Tascam Midiizer and Tsr-8 sync problems

[Novocane99]

Hi folks,

I cant get my midiizer to sync with my tsr-8, midiizer switches on, i can stripe smpte, i see that the midiizer recognises the striped smpte when fed back in - that parts all good

But there appears to be no remote functionality, e.g. i can’t control the tsr-8 with the midiizer, and it’s speed does not change when chasing smpte. When i click the chase button, the ext light flashes on the tsr-8 - the manual says that this means its receiving either the control signal or the 9.6khz servo signal, but not both

Im using a serial connection (accessory 2 homemade cable)

Just to add, the tsr-8 is the slave, im trying to chase smpte from my Daw as master

Any ideas on where to start troubleshooting with this?

Thank you

 

[BRDTS]

I'd start with testing a second acc2 cable.

Be sure it's wired exactly like the diagram I posted somewhere around here about a year ago.

I'm sure you've also verified the baud rate dip switches are set correctly at the recorder and at the Midiizer.

Are you the original owner of both the machine and midiizer?

I will say that for simple daw sync (I use Cubase13 and Nuendo13), it's far easier to have my slaved daw machines chase the 24trk recorder via my mts1000 or ats500.

It's only when I bring in a slaved recorder (two 24trk machines) that I let the midiizer control the master/slave recorders.....but I still keep the daws set to chaselock as well.

 

[Novocane99]

I tried a second cable and now the ext light flashes more than it used to but still no remote control or tsr-8 movement triggered by the midiizer

any ideas?

 

[Novocane99]

Also when you’re using daw as slave, is that via smpte to word clock?

 

[BRDTS]

For my five daw farm slaves, I use motu Digital Timepiece (not midi timepiece) ...which is very inexpensive nowadays on ebay etc.

In your case for example, smpte out of recorder to smpte in on dtp. dtp sync out (word clock etc) to daw audio interface sync. Daw set to slave. Recorder is master smpte....dtp then controls sync of daws (rock solid) based on incoming sync.

Without a dtp in the loop....say....if you were to simply feed audio smpte directly over to an audio input on an audio interface.....the sync signal would be enormously wonky....and your daw randomly unstable sync-wise.

Dtp in the loop prevents any issues.

In my system....Machine #1...smpte/acc2 out to midiizer....midiizer smpte/acc2 out feeds machine #2. Also feeds to smpte-in at Ats500....which slaves third recorder. In all instances, smpte-out of midiizer also feeds smpte-in of Digital Timepiece....which is then the master controller to keep all the daws in slave sync.

 

[Novocane99]

Ah yes makes sense, my current setup is Daw as slave to word clock, tape as master with smpte driving the word clock,

my motu timepiece only goes uo to 48khz tho, which is why i was exploring using the midiizer as slave instead

you don’t know any outboard that converts smpte to word clock at 96khz with low jitter by any chance?

 

[BRDTS]

If you were to jettison the Timepiece, there are several Motu 96k (maybe also 192) interfaces with dedicated quarter-inch smpte in that resolve the timecode, establish master sync for whatever daw....plus wordclock outs to feed secondary slaved daws. The 88pre is one and motu makes several others.

That may be one option to do 96-192 slaving to the recorder....but then now you're talking about an entire interface.

Personally, I'm happy with 48khz on projects that utilize daw+tape....so the Timepieces still have their place.

I routinely do 96k projects when completely in Cubendo....but not consistently.

48khz is just such a historical habit for me....plus, even a tape+ daw project ends up with all the tracks in the daw eventually....which then enables me to upsample if there's some reason to. Which normally would not occur.

 

[Novocane99]

Hi, which motu devices convert ltc to word clock at 96khz? I can’t seem to find any?

or are there any other devices that do that?

 

[wkrbee]

The Midiizer will fail setup without SMPTE coming from both the Master and Slave. Easy way: "Code only Master." Send SMPTE to the DAW from the TSR-8. Use the Midiizer for TSR-8 transport control

 

[Novocane99]

My midiizer appears to broken as it won’t control the tsr-8 transport

 

[lagoausente]

Im interested on buying a ats 500 or Mts-1000
Anyone know maybe one could be on sale. Actually no one listed on ebay o reverb
Thank you

 

[Tangled in a tape]

Did you build your cable? I built mine.
One of the lines needs individual shielding...did you respect that?

 

[lagoausente]

My midiizer appears to broken as it won’t control the tsr-8 transport

I got my Midiizer a week ago. Built my own cable with a VGA cable that has individual shielding.
Checked all pinouts and worked ok. Conected to TSR-8 as master or as slave worh on both connections.
Be sure the pinout cable is ok with a polymeter, and ensure the back switches on the TSR-8 are 9600 baud.
Also select this on the Midiizer.
I used 30NDF as smpte.
Remote control works even no setup is complete. What happens after setup is that the machine learns the "code".
I also use Code Only, so use a Yamaha AW4416 as master. First tries I had problems because detected 24 frames from the worstation and 30 from the TSR-8. But just need to start the Code only master beore setup, then TSR-8 the start set-up and wait. the machine must "learn" both are 30 Ndf. After that I can control the TSR-8 from my AW4416. I should be the same using a DAw.
If the cable is ok, you can try using the Midiizer with other TSR-8, or using another Midiizer with you TSR-8.

But before check the shematics, pinouts, baudrate speeds on both machines.
The only way you have to find if the problem is on the Midiizer is try other Midiizer on your TSR-8, or check the Midiizer on other TSR-8, could be the serial TSR-8 electronics, who knows. You must check. This are older machines and difficult to find to test. I had good luck.