VDAT & Alesis HD24 and a BRC as Well

jabney · Post by **jabney** » Sun May 01, 2005 9:56 pm

I have an Alesis HD24, and two computers each with a CreamWare Scope system with the VDAT. And I also have an Alesis BRC (v 2.04). Each of the CreamWare systems has a clock I/O card which also has the 9-pin ADAT I/O. I have an external clock - the Drawmer M-Clock which has lots of clock outputs but no clock input. I have Canare clock cables and Hosa ADAT sync cables.

I have a recording made in the field on the HD24 using tracks 3, 4, and 7. I want to record those tracks to an instance of CreamWare VDAT with 3, 4, and 7 going directly to VDAT 3, 4, and 7 (as a safety backup), but also with tracks 3 and 4 going through a few CreamWare virtual devices (SPL Transient Designer, Vinco, etc) into VDAT tracks 5 and 6. Then I want to be able to record the new VDAT tracks 5 & 6 back into the formerly empty tracks 5 and 6 on the HD24. I want to have the HD24 to then have tracks 3,4,5,6, and 7 with all tracks in
sync (disregarding latency). Finally, I want to mix those tracks back from the HD24 through the CreamWare mixer and wind up with good old fashioned stereo.

My experiments with the BRC don't seem to allow me to control play and record (either way) at the same time. I can do both without the BRC, but they are not in sync.

Does anybody have any experience with both the HD24 and the CreamWare VDAT (not to mention the BRC with both)? My searches have come to naught. Also, the HD24 + BRC postings I've found don't seem to address using (or not using) an external clock. (When recording with only the HD24, I use its clock).

If I can't make it all work, it's not the end of the world - I do love my HD24 and my CreamWare systems. But I would like to be able to get fancy every now and then

I could manually edit each track and line them up that way, but I'd sure like an easier way.

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: jabney on 2005-05-01 22:57 ]</font>

marcuspocus · Post by **marcuspocus** » Mon May 02, 2005 12:31 am

You just need the sync plate for scope to be able to synchronize in a sample accurate way the vdat+hd24 all this using your alesis brc...

Any routing you imagine can be done. Including putting effects before, or after the recording, monitoring hd24+vdat thru scope mixer's, etc...

Get the sync plate!

jabney · Post by **jabney** » Mon May 02, 2005 8:11 pm

Thanks Marcuspocus,

I do have a SyncPlate in each computer. I originally posted my question on the HD24 group on Yahoo, and I described rather than named.

I have made some progress with the BRC controlling both Record and Play by clocking the VDAT to the Ext ADAT 9-pin instead of the BNC. Not perfect yet because I wound up with a 63 sample offset between two VDAT tracks - one daisy-chained digitally (at the time of the initial test recording) off the HD24 to VDAT track 1, and the other subsequently copied digitally from the original HD24 track to the VDAT track 2. What seems strange is that track 1 LAGS track 2. I am trying to come up with a series of tests to see if I can repeat the same lag using different configurations.

The lag was not the strangest thing that happened, though. I dual-boot (Linux and XP Pro) and I had re-booted the machine from Linux to XP. I then hot-plugged the nine-pin ADAT sync cable from the HD24 (itself controlled by the BRC via 9-pin) into the CreamWare syncplate. I fiddled some with the BRC and HD24, and when I turned back to look at the screen, it was divided into four quadrants. The top two were miniatures of the Windows XP session, and the bottom two were miniatures of the Linux session I had just booted out of. No on-screen controls would work, and the front switch would not power-down the machine. I had to turn off the swich in the back.

Strangest thing I've ever seen on a computer. I'm not using any kind of virtual session management so it couldn't be that. I figure maybe video card memory or something weird about Rambus. I just installed a set of fan controls, so I turned up the video fan a little bit. A real head-scratcher. I used to use a RAM drive in the Amiga that would survive a warm re-boot, but I didn't think PCs could do that.

Oh well, I digress. Again, thanks for the reply.

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: jabney on 2005-05-02 21:12 ]</font>

marcuspocus · Post by **marcuspocus** » Tue May 03, 2005 1:04 am

Strange as it may seem, i've had that exact bug with an ATI video card a couple of years back

Ah ah ah!

I was at work, my collegue wouldn't even beleive me until they saw the sreen

Nah, i'd check video card drivers, corruption of registry, or both. I don't know what cause this, sorry...

Anyway, 63 samples isn't normal either, vdat is supposed to be sample accurate. Have you checked the manual about syncplate? There is a couple of diagrams showing how to integrate with brc and real dat (hd24 must enter into this i guess).

Good luck

astroman · Post by **astroman** » Tue May 03, 2005 2:20 am

the 'strange' screen appearance was caused probably by not properly intialized video buffers. For example an on- and offscreen buffer for each system now mapped into the workspace of the card.

anyway, there are pre-, postroll and track offsets in the VRC 128, possibly some entry is required once a physical device is included in the setup. If the 63 samples are constant, it should be be no big deal.
I remember with an external (adat) mixer I had 20 samples for just sending to and returning from the mixer.

I'm very interested in the results, as I consider a 2nd hand BRC for controlling VDAT, but just wasn't sure about the syncing options, too.

cheers, Tom