| Title: | * * Computer Music, MIDI, and Related Topics * * | 
| Notice: | Conference has been write-locked. Use new version. | 
| Moderator: | DYPSS1::SCHAFER | 
| Created: | Thu Feb 20 1986 | 
| Last Modified: | Mon Aug 29 1994 | 
| Last Successful Update: | Fri Jun 06 1997 | 
| Number of topics: | 2852 | 
| Total number of notes: | 33157 | 
I just rec'd my copy of Electronic Musician. (10/86). There's an article 
on stereo mastering using Beta HIFI in the Home studio. 
You all certainly are hip to the advantages of VCR's in general
for low bux hiquality audio. There is a picture in there depicting
the general track layout of BETA :
---------------------------------  conventional audio track
/ / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / /
 / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / /   video trax (w/ stereo hifi audio)
/ / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / 
---------------------------------  conventional audio track
In the text, it states that: "the helical-scan rotating heads used for
video can also record the BHF audio signal on tape.... with an effective
tape speed of 270 i.p.s. [!!!]... the audio input feeds the conventional 
audio and BHF heads SIMULTANEOUSLY (my emphasis)... However, on some 
machines you can THEN (later??) record a different signal
onto the conventional audio tracks...you can stripe SMPTE...you wind
up with a high quality stereo master with a SMPTE sync track..."
Well. My question is this: If one were limited on tape channels and
was compelled to do the stereo dump/intermix rag, could one create a 
THREE-CHANNEL intermix, fully intending to xfer it back to multitrack, 
normal BETA stereo on the music, while carrying along, with no temporal 
displacement, the FSK (or whatever format) SYNC track?
           +------------------------+
           |     multitrack deck    |
           +-^--^--^--^--^--^--^--^-+
..FSK sync...:  :  :  :  :  :  :  :
:               :  :  :  :  :  :  :  line level audio
v               v  v  v  v  v  v  v
:          +------------------------+
:          |   multichan mixer      |
: ....left.< stereo                 |
: : .right.< outputs                |
: : :      |                        |
: : :      +------------------------+
: : :
: : : ---------------------------------  conventional audio track (unused)
: : :> / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / 
: :   / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / /    video trax w/ stereo hifi audio
: :..> / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / 
:....>---------------------------------  FSK audio track
       SIMULTANEOUSLY ???    
k moeller
| T.R | Title | User | Personal Name | Date | Lines | 
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 512.1 | Don't think so... | PIXEL::COHEN | Richard Cohen | Fri Sep 19 1986 15:50 | 10 | 
|     Karl,
    
    I have a VHS HiFi Deck, but I believe that you cannot SIMULTANEOUSLY
    record three different signals on any of the HiFi Video Decks.  What
    the article is probably suggesting is a later dub onto the LoFi
    channels. I must confess that although I subscribe to Electronic Musician,
    I haven't read the article yet. 
    
    	- Rick
    
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| 512.2 | Ask me, I've got one. | COROT::CERTO | Fri Sep 19 1986 16:32 | 23 | |
|     
    Karl,
    
    I have a Sony SLHF-900 super beta hi-fi deck.  I bought it with
    similar thoughts in mind.  I also intended to get a unit
    to master digitally, until I found out that digital edits aren't
    possible.
    
    Yes you can record on three independant tracks at one time (on this
    deck).  Or you can dub the linear or hi-fi track in separately.
    
    Monitoring may be a problem, as you can listen to hi-fi, the linear,
    or both, via the stereo output jacks, but not separate them.
    I believe that it would be a minor task to tap the monitor select
    switch and thus separate them on output, though. 
    
    The beta hi-fi sound quality on this model is superior to the
    hi-fi on other decks (my opinion).  Some have modulation noise.
    
    And note the hi-fi tracks are frequency modulated versus straight 
    conventional recording.
        
    Fredric
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