Fostex MTC-1
A small black box that turned a tape recorder into a MIDI peripheral - and made a sequencer the most powerful remote control a home studio ever had.
Overview
The MTC-1 makes sense once you know the problem it solved. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, project studios were split in two: the tape machine recorded the audio, and the computer running a sequencer organized everything else. The MTC-1 was Fostex's bridge between them. It was a synchronization and machine-control interface that let an Atari ST or Macintosh running C-Lab's Notator, Dr. T's, or Steinberg-Jones software drive a Fostex tape recorder over MIDI. According to Recording-Engineer (August 1990, p.37), Fostex billed the system as offering "by far the most sophisticated MIDI control" across its popular recording formats, and the MTC-1 was the accessory that made the claim possible.
The unusual part was not synchronization itself. SMPTE time code had been slaved to sequencers for years. What was new was the direction of control. The recorder became another MIDI peripheral, and once the tape was threaded, everything could be done from the computer. The magazine noted the collaboration behind it, with Fostex working with Atari and three software houses (C-Lab, Dr. T's, and Steinberg-Jones). The tape machine sat across the room and the sequencer ran the session.
Setup was not plug-and-play. The MTC-1 connected to a Fostex recorder such as the R8 eight-track per its instructions, with the LTC and MIDI ports wired as described in the Notator synchronization chapter. The deck's outside track was normally striped with 30-frame non-drop SMPTE. The MTC-1's DIP switches had to be set deliberately: all to "0" except switch no. 7 to "1" for the standard Notator configuration. The operator then entered Fostex mode in the software and put the recorder in Play for a few seconds on the time-code track so the MTC-1 could locate the tape. Get any of that wrong and nothing worked.
The MTC-1's real depth was in its programmability. Advanced users could reach further via System Exclusive messages, using the Sys Ex documentation included with the package, and the MTC-1 could be updated to add MIDI Machine Control. The unit also responded to MIDI note commands, which let a keyboard or drum pad trigger recorder functions. That was handy when the master keyboard sat out of arm's reach of the computer. Set DIP switch no. 6 to "1" to enable note control, and no. 5 to "1" if the MTC-1 had to sit in a MIDI Thru chain.
There were traps, and the documentation was honest about them. Many of the more powerful commands required a "shift" sequence: hold one note, press and release another, then release the first. If the right mode wasn't selected, none of the note-control options functioned. Sending Omni on/off messages to the MTC-1 could change the settings of DIPs 1-5, so that was to be avoided. Setting DIPs 1 through 4 all to "1" restricted the unit to certain MIDI note messages on channel 16 and Sys Ex for device number 16, though Notator's use of the universal device number 128 kept it unaffected. DIPs 7 and 8 selected other LTC frame rates. In a Notator setup, avoid sending a MIDI Local Off message to the recorder, because that would disable the deck's own panel controls.
By 1992 the ground was shifting under proprietary schemes like this one. The MTC-1 was powerful and deeply configurable, and it depended on software and documentation that have not aged gracefully.
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