DAW and Hard Disk Recorder Sync?

[CShorte]

I have a Roland VS 2480 and a Mac that I run Cubase v4.1 on. I use MTC to sync the transport of the 2480 with Cubase and Word Clock from my audio interface to sync the audio.

When I record audio to the 2480 from a directly connected instrument and at the same time, I record the same instrument thru the Mac, back into the 2480 on a different track, the tracks are out of alignment by approximately by 12 ticks. The instrument going into and out of the Mac does not use any time based effects. I suspect that this is the time it takes the AD/DA conversion to process but I am not certain.

And, even if it is the time for conversion processing, I would still like to time align the events. Recorded audio on the 2480 does not allow editing at that level of granularity. Recording the audio to the Mac defeats the potential of the dedicated audio recording available on the 2480.

OK ... now that I have said all of the above, I have begun to see an answer. Don't attempt to do simultaneous recording of audio. Don't play 2480 connected instruments with soft-synths as the sound will be slightly delayed. And, these solutions I don't like. Can you add any considerations that would help me beyond this apparent limitation? Thanks, CS.

PS. When I first became aware of this problem, minor in light of so many other issues, I was and I am very grateful to have all this lovely equipment, time and some ability to use it ...

Merry Christmas and thank you for any advice provided.

[hackenslash]

Read your manual about record offset placement.