Accuracy of MTC

[wiz_ozland]

I wonder if anyone here knows the answer....

 

 

How accurate is Midi Time Code.

 

 

Lets say you have a PC which has a Sound Card in it that has ONE ADAT I/O (8 channels) and you have a multitrack that has ONE ADAT I/O (8 channels.)

 

You sync the two devices, one as Word Clock master (lets assume the sending device) and the other as Word Clock Slave.

 

You set one device to be MTC master (assume sending device) and the other as MTC slave (you could also do the same with MMC).

 

You put the slave in Play ready mode and hit go on the Master and you record 8 tracks (say tracks 1-8) onto your slave multitrack.

 

Then you stop both, re route and do the same again, transfer 8 tracks (tracks 9-16) to the Slave.

 

So we have transferred 16 tracks from our PC to our Multitrack in two passes.

 

 

Should those tracks be sample accurate.

 

Example, if you had drum overhead left on track 8 and drum over head right on track 9 would you expect to get a phase coherent transfer?

 

 

I know you could if you had the I/O transfer 16 at a time and have them accurate.

 

But I am having a devil of a time, maintaining accuracy ...

 

I am wondering if I am chasing my tail anyway.

 

 

I have tried various types of software, Cubase, Sonar, Acid etc and various configurations of devices being MTC slave/Master and Wordclock Slave/Master, it has happened across two different soundcards...Audiophile 2496 and EMU1212M.

 

 

Does anyone know, if MTC synced machine, should give sample accurate transfers done in multiple passes.

 

thanks in advance

 

 

Wiz

[Gus Lozada]

1) MTC is not sample-accurate

 

2) Word Clock is something very different to MTC. If you sync two card via Word Clock, they should be sample-accurate synced.

 

3) Audiophile 2496 has no ADAT; neither 8 outputs or Word Clock ports.

 

4) you better export audio tracks from one system to another -external HD, burned CD, etc-

[wiz_ozland]

thanks for the reply...

 

I could have phrased it better...8)...

 

When I was using the Audiophile, i was using it to transfer two at a time via spdif...8)...

 

thanks

 

Wiz

[where02190]

MTC is as accurate as the frame rate chosen, which is never fast enough to be sample accurate. However provided you're not splitting a stereo track across two platforms, it won't be audible.

[wiz_ozland]

thats great!

 

thanks for the help.

 

Wiz