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Topic: Midi sync to Tascam 788 (Read 3176 times) previous topic - next topic

Midi sync to Tascam 788

I know Noteworthy isn't supposed to do this - but I'd like to try...

I use Noteworthy effectively as a sequencer. I've got Cubase - but would always prefer to use Noteworthy - I guess I'm old-fashioned and like notes...

I just bought a Tascam 788 multitrack recorder which is SUPPOSED to synchronise using Midi control codes. It also ourputs them.

What I want to do is to record from my midi synths et al a track at a time - always using Noteworthy to do the control.

That means I would like either for the 788 to make Noteworthy start playing - or to make Noteworthy start the 788.

At present I can't do either. My guess is that Noteworthy can't respond to external MIDI - but shouldn't I be able to get it to issue a MIDI command?

Fingers crossed...

Peter

Re: Midi sync to Tascam 788

Reply #1 –
NoteWorthy online will no doubt reply to this and may have more to say but they answered a similar question of mine by saying that NWC does not send out MIDI clock or MTC signals.  Since your Tascam sends out MIDI control codes it MIGHT be able to "sync" to NWC in a crude way.  To record in NWC you must have at least a tempo track in a NWC score and click record or press F6.  If you have the Tascam set for the same tempo as your NWC tempo track and lined up so that you start the Tascam say, one measure before you begin playing your synth you might be able to "synch" them that way, but I think that will not be precise enough to give satisfactory results.  Probably you would be better off sequencing the entire composition in Cubase, making your Tascam recording synching to Cubase, then saving your completed composition in Cubase as a Type 1 MIDI file and importing it into NoteWorthy to produce a score with "old fashioned" notes (which I prefer too, BTW).
 

Re: Midi sync to Tascam 788

Reply #3 –
This is how I solved the problem. It is probably time consuming and there may be a better way (let me know if there is):
I make the composition in NWC. Each staff starts with a 1/8 note and I fill up the bar with rests. This is the `sync'* signal.
After completing the composition, I 'record' each track to separate .wav files.
Then I open the .wav files and take out the leading silence up to the start of the sync note. I then import these .wav files into SONAR (but it works with Cubase as well, I tried it, but it cannot handle more than 4 tracks simultaneously without causing severe drop-outs), so I can add effects, record additional live instruments or use plug-in synths. You could even add additional MIDI tracks to it and still be synchronous with the original file. The only disadvantage is that if you need to change the NCW file (e.g. because you had an even better idea) you run into trouble because the Windows internal clock deviates a bit, and re-recording the edited NWC staff may no longer synchronize properly.
I am not sure if Cubase support MIDI clock or SMPTE I/O (SONAR does).
When Cubase supports MIDI clock in/out, you could save the NWC file to .MID format (probably in mode 1, where the channels are kept apart), and import this into Cubase. From Cubase you could then sych the tape. This way you could ping-pong between NWC and Cubase before going to .wav.
Mope this helps.
Marcel