Blacking Tapes
The process of Blacking or Striping tapes is vital for creating Masters and playing out sequences from an AVID. Essentially you are recording a timecode onto a tape to enable picture and sound to be laid on top of it.
Without going into specifics for each specific deck it might be useful to go through the basic procedure for blacking a tape.
- INTERNAL SIGNAL GENERATOR
Firstly you need to have a black signal going into the deck and no audio. Most editing decks have their own signal generator that can be accessed in the menu system. Select Black Burst and Silence. - SET TIMECODE
Most master tapes begin their programme at 10:00:00:00 so it is advisable to set your timecode a couple of minutes before that say at 09:58:00:00. To do this you must first set the deck to internal (int.) and preset (pre.) depending on the deck you are using this could be in the menu system or a switch on the deck. The timecode can then be adjusted. Press Set. - CHECK
You can check that you have set the right timecode by holding down the record button. The display will show the timecode recording will start from. - RECORD
If you are happy everything is fine put a tape in and hit record.
