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JoeCo Black Box - Anyone used it?


Ryan

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Have any of you used this little guy?

It can potentially replace 27 RU in my record rig - and about 60 pounds of gear.

I would love to hear of anyone's experience with it. It looks very promising!

My main concern is how it syncs with timecode or video ref.

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Hi Ryan - might I be correct to think that those 27U are old Tascams? or a Pro Tools rig perhaps?

I just bought one for my tiny hire company about 3 weeks ago. It is very neat, records 64 trax (I bought the MADI version) in a one U box, and does exactly what it says on the tin.

Allow for a 2nd U to put a sliding drawer avove the BB, to take a KB and to stash the HDD.

There are, clearly, a few compromises when you squeeze all of that recording into a 1U box. The meters are basic, and small, but nonetheless are informative.and sufficient to do the job.

Track naming and arming can be a bit of a chore with the tiny screen, and if you dont have a KB, but we are talking about a machine that is a 64 track, with an interface the size of an iPod!!!

It seems thoroughly reliable, and a tiny, if solid, piece of kit.

You cant write to two media simultaneously (which I can do on my SADiE LRXs) - so what - buy a portable RAID HDD, or buy two JoeCos.

Good little portable multitrack recorders I'd say.

Get rid of those 27U, save your back!!!

Hope that this helps,

Simon B

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Yes, I'm a JoeCo driver. So far so good for me, mostly for location music work, with or without video. The thing is tiny (about 6 inches deep by 1 RU) and weighs nothing, takes ext TC and ext AES/SPDIF clock, and does a number of cool tricks. One has to get used to the OS and the zeitfleisch required to operate the heat-sensing transport controls, but that's worked out fine. The thing is really made to be cranked up (no on/off switch--just powers up with the rack), wired up, rolled and forgotten, for long runs. A PS2 keyboard can be used for track naming and as a remote control. On my rig the recorder looks at the insert i/o of a console usually. One cool thing about this is that playbacks come back through the same channels strips that recorded them, can be solo'ed etc. Another, re monitoring, is that since the recorder is sitting in the insert path of your console if you can hear audio at the master section of the board you are hearing through the recorder--no separate monitor required.

phil p

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I have balanced analogue and MADI versions here in the UK. A few tiny niggles - the power connector has recently been improved to TA4 from BP90 which is good. Analogue version can only sync from AES or SPDIF, as there is no dedicated word clock or video ref input, therefore on location you'll need a RED lockit box which provides Black Audio, or if you're taking code from another source, then some other AES or SPDIF signal derived from the same place. Occasional instances of not recognising fresh drives - to the point where you can't even format it on the machine itself, but once you have one that mounts OK, it always appears.

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Thanks a lot for the info, guys!

@ Bash Yes - this will be a backup recorder for Pro Tools that I'm using on music show gigs.

@Richard, I'm curious about the RED Lockit box - I will need to sync to a video ref signal from a broadcast truck when I'm using it on broadcasted shows. Does this box make it possible to do that? That was really the only thing I was worried about before getting it because of no Video Ref input.

Thanks for the tips on the KB for naming tracks and such. I really think I'm going to be getting one sometime soon.

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Ryan.

We use and have sold a fair amount of JoeCo boxes over the last two years. I would say half for reality TV mixers and half for live music recording.

Since there is no video reference, you will need to derive an AES or SPDIF sync signal to sync the analog input versions of the JoeCo. We use the Rosendahl Nanosyncs HD and the Brainstorm Electronics DCD-8 to derive this from a video signal. The Ambient Lockit box can provide AES and TC, but it can't sync to an incoming blackburst/tri-level feed.

What do you currently use to sync your PT rig to video?

The digital input versions of the JoeCo have WC, which makes it a bit easier to sync to external gear.

Peter Schneider

Gotham Sound

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Since there is no video reference, you will need to derive an AES or SPDIF sync signal to sync the analog input versions of the JoeCo. We use the Rosendahl Nanosyncs HD and the Brainstorm Electronics DCD-8 to derive this from a video signal. The Ambient Lockit box can provide AES and TC, but it can't sync to an incoming blackburst/tri-level feed.

What do you currently use to sync your PT rig to video?

The digital input versions of the JoeCo have WC, which makes it a bit easier to sync to external gear.

Peter Schneider

Gotham Sound

Peter / Philip -

Have you achieved, or does the box already have, 48.048 ? I seem to remember this to be an issue as the recorder was evolving...

MF

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There is no 48.048, which means that you are left with the "Fostex" method of 48.048 - feed it the sped up clock, but it will (de facto) stamp @ 48.000. I have not tested this.

Another note is that AVID doesn't pick up on the scene and take ("song" in JoeCo parlance) metadata. There is an iXML option available for the JoeCo, but AVID currently ignores it.

We're in the early stages of working with JoeCo to resolve this issue, although its a bit of an uphill battle since technically speaking the way the location recorders pass the Scene/Take/Note info is, strictly speaking, out of the BWF spec.

Peter

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So far no need for 48.048 in my world, so I don't have that together. The AES clock thing has been a snap though--my master clock is a 744T (recording the mix), so its TC and AES drive the JoeCo very well. If there is video that wants syncing to, I get TC from them, the 744T clocks itself to the incoming TC and I take the TC and the 744 AES out to the JoeCo as above. All good in about a years worth of gigs so far. I always format the drives on the machine.....

phil p

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Hi Phillip! Thanks for replying.

I have a Black Burst feed I get sent from the truck via a BNC cable - sorry, I'm not so savvy on timecode or video ref types but that's what the guy tells me when he gives it to me!

Still possible to use it?

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