Tascam RC-898 User Manual

Section 9.3 - Controlling the serial port (9-pin)

9-3

1) From menu group 7, move the cursor to

9pinLocPr

and press

SELECT

2) Use the numeric keypad to enter a time in

minutes and seconds between

00:00

and

59:59

3) Press and hold down the

SHIFT

key and press

the

ENTER/LOAD

key to transfer the value to

the display screen.

Alternatively, you can use the

and

DOWN

keys to alter the values of the minutes and seconds
fields.

9.3.3 Serial unit timing source

The RS-422 device can be set to accept its timing
signals from either external timecode, or from the
Timer 1 internal time source (the video CTL sub-
code track).

1) From menu group 7, move the cursor to

9pinTimMod

(9-pin time mode) and press

SELECT

2) Use the

and

DOWN

keys to select either

Timecode

or the

Timer 1

timing source

(subcode timing).

If the timecode option is selected and the VTR
does not include a timecode reader, or the tape has
not been striped with timecode, the RC-898 tape
counter will show all hyphens:

--:--:--.--

9.3.4 Split mode on the serial unit

There are two ways of operating the E2 unit with
the RC-898 transport controls. Firstly, all transport
controls, including the record (

REC

key and the

REC FUNCTION

keys

through

) can be

used to control the VTR acting as the E2 unit con-
nected to the RS-422 port. This is referred to as
“normal” mode.

In normal mode, the following RC-898 keys per-
form these P2 functions:

However, in a video post-production situation, it is
quite likely that you will need to control the trans-
port of a VTR, which acts as a timecode master
for the DTRS slaves. These DTRS slaves will be
used for recording, but the VTR will not (other-
wise the worktape will be erased!). The RC-898
therefore provides you with a “split mode” in
which all transport keys except the

RECORD

key

and the

REC FUNCTION

keys control the VTR,

and the recording keys control the DTRS units.

In this way, all recording operations, including
auto-punch operations, can be carried out on the
DTRS units without the risk of accidentally eras-
ing the VTR tape.

However, there is one function where operation is
slightly different, and this is “on-the-fly” punch-
ing. Usually, when DTRS tracks have been armed,
and the tape is being played, pressing

RECORD

will drop the tracks into record mode, and press-
ing

PLAY

will drop them out into play mode. In

split mode, this is not possible, since the

PLAY

key controls the VTR.

To punch in and out of armed tracks on the fly in
split mode only, press

RECORD

to drop in, and

RECORD

to drop out again.

To change between normal and split mode:

1) From menu gropup 7, move the cursor to

9pinCtlMd

(9-pin control mode) and press

SELECT

2) Use the

and

DOWN

keys to select between

Split

and

Normal

9.3.5 Controlling recording operations

on the serial unit

If split mode has been selected (see 9.3.4, “Split
mode on the serial unit” above), the following

9 p i n

L o c a t e

P r e r o l l

0 0 m i n 0 0 s e c

9 p i n

T i m e

M o d e

T i m e c o d e

ALL SAFE

Standby

ALL INPUT

FULL EE

AUTO MON

SEL EE

PRRL

Preroll

RHSL

Preview

AUTO PUNCH

AUTO EDIT

9 p i n

C o n t r o l

M o d e

S p l i t