Problems with Overdubs on Otari mx5050 - delayed signal

[Dan [ www.sleepwalkermusic.net ]]

I just picked up an otari MX5050 after doing digital recording the last few
years. I've got decent converters, an apogee rosetta and a Nuendo 8 i/o, but
the tape machine has been a godsend. My drums now sound like I want them to.

However, I'm now starting to get to the point where analog's quirks are
showing up and I don't know how to deal with them.

I was trying to overdub a bass line over tape tracked drums and guitar and
not surprisingly the bass track is about 50ms late. I was recording on
15ips, and in the future I could record 30ips to make it a smaller delay,
but how to professional studios deal with this quirk?

I'm assuming the problem is that the player is monitoring the tracks after
they come off the playback head, cause a mechanical small delay.

Any suggestions? Can I monitor the bass off the tape heads so it's synched
up? If I do that, is it going to be hard to play along with it?

In the future I might sync the deck to Cubase using SMPTE and just do
overdubs on the computer where I can easily slip them in sync.

Any tips would be appreciated, I'm thinking the best bet is tracking at
30ips from now on.

Thanks a lot,
Dan
www.sleepwalkermusic.net

[another viewer]

In article >,
"Dan [ www.sleepwalkermusic.net ]" > wrote:


> Any tips would be appreciated, I'm thinking the best bet is tracking at
> 30ips from now on.

in otari language, find the "sel-sync" buttons and depress them. that
will give you playback from the record head and you will be recording in
sync. pretty basic stuff really. when you go to mix, go to the repro
head for proper playback response.

--
jam

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[Scott Dorsey]

Dan [ www.sleepwalkermusic.net ] > wrote:
>
>I was trying to overdub a bass line over tape tracked drums and guitar and
>not surprisingly the bass track is about 50ms late. I was recording on
>15ips, and in the future I could record 30ips to make it a smaller delay,
>but how to professional studios deal with this quirk?

Change from repro to sel-sync. This lets you monitor off the record head
with poorer fidelity but no delay. This is discussed in the manual.
--scott


--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

[hank alrich]

Dan wrote:

> Any suggestions? Can I monitor the bass off the tape heads so it's synched
> up? If I do that, is it going to be hard to play along with it?

Get the manual out and read it; you need to switch the playback track(s)
into "sync" output mode, which plays them back from the record head, in
sync with your new o'dub(s).

--
ha

[Mike Rivers]

In article > writes:

> I just picked up an otari MX5050 after doing digital recording the last few
> years.

A multitrack I trust?

> I was trying to overdub a bass line over tape tracked drums and guitar and
> not surprisingly the bass track is about 50ms late. I was recording on
> 15ips, and in the future I could record 30ips to make it a smaller delay,
> but how to professional studios deal with this quirk?
>
> I'm assuming the problem is that the player is monitoring the tracks after
> they come off the playback head, cause a mechanical small delay.

That's what the sync mode is for. Find the right button and you'll
monitor playback off the record head. No delay. Not even any digital
latency.

RTFM, or if you don't have a manual, GAFM.



--
I'm really Mike Rivers )
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