Yes. The catch is that there is relatively little being sold new with “tape sync” support (I use an old R8 from 1989 to pull this off), the only thing I’ve seen which still stripes (writes to tape) and reads a sync signal which can be bought new is the MOTU Micro Express USB computer interface.
The procedure is this:
* Record to a blank mono track; I use track 8 on my DP32SD, but track 1, track 12, or track 23/24 can also work (if one doesn’t mind using a stereo track to record a simple mono tape sync signal, and wants to preserve the tradition of using the highest track number for sync).
* Take the “tape sync out” of one’s older device (R8, TR-62, etc.) and connect it to the input of the DP-24SD.
* Set the drum machine to have the desired tempo for the song
* You should here an unpleasant high-pitched constant tone. Start recording the tone
* Now, hit “start” on the drum machine. The tone should morph in to an warbling unpleasant sounding signal, a bit like birds chirping or an old modem dialing in to the 1990s Internet.
* Hit stop eight minutes or so later (it’s better to have too much instead of too little sync striped)
Now, to use the sync signal:
* Set the tape sync signal to have send/aux/effect 2 be pre-fader and at full volume.
* Make sure no other tracks are using effect #2
* Connect the output of effect #2 to the tape sync input of the drum machine
* The drum machine needs to have its sync set to “tape”
* Make sure to start the song before the constant pitch sync signal becomes the “birdlike” warbling signal.
* At this point, it should be possible to have the drum machine be a slave to the tape recorder. Tracks can be overlayed and stay in sync when the drum machine is the MIDI clock master.
I just recorded an entire album of music; the songs with a beat use this trick to keep multiple tracks in sync:
https://caulixtla.bandcamp.com/
