im also having a hard time understanding this.. you mean to say theres no way to get all your tracks out seperately/100% accurately with the 1000? i havent realy gave it a try yet, but concidering the fact that most people who are into purchasing beats NEED/WANT to have everything on seperate tracks..... how are we suposed to go about doing this with this thing i spent over a grrand for? the only software i use is CoolEditpro, for multitrackking etc..
i'm not sure if this was directed at me or not, but i'll keep ranting anyway.
i think the issue is that some people (i am one of them) feel like the 1k loses "something" when it is slaving to midi clock from a computer-based sequencer. in the few informal tests i've done, this seems to be likely. personally, i think it's more to do with USB midi interfaces sucking and less with the 1k, but whatever. let's assume you feel that way too.
the issue is, what is the best way to get a beat from the 1k to the computer "on the grid"? obviously you might want to edit the beat later on, move things around, etc, so you need the tempos to match.
ok, so ... you could just roll the computer, then roll the 1k, and record the beat. then you set the tempo on cool edit to the same tempo you had on the MPC, right?
but if you do that, the beat will eventually drift out of time as measured by the computer. the reason is that all devices run at slightly different speeds. if you put two clocks on the wall, set them to the same time, and wait a month, they won't match anymore either. it's unavoidable.
that's the reason we want to midi sync. however, we already decided that the sound of midi clock sync is yucky, so what do we do? well, most computer sequencers derive their sense of "time" (ie. timing) from the audio clock. the audio clock is the thing that drives your sound card at 44,100 (or whatever) hz.
so what we'll do, instead of blasting 7-byte 1980s era sync messages back and forth over a rickety midi cable, is lock the two sample clocks together so that both sequencers run at the same rate. they won't start and stop at the same time, and they won't jump to the same PLACE, but they will run at the same SPEED, which means that they won't drift at all.
so you don't actually have to record from SPDIF (you can record from all 6 analog outs), but if you clock your PC to SPDIF when you track, there won't be any drift. then you scoot all the tracks into position (ie. line them up at 1|1|000 or whatever) and they will be in sync with "the grid" in your DAW for the rest of the tune.
i would have long since ditched my 1k if i didn't learn about this. it's not perfect, but it beats the alternatives (for me).
$0.02
