the SY-88 MIDI OUT port or from the Digital Timepiece (but not both!)

4 Make your software send MMC commands with the same ID you gave the SY-88 (not the Digital Timepiece).

Setting up DA-38s

DA-38s should be set up same way as DA-88s as described above, with the following two differences: DA-38s reserve ID number 1 for the master of the chain (instead of 0), and they ha v e no ‘dials’ on their rear panel. Instead, you set the device ID on a DA-38 using the front panel controls. To do so, press the shift button and then press Menu repeatedly until you see “idSEL#”. Then use the up/down arrows to designate any ID except 1.

Setting up other types of MMC slaves

Other MMC-compatible devices can be slaved to the Digital Timepiece via MIDI Time Code or SMPTE time code (LTC). Some devices can sim pl y slave to time code alone. Check their documentation to ﬁnd out. If so, Just make the necessary MIDI or audio connections, depending on what type of time code you will be using. For MIDI Time Code, connect MIDI OUT from the Digital Timepiece to MIDI IN on the device; for SMPTE time code (LTC), connect SMPTE Out

Slaving computer software

Regardless of what you decide to use as your MMC transport control master (an LRC or computer software), you need to set up your computer software so that it will slave to MIDI Time Code (MTC) generated by the Digital Timepiece. This will ensure that your software chases and locks with all other MMC devices. Check to make your software is set up to the pr oper frame ra te, and that it is in “external sync” or “slave” mode, waiting for MTC.

Also see “Using computer software as an MMC controller” on page 64.

SETTING UP A MMC TRANSPORT MASTER

You can control the Digital Timepiece (and all slaves connected to it) from one of many possible MMC transport master devices. You can also control it from MMC-compatible computer software. You can even set up several controllers and use them interchangeably. For example, you could use an Alesis LRC connected to the Digital Timepiece front panel, and at the same time use your computer software, switching between them as desired in your studio.

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The Alesis LRC (or compatibles)

For details about using an Alesis LRC (Little Remote Control) or LRC-compatible controller, see chapter 13, “Alesis LRC” (page 93).

Other MMC transport controllers

MMC transport controllers, such as the JL Cooper CuePoint™, accomplish what they do with both MIDI Machine Control data and time code, either in the form of MIDI Tim e Code (MTC) or SMPTE time code (LTC).

As a result, you need to establish bidirectional MIDI communication between the Digital Timepiece and the MMC controller (for MMC — and MTC, if you are using it instead of LTC). This can be accomplished by connecting the MMC controller directly to the Digital Timepiece or by connecting both the Digital Timepiece and the MMC controller to your multiport MIDI interface (such as the MIDI T im epi ece AV) and routing data internally between them.

If your MMC controller uses LTC instead of MTC, you’ll need to route SMPTE to or from the Digital Timepiece as required by the MMC controller.

For further information about connecting an MMC controller, see “MMC control surfaces” on page 30.

Using computer software as an MMC controller

Most likely, you’ll want to set up your computer software to be an MMC transport master, so you can control the Digital Timepiece (and everything slaved to it) from your computer.

This can be accomp lished with a MMC-com patible sequencer, MMC a p pl et, or any o ther so ftware that transmits MMC transport control commands.

Generally speaking, once you’ve successfully established overall MIDI communication between your software and the Digital Timepiece, all you have to do is tell your MMC software what the

MMC Device ID is of the Digital Timepiece. From the factory, the default MMC device ID for the Digital Timepiece is 1 (in a 1-128 numbering scheme). If you need to change the Digital Timepiece’s ID for some reason (most of the time you shoul dn’t need t o), y ou can ch ange it b y setting the “MMC ID” option in ClockWorks’ Sync/MMC window.

Setting up Performer or Digital Performer as an MMC controller

For details about using Performer or Digital Performer as a MMC transport master over the Digital Timepiece, see chapter 9, “Digital Timepiece & Performer” (page 67).

MMC CONTROL OF RECORD FUNCTIONS

In addition to transport control, the Digital Timepiece also supports a wide variety of MMC record functions. Some are global and others are device speciﬁc:

Global MMC record functions

The Digital Timepiece supports the following global MMC record functions:

■ Global record mode (Safe, Rehearse or Record)

■ Record punch-in and punch-out, either manual

or automatic Global record functions should be sent by your

MMC controller (or software) to the Digital Timepiece itself, which then passes them on to all slaved devices. In other words, program your MMC controller (or software) so that it sends the global record function s mentioned above t o MM C device ID 1 (or 0 if it uses a 0-127 numbering scheme), which is the factory default device ID of the Digital Timepiece (or to another ID that you have perhaps assigned to the Digital Timepiece with ClockWorks).

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Device-speciﬁc record functions

The Digital Timepiece supports the following device-speciﬁc MMC record functions:

■ Record-arming and disarming speciﬁc tracks in

a device

■ Setting the monitor mode for a device (All or

Auto, which monitors record-enabled inputs only)

■ Setting a SMPTE offset for a device

■ Setting individual track offsets for ADATs and

DA-88s

■ Setting the video record mode on 9-pin

compatible video decks (Insert, Assemble, or Crash/Full Record)

■ Choose between analog or digital input on a

device

Controlling device-speciﬁc record functions from ClockWorks

The easiest way to perform device-speciﬁc record functions from a Macintosh computer is with ClockWorks. Just use the buttons in the device’s information panel in ClockWorks’ Sync/MMC window. You can easily record-enable tracks with the row(s) of record buttons provided, set track offsets, set the monitor mode, etc.

Controlling device-speciﬁc record functions from Performer and other sequencers

Even if you have a powerful sequencer like Performer or Digital Performer, you will probably ﬁnd ClockWorks to be the most convenient way to control device-speciﬁc record functions. (Watch for future updates of Performer and Digital Performer, which will incorporate some of ClockWorks’ device speciﬁc features into Performer’s MIDI Machine window.)

Controlling device-speciﬁc record functions from other software and hardware controllers

To perform device-speciﬁc record functions from any other Ma cintosh o r Win dows so ftware, or from a hardware MMC controller, program the

controller to send device-speciﬁc messages to the Digital Timepiece with the “soft” MMC ID of the device connected to the Digital T im epiec e tha t y ou wish to control. In other words, program your controller to send the device-speciﬁc message to the soft ID of the device, and make sure the message reaches the Digital Timepiece (via its MIDI IN ports or via its REMOTE port from a Macintosh). The Digital Timepiece will then pass on the message to the appropriate device.

If you need a review of what a “soft” ID is, see “Hard versus soft IDs” on page 61 of this chapter.

An example of device-speciﬁc record functions

Here’s an example: let’s say that you have a JLCooper CuePoint™ MMC controller connected directly to the Digital T im ep i ec e. You wo ul d like to record-enable track 5 on the second of three ADATs connected to the Digital Timepiece. And lets assume that the Digital Timepiece assigned your ADATs to soft IDs 1 thro ugh 3 respective ly. To record-enable track 5 on the second ADAT, you would use the row of buttons on the CuePoint that correspond with Device ID 2 (which belo ngs to the second AD AT).

To accomplish the same thing in Performer, you would set up a device in FreeMIDI with the proper soft device ID, and connect the device to the Digital Timepi ece in yo ur Fr eeMIDI co nﬁguratio n. Then, when you click one of the device’s recordenable buttons in Performer’s MIDI Machine window, Performer will send a message with the proper ID to the Digital Timepiece, which then passes it on to the appropriate device (the second ADAT in the current example).

To ﬁnd out what the soft IDs are of the devices connected to the Digital Timepiece, look in the Sync/MMC window of ClockWorks. If you can’t run ClockWorks for some reason, y ou can set them manually and make note of them. See “How to control the assignment of soft IDs” on page 61.

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CHAPTER

9 Digital Timepiece & P erformer

OVERVIEW

This chapter explains the following ways in which the Digital Timepiece and Performer (or Digital Performer) can work with each other:

■ Getting Performer to ‘see’ the Digital Timepiece

■ Slaving Performer to the Digital Timepiece

■ Cueing, starting and stopping the Digital

Timepiece from Performer’s transport controls

■ Sending record-enable commands and other

MMC record functions from Performer to devices connected to the Digital Timepiece

■ Triggering video streamers from Performer

For clarity’s sake, we’ll use the term Performer, but any discussion abou t P erformer in this chap ter also applies to Digital Performer. There are, however, a few sections later in the chapter that apply to Digital Performer only.

Getting the Digital Timepiece to appear in

Performer’s MMC window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .67

Slaving Performer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .67

Using Performer as transport master . . . . . . . . .68

MMC record commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .69

Video streamers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .71

Controlling a DA-88/SY-88 with Performer . . .72

GETTING THE DIGITAL TIMEPIECE TO APPEAR IN PERFORMER’S MMC WINDOW

The ﬁrst step in getting P erfo rmer to wo rk with the Digital Timepiece is to add a Digital Timepiece to your current FreeMIDI conﬁguration. It can either be connected to a MIDI interface, such as a MIDI Timepiece, or it can be connected directly to the Macintosh modem or printer port. For further information abou t getting the Digital T imep iece t o appear in your current FreeMIDI setup, see “For Existing FreeMIDI users” on page 8 of the ClockWorks User’s Guide.

Once you’ve successfully added the Digital Timepiece to your FreeMIDI setup, the Digital Timepiec e will automa tically appear in P e rformer’s MIDI Machine window as shown in Figure 9-1.

Turn on MMC here.

Make sure the DTP is on line.

Figure 9-1: Setting up the Digital Timepiece in the MIDI Machine window of Performer 5.02 or Digital Performer 1.71 or later. Make sure that MIDI Machine Control is turned on and that the MTP AV device is On-line. You don’t need to assign any tracks to the Digital Timepiece device.

Important version information

You must have Digital Performer 1.71 (or later) or Performer 5.02 (or later) with FreeMIDI 1.3 or later. FreeMIDI 1.3 ships with the ClockWorks console installer disk; it is automatically installed when you run the ClockWorks Easy Install.

SLAVING PERFORMER

In order to synchr o nize Performer with the Digital Timepiec e, you m ust s la v e Performer to the Digital Timepiece. In theory, you could do the opposite and slave the Digital Timepiece to Performer. However, doing so involves transmitting MIDI Time Code (MTC) from Performer. This is undesirable because MTC transmission from

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Macintosh computers can be fairly unstable as a time base, depending on the circumstances. And besides, you can achieve the same result by other more accurate and desirable means, which are described in the following sections.

In summary, you pretty much always want to slave Performer to the Digital Timepiece, not the other way around. Slaving Performer to the Digital Timepiece is easy:

1 Choose Receive Sync from Performer’s Basics menu.

USING PERFORMER AS TRANSPORT MASTER

Once you’ve set up Performer to slave to the Digital Timepiece, you are then either slaving the Digital Timepiece to another time code source (such as SMPTE time code from a video deck), or you are using the Digital Timepiece itself as the time code master (in one of its Internal time base modes).

When an external source (such as a video deck) is the time code master, you control Performer (and the Digital Timepiece) from the external source (the video deck’s transports).

2 Indicate the serial port from which Performer will be receiving MIDI Time Code from the Digital Timepiece, and set the Type of Sync to MTC.

3 Choose the SMPTE frame format that matches the format tha t will be transmitted from the Digital Timepiece, and click OK.

Figure 9-2: In Performer’s receive sync dialog, choose MTC and choose the SMPTE frame format that matches the Digital Timepiece.

4 Check Performer’s Slave to External Sync command in the Basics menu.

When the Digital Timepiece is the time code master (i.e. it is in one of its internal modes), you can control the Digital Timepiece (and everything connected to it) directly from Performer’s transport controls. This arrangement is made possible by MIDI Machine Control, as shown in Figure 9-3. Performer’s transport control buttons send MMC commands, such as play, stop and locate, to the Digital Timepiece, which follows them. When playing, it sends MIDI Time Code back to Performer, which follows in perfect sync. For example, when you press Performer’s play button, Performer sends out a play command to the Digital Timepiece. The Digital Timepiece begins generating time code, which Performer then slaves to . This all happens q uickly enough that it feels like you are actually making the Digital Timepiece follow Performer. Actually, you are just triggering it from Performer.

This last step happens a utoma tically when you turn on MIDI Machine Co ntro l as described later in this chapter.

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MIDI Machine Control (MMC)

Performer or Digital Performer

MIDI Time Code (MTC)

Digital Timepiece

Other devices

slaved to the

Digital Timepiece

MMC RECORD COMMANDS

Performer has the ability to send MMC record commands to MMC devices. For exam p le, you can record-enable a track on the MMC device by clicking a button in Performer. You can also do more elaborate record functions, such as set automatic punch-in and punch-out points using Performer’s Auto Punch features.

Figure 9-3: When the Digital Timepiece is the time code address master (i.e. it is in one of its Internal time base modes), you can control it (and everything connected to it) directly from Performer’s transport controls. Performer sends MMC commands to the Digital Timepiece, which sends time code back to Performer.

Setting up MMC control in Performer

To set up MMC control in Performer: 1 Be sure the Digital Timepiece shows up in

Performer’s MIDI Machine window, as shown in Figure 9-1 on page 67.

2 Make sure the Digital Timepiece is On-line by clicking the on-line/off-line button for the Digital Timepiece in the MIDI Machine window.

3 Turn on MMC by clicking the arrow button in the MIDI Machin e window between the comp uter icon and tape recorder icon as shown in Figure 9-1 on page 67.

Performer will now send play, stop, and locate commands to the Digital T imepiec e when you cl ick the buttons in Performer’s main transport controls.

Record-r ela ted MMC c ommands s up ported by the Digital Timepiece and Performer fall into two categories: global and device -speciﬁc. (For a summary, see “MMC control of record functions” on page 64.)

Global record functions

Global record commands, such as punching in and out with Perfo rmer’s Au to-R eco r d fea tur es, require the same preparation as described in the previous section, “Setting up MMC control in Performer”. As long as you’ve made these preparations, Performer’s global record functions will work ﬁne.

Device speciﬁc record functions

As a Performer 5.5 or Digital Performer 2.0 user, you will probably ﬁnd ClockWorks to be the most convenient way to control device-speciﬁc record functions. Just use the buttons in the device’s information panel in ClockWorks’ Sync/MMC window. You can easily record-enable tracks with the row(s) of record buttons provided, set track offsets, set the monitor mode, etc.

DIGITAL TIMEPIECE & PERFORMER

Future u pdates of P erformer and Digital P erfo rmer may incorporate some of ClockWorks’ device speciﬁc features into Performer’s MIDI Machine window. Until then, you can set up Performer to

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allow you to record-enable tracks on devices connected to the Digital T im epiec e, such as ADATs and DA-88s, from the MIDI Machine window.

To do so, create a device in your FreeMIDI conﬁguration for each soft ID assigned by the Digital Timepiece (as displayed in ClockWorks’ Sync/MMC window). Note that this is different than what you would normally do for groups of ADATs and DA-88s. Instead of creating one ADAT device in FreeMIDI and then assigning 16 o r m o r e tracks to it in Performer’s MIDI Machine window, you wo uld instead cr eate a se parate MM C device in your FreeMIDI conﬁguration for each ADAT, assigning it the same soft ID as shown in ClockWorks. Then, each ADAT will show up as its own, separate device in Performer’s MIDI Machine window. In addition, be sure to connect each device directly to the Digital Timepiece in FreeMIDI — or to the same MIDI port on your interface as the Digital Timepiece. This ensures that the Digital Timepiece (and the slaved device) receive the MMC messages from Performer.

Record-arming tracks in ClockWorks

If you decide to do your track arming in ClockWorks instead of Performer Here is how to do it:

1 Launch ClockWorks. 2 Set the MIDI Machine reco rd mode in the MID I

Machine window to Record. 3 Record-enable the desired track(s) in the MIDI

Machine window. You sho uld see the rec or d meter s engaged on the front panel of your MMC or video device.

4 If you are recording t o a Sony-9-pin video deck, choose desired VTR recording mode. For details about the record modes, see the ClockWorks User’s Guide.

Preparing Performer to trigger recording

If you wish to trigger recording from Performer, you need to set up a record track for the Digital Timepiece as follows:

Figure 9-4: Here is a portion of a FreeMIDI conﬁguration showing several ADATs connected to the Digital Timepiece. Their device IDs match the “soft” MMC IDs that the Digital Timepiece automatically gives them. Notice that a separate device has been created for each ADAT and that they are all connected to the same MIDI port as the Digital Timepiece.

1 Click the Digital Timepiece icon in the MIDI Machine window to select it. Its name will become highlighted.

2 Choose Set number of tracks from the MIDI Machine window mini menu.

3 Add one track and click OK. 4 Record-enable the single track for the Digital

Timepiece device that you just created (record button will appear red when engaged).

5 In the upper portion of the MIDI Machine window , set the recor d m ode o ptio n to R ecord, and make sure that MMC is turned on as shown in Figure 9-1 on page 67.

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Recording

Once you’ve made the above preparations, you are ready to record. You can initiate recording from either ClockWorks or Performer as follows:

1 In the main counter, type in the location where intend to record (with appropriate preroll time). This cues the Digital Timep iec e to the correct spot.

VIDEO STREAMERS

Performer’s Markers feature allows you to trigger video streamers that appear on the Digital Timepiece’s video output. The streamer display includes a text prompt, followed by the streamer with a full-screen punch, all timed so that the punch happens on the exact frame location of the marker in Performer.

2 Start recording by pressing th e r ec ord button in the main transports of either ClockWorks or Performer.

Performer/MMC record feature summary

What you can do in Performer with the Digital Timepiece:

■ Set the MMC record mode (rehearse, etc.)

■ Send MMC play, stop, locate and record

commands

■ Record-enable individual tracks on a device

What you cannot do in Performer with the Digital Timepiece (but you can do with ClockWorks):

■ Set a SMPTE offset for a device

■ Set individual track offsets for a device

■ Choose between analog or digital input on a

device

■ Set VTR record modes for Sony 9-pin devices

■ Set the monitor mode for a device (All or Auto,

which monitors record-enabled inputs only)

There are several steps you need to take in ClockWorks and Performer to display streamers.

Setting up the video display in ClockWorks

In ClockWorks, use the switch in ClockWorks’ Video Setup window (as shown in Figure 5-1 on page 33 of the ClockWorks manual) to turn on the video display. Streamers are displayed in the Digital Timepieces top display line. If you already have something el se displayed in the top line (suc h as the SMPTE burn-in display), move i t t o ano the r line.

Setting up Performer to generate streamers

Performer will automatically generate streamers under the following conditions:

■ First, you need to have successfully added the

Digital Timepi ece to yo ur Fr eeMIDI Conﬁgura tion (which is conﬁrmed by the presence of the Digital Timepiec e in Performer’s MIDI Machine window).

■ To activate streamers in Performer 5.5 or Digital

Performer 2.0, you have to add a ‘virtual’ Video Time Piec e device t o y o ur F r eeMID I co nﬁ guratio n and connect it to the same MID I port as the Digital Timepiece. (This won’t be necessary in future versions of Performer and Digital Performer.) Use the Create Device command in FreeMIDI Setup to add a Video Time Piece, as shown below in Figure 9-5.

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Figure 9-5: To activate the streamers feature in Performer 5.5 or Digital Performer 2.0, you need to add a ‘virtual’ Video Time Piece to your FreeMIDI conﬁguration and connect it to the same port as the Digital Timepiece as shown here. (This won’t be necessary in future versions of Performer and Digital Performer.)

■ You have turned on (chec k ed) th e Gener ate VTP

Streamers feature in Performer’s Markers window

mini-menu.

■ You have created a marker in Performer and

clicked in the streamer s col umn ne xt to the ma rk er to turn on streamer generation for the marker.

CONTROLLING A DA-88/SY-88 WITH PERFORMER

If you hav e set up y our D A -88 as an ABS slav e to the Digital Timepiece as shown in Figure 3-10 or Figure 3-11 on page 19, then you set up Performer (or Digital Performer) to control the Digital Timepiece, which then controls the DA-88.

If you have set up your DA-88 with an SY-88 card as the time code master as shown in Figure 3-13 on page 20 or Figure 3-14 on page 21, you can control it directly from Performer. And since it serves as a master over the Digital Timepiece as well in this scenario, you have control over the Digital Timepiece — and all of the devices slaved to it — from Performer.

When you then start playback approximately ﬁve seconds or more before the marker location and then roll playback past the marker, the marker name will appear on the video monitor a ttac hed to the Digital Timepi ece 3 sec o nds be f o r e the hi t. The streamer will wipe across the screen with a punch at the exact frame of the marker.

In this scenario, the DA-88/SY-88 responds to MIDI Machine co mmands fr om Performer. It then generates time c ode (and w o r d cl ock) t o whic h the Digital Timepiec e and P erformer sla ve, as shown in Figure 3-13 on page 20 and Figure 3-14 on page 21.

To set up Performer so that it triggers the DA-88/ SY-88 with MIDI Machine commands, follow the procedures in the following sections.

Connections

1 Use the ﬁrst four D IP switc h es at location S2 on the SY-88 card to set its Machine ID Refer to your DA-88 user’s manuals for details.

2 Connect a MIDI Out socket on your MIDI interface to the MIDI In socket on the SY-88 card.

3 Connect the MIDI Out from SY-88 card to a MIDI In of the Digital Timepiece.

4 Conﬁrm that the Digital Timepiece is c onnected bi-directionally (MIDI IN and OUT) to the MIDI interface.

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Setting up FreeMIDI

1 Create a FreeMIDI Device for the SY-88 card, and set the Machine ID to match the SY-88’s Machine ID.

2 Be sure the Digital Timepiece is properly conﬁgured in FreeMIDI Setup as described in the installation chapter.

Figure 9-7: Delete the connection highlighted above to turn off MMC parsing in the MIDI Timepiece AV.

Setting up the Digital Timepiece

While you are still in ClockWorks, make the following settings in the Digital Timepiece:

1 Select the Digital Timepiece in the Device List window (if it isn’t already selected).

2 Set the Digital Timepiece ’s sample rate to match the DA-88.

Figure 9-6: This diagram displays a DA-88/SY-88 card connected to cable 7 of an MTP AV. The Digital Timepiece is connected to cable 2. The FreeMIDI Device Speciﬁcation window for the DA-88/SY-88 displays FreeMIDI’s default settings, except for the Device ID, which has been changed to 16 to match the SY-88’s Machine ID as conﬁgured by the DIP switches on the card itself.

Disabling MMC parsing in the MTP AV

If you are using a MIDI Timepiece AV, you will need to disable MMC parsing in it so that it does not “swallow” MMC commands intended for the SY-88 card:

1 Launch ClockWorks. 2 Select the MTP AV in the Device List window. 3 Open the Device Settings and Routings window .

3 In the MMC/Sync window, set the Digital

Timepiece’s time base mode to Word 1x/MTC.

Setting up Performer (or Digital Performer)

To set up Performer (or Digital P erf o rmer) to sen d MMC commands to the SY-88 card:

1 Launch Performer and o pen the MID I M ac hine Control window.

Figure 9-8: Setting up control of the DA-88/SY-88 in Performer. Take the Digital Timepiece and MIDI Timepiece AV off line, and bring the DA-88/SY-88 on line.

DIGITAL TIMEPIECE & PERFORMER

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2 Take the Digital Timepiece and MIDI Timepiece AV off line, and bring the DA-88/SY-88 on line.

3 Set Performer’s SMPTE start time to match the SMPTE offset in the DA-88.

You are now ready t o use the transport contr ols and cueing features in Performer to remotely control the SY-88 card. When you play, stop, and cue Performer, everything will follow in sync. Performer slaves to MTC from the Digital Timepiece. The Digital Timepiece slaves to MTC from the SY-88 card. And the SY-88 card responds to the MMC messages sent from Performer.

Using Performer and the SY-88 with triple-sync

You can combine this pr ocedur e fo r con tro lling the SY-88 card from Performer with the setup for triple-sync shown in Figure 3-14 on page 21. Be sure to include the following preparations:

1 Connect blackburst to the video input of the DA-88 and Digital Timepiece (and any other devices you wish to reference to house sync).

2 Set the front panel Clock setting of the D A -88 to Video.

3 Set the Digital Timepiece’s time base mode to Word 1x/Video/MTC.

DIGITAL TIMEPIECE & PERFORMER

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CHAPTER

10 Digital T imepiece & Other

Sequencers

OVERVIEW

If you have another sequencer, we strongly urge you to switch to Performer or Digital Performer. (Sorry. We couldn’t help that one.)

But if you decide to stick with what you have, you can still enjoy many of the features the Digital Timepiece has to offer.

This chapter app lies to sequencers running on any computer platform (Mac, Windows, SGI, etc.)

Getting the Digital Timepiece to work with your sequencer involves the following:

■ Getting your sequencer to communicate with

the Digital Timepiece

■ Slaving your sequencer to MIDI Time Code

generated by the Digital Timepiece

■ Cueing, starting and stopping the Digital

Timepiece from your sequencer’s transport controls

■ Sending record-enable commands and other

MMC record functions from your sequencer to devices connected to the Digital Timepiece

■ Triggering video streamers from your sequencer

(if it supports Mark of the Unicorn’s Video Time Piece streamer implementation)

Establishing communication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .75

Slaving your sequencer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .75

Using your sequencer as transport master. . . . .76

MMC record commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .77

ESTABLISHING COMMUNICATION

The Digital Timepiece is a standard MIDI device that can be connected to a MIDI interface. Just be sure to connect it bidirectionally (both MIDI IN and MIDI OUT) as shown in Figure 3-3 and Figure 3-5 on page 15 so that there is two-way communication between your sequencer and the Digital Timepiece.

If you have a Macintosh, you can alternately connect the Digital Tim epiece directly t o one of the Mac’s two serial ports as shown in Figure 3-2 on page 15.

Once you’ve made the hardware connections, establish MIDI communication between your sequencer and the Digital Timepiece in the same fashion that your sequencer does so for any MIDI device.

If you’ve connected the Digital Timepiece directly to a Macintosh, treat it as a standard 1 Mhz MIDI interface in your sequencer.

If you are using your sequencer with OMS, refer to chapter 11, “Digital Timepiece & OMS” (page 79) for details about how to add the Digital Timepiece to your OMS setup.

SLAVING YOUR SEQUENCER

In order to synchronize the two, you must slave your sequencer to the Digital Timepiece. Follow the normal procedur e in your seq uencer fo r slaving it to MIDI Time Code.

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USING YOUR SEQUENCER AS TRANSPORT MASTER

Once you’ve set up your sequencer to slave to the Digital Timepiece, you are then either slaving the Digital Timepiece to another time code source (such as SMPTE time code from a video deck), or you are using the Digital Timepiece itself as the time code master (in one of its Internal time base modes).

When an external source (such as a video deck) is the time code master, you control your sequencer (and the Digital Timepiece) from the external source (the video deck’s transports).

MIDI Machine Control (MMC)

Your sequencing software running on a computer

MIDI Time Code (MTC)

Digital Timepiece

Other devices slaved to the

Digital Timepiece

When the Digital Timepiece is the time code master (i.e. it is in one of its internal modes), you can control the Digital Timepiece (and everything connected to it) directly from your sequencer’s transport controls — as long as your sequencer supports MIDI Machine Control, as shown in Figure 10-1. Your sequencer sends MMC commands, such as play, stop and locate, to the Digital Timepiece, which follows th em. Th e Digital Timepiece, in turn, sends MID I T ime Code back t o your sequencer, which follows in perfect sync. For example, when you press your sequencer’s play button, your sequencer send s out a play command to the Digital Timepiece. The Digital Timepiece begins generating time code, which y our sequencer then slaves to . This all happens q uickly enough that it feels like you are actually making the Digital Timepiece follow your seq u e ncer. Actually, you are just triggering it from your sequencer.

Figure 10-1: When the Digital Timepiece is the time code address master (i.e. it is in one of its Internal time base modes), you can control it (and everything connected to it) directly from your sequencer’s transport controls. Your sequencer sends MMC commands to the Digital Timepiece, which sends time code back to your sequencer.

Setting up MMC control in your sequencer

Setting up MMC control in your sequencer varies, of course, by product. Please see your sequencer documentation for details. However, the one important thing you need to know is that the factory default MMC device ID of the Digital Timepiece is 1. Be sure to indicate this in your sequencer — unless your sequencer uses a zerobased numbering scheme (0-127). If so, set it to zero (0).

The goal here is to get your sequencer to send play, stop, and locate commands to the Digital Timepiece when you click the buttons in your sequencer’s main transport controls.

DIGITAL TIMEPIECE & OTHER SEQUENCERS

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MMC RECORD COMMANDS

Some sequencers have the ability to send MMC record commands to MMC devices. For example, you can reco rd-ena ble a track on a MM C device by clicking a button in your sequencer. Some sequencers let you do more elaborate record functions, such as set automatic punch-in and punch-out recording.

Many sequenc ers allow yo u to reco rd-enable tracks on MMC devices remotely from the sequencer. If yours does, you can get it to record-enable tracks on devices connected to the Digital Timepiece, such as ADATs and DA-88s.

How you set up remote control of track recordenabling varies, of course, by product. Please see your sequencer documentation for details. However, the one important thing you need to know is that you should use the ‘soft’ MMC device IDs assigned to each device by the Digital Timepiece. For complete information, see “Hard versus soft IDs” on page 61.

Global record functions

Global record commands, such as automated punch-in/out recording, require the same preparation as described in the previous section, “Setting up MMC control in your sequencer”. As long as you’ve made these preparations, your sequencer’s global record functions will work ﬁne with the devices connected to the Digital Timepiece.

Device speciﬁc record functions

If you are a Macintosh user, you will probably ﬁnd ClockWorks to be the most convenient way to control device-speciﬁc record functions. Just use the buttons in the device’s information panel in ClockWorks’ Sync/MMC window. You can easily record-enable tracks with the row(s) of record buttons provided, set track offsets, set the monitor mode, etc.

The goal here is to get your sequencer to send record-enable commands to a speciﬁc track on a speciﬁc device connected to the Digital Timepiece, such as the second ADAT in a chain of four ADATs.

If your sequencer doesn’t support these types of features, you may want to consider contacting Mark of the Unicorn for information about crossgrades to Performer and Digital Performer.

Record-arming tracks in ClockWorks

If you are using a Ma cin t osh, and you wo uld p r ef er to record-enable tracks using ClockWorks, here is what to do:

1 Launch ClockWorks. 2 Set the MIDI Machine reco rd mode in the MID I

Machine window to Record. 3 Record-enable the desired track(s) in the MIDI

Machine window. You sho uld see the rec or d meter s engaged on the front panel of your MMC or video device.

4 If you are recording t o a Sony-9-pin video deck, choose the desired VTR recording mode. For details about the r ecor d modes, see the ClockWo rks User’s Guide.

DIGITAL TIMEPIECE & OTHER SEQUENCERS

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Recording

Once you’ve record-armed a track on any device connected to the Digital Timepiece, using either ClockWorks or your sequencer to do so, you are ready to record. You can initiate recording from either ClockWorks or your sequencer as follows:

1 In the main counter, type in the location where intend to record (with appropriate preroll time). This cues the Digital Timep iec e to the correct spot.

2 Start recording by pressing th e r ec ord button in the main transports of either ClockWorks or your sequencer.

MMC record feature summary

Most sequencers allow you to do the following by MMC remote control:

■ Set the MMC record mode (rehearse, etc.)

■ Send MMC play, stop, locate and record

commands

■ Record-enable individual tracks on a device

What you cannot do in your sequencer with the Digital Timepiece (but you can do with ClockWorks):

■ Set a SMPTE offset for a device

■ Set individual track offsets for a device

■ Choose between analog or digital input on a

device

■ Set VTR record modes for Sony 9-pin devices

■ Set the monitor mode for a device (All or Auto,

which monitors record-enabled inputs only)

DIGITAL TIMEPIECE & OTHER SEQUENCERS

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CHAPTER

11 Digital T imepiece & OMS

OVERVIEW

The procedures in this chapter apply to OMS for Macintosh version 2.3.1 or later only.

OMS is a Macintosh system extension that — among other things — allows OMS-compatible software to establish MIDI communication with the Digital Timepiec e. For example, a sequ enc er o r other OMS-compatible program that supports MIDI Machine Control could be a transport master over the Digital Timepiece. This would allow you to control the Digital Timepiece — and all devices connected to it — from the OMS program. An exam ple o f this type of program is the OMS applet called “AV Controls”, which provides basic transport control over the Digital Timepiece.

This chapter explains how to set up OMS for the Digital Timepiec e. I t also e xplains ho w to run O MS programs simul taneousl y with ClockWorks, which you will want to do because ClockWorks gives you instant access to many crucial features on the devices connected to the Digital Timepiece.

ClockWorks and OMS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .79

Option 1: sharing a serial port . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .80

Option 2: using separate serial ports. . . . . . . . . .80

Preparing ClockWorks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .81

Preparing OMS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .81

Adding the DTP to your OMS setup. . . . . . . . . .81

Using AV Controls. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .82

CLOCKWORKS AND OMS

Ideally, you will want to use the Digital Timepiece software, ClockWorks, along with your OMS applicatio ns beca use Cl ockWorks provides r emo te control of the following advanced features in the devices connected to your Digital Timepiece:

■ Record-arming and disarming speciﬁc tracks in

a device

■ Setting a SMPTE offset for each device

■ Setting individual track offsets for ADATs and

DA-88s

■ Choose between analog or digital input on a

device

■ Setting the monitor mode for a device (All or

Auto, which monitors record-enabled inputs only)

■ Setting the video record mode on 9-pin

compatible video decks (Insert, Assemble, or Crash/Full Record)

There are two ways for OMS and ClockWorks to run simultaneously on a Macintosh:

■ Option 1: both share a Macintosh serial port

■ Option 2: each uses its own separate Macintosh

serial port The pros and cons of each approach are discussed

brieﬂy in the next two sections.

A special note for Pro Tools users

If you use Pro Tools, be sure to read chapter 12, “Digital Timepiece & Pro Tools” (page 83) for an important third option for dealing with OMS: using OMS emulation in FreeMIDI.

Page 80

Option 1: sharing a serial port

ClockWorks can share a Macintosh serial port with OMS programs as shown in Figure 11-1. In this scenario, only the currently active application will be able to send and receive MIDI to the Digital Timepiece and any other MIDI devices connected to the port; the program in the background will not. This won’t really be a problem if your OMS program supports MIDI Machine control — or if you ha v e set up th e OMS a p pl et called AV Contr ol s — because you will spend most of your time working in your OMS program while switching to ClockWorks occasionally to adjust the settings on your gear (adjust an ADAT track offset, for example). But your OMS program won’t, for example, be able to play back a MIDI sequence while you are working in ClockWorks.

Option 2: using separate serial ports

In this scenario (Figure 11-2), ClockWorks communicates with the Digital Timepiece via one serial port while OMS controls the other serial port. And OMS programs communicate with the Digital Timepiece via the MIDI interface. One major advantage of this scenario is that ClockWorks and OMS programs can send and receive MIDI at all times, even when they are the background application. For example, if you start playing a sequence in your OMS-compatible sequencer and then switch into ClockWorks, the sequence will continue pla ying in the backgroun d. The only major trade-off of this scenario is that it takes up both serial ports. But it you can afford to use both of them for this purpose, this is the preferred way to go.

Macintosh

computer

modem

port

Digital Timepiece

Figure 11-1: In this example (Option 1), OMS applications and ClockWorks share the same serial port to communicate with the Digital Timepiece. When you switch into ClockWorks, it takes over the serial port; when you switch back to the OMS program, it takes over the serial port. This conﬁguration does not allow the program in the background to send or receive MIDI.

serial cable

MIDI interface

MIDI

cables

☛ In this scenario, F reeMID I and OMS sh are the

same serial port as follows: when Pro Tools (or another OMS application) is active, OMS takes control of the serial port and only OMS programs can send MIDI data in and out of the computer. When ClockWorks is active, it takes over the serial port in a similar fashion. This all wo rks ﬁne as l ong as you choose the Allow other applications prefer ence in F r eeMIDI, and, respectiv ely, you turn

off the option in OMS called Run MIDI in Background.

Macintosh

computer

Digital Timepiece

Figure 11-2: In this example (option 2), ClockWorks and OMS each have their own serial port. Both can send and receive data at all times, even when they are in the background. Notice that the MIDI connections between the Digital Timepiece and the MIDI interface supply communication between OMS programs and the Digital Timepiece — including MIDI Time Code (MTC) and MMC commands.

modem

port

(OMS)

printer port

(ClockWorks)

MIDI interface

DIGITAL TIMEPIECE & OMS

Page 81

PREPARING CLOCKWORKS

If you haven’t already installed ClockWorks, the console software for the Digital Timepiece, do so now. Once you’ve done so, prepare FreeMIDI for simultaneous operation with OMS as follows:

ADDING THE DTP TO YOUR OMS SETUP

The way in which y o u add th e Digital T ime piec e to your OMS setup depends on whether the Digital Timepiece is connected to directly to your Macintosh or to a MIDI interface.

1 Launch FreeMIDI Setup (found in the FreeMIDI f ol der tha t the installer p lac es on th e to p level of your start-up hard drive).

2 Choose FreeMIDI Preferences from the File menu.

3 If you have chosen Option 1 (as described earlier in this chapter), enable the Allow other applications option. This causes ClockWorks to release the Macintosh serial port it is using when you switch it into an OMS program.

4 If you have chosen Option 2, enable the FreeMID I Applicati ons on l y option. This causes ClockWorks to continue using its own serial port even when you switch into an OMS program.

PREPARING OMS

1 Launch OMS MIDI Setup. 2 If you have chosen Option 1 (as described

earlier in this chapter), turn off the Run MIDI in background option. This causes OMS to r el ease the

Macintosh serial port(s) it is using when you switch into ClockWorks.

3 If you have chosen Option 2, turn on the Run MIDI in background option. This causes OMS to

continue using its own serial port even when you switch into ClockWorks.

4 There is another option in OMS called Use Serial DMA. If this option is available, it should be

unchecked.

If the DTP is connected to a MIDI interface

If the Digital Timepiece is connected to a MIDI interface that is connected to your Mac:

1 Choose New Device from the Studio menu in OMS Setup.

2 Type Digital Timepiece in the Name ﬁeld. The Device ID of the new device defaults to 0; this

is also the default ID of the Digital Timepiece hardware itself (although the Digital Timepiece itself uses a 1-128 numbering scheme, so in ternally it considers ID zer o — the lowest ID possible — to be 1). Keep the OMS ID setting at 0, unless you’ve changed the Digital T ime pi ece’s ID in ClockWorks for some reason. Then, make it match what ever ID you’ve chosen for the Digital Timepiece in ClockWorks — minus 1, due to the difference in numbering schemes between ClockWorks and OMS.

3 Uncheck the Is controller and Is multitimbral optio ns.

4 Enable the Sends & Receives MTC and Receives MIDI Machine Control options.

5 Uncheck all Receive Channels and click OK to conﬁrm the settings.

6 Drag a connection from the DTP icon to the interface icon in your studio setup. If you have a multiport interface like the MIDI Timepiece AV, assign a cable number.

5 The option called Turn on Appletalk after last OMS application quits should be unchecked.

DIGITAL TIMEPIECE & OMS

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Figure 11-3: In this example, the Digital Timepiece is connected to cable 2 of a MIDI Timepiece AV.

8 Click OK to conﬁrm the settings.

If the DTP is connected directly to a serial port

If the Digital Timepiece is connected directly to one of the Mac’s serial ports:

1 Choose MIDI Cards & Interfaces from the Studio menu in OMS Setup.

2 In the setup window, click Update Setup. After OMS scans the serial port, it will produce a standard interface.

3 Choose New Device from the Studio menu. 4 Type Digital Timepiece in the Name ﬁeld.

The Device ID of the new device defaults to 0; this is also the default ID of the Digital Timepiece hardware itself (although the Digital Timepiece itself uses a 1-128 numbering scheme, so in ternally it considers ID zer o — the lowest ID possible — to be 1). Keep the OMS ID setting at 0, unless you’ve changed the Digital T ime piec e’s ID in ClockWorks for some reason. Then, make it match what ever ID you’ve chosen for the Digital Timepiece in ClockWorks — minus 1, due to the difference in numbering schemes between ClockWorks and OMS.

Figure 11-4: In this example, the Digital Timepiece is the MIDI interface and a MIDI Machine Device.

USING AV CONTROLS

In AV Controls, Opcode’s MMC transport applet, set the master device to Digital Timepiece.

To send MMC transport commands to the Digital Timepiece with the Digital Timepiece as the time base master, engage the Online button.

To record, make the following preparations:

■ Be sure the record mode is set to Record.

■ Make sure that at least one track is record-

enabled.

■ In ClockWorks, be sure the Allow record…

setting in the Sync/MMC window is set to Any application. This is setting is located in the pop-up menu found next to the Record mode pop-up menu in the Sync/MMC Window.

5 Uncheck the Is controller and Is multitimbral optio ns.

6 Enable the Sends & Receives MTC and Receives MIDI Machine Control options.

7 Uncheck all Receive Channels.

DIGITAL TIMEPIECE & OMS

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CHAPTER

12 Digital T imepiece & Pr o Tools

OVERVIEW

This chapter explains how to incorporate Pro Tools™ (4.0 or higher) into your Digital T ime pi ece system.

Because the Digital Timepiece is so ﬂexible, there are many ways to use it with Pro Tools. This chapter helps you set up the best operating scenario for you.

In general, Pro Tools can serve as a master over your entire rig (as long as your other devices allow it). Or you can slave Pro Tools to just about anything via the Digital Timepiece, including the Digital Timepiece itself. The Digital Timepiece’s unique “triple-sync” feature provides the tightest

possible synchronization between Pro Tools and other devices via the Digital Timepiece. When slaving Pro Tools, you have many choices for what you can use for transport control, including ClockWorks, MIDI sequencers, dedicated control surfaces like the Alesis BRC, and other hardware.

Pro Tools, ClockWorks, OMS & FreeMIDI . . . .84

Enabling OMS emulation in FreeMIDI . . . . . . .85

Preparing OMS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .85

Pro Tools as master. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .86

Pro Tools as slave. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .88

Pro Tools and Triple-sync . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .91

Transport control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .91

Lockup time. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .92

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PRO TOOLS, CLOCKW ORKS , OMS & F R EEMIDI

MIDI communi cation between Pro Tools software and the Digital Timepiece is essential. The two synchronize with one another via MIDI Time Code. Further, you may wish to include MIDI sequencing activities during your Pro Tools sessions by playing back MIDI sequences directly within Pro Tools or by playing them from a MIDI sequencer running concurrently with Pro Tools.

ClockWorks also requires MIDI communication with the Digital Timepiece. In fact, you may often want to run ClockWorks simultaneously with Pro Tools so that you have complete remote control of the Digital Timepiece and the settings in the devices connected to it, such as SMPTE offsets on MMC devices and track offsets on yo ur AD AT s and DA -88s.

For MIDI communication, Pro Tools relies on OMS. On the other hand, ClockWorks relies on FreeMIDI (as d o Performer and Digital Pe rfo rmer, if you are using them). Fortunately, you can easily install and use both MIDI operating systems as described in the previous chapter.

Which way s hould y ou g o? The decision is m ostly a matter of convenience. Things will work ﬁne — with a few minor trade-offs — either way. Perhaps the most important factor to consider is MIDI sequencing: do you need to play MIDI simultaneously with Pro Tools? If so, you either need to play MIDI sequences from within Pro Tools (requires OMS), or run a sequencer simultaneously. If you want to use Performer or Digital Performer, it will be more convenient for you to use FreeMIDI and O MS e mulation. If you are using an OMS sequencer, you will be better off using OMS.

Summary

It will be more convenient for you to run Pro Tools under FreeMIDI’s OMS emulation if:

■ You are using Pro Tools and ClockWorks by

themselves, and you don’t intend to play MIDI sequences, either from Pro Tools or another sequencer

■ You intend to use Performer (or Digital

Performer) with Pro Tools for MIDI playback

FreeMIDI Version 1.33 or higher, however, offers another possibility: OMS emulation in FreeMIDI. This scenario might be even more convenient for you, depending on how you work with Pro Tools. In this scenario, you remove OMS entirely from your system, turn on OMS emula tion in F reeMID I, and run Pro Tools under FreeMIDI’s OMS emulation.

OMS versus OMS emulation

In summary, your two choices are:

■ Run both OMS and FreeMIDI as described in

the previous chapter

■ Run FreeMIDI by itself and operate Pro Tools

under FreeMIDI’s OMS emulation

On the other hand, you’ll need to use OMS instead if:

■ You want to play back MIDI sequences directly

from within Pro Tools

■ You intend to use an OMS-co mpatib le sequencer

with Pro Tools for MIDI playback After you deci de, refer t o the f o llo wing section that

applies to you.

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ENABLING OMS EMULATION IN FREEMIDI

Follow the directions in this section if you have decided to use Fr eeMID I ’s OMS emulation instead of using OMS (as discussed earlier in this chapter).

Once you have installed ClockWorks (which also installs FreeMIDI), turn on OMS emulation in FreeMIDI as follows:

1 Disable OMS. Ther e are several c on venien t way s to do this. You can turn off the OMS System Extension in the Extensions Manager Control Panel. Or you can drag the OMS System Extension out of the Extensions folder in your Macintosh’s start-up System Folder.

PREPARING OMS

If you have decided to use OMS instead of FreeMIDI ’ s O MS emula tion (as discussed earlier in this chapter), go ahead and install both ClockWorks and OMS as usual, such that both FreeMIDI and OMS are installed in your system. Then conﬁgure OMS as described in chapter 11, “Digital Timepiece & OMS” (page 79). When you are ﬁnished, the following should be true:

■ Your OMS setup has a properly conﬁgured

Digital Timepiece in it. OMS can send and receive MIDI data to and from the Digital Timepiece, including MIDI Time Code (MTC) and MIDI Machine Control (MMC).

2 Launch FreeMIDI Setup. (The installer puts it a folder called Fr eeMIDI A ppli cation s on the top l evel of your start-up hard drive.)

3 Choose Preferences from the File menu.

Figure 12-1: Launch the FreeMIDI Setup application and choose Preferences from the File menu to enable OMS emulation in FreeMIDI.

4 Enable the FreeMID I Applica tio ns Onl y option. 5 Enable the Emulate OMS option. 6 Enable the Inter-application MIDI option. 7 Click OK.

■ You have successfully set up OMS and

ClockWorks so that they can be run simultaneously .

DIGITAL TIMEPIECE & PRO TOOLS

Page 86

PRO TOOLS AS MASTER

In this scenario, Pro Tools is the timebase, address and transport master. The Digital Timepiece — and everything connected to it — slaves to Pro Tools. Pro Tools transmits 256x word clock (“slave clock”) and MTC to the Digital Timepiece, which slaves t o both, as demonstra ted in F igure 12-2. The Digital Timepiece is placed in Word 256x/MTC mode so that it uses the wo r d c loc k fro m P ro Tools as a time base and MTC generat ed b y P r o Tools for address. You have transport control over everything from the Pro Tools transport window on your Macintosh screen.

Pro Tools

MTC

256x word clock from Pro Tools I/O interface

Digital Timepiece mode: 256x/MTC

MIDI Time Code

from Pro Tools

software

another situation that requires you to use the Digital Timepiece —or another device in your rig — as the time base, address, or transport master, then you must use one of the other scenarios discussed later in this chapter.

☛ For the tightest synchronization possible

between Pro Tools and other devices, see “Pro Tools and Triple-sync” on page 91.

Essential connections

1 Connect the Slave Clock Output of your Pro Tools I/O to the Word 256x Input of the Digital Timepiece. Be sure to remove the opposite 256x word clock connections (so that Pro Tools doesn’t think it’s a word clock slave).

2 You will also need bi-directional MIDI connections between the Mac and the Digital Timepiece for MIDI Time Code.

Digital Timepiece mode

Put the Digital T ime p iec e into 256x/MTC mode. It will then establish time base lock to 256x word clock input from the slave clock output of your Pro Tools I/O interface. It will then wait to receive MIDI Time Code from Pro Tools.

Other devices slaved to

REC

PLAY

the Digital Timepiece

ClockWorks and your MIDI sequencing software (if any)

Figure 12-2: When you set up Pro Tools as the master, the Digital Timepiece slaves to 256x word clock and MTC generated by Pr o Tools. The Digital Timepiece time base mode is ‘Word 256x/MTC’.

SONY 9-pin compatible video deck

When to use this setup

If you would like to control everything from your Pro Tools on-screen transport buttons, this setup is the preferred wa y to go — as l ong as yo ur reco rding project allow s yo u to use P ro Tools as both the time base and address master. If, however, you need to slave Pro Tools to ﬁlm or video, or you have

If the Digital Timepiec e doesn ’ t pro perly lock to the 256x time base, make sure that the Sync Mode setting in Pro Tools is set to Internal.

Setting up OMS and/or FreeMIDI

This scenario works well either with OMS or with FreeMIDI’s OMS emulation. If you don’t normally use OMS and you won’t be playing any MIDI sequences during yo ur P ro Tools sessions — either from Pro Tools or from a sequencer, you can simplify your life a little bit by removing OMS and using FreeMIDI’s OMS emulation (as described in “Enabling OMS emulation in FreeMIDI” on page 85). You’ll deﬁnitely want to use emulation if you wan t t o sync P erf o rmer (or Digital Performer) simultaneously with Pro Tools.

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If you intend to play MIDI sequences from within Pro Tools or an OMS-dependent sequencer, set up OMS and FreeMIDI as described in chapter 11, “Digital Timepiece & OMS” (page 79).

Pro Tools software settings

1 Open Pro Tools (4.0 or higher) and make sure that it is off line (not slaved to external time code).

Take Pro Tools off-line

Using ClockWorks

Since Pro Tools is the transport master in this scenario, the only time you’ll need to use ClockWorks is when you are tweaking the settings in the Digital Timepiece. B ut y ou won’t be using the transport controls in ClockWorks.

Syncing Performer or Digital Performer with Pro T ools

If you want to run Performer or Digital Performer (in MIDI Only mode) simultaneously with Pro Tools in this scenario, you need to use FreeMIDI’s OMS emulation as described in “Enabling OMS emulation in FreeMIDI” on page 85.

Figure 12-3: Put Pro Tools under internal control by taking it off line.

2 Choose Show Session Setup from the Display menu.

3 Set the Pro Tools hardware Sync Mode to Internal.

4 Make the Sample Rate, Frame Rate and Session Start settings as desired.

5 Expand the window so the Output Timecode settings at the bottom are visible.

Set the Pro Tools hardware sync mode to Internal.

Figure 12-4: Make Pro Tools transmit MIDI Time Code (MTC) as shown above when you want Pro Tools to be the master.

6 Enable MTC to Port, and route MTC to the Digital Timepiece device you have conﬁgured in OMS (or in FreeMIDI via OMS emulation).

If you now press play in Pro Tools, the Digital Timepiece will follow MTC from Pro Tools.

With Pro Tools serving as master, you control everything from the transport controls in Pro Tools. Slave Performer to external time code in the usual fashion, and it will slave to MIDI Time Code being sent back to the Mac from the Digital Timepiece as shown in Figure 12-2 on page 86.

If you want to use the transport controls in Performer, you have to slave Pro Tools to the Digital Timepiece as d escribed later in this c hapt er. As of version 4.01 of Pro Tools, there is no way to set things up so that you can freely use the transport controls in both programs. Future versions of Pro Tools and Performer may support this. For now, you have to choose one or the other and set things up accordingly.

Syncing an OMS sequencer with Pro Tools

If you want to run an OMS-dependent sequencer simultaneously with Pro Tools in this scenario, set up OMS as described in chapter 11, “Digital Timepiece & OMS” (page 79). Set up Pro Tools to be the transport master as shown in Figure 12-3 and make it transmit MTC as shown in Figure 12-4. Then set up your OMS sequencer to slave to MTC as usual from the Digital Timepiece. Note that in this scenario, the sequencer is slaving to MTC from the Digital timepiece, not Pro Tools, which is sending MTC to the Digital Timepiece.

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PRO TOOLS AS SLAVE

In this scenario, Pro Tools slaves to the Digital Timepiec e. The Digital Time pi ece feeds 256x word clock (“slave clock”) to the Pro Tools audio interface hard ware (e.g. 882 or 888 I/O) t o provide Pro Tools with a stable, accurate, continuously resolved time base. The Digital Timepiece also transmits MTC to the Pro Tools software running on the Mac as shown in Figure 12-5. This scenario gives you considerable ﬂexibility because you can, in turn, sla ve th e Digital Tim epiec e (along with Pr o Tools) to many other possible time base and SMPTE address sources. In addition, you have many possible sources for transport control over the entire rig. Note, however, that since Pro T ools is acting “online” as a slave in this scenario, you cannot use the transports in Pro Tools. To do so, make Pro Tools the master as discussed earlier.

When to use this setup

Use this setup any time you need to synchronize Pro Tools with any device that cannot be a slave itself, such as a video deck (one that doesn’t support the SONY 9-pin protocol) or an analog tape deck. This setup shoul d also be used when you want to control everything from transport controls other than those in Pro Tools, such as the transports on a video deck, MIDI sequen cer, Alesis BRC, etc.

☛ For the tightest synchronization possible

between Pro Tools and other devices, see “Pro Tools and Triple-sync” on page 91.

Essential connections

1 Connect the Word 256x Output on the Digital Timepiec e to th e Sla ve Clock In put of the Pro T ools Audio Interface (882, 888, etc.)

Example 2: MMC commands

Example 1: SMPTE time code (LTC) from a video deck (serves as time base and address master)

REC

PLAY

MTC to

Pro Tools

software

Pro Tools

Figure 12-5: Slave Pro Tools to the Digital Timepiece (and other devices) as shown here. Note that this scenario gives you many possible choices for transport control over your rig. For even tighter lockup between Pro Tools and the Digital Timepiece (and other devices connected to it), see “Pro Tools and Triple-sync” on page 91.

from Performer or another sequencer trigger the Digital Timepiece running in Internal mode.

Digital Timepiece

256x word clock to Pro Tools I/O interface

Example 3: an Alesis BRC (or other similar hardware control surface) serves as master

BRC

Other devices slaved to the

Digital Timepiece

2 Be sure to remove the opposite 256x wor d c lock connections (so that Pro Tools doesn’t think it is the word clock master).

3 You will also need bi-directional MIDI connections between the Mac and the Digital Timepiece for MIDI Time Code.

Digital Timepiece mode

The mode you choose for the Digital Timepiece depends on which device(s) you would like to use in your studio as the time base, address and transport master. You can use the Digital Timepiece itself, or pretty much any other source you wan t — with the ex ceptio n of 256x wor d cl ock as a time base master (since Pro Tools is slaving to the Digital Timepiece). A few examples are shown in Figure 12-5. For the tightest sync and fastest possible lockup times, see “Pro Tools and Triplesync” on page 91.

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Setting up OMS and/or FreeMIDI

This scenario works well either with OMS or with FreeMIDI’s OMS emulation. If you don’t normally use OMS and you won’t be playing any MIDI sequences during yo ur Pr o Tools sessions — either from Pro Tools or from a sequencer, you can simplify your life a little bit by removing OMS and using FreeMIDI’s OMS emulation (as described in “Enabling OMS emulation in FreeMIDI” on page 85). You’ll deﬁnitely want to use emulation if you want to use Performer (or Digital Performer) simultaneously with Pro Tools.

If you intend to play MIDI sequences from within Pro Tools or an OMS-dependent sequencer, set up OMS and FreeMIDI as described in chapter 11, “Digital Timepiece & OMS” (page 79).

Pro Tools software settings

In this scenario, you want to slave the Pro Tools software to MIDI Time Code (from the Digital Timepiece) in the usual fashion. You also want Pro Tools to slave to the 256x wo rd clock being r eceiv ed from the Digital Timepiece.

1 Open Pro T ool s (4.0 or higher) and choose Show Session Setup from the Display menu.

2 Set the Pro Tools hardware Sync Mode to Internal.

3 Make sure the Sample Rate and Frame Rate settings match the Digital Timepiece settings, and make the Session Start setting as needed.

4 Put Pro Tools Online.

Put Pro Tools Online

Pro Tools will now wait for MTC from the Digital Timepiece.

Using ClockWorks

Regardless of how you’ve set up FreeMIDI and/or OMS, you can use ClockWorks to manage the settings in the Digital Timepiece.

If you choose one of the Digital Timepiece’s Internal modes (Internal, Video/internal, Word 1x/ Internal, etc.) — where the Digital T im epi ece i tself is acting as the address master, you can use the transport controls in ClockWorks to drive the whole rig — as long as you’ve set up OMS and/or FreeMIDI so that Pro Tools and ClockWorks can communicate simultaneously with the Digital Timepiece. This requires either FreeMIDI’s OMS emulation (as described in “Enabling OMS emulation in FreeMIDI” on page 85) or FreeMIDI and OMS running together on separa te serial ports as described in “Option 2: using separate serial ports” on page 80. In either case, both Pro Tools and ClockWorks are slaving to MTC from the Digital Timepiece. In addition, ClockWorks issues MMC transport commands to the Digital Timepiece to trigger it.

Syncing Performer or Digital Performer with Pro T ools

If you want to run Performer or Digital Performer (as a MIDI Only application) simultaneously with Pro Tools in this scenario, y ou need use F r eeMIDI’s OMS emulation as described in “Enabling OMS emulation in FreeMIDI” on page 85. Performer slaves to external time code in the usual fashion. Both Pro Tools and Performer can slave to incoming MTC simultaneously, with one program slaving in the background while the other is the active application.

Figure 12-6: Slave Pro T ools to MIDI Time C ode from Digital Timepiec e by putting Pro Tools Online.

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transport controls in Performer to drive the whole rig as described in chapter 9, “Digital Timepiece & Performer” (page 67). As of version 4.01 of Pro Tools, however, there is no way to set things up so that you can freely use the transport controls in both programs. Future versions of Pro Tools and Performer may support this. For now, you have to choose one or the other and set things up accordingly.

Syncing an OMS sequencer with Pro Tools

House Sync

Video Generator

Blackburst

sequencer to sla ve to MT C as usual from the Digital Timepiece. Note that in this scenario, the sequencer is slaving to MTC from the Digital timepiece, not Pro Tools.

If the Digital Timepiece is operating in one of its Internal modes (Internal, Video/internal, Word 1x/ Internal, etc.) — where the Digital T im epi ece i tself is acting as the address master, you can use the transport controls in your MMC-com pa tible O MS sequencer (or other program) to drive the whole rig. For details, see chapter 10, “Digital Timepiece & Other Sequencers” (page 75).

Blackburst

Video Sync In

Any device that generates word clock while resolved to video, such as a DA-88 with SY-88 Sync Card or an Aardvark Aardsync™ converter

If you use a DA-88/SY-88 as shown in this example, check the setup notes in Figure 3-13 on page 20 for additional important info.

Pro Tools

Figure 12-7: Slaving Pro Tools using one of the Digital Timepiece’s ‘Triple-sync’ modes — the most accurate way to sync Pro T ools with the Digital Timepiece. In this example , house sync video (blackburst) is being fed to the Digital Timepiece, a video deck, and a DA-88 with an SY-88 card. The Digital Timepiece mode is ‘Word ‘1x/Video/L TC’. This mode makes the Digital Timepiece resolv e to the word clock from the SY -88 while referencing blackburst to maintain extremely accurate frame-edge boundaries. The video deck feeds SMPTE time code (LTC) to the Digital Timepiece and serves as the transport master of this rig. SMPTE can also be fed to the DA-88/SY-88 (not shown).

Word clock

out

MTC to Pro Tools software

word clock (1x)

Word 1x IN SMPTE IN (LTC)

Blackburst

256x word clock to Pro Tools I/O interface

Video IN

Various forms of word clock and SMPTE time code distributed

Video Sync In

REC

PLAY

LTC out

SMPTE

(LTC)

by the Digital Timepiece to other devices.

Video deck that can

resolve to house sync

(address and transport

master)

Digital Timepiece time base mode: Word 1x/video/LTC

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PRO T OOLS AND TRIPLE-SYNC

The term triple-sync refers to a special form of synchronization em pl oyed in the following Digital Timepiece modes:

■ Word 1x/Video/Internal

■ Word 1x/Video/MTC

■ Word 1x/Video/LTC

■ Word 1x/Video/VITC

Pro Tools — including ClockWorks, Performer, Digital Performer and O MS-dependent seq uencers — works with triple-sync as well.

TRANSPORT CONTROL

Each Pro Tools setup discussed in this chapter dictates possible sources f or transpo rt con trol over the rig as a whole. If you feel strongly about what you would like to use for transport control, here is a summary of your options.

■ Word 1x/Video/Sony

As you can see, these modes allow the Digital Timepiece to simultaneously reference word clock (for time base) and video (for accura te frame-edge alignment). At the same time, the Digital Timepiece can follow SMPTE address from a third source (Internal, LTC, MTC, VITC or SONY).

These triple-sync modes require video house sync (“blackburst”), as well as a word clock source that can resolve to house sync, such as a Tascam SY-88 card or an Aardvark Aardsync™ video-to-word clock converter. When you connect them to the Digital Timepiece as demonstrated in Figure 12-7 on page 90, this setup provides the tightest synchronization and fastest lockup times possible with the Digital Timepiece an d Pr o Tools. Our tests have shown that with an accurate word clock source like the Aardsync converter, consecutive record passes into Pro Tools are within 5-10 samples of each other. This leve l of accuracy can be achieved even when recording from an analog audio source such as a video deck (as long as the video deck is resolved to house sync as well).

How to set up triple-sync with Pro Tools

Follow the same dir ections f o r setting up P r o Tools as a slave, starting with “Essential connections” on page 88. When choosing a time base mode for the Digital Timepiece, use the appropriate triple-sync mode listed above. Everything else about slaving

If you want to control everything from the transport window in the Pro Tools software running on your Mac, you have to use the sync scenario discussed in “Pro Tools as master” on page 86.

As of Pro Tools version 4.01, ther e is no wa y fo r Pr o Tools to share transport control with another source, such as a sequencer. So when you run Pro Tools as the master, you’ll only be able to use the transports in Pro Tools.

If you want to control Pro Tools from any other transport control surface, either hardware or software, you have to slave Pro Tools to the Digital Timepiece as discussed in either “Pro Tools as slave ” on page 88 or “Pro Tools and Triple-sync” on page 91.

One advantage to slaving Pro Tools is that you can often arrange multiple transport control sources for your c onvenience — if your setu p allows it. For example, if you are running the Digital Timepiece in one of its internal modes (suc h as the triple-sync mode word 1x/video/internal), you can trigger it from ClockWorks, Performer (or other MMCcompatible sequencer), an Alesis LRC connected to the Digital Timepiece, or any other MMC control surface.

As far as setting up transport control over everything from your Mac, you have the following possibilities:

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■ The transport controls in Pro Tools

■ The transport controls in ClockWorks

■ The transport controls in Performer or Digital

Performer

■ The transport controls in another sequencer

Not all of them can be availabl e at one time. (Refer to the note above about Pro Tools as transport master.) Refer to the following sections for details:

■ “Using ClockWorks” on page 87 and page 89

■ “Syncing Performer or Digital Performer with

Pro Tools” on page 87 and page 89

■ “Syncing an OMS sequencer with Pro Tools” on

page 87 and page 90

LOCKUP TIME

The fastest lockup times will be achieved when yo u set up Pro Tools as the master or when Pro Tools is a slave and the Digital Timepiece is operating in one of its internal modes. In all of these cases, the Digital Timepiece has a continuous timebase to which it contin u o us l y resolves (such as house sync video or word clock), even when time code is not running, so the audio phase-lock engine does not have to stop and start. The fastest lockup times can be achieved when the Digital Timepiece is in Internal mode (as the time base and address master), or one of its triple-sync modes.

DIGITAL TIMEPIECE & PRO TOOLS

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CHAPTER

13 Alesis LRC

USING AN ALESIS LRC

The Digital Timepi ece LRC jack on the front panel serves as a connector for the Alesis LRC (Little Remote Control). An LRC can be used as a transport controller for the Digital Timepi ece and all slaved devices.

Transport control and shuttling with the LRC

All basic transport buttons (PLAY, STOP, REW, etc.) should function as labeled on the LRC. The Fast Forward and R ewind butt ons s hu ttle f orwards and backwards in ten-second intervals.

LRC BUTTON FUNCTIONS

There are a number of third-party LRCcompatible p rod ucts on the mark et. Depending on your particular LRC model, some of the supplemental buttons on the LRC may not be supported, or they made function differently than a standard LRC.

With a gen uin e, original Alesis LRC c onn ected to a Digital Timepiece, the LRC buttons function as follows:

Digital

Button

SET LOCATE Set Locate None LOCATE 0 Locate 0 GP0 LOCATE 1 Locate 1 GP1 LOCATE 2 Locate 2 GP2 AUTO 2 > 1 Locate 3 GP3

Timepiece Function

Associated MMC Field

With an Alesis LRC for the ADAT XT, the LRC buttons function as follows:

Digital

Button

SET LOCATE Set Locate None LOCATE 2 Locate 0 GP0 AUTO LOOP Locate 1 GP1 LOCATE 1 Locate 2 GP2 LOCATE 4 Locate 3 GP3 LOCATE 3 Locate 4 GP4 AUTO RECORD None None REHEARSE None None

Timepiece Function

Associated MMC Field

With a Fostex LRC connected, the LRC buttons function as follows:

Digital

Button

AUTO REC Set Locate None MARK IN Locate 0 GP0 MARK OUT Locate 1 GP1 A-RTN Locate 2 GP2 LOC Locate 3 GP3 A-PLAY Locate 4 GP4 AUTO INPUT MONITOR None None ALL INPUT MONITOR None None

Timepiece Function

Associated MMC Field

AUTO PLAY Locate 4 GP4 AUTO INPUT MONITOR None None ALL INPUT MONITOR None None

If you have an LRC unit other than an Alesis or Fostex model and are unsure about its operation with the Digital Timepiece, please contact Mark of the Unicorn technical support.

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LRC CALIBRATION

In some cases, yo u may need t o calibrat e the Digital Timepiece to work properly with a speciﬁc LRC. If your LRC is not working as it should with the Digital Timepiece, try the procedure below.

Two pots on the Digital Timepiece circuit board can be used to calibrate it for an LRC. As the front of the Digital Timepiece is facing you, the pot on the right is the RANGE pot. The pot on the left is the OFFSET pot. To view the LRC value, use a video monitor connected to the Digital Timepiece VIDEO OUT, and turn on the video display with ClockWorks.

1 Set the RANGE pot and the OFFSET pot to their midpoint position.

2 Plug in your LRC and a d just th e O FFS ET pot t o

4. Slowly turn the OFFSET pot clockwise until the LRC value readout on the video monitor just begins to hold steady at 3.

3 Press the ALL INPUT MONIT OR b utto n on the LRC. (This is the top left button on LRC if you are using a third-party brand.)

4 Adjust the RANGE Pot for an LRC value readout that toggles between 59 & 60.

5 Press the LRC’s RECORD button. 6 Set OFFSET pot so that LRC video readout

toggles between 6 & 7. At this point, it is normal for the idle value (no

buttons pressed) to be 3 or 4.

ALESIS LRC

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CHAPTER

14 Troubleshooting

COMMON PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS

My DA-88 or DA-38 just sits there and doesn’t respond to cueing commands.

Is the D A -88’s MMC device ID on the rear panel set to zero (0)? If so, set i t to any other number besides zero (which is reserved for th e master device o f the DA-88 chain, whi ch is the Digital Timepiece in this case). I f you have a chain of D A -88s, make sure you give it an ID number that isn’t being used by any other DA-88. If you have a DA-38, set its ID to 1.

When I try to engage pla y fr o m th e co nso le (o r a ny other time base master), my Sony 9-pin deck doesn’t go into play. It appears to shuttle between rewind and play.

You are likely trying to locate to a frame location that the 9-pin cannot locate to. This might happen if, for example, the 9-pin was striped with its LTC card at 10:00:00:00, but you ar e trying to play from 1:00:00:00. To correct this, temporarily put the 9pin in “local” mode (or your 9-pin device’s equivalent mode), and engage play from the front panel. Th e 9-pin device ’s display should tell yo u the current frame location. Adjust the console’s offset appropriately. If you are slaving the DTP to VITC, try adjusting the VITC calibration.

When using my ADAT or ADAT/BRC as master time base, I am unable to send record commands to other MMC devices. Why?

With the ADAT or ADAT/BRC as master, at least one track on the master ADAT must be recordenabled in order for record commands to pass to other MMC devices. All other transport commands will function, however.

I can ’ t get my MM C con troller t o con trol the Di gital Timepiece. Why not?

Check the device ID setting in your MMC controller f or the Digital T imep iece. An d wat ch ou t for zero-based numbering schemes, which consider the range of MMC IDs to be from 0-127 instead of 1-128. See “Zero-based numbering schemes” on page 60 for further information.

I’m ha ving trou ble with setting the MM C device ID for the Digital Timepiece in my sequencer or MMC controller. What am I doing wrong?

See above.

Why does the time code display on slaving MMC devices run much faster than the time code display in the console?

You probably do not have matched sample rates. If you are in internal mode, be sure that the Digital Timepiece’s sample rate matches slaving devices’ sample rate. Also note: DA-88 tapes are formatted with a particular sample rate, so if the DA-88’s sample rate is not matched, you may want to change the Digital Timepiece’s sample rate to match or reformat the tape.

I accidently edited one of my device’s soft ID numbers, now when I try to do any function from the console (like record-enable), the wrong MMC device responds. Is there an easy way to ﬁx this?

Yes. Simp ly pow er cycle the Digital T ime piece. This forces the Digital Timepiece to re-identify MMC devices and reassign soft ID numbers.

I’m trying to set a negative offset for my ADAT in ClockWorks, but the ADAT doesn’t seem to respond.

Check the amount of the offset. ADATs do not support more than a negative one hour offset.

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My Digita l T imep iece is co nne cted to m y M ac via a MIDI Timepiece (or a MIDI Timepiece network), but I can’t get ClockW o rks to c om m un icat e r elia bl y — or at all — with the Digital Timepiece.

If you hav e an original MIDI T imep iece, the Digital Timepiece cannot be connected to the Mac or Network serial port. With an original MTP, always connect the Digital Timepiece to a pair (IN and OUT) of its MIDI ports instead. If you ha v e a MIDI Timepiece II, in some situations there can be problems connecting the Digital Timepiece to an MTP II when it is the second unit in a two-MTP network (via MIDI port or serial ports). In this case, connect the Digital Timepiece to a pair of MIDI ports on the ﬁrst MTP in the network (box 1-8).

When I boot the console, the Sync/MMC window only displays the transports, but it doesn’t display ADAT s, DA -88’s, or any other MMC device like the user’s manual displays.

First, be sure tha t yo u ha ve y our devices co nnected, and that you’ve gone through the procedure of setting up a FreeMIDI Conﬁguration. Next, check the Device List window in the console, and make sure the Digital Timepiece is the current device.

When parked on a video frame, the Digital Timepiece looks like it’s trying to sync to the continual frame, and as a result, all my devices “ﬂip out.” Can I prevent this?

Yes, explode the Sync/ MMC window, and Enable still-frame sensitivity.

How come I cannot enter pre cise sec onds locations in the console? I try to enter 00:00:25:00, and the console jumps to 00:00:27:00.

The D A-88 can only locate in 3 second intervals. If the D A -88 i s on lin e and you enter a loca tion in th e console, the Digital Timepiece will cue to the nearest 3 second location.

I’ve been running ﬁne with Pro Tools slaved to the Digital Timepiece. However, now I’m trying to use the Digital Timepiece as a master slaved to MTC transmitting from Pro Tools 4 on the computer, and I cannot get the Digital Timepiece to lock.

If you are changing over the time base to MTC generated from Pro Tools, be sure you have disconnected the Word 256x output from the Digital Timepiece to the Pro Tools I/O. Otherwise, you may be generating bogus time code so far out of range, that the Digital Timepiece cannot lock to it.

It takes a long time for my Sony 9-pin deck to locate. Since I ’ m curren tly edi ting onl y aud io on my other machines, is there a way to take the 9-pin temporarily off-line?

Sure, but you don’t have to. You could use the offline button in the console to take any device temporarily off line. Alternately, you can highlight the device in the Sync/MMC window, choose “Set Machine Preferences” from the mini-menu, and disable “Wait for device on play.” In this setting, the 9-pin device will still slave, however, the Digital Timepiece will not “wait” for the device to locate before sending other slave devices into play.

When monitoring the SMPTE Reader window, why am I never able to establish Video Lock?

You probably have not deﬁned a valid video frame rate. Valid video rates are 29.97 fps (NTSC) or 25 fps (PAL).

I’m using Video/LTC as my time base, feeding blackburst from house sync generator and nothing appears to be truly phase locked.

Always be sure there’s some relation with the time base and master. The most common problem that would cause these symptoms, is that the LTC source isn’t also locked to house sync.

I've setup FreeMIDI according to your manual's instructions, and I'm running Digital Performer and Clock Works together. I can hit play in Digital Performer, but when I bring Clock Works as the front application, MIDI plays back in the background, but audio does not. Why?

Digital Performer plays back audio via DAE (Digidesign's Audio Engine), which is not capable of patching thru audio in the background. This is not a bug, rather a limitation of DAE.

TROUBLESHOOTING

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Since con necting t he Digital T imepi ece to m y MIDI interface, I've been encountering SysEx errors in my editor/librarian.

The Digital Timepi ece in i ts default state will “poll” for MMC devices. Because of this, the Digital Timepiece will transmit SysEx. If this SysEx is merged with SysEx that the MIDI device or editor/ librarian is expecting, it may ca use S ysEx erro rs. To correct the problem, you can temporarily turn off the Digital Timepiece, or you can turn off “Enable automatic device detection” in the Device Settings and Routing window's Port Setting for all devices. Doing so disables the Digital Timepiece's polling.

Most, but not all of my LRC buttons work.

Review the LRC section in the user's manual, and compare values in the LRC table with the LRC values generat ed by y our LR C (use a video monit or if necessary to display the values). If values do not match, use the calibration procedure to “ﬁne tune” your Digital Timepiece for your LRC.

When I change time base mode to AD AT, the AD AT in my console software appears with an “X” through it, and a Purge button displays. Why?

Neither an ADAT nor DA-88 can simultaneously be a slave and master at the same time. In ADAT master mode, you are essentially controlling the ADAT from its front pan el, and you lose the ability to control device-speciﬁc functions from the software console.

When I slave t he DTP to my analog multitrack (or other analog SMPTE source), sometimes when I stop and start the transports, it takes the DTP much longer to lock up. Why?

When the DTP locks to LTC, it tracks the speed of the incoming time code so that it can be ready to freewheel and jam-sync at the same speed as the time code. Some analog tape decks (and other analog video and audio recording equipment), especially older ones, leave their playback head engaged as the tape transport starts and stops. In addition, they don’t automatically mute when the transport is starting up or stopping. The result is that when you stop the deck, the LTC slows down drastically as the transport comes to a stop. When the DTP tracks this drastic slow-down in the time code, its phase lock engine adjusts to the drastically slower speed. When you start feeding it normal time code again, it has to spin back up to a normal speed, whic h takes m uch lo nger than usual beca use of the size of the change. So initially, you might experience a lock-up time of approximately 5-10 seconds. If you stop the deck then hit play again, the DTP might take 20 seco nds t o a min ut e t o lock. If you then power-cycle the DTP, the lock up time the next time you hit play will be back to the normal 5-10 seconds.

Why does my DA-88 display “Warning E CLOC” on the front panel in some time base settings?

This is a warning that the D A-88 displays if there is no detection of clock (ex. ADAT time base setting). In most cases, once the time base master goes into play and clock is generated to the DA-88, the error goes away.

TROUBLESHOOTING

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CUSTOMER SUPPORT

We are happy to provide customer support to our registered users. If you haven’t already done so, please take a moment to complete the registration card included with your Digital Timepiece. When we receive your card, you’ll be placed on our mailing list for free software updates and information about new products.

REPLACING DISKS

If your ClockWorks software disk becomes damaged and fails to provide you with fresh, working copies of the program, our Customer Support Department will be glad to replace it. You can request a replacement disk by calling our business ofﬁce at (617) 576-2760 a nd asking for th e customer service department.

TECHNICAL SUPPORT

Registered users who are un able, with their dealer’s help, to solve problems they encounter with the Digital Timepiece may contact our technical support department in one of the following ways:

■ Tech support phone: (617) 576-3066

(This line is open from 9 am to 6 pm EST.)

■ The serial number of the Digital Timepiec e. This

is printed on a sticker placed on the bottom of the Digital Timepiece. You must be able to supply this number to receive technical support.

■ The version ClockWorks you are working with.

This is displayed in the About ClockWorks command in the Apple menu.

■ A brief explanation of the pr oblem, inclu ding the

exact sequence of actions which cause it, and the conten ts of any error messages which a ppear on the screen. It is often very helpful to have brief written notes to which to refer.

■ The pages in the manual which r e f er t o the parts

of the Digital Timepiece or ClockWorks with which you are having trouble.

■ The version or creation date of the system

software you are using to run the Macintosh. This can be found by choosing About this Macintosh from the Apple menu.

We ’re not able to solve every problem immediately , but a quick call to us may yield a suggestion for a problem which you might otherwise spend hours trying to track down.

■ Tech support 24-hour fax line: (617) 354-3068

■ Tech support email: techsupport@motu.com

■ Web site: www.motu.com

If you decide to call, please have your Digital Timepiece manual on hand, and be prepared to provide the following information to help us solve your problem as quickly as possible:

Our technical support telephone line is dedicated to helping registered users solve their problems quickly. In the past, many people have also taken the time to write to us with their comments, criticism and suggestions for imp roved versio n s o f our products. We thank them; many of those ideas have been addressed in our developmen t efforts. If you have features or ideas you would like to see implemented, we’d like to hear from you. Please write to the Digital Timepiece Development Team, Mark of the Unicorn Inc., 1280 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02138.

TROUBLESHOOTING

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TROUBLESHOOTING

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ABS time 18 ADAT

front panel setting time base mode 39 transferring to/from Audiomedia

Alesis LRC 93 Audiomedia

transferring to/from ADAT transferring to/from DA-88 25 transferring to/from DA-88 26

25, 26

ClockWorks 14

ADAT time code discrepancy 43

Continuous jam sync 55 Control track

time base modes

Customer support 5, 98

DA-38 16, 95 DA-88 16, 95

SY-88 sync card 18, 62 time base mode 39 transferring to/from DA-88 25

DA-88

front panel setting transferring to/from DA-88 26

Darwin hard disk recorder 16 Disk

getting a replacement

E-mu Systems

Darwin hard disk recorder

Fostex RD-8 16 Freewheeling 51, 55

Internal time base mode 36

Jam sync

continuous

25, 26

MTC time base mode 36

Noise reduction

with SMPTE

RD-8 16 Recording SMPTE (striping) 53 Registration

Reshaping time code 51, 57

card

S/P DIF

S/P DIF/Internal time base mode

SMPTE

bleedthrough drop-outs 51 freewheeling 51 noise reduction 54 regenerating over dropouts 55 reshaping 51, 57 striping (recording) 53

user bits 51, 57 Stop button (SMPTE Controls window) 54 Stripe button 54 Sub-code 18 SY-88 sync card 18, 62

TACH light 50 Tascam

Technical support 5, 98 Time code

DA-38

DA-88 95

DA-88 and DA-38 16

freewheeling over dropouts

User bits 51, 57

Video

Video/Internal time base mode

Video/LTC time base mode 36, 37

Video/MTC time base mode 36

Video/VITC time base mode 37

Word 256x/Internal time base mode

Word 256x/LTC time base mode 38 Word 256x/MTC time base mode 37

INDEX

LOCK light 50 LRC 93 LTC time base mode 36

MIDI time code 50

Wait for device on play option 50 Word 1x

Word 1x/Internal time base mode

Word 1x/LTC time base mode 37

Word 1x/MTC time base mode 37 Word 256x

100

Mark of the Unicorn Digital Timepiece User's Guide

Specifications and Main Features

Frequently Asked Questions

User Manual

About the Digital Timepiece

PACKING LIST

ABOUT THIS GUIDE

REGISTER FOR TECHNICAL SUPPORT

WHAT IS THE DIGITAL TIMEPIECE?

A computer is not required

Degrees of accuracy

The components of sync

All standard digital audio sync formats

Expensive add-ons are not needed

All SMPTE time code formats

MIDI Machine Control

Advanced video features

44.1 and 48 kHz with pull up/down

Proprietary technology

Fast lockup time

Control track

Stand-alone and computer-based operation

The Digital Timepiece rear panel

Convenient software included

2 Degrees of Accura cy

BEFORE YOU GO ANY FURTHER…

SAMPLE-ACCURATE SYNC

FRAME-ACCURATE SYNC

FRAME-ACCURATE TRIGGERING

3 Installation

OVERVIEW

How it works

Connecting a Macintosh

Connecting an IBM-PC or compatible

How proprietary synchronization works

Connecting ADATs as slaves

Connecting the Digital Timepiece as a slave

Connecting the Digital Timepiece as ABS slave

How it works

Connecting a word clock device as slave

Connecting multiple word clock devices

How S/PDIF sync works

S/PDIF thru

Connecting S/PDIF devices

Example: Digidesign’s Audiomedia card

Connecting video devices

Accessing the Digital Timepiec e video f ea tures

The advantage of house sync video

Using the Digital Timepiece video generator

Connecting a SMPTE time code destination

Connecting a SMPTE time code source

How it works

Connecting a MMC controller

MMC record commands

Global record functions

4 Fron t Panel Settings

OVERVIEW

ABOUT SYNCHRONIZATION

Three realms of synchronization

Choosing a master

CHOOSING A TIME BASE MODE

How to choose the time base mode

Summary of synchronization modes

Advice about choosing a time base master

Getting faster lockup time with house sync (blackburst) as a time base

INTERNAL

VIDEO/INTERNAL

VIDEO/MTC

VIDEO/SMPTE (LTC)

VIDEO/VITC

VIDEO/SONY

WORD 1X/INTERNAL

WORD 1X/MTC

WORD 1X/LTC

WORD 256X/INTERNAL

WORD 256X/MTC

WORD 256X/LTC

WORD 1X/VIDEO/INTERNAL

WORD 1X/VIDEO/MTC

WORD 1X/VIDEO/LTC