Synchronization of 2 or more 2488 NEOs

[Iain Churches]

I was interested to try synchronising two Tascam 2488 NEOs using MIDI. Synchronization is explained in the manual on page 94, so no need to repeat it here.

It seemed to work well. I made a rough mix of rhythm tracks from NEO1 to Track 23+24 on Neo 2 and added a brass section. With brass solos still to be added on NEO 2, a pal of mine offered his NEO to be a third unit on which to record saxophone section and vocals.

There was a problem. The slave does not regenerate MIDI Time Code at its MIDI output to feed the input of a second slave. Serial connection (daisy chaining ) does not work.

So I found a MIDI distribution box, the Quadra Thru V2 made by MIDI Solutions. It is MIDI powered, and does not work with Tascam equipment.


So now, I play to try a Kenton MIDi Thru 5, which has its own 9v psu.

MIDI is somewhat uncharted water for me, but I get the feeling that a distribution box, say 1 in and four out is a better solution than daisy chaining, and less likely to lead to time delays.


If anyone has related experiences, good or bad, I would be interested to hear them.

 

[Iain Churches]

I have now got the Kenton Midi Thru box, mentioned above.

It has its own small psu, and works perfectly with the three
2488 Neo systems I have begged stolen or borrowed for my
big band project.

The first Neo (I call it “A”) has the rhythm section, plus
keyboard and guitar overdubs, so it seemed to make sense
to use this as the MIDI time code master.

I kept the MIDI cables as short as possible from
Master to the Kenton box input, and from two of
the box outputs to the Neo slaves “B” (Brass section
and brass solos) and “C” (saxes/sax solos and vocals)

Sync is now very tight indeed. There are no audible
time lags.


Iain

 

[Iain Churches]

I am generally very happy with the way the three Tascam 2488 Neos are working together, and have found some interesting details.

For example if you want to record from the start on one of the slaves, you simply arm Rec and Play on the slave and press Play on the Master. The slave will start, following the master, and as soon as it is in sync, will drop into record.

However, I have also discovered a couple of idiosyncrasies.
You can Auto Punch, but only on the master. The slaves will follow in play, but cannot Auto Punch.

You can use Digital output from both Master and slaves, but when chasing to MIDI Time Code, digital input cannot be assigned on a slave. I wanted to digitally transfer a track from master to slave but was unable to do this. So I switched roles temporarily, made the Slave the Master, and the Master the Slave and it worked perfectly.



Iain

 

[DASCAMAN]

3 years later and......yep, I am syncing my NEO to my MKII via MIDI cable with good success !! The thing it does not have is like Song Position Pointer?? that would be nice, also i notice so far that i cannot fast forward on the Master and let off without the slave continueing and then it gets all out of sync until starting from the beginning. there is a trick i learned about that years back when i was using 3 DA38s. thats is put a rough mix on all 3 decks on 1 or 2 tks and yopu dont have to run all 3 machines together to do your over dubs....understand? If there is something i dont know about, please reply back anyone !!