@@SweetbeatsTechStop Thanks for getting back to me. Your threads on this unit are epic and I gather you've explored most possibilities with this unit. I have about a million questions, one of them is, why can't a serial port work with a parallel? Could some of the parallel direction messages be fused on to one cable? Or do I just wait for an ats-500
What you have to understand is it’s not a matter of just different cabling or extra cabling...look at it this way...the ES-50 listens to and speaks one type of language. The 238 ACCESSORY 2 port listens to and speaks a totally different kind of language. Neither is bilingual. You have to get a synchronizer that’s speaks the same language as the 238. What exactly are you wanting to accomplish with the 238 and the ACCESSORY 2 port?
I'm trying to sync my MS-16 to cubase, But I dont have a mala for the ES50 and i'm trying to figure out how to connect it to the MS-16. From what I understand from your video, DAW SMPTE goes into ES master TC, and out of striped tape track goes to ES slave input? nothing else to connect? thanks
That’s not correct. All that does is tell the ES-50 the timeline position of the DAW and the tape position of the MS-16. The whole point of synchronization is for the synchronizer to then take that information and align the position of the slave device with the master device. So if you are wanting to slave the MS16 to your DAW, you also need to fabricate the cable that goes from the “SLAVE I/F” connector on the back of the ES-50 to the “ACCESSORY” connector on the back of the MS16 transport. That’s what allows the ES-50 to then control the MS16 to stay locked to the DAW, BUT...if you go to all that trouble (and trust me it is a lot of trouble), you are STILL going to run into the same problem I did with my 58...the exact same problem. But I found a solution: TimeLine Micro Lynx. The ultimate solution was a different synchronizer. The ES-50 does not speak MIDI Time Code (MTC). If you want to synchronize a tape machine to a DAW where the DAW is the master you have to have a synchronizer that will accommodate MTC along with the SMPTE timecode striped to tape. Good luck.
If you use the 58 as the master there’s no need for a complex synchronizer such as the ES-50. You can use a simple SMPTE to MTC converter and have the DAW reference incoming MTC. The goal was (and note it was about 12 years ago I was trying to synchronize that 58 to a DAW) to slave the tape machine. I don’t like slaving the DAW because in order for the DAW to stay locked to the tape machine, which is invariably less stable than a DAW locked to a digital clock, the DAW adds or drops samples, or in the case of Cubase (which I was using at the time) you can read right in the manual if the DAW is slaved, it doesn’t actually lock to the tape machine. It free-wheels in order to maintain the integrity of the digital audio. And that was my goal; to lock the two while maintaining the integrity of the digital audio and the only way to do that is to slave the tape machine.
@John MacLeod No, my only trial was with Cubase, but that is irrelevant. The issue is not the DAW software, but the fact the ES-50 is looking for tach pulses to track the location of the master when it perceives the master has gone into fast-wind. So if you jump the DAW “transport” timeline significantly ahead or behind of the current location, the ES-50 assumes the master is fast winding because the timecode data is now significantly outside an acceptable parameter. As a result it instructs the slave to go into fast-wind as well but it never resolves because there are no tach pulses coming from the master. So the slave just goes into runaway mode because the ES-50 is waiting for tach pulses from the master to tell it where it is. I don’t know if this issue could have been abated if I was ever able to complete the auto “SETUP” procedure, but it is not possible to complete that step because, again, the ES-50 was not designed in a world where MTC and DAWs existed...it was designed to synchronize to mechanical transports, period. So, during the setup procedure, the ES-50 is looking for dynamic input from two mechanical transports, timecode, tach pulses, etc., so it can learn the individual dynamics of each machine and adjust how it controls them in the sync relationship. But the DAW provides nothing but timecode when in reproduce mode, so the setup procedure fails. The ES-50/51 is a nice synchronizer IF you are synchronizing two mechanical transports. If you are trying to slave a mechanical transport to a DAW it is not worth using in my opinion; the very limited functionality with requisite work-arounds takes away any production benefit. The TimeLine Micro Lynx, on the other hand, is designed to speak MIDI. So when you jump the timeline in the DAW the synchronizer understands “oh we’re *there* now. Okay...tape machine go *there*” and it takes it there beautifully, rather than getting hung up on looking for data input the DAW is not designed to provide.
@John MacLeod Yes the Micro Lynx is the bomb. I have a fully decked out Micro Lynx and a spare unit as well. Maybe you’ve seen this but I have a video I captured for a friend featuring a Tascam BR-20T I used to have chasing MTC in Cubase using the Micro Lynx. Just search my channel for “DAW Synchronized With Tascam BR-20T Using Timeline Micro Lynx” if you want to watch.
Is it possible for the es-50 to control a transport with a accessory 2 port?
It’s not about what the port is named, but rather the communication protocol standard of that port. What tape machine are we talking about?
@@SweetbeatsTechStop tascam 238
@@twocentsoftime The ES-50 will not work with the 238.
@@SweetbeatsTechStop Thanks for getting back to me. Your threads on this unit are epic and I gather you've explored most possibilities with this unit. I have about a million questions, one of them is, why can't a serial port work with a parallel? Could some of the parallel direction messages be fused on to one cable? Or do I just wait for an ats-500
What you have to understand is it’s not a matter of just different cabling or extra cabling...look at it this way...the ES-50 listens to and speaks one type of language. The 238 ACCESSORY 2 port listens to and speaks a totally different kind of language. Neither is bilingual. You have to get a synchronizer that’s speaks the same language as the 238.
What exactly are you wanting to accomplish with the 238 and the ACCESSORY 2 port?
My understanding is you need both the es50 and the es51 which work together. Have you tried that?
I'm trying to sync my MS-16 to cubase, But I dont have a mala for the ES50 and i'm trying to figure out how to connect it to the MS-16. From what I understand from your video, DAW SMPTE goes into ES master TC, and out of striped tape track goes to ES slave input? nothing else to connect? thanks
That’s not correct. All that does is tell the ES-50 the timeline position of the DAW and the tape position of the MS-16. The whole point of synchronization is for the synchronizer to then take that information and align the position of the slave device with the master device. So if you are wanting to slave the MS16 to your DAW, you also need to fabricate the cable that goes from the “SLAVE I/F” connector on the back of the ES-50 to the “ACCESSORY” connector on the back of the MS16 transport. That’s what allows the ES-50 to then control the MS16 to stay locked to the DAW, BUT...if you go to all that trouble (and trust me it is a lot of trouble), you are STILL going to run into the same problem I did with my 58...the exact same problem. But I found a solution: TimeLine Micro Lynx. The ultimate solution was a different synchronizer. The ES-50 does not speak MIDI Time Code (MTC). If you want to synchronize a tape machine to a DAW where the DAW is the master you have to have a synchronizer that will accommodate MTC along with the SMPTE timecode striped to tape. Good luck.
What if you use the 58 as the master?
If you use the 58 as the master there’s no need for a complex synchronizer such as the ES-50. You can use a simple SMPTE to MTC converter and have the DAW reference incoming MTC. The goal was (and note it was about 12 years ago I was trying to synchronize that 58 to a DAW) to slave the tape machine. I don’t like slaving the DAW because in order for the DAW to stay locked to the tape machine, which is invariably less stable than a DAW locked to a digital clock, the DAW adds or drops samples, or in the case of Cubase (which I was using at the time) you can read right in the manual if the DAW is slaved, it doesn’t actually lock to the tape machine. It free-wheels in order to maintain the integrity of the digital audio. And that was my goal; to lock the two while maintaining the integrity of the digital audio and the only way to do that is to slave the tape machine.
@@SweetbeatsTechStop I totally understand and wonder if you ever got it to sync even if using another DAW?
@John MacLeod No, my only trial was with Cubase, but that is irrelevant. The issue is not the DAW software, but the fact the ES-50 is looking for tach pulses to track the location of the master when it perceives the master has gone into fast-wind. So if you jump the DAW “transport” timeline significantly ahead or behind of the current location, the ES-50 assumes the master is fast winding because the timecode data is now significantly outside an acceptable parameter. As a result it instructs the slave to go into fast-wind as well but it never resolves because there are no tach pulses coming from the master. So the slave just goes into runaway mode because the ES-50 is waiting for tach pulses from the master to tell it where it is. I don’t know if this issue could have been abated if I was ever able to complete the auto “SETUP” procedure, but it is not possible to complete that step because, again, the ES-50 was not designed in a world where MTC and DAWs existed...it was designed to synchronize to mechanical transports, period. So, during the setup procedure, the ES-50 is looking for dynamic input from two mechanical transports, timecode, tach pulses, etc., so it can learn the individual dynamics of each machine and adjust how it controls them in the sync relationship. But the DAW provides nothing but timecode when in reproduce mode, so the setup procedure fails. The ES-50/51 is a nice synchronizer IF you are synchronizing two mechanical transports. If you are trying to slave a mechanical transport to a DAW it is not worth using in my opinion; the very limited functionality with requisite work-arounds takes away any production benefit. The TimeLine Micro Lynx, on the other hand, is designed to speak MIDI. So when you jump the timeline in the DAW the synchronizer understands “oh we’re *there* now. Okay...tape machine go *there*” and it takes it there beautifully, rather than getting hung up on looking for data input the DAW is not designed to provide.
@@SweetbeatsTechStop Thank you so much for this reply as I was looking to find an ES50/51, but now will concentrate on finding a TimeLine Micro Lynx.
@John MacLeod Yes the Micro Lynx is the bomb. I have a fully decked out Micro Lynx and a spare unit as well. Maybe you’ve seen this but I have a video I captured for a friend featuring a Tascam BR-20T I used to have chasing MTC in Cubase using the Micro Lynx. Just search my channel for “DAW Synchronized With Tascam BR-20T Using Timeline Micro Lynx” if you want to watch.
Sorry was not far enough in.