How does SMPTE timecode work? Fostex Model 80, Atari 1040ST & Unitor sync box. Notator software synchronizing it all through the setup.
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So in essence the thing about SMPTE time code is this: It's a way of synchronizing analog gear with digital gear. The way we used this in the 80s and 90s was to synchronize tape machines with MIDI sequencers. That way we could continue expanding/changing the MIDI sequence without loosing sync with sounds already recorded on tape. If a vocalist had done the vocals and you later wanted to change some of the sounds in the MIDI arrangement, you could. Because the tape and MIDI sequence were synchronized, through the means of the time code.

Some interesting facts about SMPTE:
SMPTE timecode was widely used to synchronize music in the 80s and 90s.
SMPTE is a set of cooperating standards to label individual frames of video or film with a timecode.
SMPTE timecode is presented in hour:minute:second:frame format
Sub-second timecode time values are expressed in terms of frames
SMPTE = Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers - typically 30 frames (24 for film)
EBU = European Broadcasting Union typically 25 frames
The use of SMPTE synchronization is now decreasing as analog tape is declining as a recording medium. Hard disk recording does not need any time code, since the DAW software can embed the timing information in with the data on disk and provide synchronization to other devices via digital mechanisms such as MIDI or DIN sync. SMPTE is needed only when the DAW is required to synchronize with an analog medium, such as audio tape, video tape, or film.

In the case of the Fostex LED counter, this is just that, a counter driven by the tape motor. It doesn't reflect the actual SMPTE time encoded on track 8 on the tape, hence it's not spot on with the actual time code. A more advanced tape machine would have the ability to show that. The tape machine is perfectly synced up with the sequencer though, just to be clear.

I've hooked up the ISLA S2400, Roland Alpha Juno, Yamaha TX802 and Juno-106 through MIDI, on the Atari. All the outputs of the synths are hooked directly into the line INs of the Fostex. So throughout this video you're hearing the Fostex preamps. After the recording you're hearing the sounds directly out of the tape and you can easily (even on YouTube) hearing the tape compression going on, especially on the drums.
If I'd fed the tape an even more hot signal, it would have compressed and distorted it even harder, but I didn't run the synths through a mixer so I didn't achieved that sound today.

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Growing up I listened to so much synth-pop and it's only natural that my own music takes inspiration from many of the acts I loved back then. I still love them and listen to them!

Howard Jones, Depeche Mode, Pet Shop Boys, New Order, Erasure, Thompson Twins, Tears for Fears, The Human League, Propaganda. FGTH, Ultravox, OMD, Eurythmics, Duran Duran, Giorgio Moroder, Jean Michel Jarre, Jan Hammer, Alphaville, A-ha as well as loads of artists doing what is now called Italo Disco. And many more great acts like Nik Kershaw, Spandau Ballet, Wham, Dire Straits ++

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