Topic: Linking two R-44s for 8-channel?

[kirk97132]

Your right about a need for clock connection between the two decks.  The 680 that is acting as a slave will need to be set as "cascade" setting in the menu and a digi coax(rca) cable used.  Out of master deck to the input of the slave deck via the digi rca connectors.  At this point you "lose" the last two channels(7 & on the slave deck because it uses the rca input to sync the decks.  It also allows for the control of the start and stop from the master deck.  But you can still input a digi audio signal into your master deck.  You then are using the master 680 for the clock source on both decks. 

[Ozpeter]

Oops - I think I derailed this thread!

[capnhook]

Did we ever get to the truth about whether linking two r-44s will link the clocks and transports, or is it just the transports that are linked?

[Gutbucket]

The consensus seems to be that when linked the machine transport funtions are synced (not exactly but to within a number of milliseconds), but don't count on clocks syncing. 

My suspicion is that the clock sync feature was intended, but wasn't reliable enough to work consistantly, wasn't used very often, and support for it was quietly dropped.  Kirk reports that he was told by an Edirol/Roland tech that the clocks won't sync when linking with the cable, despite what the manual states.  I think the reality is that you might get lucky and get two machines that actually do sync clocks sucessfully, or two with clocks that don't sync but are close enough that they won't drift significantly over the course of typical length recording, or you might not get lucky and find significant drift.  Whatever you do, don't bet the farm on it.

[RichT]

I've observed the waveform Word CLock at the stereo mini-plug's ring in Master Sync mode.
So, Owners manual is not miss print, i think.
you try to stereo cable,again!

I've found the same thing

I've successfully clocked a Tascam HD-P2 and RME multiface to it.  Unfortunately there's no display message on the R-44 to say if it's clocked to an external signal (although the sample rate will flash if the incoming signal is of the same rate), so the problem could be that they won't work properly as a slave

http://rtsound.net/?p=191

[Gutbucket]

Some have reported it does work.  It definitely doesn't work for others.  That's part of what makes me believe it is simply unreliable as implemented.

I sometimes clock sync a Tascam DR-680 to the R-44 via S/PDIF, locking the DR-680 (which indicates if it sees incomming clock signal) to the clock of the R-44.  But I'm using a coax SPDIF cable, not the sync jack and cable, and not linking transports.

[kirk97132]

I am not going to validate or contest anyone ones claims.  I can tell you what happened to me using two R-44's linked with a sync cable.  They did start at nearly the same time, and they did stop at nearly the same time.  after approx 20 min I could hear AND see the drum hits start to move apart.  Now I was using the deck strictly as multitrack with each deck having an overhead drum kit mic.  The files were very large, almost two and a half hours.  I called Edirol got a tech dept on the phone and spoke directly to one of their engineers.  When I told him what happened he said, yes thats right.  The clocks WILL NOT LOCK to each other.  So there you have it.  Take it or leave it I don't care.  Don't ask me to explain it or account for anything those discussion went on way too long in past threads.  I don't run an R-44 any more but use a DR-680.  Those 8 tracks are Synced every-time.

[capnhook]

Takes too long to get to the truth around here sometimes, eh kirkd?  Enough with the "I thinks..."  Us fellers want a real answer most times.   

Thanks very much.  Just what I suspected -- transports linked, clocks not linked.


Will the OP lock this thread please?

[ziko]

http://archive.org/details/flipperdave2012-04-21.mtx.flac16
http://archive.org/details/flipperdave2011-08-20.mtx.flac16

it has worked for me. I did not stretch or shrink either source. I know i have done it more. these two came to mind. one is 6 channels, one is eight

[kirk97132]

one of the reasons I cited file length was because is the drift were say .0001%, then a larger files size would show drift sooner since .0001% of 4GB is a much larger number than .0001% of 0.6GB.  And As also stated this was not a full band recording.  Could I have picked it up if it were a recording of the full band.  Quite possibly not.  But since It was something with very sharp peaks and easily identifiable, it was not hard to identify.  all of the above numbers are completely made up for the purpose of an example.  I do not pretend to know how much of a percentage off anything was. 

I would also like to add, that there is nothing in the world to say that two decks will not run the same.  Case in point,  the same R-44 I owned ran dead on with a marantz CDR that the sound guy owned.  DEAD FUCKING ON, without any sync at all.   So can your example of two R-44s running in sync be right, why yes it can.  Can two R-44's run different, why yes they can.   Can you depend on them running in sync?  I would not and if it was a paying gig I would either rent gear with the number of tracks I need or borrow a USBPre2 to ensure that they are locked to a single clock source. 

And Ziko, even on a stage lip set up, I find that the mere 4 or five feet to the lip causes a time shift which can be adjusted to bring the SBD track and the mic track into perfect sync.  It's not much but it is there.  Maybe I'm too particular or too anal but that tiny difference helps with phasing issues and comb filtering effects.