vdat + brc

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Neutron
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vdat + brc

Post by Neutron »

maybe someone uses this instead of a sequencer for recording?

my new boards came with vdat., and i notice a lot of BRCs for sale on ebay
what i was wondering is

a: can the combination be made to work smothly
b: can it output midi sync or even better, SPP
c: what else would i need to use it like that?
d: once the recordings are made, can i just load them up into a normal sequencer without some kind of converting?
e: can wave files FROM as sequencer be put in to the vdat tracks
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Janni
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Post by Janni »

I also had a loook at this! :D
But I didn't get too far...

a: I don't know, but :

SYNC Plate Expansion
BNC Wordclock I/O and ADAT 9-pin I/O

Für alle 6 und 14 DSP Karten, und für die 3 DSP/Home-Karte mit ADAT-Expansion. Für die nahtlose Integration Ihres SONIC CORE Systems in Ihre Professionelle Studio-Umgebung. Die ADAT 9-pin I/O-Anschlüsse können zum Anschluss von digitalen Alesis-ADAT-Rekordern verwendet werden. Dort können Sie ebenfalls eine BRC (Alesis, Big Remote Control) zur Steuerung des SONIC CORE VDAT-DSP Plug-Ins anschließen.

see here: http://www.sonic-core.net/de/products/extensions.html

That's the German text for the sync plate. Translated: You can also connect a BRC for controling SC's VDAT. :)
This one is missing in English!

b: what's SPP?

c: you need a sync plate!

d: I think there was a thread about the different 32bit thingies... hmm, can't find it atm...

e: afaik a workaround for this is to create new vdat tapes and copy/paste the tracks from the sequencer to the vdat wavs without changing lenght and resolution/depht.

I wonder if it can be used with 44,1kHz?
There seems to be one 48kHz in and out...
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Neutron
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Post by Neutron »

seems like a lot of hassle, i can use ableton anyways. i just thought it would be nice to have a real tape controller.

im getting that behringer BCF-2000 and BCR-2000 so i can use them to control ableton.

SPP is song position pointer.
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astroman
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Post by astroman »

I've had the very same thought of using a BRC for convenience, but everyone who tried it seemed to have problems.
Afaik Immanuel from Danmark gave up on his - he got a very cheap BRC on eBay.
Possibly it's indeed related to the sample rate, as Janni points out with the pictures - the BNC is labelled 48k...
As I would have to buy a sync plate plus the controller it seemed a bit risky to me...

even more as my VDAT started to develope a 'personal' kind of madness, throwing the towel now and then in the mid of a recording etc.
Seems like it won't forgive any (not the slightest bit of) setup flaws regarding sync.

I'm a little paranoid about file access, so I always copied the virtual tapes to a dedicated project folder and edited with TripleDat or Reaper (still not sure about changing workflow towards the latter) even though it's an amazing software.

cheers, Tom
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Shroomz~>
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Post by Shroomz~> »

Not sure about the BRC, but you've got the VRC-S & VRC-128 devices which when set up correctly are the perfect master transport for the VDAT + sequencer combination. They also provide sample accurate sync for your sequencer. Getting remote control of the VRC devices would be cool though..
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astroman
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Post by astroman »

yeah, actually I got a few things working better now that I've read the original Alesis BRC Manual - and probably I should do the same with the original Adat literature.

Some misunderstandings are (almost) unavoidable with 'computer-tracking' in mind ;)
My recent recordings went very good, except that the thingy didn't write anything down to the files :P :D
seems it didn't leave rehearsal mode, even though I never pushed that button

cheers, Tom
seriously, work through the original Alesis manuals if you're not familiar with Adats
you can download them from Alesis
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Shroomz~>
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Post by Shroomz~> »

The more you look into this it's got to be worth a try if you're getting the BRC for peanuts, but it definitely seems like you'd need to run Scope at 48kHz unless you don't mind the difference in song positiion time that you'd get running at 44.1. Really though, it's maybe only worthwhile if you plan to use an ADAT or 2 as well, in which case you'd have a BRC > ADAT/s > VDAT setup as opposed to a VRC > VDAT > ADAT/s setup, but either should work. I can't understand why Immanuel had the locator problems. Did he not get it working in the end then?

Btw, I remember reading someone say that there's no point in using the VRC's with VDAT, but that's rubbish because VDAT doesn't generate the clock required to sync your ASIO2 capable sequencer with sample accuracy, the VRC's do.
dawman
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Post by dawman »

These are really cheap.

Do you mean that the great sounding app VDAT can be controlled by the old BRC hardware? As usual I comprehend manuals poorly, audio / video, and pics I do better with.

We got 4 x ADAT's and a Mac w/ Pro Tools in the early '90's and they worked really well, but at first they had trouble syncing up. They were just released, so that was inevitable.

I remember a nice meterbridge that connected to the top, I could be tripping, but the engineer that ran the studio was always asking for more gear, and usually got his way.

This could then be used to record the audio to the HD24/96, and just bypass using Cubase I hope.

I need a viable solution if Cubase overwhelms my lack of patience and knowledge.

I should still be able to use my faders and controllers to handle the recording surface chores too.

Nice Tip,...thank you. :wink:
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