Alesis BRC Reference Manual page 6

• Modular recording. This is the feature that makes ADAT and the
ADAT/BRC system perhaps the most flexible multitrack recorder
ever designed. Because ADAT's S-VHS tape format is so
inexpensive, you can easily afford to record alternate versions of
vocals, solos, background accompaniments; whatever your
creative urge requires.
Modular recording means you can build as many tracks as you
desire while you're recording and do composite editing with the
BRC and ADAT's Optical Digital Interface (see next section) before
the final mixdown.
Tapes can be offset with pin-point accuracy. This feature is
particularly useful for recording extended live performances when
a 40 minute tape would not fit the entire recording. By offsetting
the time location of a second ADAT by 30 minutes past the first,
the second will take over while you change tapes on the first unit.
Thus, a continuous recording can be preserved digitally on
multiple cassettes, creating the equivalent of one very long
seamless piece of tape.
• Optical digital interface. In addition to conventional analog inputs
and outputs, the ADAT's Proprietary Multichannel Optical Digital
Interface carries up to eight tracks simultaneously via optical cable,
allowing for perfect, degradation-free digital dubbing between
ADATs. The BRC Remote Control allows you to assign any part of
a track to any other track in a multiple ADAT system. This means
you can do comprehensive editing of recorded tracks, all in the
digital domain.
• SMPTE, MIDI and external time code control. The BRC is capable
of generating MIDI Time Code (MTC) and generating and reading
all six SMPTE formats. It can also provide MIDI-Clock based on a
user-definable Tempo Map. Generating SMPTE or MTC provides
sync for external devices, such as sequencers and drum machines.
Reading SMPTE allows for the syncing to external devices,
including other multitrack machines of different manufacturers.
Other synchronizing options include 48 KHz clock in and out, and
a video sync in (accepts composite video as well as black burst
video inputs).
• Storage of setups. To insure instant recall of the BRC's settings, all
setup information can be saved to the beginning of each ADAT
tape for later retrieval. This information is known as the "table of
contents", or TOC. This information can also be stored via MIDI,
by dumping the BRC's data as System/Exclusive information to a
MIDI storage device, such as the Alesis DataDisk.
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