sync drifts. need help ASAP

Hi, We are syncing HD with sync i/o and 3x prism ada-8xr interfaces with 2" tape. we put protools online and record audio from the tape, and upon playback, it rapidly drifts out of sync. the tape was striped with code from the sync i/o the drift seems to be worse with the clock source set to internal/vso. with it set to use the first prism as the loop sync master, the drift still occurs, but takes longer. each pass putting the audio into PT is done with the clock source as it will be on test playback. any help is appreciated. matt

are you locking the multitrack as well? if not you must set the sync I/O to lock to LTC - so that PT's word clock will follow the varying speed of your analog machine. the alternative is to use a synchronizer on the 24-track and set it up so that the 24-track is speed-locked to its own time code. use the same timebase for your sync I/O. Sounds like you have just the sync IO - so alternative #1 is your only option. You've got 2 things to lock: Location (the numbers on the time code) and speed (the rate at which the frames whiz by). So if you're using analog you must either control the speed of the tape so that the frame rate on the timecode track is exactly in sync with the word clock, or you must control the word clock rate with the (always) varying speed of the timecode coming from the analog track. It can be done! Cheers JW

thanks for the quick reply. i was under the impression that setting the clock reference to internal/vso would allow the sync i/o to varispeed protools along with the incoming timecode. and no, not syncing the 2" machine. this thing doesn't even have modern punch capabilities!

Sync to LTC is what you want - and if you're talking about the tightness of the lock you might find that if you select the slower, tighter LTC option you'll get very tight lock indeed - less wobbly than is possible with the 24-track externally. Anyway it's a moot point if you don't have a synchronizer. Use the Sync IO Tight lock when transferring, and use the quick lock setting when checking, and try and spend as little time actually playing back in sync as you can. Life's too short! Good luck! JW PS THe Da88 will "re-sync" or "lock and drop" depending on how you set the preference.

Great! Enjoy the project! JW