Anyone know of something similar to the MOTU Timepiece?

[forumuser927284]

Or does anyone have a Timepiece too sell.

Or does anyone know how I can sync up my ADAT HD24 with my MC808.

ADAT sends MTC. MC808 only likes MIDI clock.

Please no trolls or pointless stupid answers like 'hit it with a hammer' or whatever. sigh!

[James Perrett]

MTC contains no tempo information so you'll need some kind of sequencer in the chain to do the conversion. You'll need to create a tempo map for the song you are working on. Probably easiest done with a computer nowadays as MTC came in after many hardware sequencers were designed.

[chris...]

MTC contains no tempo information

As I understand it, MTC is purely position information (effectively SMPTE-over-MIDI), whereas MIDI beat clock simply defines where the beats fall, with no position info. That is, they do quite different jobs, so you can't generally substitute one for the other.

In particular, irrespective of what's doing the "conversion", MIDI beat clock messages alone won't be able to tell a sequencer (that's what the MC808 is being used as, right?) where in the song it's meant to be playing.

But perhaps you weren't expecting that - I'm not clear.

Basically, MIDI beat clock is useful for things like synth arpeggiators and tempo-sync'd delay effects, but not much else.

[forumuser927284]

Hello guys. Thanks for the replies.

All I want is to hit Play on my HD24, my MC808 to spring into life and play in sync with the already recorded tracks on my HD24. Not sure how that translates into technical terms, but thats what I'm after.

Ive been messing around. Often the best way to learn is to do. I ran the MIDI out from my HD24 to my Mac's MIDI in and sync'd these by MTC via Ableton Live.

Then I used the MIDI out on my Mac and send MIDI clock to my MC808.

All works like a charm. Only thing is I really don't like having a computer anywhere near my writing set up. But for now this workaround works. If anyone else in the future needs help with this PM me or reply here. DOnt leave it too long, my memory last……urmmm…..what was I saying

Thanks again fellas. Appreciate the straight answers and the time taken.

[chris...]

What are you doing with the MC808 ? Is it doing sequencing or recording duties ? Or simply being a synth with tempo-synced arps or effects ?

Put another way, if you were to hit "play" on the HD24, with the HD24 starting at bar 5 of your composition, does the MC808 need to know to also start at bar 5 ? Or do you not care ?

[Forum Admin]

There was the Opcode Studio 64XTC and possibly Steinberg's SMP24 that cover similar functionality.

[ed.king]

Find a good Alesis BRC (often on ebay ) job done. It will give you all the transport controls and more for the HD24 and sync it via MTC/SMTPE/ to your other kit in virtually whatever format you need.

[James Perrett]

In particular, irrespective of what's doing the "conversion", MIDI beat clock messages alone won't be able to tell a sequencer (that's what the MC808 is being used as, right?) where in the song it's meant to be playing.

That's where song position pointers come in. Before MTC became prevalent you would send a song position pointer and then clock to you drum machine to set it playing in sync. So you need a device that reads MTC and outputs SPP/clock. I'd be surprised if there wasn't a stand-alone box that did this (that was cheaper than a MOTU Timepiece) but, when I was doing this sort of thing regularly, the MOTU DTP was very handy.

[ManFromGlass]

I have a Timepiece collecting dust on a top shelf. Email me directly if you are interested. I'm in Canada so would the mains be an issue? I don't recall if the Timepiece is switchable.
eric@glassorchestra.com

[damoore]

iirc, I saw one in Manchester Music Mill a couple of weeks ago. That is Manchester New Hampshire, however.

I know I saw one, I just may have the wrong store. Might have been in Thrifty's Second Hand Stuff. No idea if it still worked, of course.

Come on over, the snow is starting to melt! Should be quite green by sometime in April.

[DGL.]

Voltage should be switchable via a switch on the right side of the unit near the front. (well it is on the MTP AV I own). So if one was sourced from USA it should be alright.

[forumuser927284]

Hi everyone,

Sorry, I didn't see the replies here

Chris, at this point in time I'm happy I can sync it without the positions. Point to positions would be a bonus but I could get by without

Update, I got a Timepiece AV.

I have managed so far to sync the timepiece to my HD 24. The way I have done this is so the timepiece is the master and the HD 24 the slave. A cool little trick of the timepiece is you can stick the small remote in the socket of the front of it.

I've heard bad things about the BRC on the HD24? Apparently the BRC was designed for the ADAT machines and does not work well with you HD 24 at all. Can anyone clarify if this is the case?

My current problem is no matter what I do I can't get the MC808 to trigger when I press play on the timepiece.

The MC is set up as a slave via its system options. It's as if the timepiece is not sending midi clock but I do not see an option for this so I guess it automatically sends midi clock. If anyone has any if too share I'd be greatly obliged.

PS – the DB9 cable works just fine for anyone else willing to try this

[forumuser927284]

Hi all.

This thread has gone stale so I have posted s more up to date question regarding my sync problems here.

Starting a new thread has allowed me too refine the problem.

http://www.soundonsound.com/forum/showf ... =1#1143006