syncing Yamaha mt4x 4 track recorder to DAW

[therethere]

Hi everyone,

I'm sure that a variation of this question has been asked a dozen times over but from searching on Google, I get varying answers from "it can't be done, too much wow and flutter" to "can be done, if syncing to the tape machine's motor"...so since this is TapeOp, I figure this would be a place where I can get definitive answers (ok, I'll try Gearslutz too but still!). I'm gonna preface this and say that I'm not too familiar with the terms associated with syncing (i.e. SMPTE, MMC, etc.) so please be gentle if I ask something kinda stupid and n00b like

What I'm hoping to achieve is to record time code or whatever (striping?) onto one of the tracks and then use this to sync some drums from Logic which I'll record onto the remaining 3 tracks and then fly these back into Logic and then overwrite the 3 tracks and record new stuff (repeat, repeat, repeat). My question....can this actually be done with an mt4x? Can this only be done with MIDI and not audio? Will doing this possibly eliminate tape drift? If this can be done, what kind of equipment would I need? I don't even know how striping from a DAW to tape works....

Thanks in advance for any advice! This would help me save some money from buying a 488/688/mt8x!

[brew]

The manual tells you all about it on page 34.

https://www.google.com/search?sourceid= ... amaha+mt4x

[farview]

Here is the direct link http://thesnowfields.com/manuals/mt4x.pdf

It's kind of a pain in the butt, but it will do what you want.

It doesn't eliminate tape drift or wow and flutter, it will just make your DAW follow the tape deck doing what it does. It isn't completely fool proof or perfect, so you still might end up with some timing issues if you are doing this with a lot of tracks.

[Seej]

When I mixed one of my 4track songs to Audacity, I mixed the first 4tracks in stereo (live panning too), then mixed the remaining reduction overdubs (this particular song had about 4 reductions, very lo-fi backing track by the end result) in stereo as well, and synched them all up when I was done mixing. Took a lot less time than if I decided to mix every track individually.