Synchronizing Machines; Master/Slave Interaction - Alesis ADAT-XT20 Reference Manual

Each slave XT20 can have its own tape offset, with respect to the master
machine. Combine this feature with the ability to bounce tracks in the digital
domain, and you have the ability to perform cut-and-paste style assembly
editing.
S
YNCHRONIZING
Synchronization requires a dual male, 9-pin D connector cable for each slave to
be synchronized. Use only Alesis cables. Alesis Sync Cables are available in
three different lengths: 8", 30", and 30' from your dealer. Other types of cables
may cause incorrect commands to be received, and erratic sync performance. This
connection should be made while power is off, and the machines should be
powered on from first to last with the BRC (if present) powered on after all of
the ADATs. For more about connections, refer to the section entitled Sync In/Out
in Chapter 3.
After you've connected multiple XT20s and/or ADATS together and turned
them on, the master's display will show "ID 1" (identifying itself as the
number 1 machine in the system). The second machine will display ID 2, the
third ID 3, and so on. The ID order is automatically assigned according to how
the cables are hooked up. You can re-check a machine's ID at any time by
holding [SET LOCATE] and pressing [PLAY].
If a slave does not display an ID number on power-up, then it does not see
anything connected to the [SYNC IN] jack. Check the cables and connections.
If needed, the machines will renumber their IDs if more XT20s or ADATs are
connected later. Example: Suppose you have three XT20s hooked up so that
machine 1 is the master, and machines 2 and 3 are slaves. If you turn on only
machines 2 and 3, machine 1 will not be active so machine 2 decides it's the
master (ID 1) and machine three the only slave (ID 2). If you then turn on
machine 1, the machines will renumber themselves so that machine 1 becomes
the master (ID 1), and machines 2 and 3 become the slaves (ID 2 and 3,
respectively). Note that in this example, if machines 1 and 3 are turned on but
machine 2 is turned off, machine 3 will not slave to machine 1 because machine
2 is turned off, so the sync signal cannot pass through it from 1 to 3.
All slave XT20s will automatically be placed in External Clock mode (the EXT
icon will be lit in the CLOCK icon group). The [CLOCK SELECT] button will
not function on the slave XT20s since External Clock is their only option.
Simultaneously, each slave's CHASE icon will light whenever it is chasing
the location of the master.
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ADAT XT20 Reference Manual
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ASTER LAVE NTERACTION
Pressing any of the transport buttons ([PLAY], [STOP], etc.), or [AUTO
REC], [LOCATE 0] – [LOCATE 9], [ALL INPUT], [AUTO INPUT],
PITCH [ ] or [ ] will automatically trigger the same functions on the
slave machine(s) as well. Alesis recommends that you always initiate
operations from the master, including all transport control functions, to
minimize confusion. When you press [PLAY] on the master, the slave(s)
will locate to the same timecode point and begin playing once sync is
Multiple ADAT-XT20 Operation: Chapter 5
ACHINES
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