apogee rosetta 800 / analog tape sync

this is a 2 part question. im trying to sync a digi 001 with an mci jh16 2" tape machine. i would also like to upgrade to an external a/d d/a converter for my digi 001 setup. im looking to purchase the following: 1. 8 channel a/d d/a converter. strongly considering a apogee rosetta 800 2. a sync device that can also be a master clock for my pro tools setup, as well as syncing my tape machine to pro tools. i read somewhere that the rosetta 800 cant be set as the master clock and it will need an external clock. since im going to need a sync device anyway to sync up the tape machine and the pro tools, does anyone make a sync device that can sync a tape machine with pro tools and also act as the master clock for pro tools? would the big ben or digi sync work for this or no? im a little confused as to how this all works. also if im going to spend a few thousand on this i want something thats going to have a future. i do plan on upgrading my pro tools setup to a tdm within the next 1.5/2 years.

Do you own a synchronizer for your 16 track MCI? To synchronize to an analog deck without a synchronizer you'd either need a USD and an AES to SPDIF converter.. or a MOTU DTP (which kind of works)... or a pair of Lynx synchronizers and record a track of SMPTE in LE and use it as a code only master... If you're not familiar with synchronization and SMPTE (and the technicalities of SMPTE), it would take me pages to write about here... Search the web on the topic or buy a good book on the subject. You could also use a and feed the clock to your AD converter(s).. but chasing LTC is not the best solution. Rail

well im going to buy a sync device. i was considering either the timesync or the AardSync II. but again im not sure what exactly i need and what ones are the best for what im trying to do. ideally id want something that will let me not only sync pro tools to my mci tape machine, but also allow me in the future to add a second tape machine and sync that up as well.

according to this: they make it as if you can sync to a tape machine without a sync device. this is all extremely confusing im starting to think that its not even worth syncing pro tools and a tape machine. but i dont have the money to spend on 16 channels + of high end d/a converters. what are the benefits of using a sync device as opposed to a usd/AES to SPDIF converter combination? also the timesync would work for syncing pro tools and a tape machine? its just discontinued?

No.. you can trigger from MTC.. but to synchronize (resolve) you need two elements.. LOCATION and SPEED. MTC only gives you a start time.. speed is defined by the word clock.. with an analog deck (especially an old MCI) there's a lot of wow and flutter.. and the word clock has to follow the synch words in the LTC code and phase lock to it to derive a word clock which has to be fed into the DAW (in this case via the SPDIF or ADAT ports). As I mentioned before.. because there's a lot of variation in the LTC.. the clock isn't very good in this scenario - so it's preferable to synch everything to video black.. in which case you need a tape synchronizer (microLynx, Zeta or Lynx). As I said there are books written on the subject.. SMPTE isn't just a bunch of numbers telling it what time it is. Rail

what i think id rather do instead of syncing pro tools and the tape machine, is to just dump the tracks i want to edit into pro tools, edit them and fly them back to the tape. would this be easier and involve less components? also, how would i go about doing this? thanks for your help