User manual

436
Synchronization
Machine Control
Cubase can control external tape transports and similar
devices via MIDI Machine Control. This allows you to op-
erate an external tape transport from Cubase’s Transport
panel. That is, Cubase can make the tape recorder locate
to a certain position, start, stop, rewind, etc.
About sync and machine control
Controlling tape transports is a two-way process:
• Cubase sends out machine control commands to the
tape recorder, asking it to locate to a certain position and
activate playback, etc.
• The tape recorder locates to the requested position,
starts and delivers timecode back to Cubase, to which
Cubase is synchronized.
Even though it appears as if Cubase is controlling the tape
recorder completely, it is important to remember that in
this setup, Cubase is still being synchronized to the exter-
nal tape transport, not vice versa.
Also note that the two processes of sync and machine
control are completely separated, in terms of protocols
used. You can for example synchronize to MTC while
sending out transport commands via MMC.
MIDI Machine Control (MMC)
This is a standard MIDI protocol for controlling tape trans-
ports. There are a number of tape recorders and hard disk
recording systems on the market that support this protocol.
Cubase allows you to control the transport of an external
MMC device and arm tracks for recording (Cubase only).
Machine Control commands can be sent using MIDI Ma-
chine Control (MMC):
1. Set up and test basic timecode synchronization, as de-
scribed earlier in this chapter.
2. Connect a MIDI Out on your MIDI interface to a MIDI
In on the tape recorder (or similar device).
If you have not already done so (when setting up for MIDI Timecode),
also connect a MIDI cable from the MIDI Output on the tape recorder to
a MIDI In on the computer.
3. Make sure you have timecode recorded on the tape
recorder, and that it is set up to use MMC.
4. Open the Project Synchronization Setup dialog via the
Transport menu in Cubase.
5. In the Master Machine Control Device section, acti-
vate the “MC Master Active” checkbox.
6. Select the correct MMC Inputs and Outputs from the
respective pop-up menus.
7. Make sure that the MMC Device ID corresponds to
the ID of the controlled device.
If more that one machine is connected or if you do not know the Device
ID, this can be set to “All”, the “Broadcast” device ID.
8. Set the “Number of Audio Tracks” setting to the num-
ber of tracks on the external tape recorder (Cubase only).
9. Open the Preferences dialog from the File menu (on
the Mac, this is located on the Cubase menu), select the
MIDI Filter section and make sure Sysex is activated in the
Thru section.
This is necessary since MMC uses two-way communication (the tape re-
corder “replies” to the MMC messages it receives from Cubase). By fil-
tering out Sysex Thru, you ensure that these MMC System Exclusive
replies are not echoed back to the tape recorder.
10. Close the Preferences and open the Project Setup di-
alog from the Project menu.
11. As when synchronizing without using transport con-
trol, use the Start value to specify which frame on the tape
should correspond to the beginning of the project.
12. Close the Project Setup dialog.
How to proceed from here depends on whether you are
using Cubase or Cubase Studio:
Cubase:
1. Pull down the Devices menu and select MMC Master.
The MIDI Machine Control master transport panel appears.
MIDI Machine Control
activated