2488 Neo exported tracks don't line up with each other

[OptiNew]

Hi,
I have been using my 2488Neo for a long time but this is the first time I need to export all the tracks from a song recorded with the 2488Neo to my PC DAW for further editing and mixdown. When exported to the PC I discover that each track has a different length and when pasting the WAV files of the tracks into the PC DAW they do not line up correctly. I would have thought that each track will have equal length regardless of when the recording on it started. How else would you be able to sync them back together when exporting them individually? I wonder if I missed any steps before exporting them to the FAT, although the manual doesn't mention other steps.

When exporting a master track it will start every track from 0:00 and sync all the tracks, obviously, but that mixes it down to one master track, and I'd be exporting one track instead of the individual tracks that I need to export. I heard the DP has an Auto Depot feature but 2488Neo does not have that. They must have thought of a way to sync individual tracks once exported. Otherwise what's the point? I simply can't line up 14 tracks manually, each in the right spot. I would be an insane amount of work and probably not line up perfectly in the end

Can anyone offer some help?
Thanks in advance

 

[Mark Richards]

@OptiNew, welcome to the community.

Don't own a 2488, but a simple forum search [export, file, length] found this post from 2013.

It seems the work-around is to pad the beginning of the partial track before exporting.

Perhaps @shredd will chime in. He's owned all three versions of the 2488.

 

[OptiNew]

Thank you!
And thanks for pointing me to that post. It's even hard to wrap my mind around the "concept" of tracks in the same song having different lengths, knowing that once exported they will be difficult to sync with the other tracks. The main reason to export a track is to eventually sync it with other tracks from the same song in another DAW, and so having tracks be different lengths by default, largely defeats this purpose. Quoting one of the answers in that post, by Zeeke:

You can have syncing issues if one of the wav files was recorded half way through the song, eg a gtr solo. as the wav file will be shorter in length and you will need to line it up correctly in cubase. I have just added a section of silence so all the wav files exported start at 00:00:00 - makes life easier.

If? I don't know many songs where all the instruments play in bar one. Even in the most basic song you will find at least one instrument or voice that will begin playing later in the song.

Anyway, will try adding the silence section as suggested and let you know how it did. Frankly, I did think of a similar solution myself but thought it so rudimentary and cumbersome, (no reflection upon the commenter's suggestion but rather I could not believe Tascam didn't see this basic problem, didn't consider how most songs have different length tracks and didn't think of a more practical solution), I thought for sure that I must have missed something. I have to do this to a number of tracks and make sure I'm not silencing something I recorded, as some of my tracks have intermittent events with pauses in between.

Thanks

 

[Phil Tipping]

I don't own a neo but was very surprised to hear that it does not export tracks starting at time zero.
Having different length tracks is not an issue; on the DP24/32 series, they are all different lengths... but they all start at time zero regardless of where the actual recording starts.
I'm sure there are more elegant solutions than this, but my 2c would be to copy/insert a small section of audio (from anywhere) to the start point of every track. You might get away with inserting silence or opening up a gap instead of copy/inserting existing audio, but you'll need to confirm this.
Doing it for all tracks avoids having to work out which tracks are affected, and inserting (as opposed to overwriting) ensures none of your music is overwritten.
All tracks will now have audio material at the start, so the export will be forced to create all wave files from time zero.
You can choose to remove this extra section in the DAW if required, although if the bar count is not important and the section you insert is a quiet piece, you could just leave it.
Update: I think this is the same solution as Zeekle's post linked by Mark; I mis-read it as inserting a gap only on the affected track.

Re. your comment:

I don't know many songs where all the instruments play in bar one

This doesn't necessarily equate to the recording starting at bar one, depending on how you do the recording. If you are playing all parts live, you would typically start the recorder with all tracks armed, so even though the actual parts come in at varying times, the recorded files would all start at time zero; they would just contain quiet sections of audio before each part starts.
Your scenario is more likely to happen if you overdub parts, where you would position the transport at different points and arm individual tracks before pressing record.

 

[shredd]

Hello boys n' girls...I'll be your substitute teacher today. Please refrain from human sacrifices during class hours.
Sorry...I watched a lot of weird TV as a kid...

ANYway: yuh-huh - I spent a looootta years in front of 2488's - from first release through the 'neo. GREAT machines, albeit with a few oddities built-in (like what the HAIL is with that wacko proprietary OS, and the resultant PITA of interfacing w a PC???)...and while I've come to dearly love my O/G DP-32, I gotta admit the '88's had some stellar features that I realllllly miss (and consider the omission of in the DP's to be a colossal flock-up by Tascam's design geeks/money & marketing people).
One thing mentioned above that's a plain fact of life: the DP's Audio Depot made a HUUUGE difference in getting trax in&out of it...and most notably, I seem to recall that when you export a track from a DP project - even if you just punched in for 16 bars in the middle of the song - it exports a track that starts at 00:00:00 and is silent up to your take. That should help.

I'll spare you the painfully long-winded reply I'd made for this, explaining everything and rehashing quite a few points already made by guy's WAY smarter than me (@Phil Tipping and @Mark Richards ).
Here's my take:
The OP and PhilT hit it on the head: the odds of EVERY track in a project ALL starting at [TIME 00:00:00] is about as likely as the US Congress accomplishing ANYthing but looking like bickering brats in a sandbox. Speaking for myself, my workflow has ALWAYS included lots of punch-ins/outs, editing, yada.
SO: of COURSE your exported trax aren't going to "line up" as if they all had a 00:00:00 starting point.

I see two solutions here:
For one - working in a DAW is (I hear...I wouldn't know - I wouldn't choose a DAW over my P/Studio's at gunpoint. I won't even go the ModelXX route) supposed to make editing absurdly easy. SO: you should be able to time-align various parts using the DAW's visual capabilities (by 'snapping to grid', using time references, or simply using the visualization of the waveform to twiddle (move/nudge) each part/track until they line up to your satisfaction.
The other thing - this is what >I< do, and has served me tremendously well: I make extensive use of the "bar" display option, instead of "real time" display - this allows me to place any part/wave-form at a very precise position. Not to mention that the P/Studio's (and presumably DAW's too) editing capabilities allow me to "nudge" a part up or back by any interval I see fit, from milliseconds (for double-tracking and other such efforts) to intentionally creating a "timing tension" by delaying a parts' entrance/occurrence by that liiiiiitttle bit...