Recording out of sync

[Cspit]

I'm new to this board and by no means a pro. Hoping someone can help. I record my band with two seperate Zoom H4's. Then I take the files and paste them onto two seperate stereo tracks. Yet they are out of sync. I dont understand why one would be slightly slower than the other, but that really doesn't matter. What I want to do is get them both in sync. What I currerntly do is put slight millisecond (silent) spaces in one of the two serts of stereo tracks to bring them back in sync when they start to wander. But it is a pain and probably not the best way to do it. The gaps are so small they're not noticable to most ears because the other stereo tracks carry it. Any suggestions and please not too technical (termwise).

Thanks in advance.

[kozikowski]

I think what you're supposed to do is Effect > Change Speed. One track is also running slightly off-pitch, too, but it might not be enough to worry about.

One of the two recorders (or both) are capturing at the wrong sample rate. If the error is tiny, nobody would notice until somebody directly compared the two tracks.

As an example, one recorder breaks the music up into 44,100 digital chunks every second. The other one has sinuses this morning and can only manage 44,099 chunks per second. If you play both of these tracks on a player that's running at 44,100, only the first one is going to be perfect.

Actually, it's a good bet that all three of them are running at slightly different speeds. The grownups run sync signals and cables all over so all the equipment is holding hands and spot on. How long do you go on a single take?

I wonder if you can get a Zoom calibrated. Sometimes if you throw money, they will either calibrate your units to one known standard, or select matching time base chips in two units. I gotta ask about that...

Koz

[kozikowski]

You know, I'm assuming some highly technical, wacko electronic problem. It might be simpler. Are you recording at the same technical standards on your two Zooms? You can intentionally select multiple different digital rates and depths on an H4.

http://www.ehow.com/how_12101244_change ... m-h4n.html

Koz

[Cspit]

Thanks!

I'll compare both H4's and make sure they're set to the same sampling rate. Appreciate the help.