Recording with 2 X32 Racks, with wordclock

B

Brian Adams

Freshman
Aug 19, 2011
48
0
6
Vermillion, SD
A friend of mine who does audio multitracking with video is looking for a better solution that what he currently has, and he's on a budget of course. Right now he uses 3 MOTU 8Pre units, with Firewire out to a Macbook Pro. It works, but it's really finicky, and it doesn't have support for timecode (despite what their marketing literature states). That's his main complaint about the MOTU setup, that it's difficult to sync up with the video after several hours of continuous recording. So he's looking for something better, that doesn't need an external preamp.

I have 2 X32 Rack units. I've recorded 32 tracks with my full-size X32 but not with the Racks, but I expect it would work just fine. I see that Behringer has an ADAT card with workclock in or out. Is anyone here familiar with the ADAT card for the X32?

My question is, could I put an ADAT card in one X32 Rack, leave the USB card in the other to connect to a computer, and record 32 tracks, synced with workclock? Or am I on the wrong track here?
 
Re: Recording with 2 X32 Racks, with wordclock

Brian Adams said:
A friend of mine who does audio multitracking with video is looking for a better solution that what he currently has, and he's on a budget of course. Right now he uses 3 MOTU 8Pre units, with Firewire out to a Macbook Pro. It works, but it's really finicky, and it doesn't have support for timecode (despite what their marketing literature states). That's his main complaint about the MOTU setup, that it's difficult to sync up with the video after several hours of continuous recording. So he's looking for something better, that doesn't need an external preamp.

I have 2 X32 Rack units. I've recorded 32 tracks with my full-size X32 but not with the Racks, but I expect it would work just fine. I see that Behringer has an ADAT card with workclock in or out. Is anyone here familiar with the ADAT card for the X32?

My question is, could I put an ADAT card in one X32 Rack, leave the USB card in the other to connect to a computer, and record 32 tracks, synced with workclock? Or am I on the wrong track here?
Click to expand...

Word Clock is not Time Code. What exactly are your friend's requirements?

A much better solution than a laptop would be something like a Sound Devices pix 260i. It is a dedicated HD video recorder that supports up to 32 channels of audio over Dante. The pix 270i does up to 64ch. It can create ProRes files for editing in Final Cut or Avid editors. This is the recorder that many major productions are using to replace their AJA KiPro recorders. It is a robust acquisition system that will hold up to the rigors of a live production environment. We will have a rack full of them on my show next week.

Mac
 
Re: Recording with 2 X32 Racks, with wordclock

Record a timecode track along with the audiotracks, wordclock is not needed for syncing audio and video.
There are timecode plugins and most daws can generate a timecode track without any external input. There are various scenarios when it comes to syncing the recorded timecode with the video timecode, depending on the source etc., but in general, getting the timecode onto a track in a multitrack is the easiest part once you have a timecode sync in place.
 
Re: Recording with 2 X32 Racks, with wordclock

His main issue is that after a while (a half hour or so of continuous audio) the video and audio are out of sync. When he's editing a band, he basically lines up the audio for each song individually and cuts them together to get around this issue. I don't know if word clock will help with this or not.

I've suggested running timecode into an input, but he's reluctant to do this. I think the issue is that he doesn't know how to work with it when it's not embedded, and I don't know much about video editing so I'm not much help in that regard.

Mac, those Sound Devices units look fantastic. He's currently using KiPro's, and these look like they'd be a nice step up from that, plus a ton of audio channels. We'll be looking at those very closely. At some point the AJA's will need to be replaced anyway, and from what I can tell the Sound Devices units are fairly comparable in price.

Thanks for the help guys, you definitely have me thinking.
 
Re: Recording with 2 X32 Racks, with wordclock

Brian Adams said:
I've suggested running timecode into an input, but he's reluctant to do this. I think the issue is that he doesn't know how to work with it when it's not embedded, and I don't know much about video editing so I'm not much help in that regard.
Click to expand...

So he basically wants the issue to fix itself with no effort on his side :razz:
There are lots of reasons why one wouldn't want to embed timecode in individual tracks, but it is definitely possible.
 
Re: Recording with 2 X32 Racks, with wordclock

Hey Brian, take a look at the Antelope Orion 32, which has its proprietary 'oven' clock system plus packed with both analog and digital I/O, a serious tool for under $3k.


Put some Boom in your bass!!
@audiowiz
 
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