Tips on syncing up multiple audio imputs?

larryo wrote on 12/5/2002, 4:47 PM

I have a wealth of audio recordings on an analog multitrack portastudio, and would like to transport these 8-track recordings into vegas for remastering. Problem is, my recording deck has only 4 outputs, as does my input for vegas. I've tried making 2 passes, but inadvertantly the second pass of 4 tracks don't match up no matter how I try to re-align them. The variables of tape speed drift enough to be out of sync part way through the tracks. Any suggestions from more experienced SF users??

Comments

PipelineAudio wrote on 12/5/2002, 5:03 PM

arm all 8 tracks and clap your hands at the beginning of each song. Record them into vegas four at a time, group the second set of four tracks and line up the claps

Cold wrote on 12/5/2002, 9:41 PM

Try running one duplicate track with each pass ie 1,2,3,4 next pass 1,5,6,7 next pass 1,8 this way its very easy to tell when the tape starts drifting, but extra edditting for the extra pass. You could also sacrifice one of your 8 tracks, burn a sync track and lock it to vegas with that but you will still suffer at least mild phase drift and to tell you the truth I haven't dealt with making vegas chase sync from an analog deck and recording multiple passes. It may not even record while chasing sync. So if it were me I'd probably just record a duplicate track each pass eddit the passes back into sync and curse at analogs lack of flexibility all the while. Wait on further advice, there has got to be folks out there who actually use the sync chasing feature in vegas. Good Luck! Steve

PipelineAudio wrote on 12/6/2002, 4:09 AM

I used to make vegas chase sync from da-88's but it sucked, all sorts of problems...the clap method worked a lot better

larryo wrote on 12/6/2002, 2:45 PM

Thanks to all for the creative hints...I'll give 'em a shot.

LarryO

Rednroll wrote on 12/6/2002, 4:22 PM

I've used the sync method with DA-88's recording 4 inputs at a time with no problems. The good thing about the sync method if there is tape drift, then Vegas will have to drift along with the timecode it is chasing, Thus they should all match up when the 2 passes are done. You could also, try the reverse and have the 8 track sync to Vegas, if it has smpte in and chase to Vegas, which will give you a much more stable timecode sync.

joel6 wrote on 12/7/2002, 3:45 PM

I've been transferring portastudio stuff to Vegas 2 tracks at a time and the only thing i ever used is a click at the start of each track to align them later in vegas. the trick is to put a click in the star of each track of your sources. Most of the stuff I transferred had a metronome click at the start which I used. I sync my vegas to my midi program all the time via sonic foundry virtual midi router, and i have no problems.

larryo wrote on 12/9/2002, 4:48 PM

I've tried adding a sync "tap" on all 8 tracks of my source portastudio, then transported several tracks 2 at a time to vegas. Then I lined up the tracks to the taps and all works well for about 10-15 seconds. The tracks just can't stay sync'd and I assuming this is the fault of my portastudio's transport. Oh well, time to move on, anyway.

musicvid10 wrote on 12/12/2002, 1:18 PM

Here's how I lined up a 1-hour shoot (actually 2 acts) with camera mic for ambience and separate audio recording off the board (no SMPTE).

Picked a spike near the beginning, lined 'em up, then found a spike near the end of the act, determined the offset in ms, then used Track Properties to stretch the ambience track. Repeat above as necessary until they're both lined up. (In Properties choose "Change Pitch and Length" and specify the stretch/squeeze in milliseconds). If the transports are fairly stable, transient drift should be only a few ms.

Or, you could mix down your 8-track first, but it sounds like you are trying to avoid doing that.

larryo wrote on 1/4/2003, 11:57 AM

well I found a solution (albeit, a clunky one). Due to the previously stated input limitations, I recorded 4 initial tracks: stereo drums, mono bass and mono guitar. All remaining tracks (vocals, lead guitar, hammond b3) i recorded in subsequent passes, -in fragments. Then I painstakingly lined them up to the other tracks. Because all these other tracks were in phrases and sentences, I had the luxury of doing this. Only the B3 gave me trouble. It had a long, uninterrupted passage that by the end started to noticably drift from the other tracks. So I shortened the initial event to just before the drift, resumed recording of the same track at that point, lined them up and crossfaded the two events. It worked! Even solo'd the cross fade is barely perceptible. Thank god it wasn't a more rhythmic instrument-I doubt this would've worked. I even used Antares auto tune on the vocals and cleaned them up. God I love this...Anyone interested in a used Tascam Portastudio???