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TASPUNCH Automated timecode-synchronized punch-in and out for Tascam MSR/TSR multitrack recorders Version 1.3 for the PC and Windows 3.1x, October 1995 Mark Mitchell P.O. Box 111116 Carrollton TX 75011 Copyright 1995, Mark Mitchell TASPUNCH Software License Agreement The TASPUNCH software is intellectual property of Mark Mitchell, and is copyright 1995 by Mark Mitchell. By purchasing the diskette and manual, you are granted a license to: * Use the software on no more than one computer at a time. * Make a copy of the software for backup purposes. You may not otherwise use or copy the TASPUNCH software. Any other use or copying of the software is expressly not allowed by the license, and is a violation of copyright laws. TASPUNCH is a trademark of Mark Mitchell. Other brand and product names mentioned in this manual may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders. What the TASPUNCH Program Does TASPUNCH is a Windows program that allows you to remotely control your Tascam TSR-8, MSR-16, or MSR-24 multitrack tape recorder from your PC. TASPUNCH can also perform automated, timecode- synchronized punch-in and punch-out with punch points referenced to a SMPTE timecode track on your tape. The punch points can be rehearsed before committing to record, and can also be adjusted with a resolution of one timecode frame. TASPUNCH can run simultaneously with your Windows sequencer. To perform automated punch-in and out while your sequencer is running, the device driver for your MIDI interface must support multiple clients. What You Need to Utilize TASPUNCH The TASPUNCH program will be useful to you only if you have: A Tascam TSR-8, MSR-16 or MSR-24 multitrack tape recorder. If the serial number of your TSR-8 is "59999" or less, Tascam states that it will need a modification to work with the Accessory-2 protocol (which TASPUNCH uses), for which you will need to contact Tascam customer service. Throughout the rest of this manual the term "TSR/MSR machine" is used to refer to any of these three Tascam multitracks. A PC-compatible computer with a 386 or higher processor and a serial port, and running DOS 5.0 or higher and Windows 3.1 or higher. You will also need a special cable for connecting the serial port of your computer to the Accessory-2 connector on the Tascam TSR/MSR machine. Instructions for making this cable are provided at the end of this document. You can buy this cable from me if you don't want to make one yourself. If you want to use TASPUNCH to do automated timecode-synchronized punch-in and out, you also need a MIDI interface with SMPTE time code to MIDI Time Code conversion ability and the appropriate Windows MIDI driver for the interface. Here is a list of some of the more popular MIDI/SMPTE timecode interfaces, but there are others that will also work. * Music Quest MQX-32M * Music Quest MQX-16M * Music Quest 2Port/SE * Key Electronics MP-128S * Any MPU-401 compatible (Roland MPU-IPC-T, Music Quest PC MIDI Card, Creative Labs Soundblaster, etc.) plus an external SMPTE-MTC converter such as the Music Quest FrameLock or Midiman Syncman. * Music Quest Note/1 or Note/1+ plus an external SMPTE-MTC converter such as the Music Quest FrameLock or Midiman Syncman. You will also need SMPTE time code recorded on one track of the tape. TASPUNCH supports all SMPTE formats. If you want do automated punch-in and out simultaneously while your Windows sequencer is playing a sequence clocked by the time code, the Windows driver for your MIDI interface must support multiple clients. The Music Quest driver and the Key Electronics MP-128S driver support multiple clients. The generic MPU-401 driver that comes with Windows and the Creative Labs Soundblaster MIDI driver do not. Installing the TASPUNCH program First, make a backup copy of the TASPUNCH distribution diskette. Hard disks do sometimes fail and 3.5 inch diskettes do occasionally go bad, so you should always have an extra copy of anything of value to you. The TASPUNCH distribution diskette contains three files: TASPUNCH.EXE, MJMWMIDI.DLL , and BWCC.DLL. To install TASPUNCH, first create a directory named TASPUNCH. Copy these three files to this directory. Then use Program Manager to create a new item in whatever program group you like, and browse for TASPUNCH.EXE. Set the working directory to the TASPUNCH directory. The last thing is to see if you already have a copy of BWCC.DLL in your \WINDOWS\SYSTEM directory. If you don't, you will need to copy this one to \WINDOWS\SYSTEM. You can also move MJMWMIDI.DLL to the \WINDOWS\SYSTEM directory if you want. The first time you run TASPUNCH, it defaults to use COM1 for the serial communication with the TSR/MSR machine. If you want to use COM2 instead, click the Config button to bring up the dialog box in which you can choose other COM ports. Also, the first time you run TASPUNCH, it defaults to use the first Windows MIDI device. If you have multiple MIDI interfaces and the first one is not the one providing SMPTE/MTC messages, use the Config button to bring up the dialog box in which you can choose other MIDI devices. The next time you start TASPUNCH, it will use the COM port and MIDI device that you selected. Using TASPUNCH TASPUNCH has two small windows that it places on your screen, called the Remote window and the Punch window. The Remote window contains a set of buttons and indicators similar to the remote control unit manufactured by Tascam for the TSR-8, MSR-16 and MSR- 24 multitracks. Using the mouse or keyboard you can control the machine just as you would by pressing buttons on the Tascam remote control unit. You can control the tape transport, set and seek the two available locate points, arm and disarm tracks, and control the Insert and All Input settings. The Remote window is small and always stays on top of other windows, to facilitate using TASPUNCH simultaneously with your sequencer. Here is an ASCII text interpretation of the Remote window: __________________________________________________________________ |_____________________TASPUNCH TSR-8_______________________________| | [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] | | o o o o o o o o | |[MEM1] [MEM2] [RESET] [_Ins] [_All] [AllSafe] [REC] | |[LOC1] [LOC2] [ RTZ ] [ REW] [ FF ] [ STOP ] [PLAY] [Config...] | ------------------------------------------------------------------- You can use your mouse to click the buttons, or you can use the keyboard when the TASPUNCH Remote window has the focus. Be aware that in Windows a button click takes effect not when the mouse button is depressed, but when the mouse button is released. You may that find using the keyboard alternatives give you better accuracy when setting punch points or punching in manually. The keystrokes for the TASPUNCH Remote window are: p Play s Stop f Fast Forward w Rewind z Return to Zero Ctrl-r Record (only when playing) Ctrl-e Reset Counter n Insert toggle a All Input toggle c Configuration dialog 1 Locate 1 2 Locate 2 Ctrl-1 Memorize 1 (Ctrl-1 must be entered using the numeric keypad) Ctrl-2 Memorize 2 (Ctrl-2 must be entered using the numeric keypad) The keyboard commands are case-sensitive and they are for lower case letters only, so if they appear to not work, check your CapsLock key. Manual record doesn't do anything unless Play was pressed first (tape is rolling). Ctrl-Tab switches the focus between the Remote window and the Punch window. Note that it is possible to confuse TASPUNCH -- if you change some things from the recorder's front panel, TASPUNCH doesn't know they have been changed. The only real hazard in this is that when you press Play in TASPUNCH, the Record button is armed. If you then press STOP on the MSR machine, the Record button will still be armed until you click Stop or some other transport control in TASPUNCH, meaning that if you click the Record button or press Ctrl-R, TASPUNCH will start rolling tape and recording on the armed tracks. Be careful. The software will put up various message boxes if it encounters some error or unusual circumstance. What is Punching In and Out? "Punching in" is a feature found on professional multitrack tape recorders that allows you to switch one or more tracks from "Play" to "Record" while the tape is rolling. This utility of this feature is to allow you to record a performance that sounds like it was recorded in a single uninterrupted pass, but was really recorded in pieces. If you are recording a vocalist, and she sings the first verse with great feeling and intonation, but the second verse is less than stellar, you can play the track, and in the silent space between the first and second verse, while the tape is rolling, you press the RECORD button and the machine will start recording at that point. Since the tape continues to roll, there is no interruption of the sound of the other playing tracks which are the accompaniment to which she is singing. After the last word of the second verse you might need to "punch out" by hitting STOP or PLAY, in order to keep from erasing the following perfect chorus that you had recorded earlier. A high- quality tape machine can do punch-in and out with no audible noise at the punch-in or out point. There are situations in which punching successfully can be difficult. One is the case where you are being both the artist and the recording engineer at the same time. You must concentrate on both making a good entrance on your instrument and on punching RECORD at just the right time. If you need both your hands to play your instrument, this can be impossible if the window of time for punching is short. In the other scenario, even when there is a recording engineer dedicating his concentration and hands to operate the recorder while the artist performs, there are times in which the window of time to punch in or out is so short as to make it very difficult to punch at just the right time. The reaction of the ears and fingers of the recording engineer is sometimes not precise enough to punch in a short time window. Punch in too late, and you miss the beginning of the artist's performance, necessitating another try, and losing what otherwise might have been a great performance. Punch too early, and you erase the tail end of the preceding material, which might be a great loss. All this is complicated by the fact that some machines, such as the Tascam TSR/MSR series, don't actually enter record at the precise moment the RECORD button is pressed, but a fraction of a second later, in order to compensate for the time it takes for a location on the tape to move from the erase head to the record head. The recording engineer must listen to the playback and anticipate the punch by exactly this fraction of a second. The Tascam MSR/TSR Automated Punch-in and Out These difficulties can be relieved when there is some way to do punch-in and out automatically. The Tascam TSR/MSR-series recorders have automated punch-in and out built in as a feature. They allow you to set punch-in and punch-out points with your ears and fingers, and listen to them to make sure they are at the correct place before committing to actually record. If you listen and hear that the in and out points are not exactly where you want, you can try setting them again, until they are as you want. Then you tell the machine you want to actually record with the points, and it will roll the tape and enter and exit RECORD at the preprogrammed places. There are two slight weaknesses to the TSR/MSR machines' automated punch-in and out capabilities. One is that the only way to set the points is using your ears and fingers, listening and pressing the TSR/MSR's RECORD and PLAY buttons at the desired punch-in and out points. It can often require several tries to get the points at the right place if the window for punching is short. The other weakness is that the TSR/MSR machines reference the points to the tachometer pulses generated by the rotation of the roller which is in contact with the tape, not to anything on the tape itself. After carefully setting your punch points, if it takes several tries to record a performance you are happy with, the repeated play and rewind of the tape can cause the punch points to drift a small amount from their original locations. If the punch-in or out point needs to be very precise, this could cause problems. The TASPUNCH program addresses these two weaknesses. TASPUNCH Automated Timecode-Synchronized Punch-in and Punch-out TASPUNCH performs automated punch-in and out, with punch-in and out points that are referenced to the SMPTE time code recorded on a track of the tape. This provides several advantages over the built-in auto-punch capabilities of the TSR/MSR machines: The punch-in and out points have a precision accurate to one frame of time code (1/30th of a second, or 1/24 or 1/25 of a second, depending on what flavor of time code you are using). Since the points are referenced to a signal on the tape itself, once they are set, they will not drift with respect to the audio on the tape, no matter how many times you play and rewind the tape. You can repeat your punch as many times as you like and it will always be in the same place. The points are editable. You set some initial points using your ears and fingers. Then you can listen to them without actually recording to see if they are where you want them. If they are not, you simply adjust adjust them earlier or later in one-frame increments until they are where you want. The Punch window is used for controlling the automated punch-in and out capabilities. The Punch window remains on top of other windows, including the Remote window. It can be minimized when not required. When you want to see as much of your sequencer as possible while punching, you can move the Punch window on top of the Remote window, since the Punch window has buttons for the transport controls most needed when punching. Here is an ASCII text interpretation of the Punch window: ______________________________________________________________________ |______________Timecode-synchronized Punch-in/out______________________| | | |[^]00:01:53:16 [InSet ] 00:01:47:19 30 fps [LOC1] [LOC2] [Cancel] | |[v]00:02:02:27 [OutSet] [_Rehearse] [_AutoRec] [ PLAY ] [ STOP ] | ------------------------------------------------------------------------ The keystrokes for the Punch window are: i Set Punch-in point o Set Punch-out point Alt-h Arm Auto-Rehearse Alt-r Arm Auto-Record ESC Cancel Auto-Rehearse and Auto-Record s Stop p Play 1 Locate 1 2 Locate 2 s Stop up-arrow Increment highlighted digits down-arrow Decrement highlighted digits left-arrow Move highlight left right-arrow Move highlight right Here is a typical sequence of events for performing automated punch-in and out: Position the tape prior to the point at which you desire to punch in, with however much pre-roll time you like. Set a LOC point by clicking the MEM1 button, or pressing the Ctrl key and holding it while pressing 1 on the numeric keypad. This is equivalent to pressing MEM1 on the TSR/MSR front panel or remote control. Arm the track you desire to punch in on by clicking on the track arm button. The track indicator should start to blink. You may arm more than one track. In order to monitor the tracks which are armed for record, the Insert button must be checked. Press Ctrl-Tab to change the focus to the Punch window. Click the PLAY button or press the 'p' key to roll tape. While tape is rolling, press the 'i' key, or click the InSet button, to mark the punch-in time. Press the 'o' key, or click the OutSet button, to mark the punch- out time. Rewind the tape to the LOC point by clicking the LOC1 button or pressing the '1' key. Press Alt-H to arm the Auto-rehearse function (H stands for "hear"). Click PLAY. When the tape reaches the punch-in point, TASPUNCH will turn off the Insert light and the armed tracks will be muted. When the punch-out point is reached, TASPUNCH will turn Insert on again and the armed tracks will again be monitored. This gives you audible indication of where the punch points are. If the punch points are not where you want them, you can edit them to 1-frame resolution. Click on the frames digits of the out time or in time. Those digits will be highlighted. Clicking on the up-arrow and down-arrow buttons will increment or decrement the time by one frame. If you need to make larger adjustments (such as setting a punch-out time far away without actually rolling the tape there), move the highlighting to the desired digits of the time by either clicking on the desired digits or using the right or left cursor keys, and click on the up-arrow or down-arrow buttons to increment or decrement the time by the selected digits. Repeat the rehearse and punch-time adjustment until you are satisfied with the placement of the punch points. Click on LOC1 to rewind to the pre-roll locate point. Click Cancel or Press ESC to exit Auto-rehearse mode. Press Alt-R or click the AutoRec button to enter Auto-record mode. Click PLAY. When the tape reaches the punch-in point TASPUNCH will do the equivalent of punching the REC button. All armed tracks will enter record at that point. When the tape reaches the punch-out point, TASPUNCH will do the equivalent of pressing the PLAY button. All armed tracks will exit record and tape will continue to roll. Also, Auto-record mode is exited. Stop the transport and rewind to the locate point and audition the performance. You can rewind to the locate point, press Alt-R and try the take as many times as necessary until the producer is satisfied with the artist's performance. The punch points will not move until you change them. If you want to stop and continue later, TASPUNCH will save the current punch times when it exits, and will reload them the next time it is run. You might want to write the punch times down anyway , so if you inadvertently alter them you can re-enter them manually. To exit Auto-record or Auto-rehearse mode at any time, press ESC or click Cancel. If you are recording, TASPUNCH will punch-out immediately. How TASPUNCH Works The TSR/MSR-series machines have an Accessory-2 connector which incorporates a serial port. Almost everything you can do via the front panel buttons of the TSR/MSR machine, including entering and exiting record, can also be done by sending various messages to the serial port incorporated in the TSR/MSR machine's Accessory-2 connector. When the TSR/MSR machine's Accessory-2 connector is connected to the PC's serial port by the correct cable, TASPUNCH can communicate with and control the TSR/MSR machine by sending it messages. SMPTE time code was originally invented to provide a means of synchronizing analog audio tape machines with video media. It is an analog signal that encodes a time in the form of hours, minutes, seconds and frames. There are four types of time code in use, the difference between them being into how many frames a second is subdivided, either 24, 25 or two variations of 30 frames-per-second. These four different time codes exist to correspond to various video media currently in use. A SMPTE time is commonly notated in the form hh:mm:ss:ff, where hh is hours (0 to 23), mm is minutes (0 to 59), ss is seconds (0 to 59), and ff is frames (0 to 29, 0 to 24, or 0 to 23, depending on the time code type). The utility of time code was recognized by manufacturers of MIDI equipment, and a MIDI specification was established for converting the analog time code signal to a set of MIDI messages called MIDI Time Code, or MTC. Many MIDI interfaces are now available which can read a SMPTE time code signal off a tape and produce from it MIDI Time Code messages. The SMPTE time code recorded on one track of the tape is fed into the MIDI interface (or SMPTE-to-MTC converter). The interface or converter reads this analog time code signal and produces MIDI Time Code (MTC). As the tape rolls, TASPUNCH reads these MTC messages from the MIDI interface, and thus knows where the tape is. (These MTC messages are the same ones that your sequencer uses to synchronize itself to tape with SMPTE time code. You may have bought your MIDI interface or SMPTE-MTC converter precisely so you could synchronize your sequencer to your multitrack tape machine). When TASPUNCH has been given a punch-in and punch-out time, and been armed for auto-punch, it watches the incoming time code from the rolling tape, and when the tape time matches the punch-in time, it sends a message to the TSR/MSR machine telling it to enter record. When the punch-out time is reached, it sends another message telling the TSR/MSR machine to exit record. When armed to perform rehearsal of a punch instead of recording, instead of sending a message to enter record, TASPUNCH sends a message to turn off the Insert function. This mutes the audio from any tracks that are armed for record, thus allowing you to hear with your ears exactly where the punch will take place. Taking Care to Avoid Tragedy Since one of the purposes of punching in is to preserve previously recorded material deemed to be valuable, some care is needed to avoid potentially grievous events. The TASPUNCH program has been thoroughly tested and itself should not cause you to cry. However there are one or two ways in which it could be prevented from properly punching-in or out. The purpose of this section is not to scare you, but to warn you of risky (not to you, but to your recording) situations. Just like you make sure you keep enough oil in the engine of your car, just make sure these items are taken care of, and you will avoid potential problems. Microsoft Windows has an unfortunate characteristic that you must be aware of: while you are dragging or resizing any window on the screen, Windows suspends all input to all windows. For most applications this is not a severe problem, because the input they are expecting is generally initiated by the user via the mouse or keyboard. However TASPUNCH is constantly receiving real-time input from the MIDI input device. To put it simply, what this means is when you are armed for automated punch-in/out and tape is rolling, don't try to drag or resize any window, because TASPUNCH will cease to see the incoming timecode and will not perform the punch. The proper functioning of TASPUNCH depends on the integrity of the communication link to the TSR/MSR machine and on the integrity of the incoming time code. If the communication link to the TSR/MSR machine is not reliable, the messages TASPUNCH sends to the TSR/MSR machine may not get there in an intelligible form and the TSR/MSR machine will not perform the requested action. This could cause you grief if you are depending on TASPUNCH to punch out prior to some other section of tape that contains material you want to preserve. If the TSR/MSR machine doesn't see the punch-out message from TASPUNCH, it will stay in record until you intervene and punch out or stop it. The same thing could occur with a loss or corruption of the time code signal. Therefore, I suggest the following precautions: There are several cables that carry the signals whose absolute integrity is necessary for the proper functioning of TASPUNCH. These are: The cable connecting the PC serial port to the MSR machine's Accessory-2 connector. The audio cable from the Tape Out of the track with the SMPTE time code to the SMPTE In of the MIDI interface or SMPTE-MTC converter. If you have a combination of a SMPTE-MTC converter and a MIDI interface, the MIDI cable connecting the two. If you have an external MIDI interface such as a Music Quest 2Port/SE or Note/1, the cable connecting it to the PC's parallel port. Make sure all these cables are in good condition and are firmly attached to their respective connectors. Use the screws on the connectors to ensure they can't inadvertently come loose at an inopportune time. Make sure these cables are away from sources of strong electromagnetic interference such as power supplies and video monitors. If you have an external MIDI interface or SMPTE-MTC converter, make sure the wall-wart is secure in its wall plug and the other end is securely connected to the interface. Make sure your SMPTE time code track has no dropouts at the punch points, or at least none that exceed the freewheeling (jam sync) capability of your SMPTE-MTC interface. Rehearsing the punch points will usually reveal any such problems. Since there are many possible equipment configurations that I have no way of checking out, make sure you first familiarize yourself with TASPUNCH on a recording that is of no value to you to ensure it works properly with your equipment. One other suggestion: The TSR/MSR series machines can be set to communicate at either 1200, 2400, 4800 or 9600 baud. The time it takes for a message to be sent from TASPUNCH to the TSR/MSR machine is directly related to the communication speed. I strongly suggest using the fastest speed, 9600 baud, since this will result in the minimum time required for the TSR/MSR to receive the commands sent to it by TASPUNCH. OK, you have been admonished. The TASPUNCH program is provided as-is with no warranty of any kind expressed or implied. I am not responsible for any incidental damages or loss incurred as a result of you using this program. So if TASPUNCH should get up in the middle of the night and eat all your master tapes while you are asleep, all you will get from me is a sympathy card with a Far Side cartoon to ease your pain. Technical Support TASPUNCH really is a very simple program to use. I am assuming that you are already familiar with using time code to synchronize your sequencer to your multitrack. If so, then you already have the timecode getting to your MIDI interface, and the only thing you need to do is connect the TASPUNCH cable to the Accessory-2 interface of the TSR/MSR machine and an unused COM port on your PC, and configure TASPUNCH to use the correct COM port and MIDI In device. If everything is connected and communicating properly, when you start up TASPUNCH it will give you no error messages and the caption bar of the Remote window will say what type of Tascam machine it is communicating with. If you then roll tape and feed time code to your MIDI interface, you should see the current time display start ticking along. Stop the tape and the time will stop ticking. Here are a few hints for basic problems. If you see the message "No Tascam machine detected", then either: TASPUNCH is not using the correct COM port. Click the Config button and select the proper COM port. The cable between the serial port and the Tascam Accessory-2 connector is not connected well. The Tascam is turned off. The IRQ on your serial interface is not what Windows thinks it is. If the Tascam is turned on, but no tape is loaded, try loading and tensioning tape, and restart TASPUNCH. If you see the message "No MIDI devices available", this means you have no MIDI devices installed on your system. You can still use the Remote control features of TASPUNCH, but to use the auto- punch capabilities, you must install the MIDI device driver provided by the manufacturer of your MIDI interface. If you see the message "Can't open MIDI In device", this means either TASPUNCH could not communicate with your Windows MIDI device or another program is using the MIDI device and the MIDI device does not support multiple clients. You can still use the Remote control features of TASPUNCH. To use the auto-punch capabilities, you should either click on the Config button to bring up a dialog box in which you can configure TASPUNCH to use the correct MIDI device, or terminate the other program that is using your single-client MIDI device. If you see the message "Can't open COM1: error xx", this means TASPUNCH could not communicate with your COM port. Click on the Config button to bring up a dialog box in which you can configure TASPUNCH to use the correct COM port. If TASPUNCH gives no error messages, but does not appear to see the time code, and you know that some other software such as your sequencer does successfully read time code from your MIDI interface, and you are certain that your MIDI device driver supports multiple clients, then please contact me for assistance. The best way is to leave me e-mail on Compuserve, 72560,1604, as I often am not able to answer the phone at the moment you might choose to call. Instructions for making the cable. To make your own cable for connecting your (PC/AT 9-pin) serial port to the Accessory-2 port of the TSR/MSR machine you will need the following materials: DB-9F connector (for the PC serial port) DB-15M connector (for the Accessory-2 port of the MSR machine) Shielded cable with three conductors, one of which should be in electrical contact with the shield (Belden 8723 or similar is fine). Keep the cable shorter than 8 meters (25 feet). Make the following connections: DB-9F DB-15M pin pin 2 ------------ 2 3 ------------ 4 5 ------------ 8 this must be the shield conductor