MultiTrack_ME5.x

[arminroesch]

Hello MTU!

Since many years I am using MicroEditor (actually 5.5 on XP) with external 2 channel analog and digital IO.

More and more I am asked to make more than physically 2 channel recordings.
I did this with multiple DAT and then put the tracks together on the PC with MicroEditor.
This works fine.

Now I saw the Portadrive from hhb. (I am using the PortaDat from hhb) with 8 channels.
see
http://www.hhb.co.uk/hhb/uk/hhbprodu...rive/index.asp

Do you see any possibility to connect the recorder so the 8 tracks can be imported separately to MicroEditor?
Now or probably in the next future?

With kind regards

Armin Rösch

[geezer]

Armin-

This is the same issue that has been lingering since way back in 1996, and there is no easy solution, though there are some possible workarounds.

The problem:

The HHB machine (which I have also been looking at), like everything else now, records in 24bit Broadcast Wave files. Microeditor cannot import 24 bit Wave files, with or without the Broadcast Wave header and time stamp.....After asking for this specific function for a few years for Microeditor with little or no response, I can only assume that we will never see this portion of the software expanded by MTU.

Even though there was talk of it in 1996,Microeditor was never designed as a multitrack program beyond 4 tracks. (Micro EDL will, by the way, convert 4 track input to a CMX EDL generated segment set).

Possible Workarounds:

1.Real Time Load In Of 4 Tracks At Once (16 Bit)-....If you can work with only 16 bit files and have a 4-channel rack mount unit and MicroSync card, you can load in 4 channels at a time locked to time code.

2.Real Time Load In Of 2 Tracks (24 Bit)-....With a MicroSync card, you can jam sync 2 digital tracks at once into Krystal to time code. Since the sync will be coming always from the HHB, this should stay locked well for 8 tracks.

3. Third Party Software Without Time Code- It is supposedly possible to convert wave files inside of Adobe Audition and other programs into a generic 32bit format that MicroEditor will read....I have never done this, nor has MTU ever been clear on the file header information actually needed, but it has been implied in this forum that it is possible. You would have to align tracks by hand somehow if this works.

Alternate Solution-

Most, if not all, of the current, popular "native" software programs will import Broadcast Wave files, including the time stamp, without any difficulty whatsoever. I have found Wavelab to have all of the functionality of MicroEditor, and Wavelab 5 can handle 8 tracks. Nuendo has many similar functions, and can handle an unlimited number of tracks, and will probably see your entire HHB session as a readable EDL. Other users have raved to me about Samplitude and all of the other sister programs from SekD. Adobe Audition seems remarkable for its low cost......Most of these programs can read the modern EDL formats, or these can readily be addressed by third party EDL translation programs, and they are all being used by film professionals.....These programs are not expensive, but do require a modern, fast computer and a different interface than the MTU interface.