Re: EDP Stereo-sync +brilliant undocumented feature.

[SoundFNR@aol.com]

Kim wrote
> brothersync 
>  connection that is necessary for putting multiple echoplexes together 
>like 
>  this. It does two things, one is to synchronize the actual system 
>clocks 
of 
>  the different units to operate at the same frequency. That keeps them 
>from 
>  drifting over time.  The second thing is to provide a precise 
>indication 
of 
>  when the Record button is pressed.
Er, I disagree. I don't think the exact moment of the Record button being 
pressed is transmitted through Brothersync, at least not in a way that 
allows 
simultaneous start of record on 2 slaved EDPs. (It very obviously does 
signal 
the exact length of the loop, of course).
I don't presume to know more about the EDP than one of it's designers, but 
I 
have 2 brand new perfect EDPs which behave as if there is a definate delay 
between the Master EDP starting to record, and the slave starting to 
record.

I imagine that the 2 loop-start-points are at slightly different places, 
but 
that this doesn't matter because brother sync keeps the 2 loops together  
in 
that staggered relationship perfectly. i.e. Audio is recorded in sync, but 
record actually starts on the slave  machine after it does on the master.
Thus even if you restart the stereo loop, the MIDI delay remains constant 
and 
so
the stereo image is preserved.
If you hit reverse the stereo image is lost (out of sync by twice the MIDI 
delay)
but returning to forward play resyncs perfectly, and this occurs even when 
Quantise=On. This is most noticeable if a mono signal is recorded on both 
EDPs.

In practice, the only time I notice the difference in timing is when 
reversing a loop
which has mono(on both machines) content. This produces a Haas effect on 
the 
reversed loop, which is quite pleasing, although this would be pehaps 
undesirable if you wanted to record and reverse a true stereo mix.

I reckon that using MIDI to slave the controls of the 2 EDPs is always 
going 
to be tricky, because of the MIDI delay, however the system as it is works 
excellently.

Brilliant undocumented feature:-
Record a stereo-loop, go to the next loop and record 2 different length 
loops 
(totally unrelated times if you like), whenever you NextLoop back to your 
original stereo loop
 it comes out perfectly synced. This happens (mysteriously) when 
SwitchQuant=On, although when switching between 2 pairs of loops all 
having 
unrelated times the 2 EDPs will change loop (after NextLoop) at different 
times.
Seems like I can connect 2 EDPs and they know whether or not they've got a 
synced loop waiting to run. (and that's amazing)

andy butler