Tascam Digital Portastudio 2488 User Guide
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4 – Recorder TASCAM 2488 User’s Guide 49 The recording between the punch-in and punch-out points is now replaced by the selec- tion. The AUTO PUN CH indicator goes out. If you change your mind Like recording, an punch operation is undoable. It is shown in the list of operations as an AUTO PUNCH oper- ation. In addition, as we mentioned earlier, the third choice when you press the AUTO PUN CH key, LAST TAKE LOAD , allows you to select any of the multi-takes from the last punch session. However, if you have recorded anything, performed an undo or redo operation, or any track editing opera-tions, (whether punch recording or not) since the last punch session, the list of multi-takes is no longer available. The list is available of a song has been saved, closed and reopened, however, if none of the above operations have been carried out.NOTE Even if you undo the recording that has overwritten the list of multi-takes, the multi-take list will not be avail- able to you after the undo. Bouncing tracks Like many multitrack recorders, the 2488 allows you to “bounce” a collection of recorded tracks to a smaller number of tracks. This allows you to record more than 24 tracks (but once bounced onto a track or pair of tracks, the original tracks cannot be sepa- rated out again).In the case of the 2488, you can bounce up to 23 tracks into one track or 22 tracks into two tracks. In this case, a stereo track counts as two tracks. While you are performing a bounce operation, you cannot use the sub mix facility (“Sub mix” on page 29). Making a bounce mix 1Press the shifted BOUNCE key (located above the STEREO fader). The words BOUNCE MODE are displayed on the home screen while bounce is active. 2Select the destination. Press the REC keys for a single track (mono bounce), or two tracks (or a stereo track) for a stereo bounce. 3Adjust the source tracks’ levels, EQ and pan positions, etc. for the bounce mix. TIP When you monitor the bounce, you are monitoring the bounce destination. If any EQ etc. is applied to the des- tination track(s), this is added to the signal you are monitoring. You may therefore want to make sure that the EQ is turned off on the destination tracks. 4Make the recording from the start of where you want to do the bounce in the normal way. You can undo the recording if you find that your bounce mix is not perfect. 5When you’ve finished bouncing tracks, restore normal recording mode by pressing SHIFT and BOUNCE again. About track editing One of the most useful features of a disk-based recorder such as the 2488 is the ability to edit mate- rial easily. When working with a stereo tape recorder in the past, the usual editing method involved a white pencil, a razor blade and sticky splicing tape. This was not an easy process, and was very difficult to undo if there were any mistakes.The 2488 allows you to edit songs, copying and mov- ing material from one part of a song to another. This editing is known as non-destructive editing, meaning that the operation does not actually destroy data, and you can undo mistaken editing operations easily. If you have ever used a word-processor on a com- puter, you will probably find most of the 2488’s edit- ing operations pretty simple. If you have never used a
4 – Recorder 50 TASCAM 2488 User’s Guide computer, the 2488’s editing operations are nothing to be scared about—just read through this section to see how it all works. IN, OUT and TO We have previously seen how the IN, OUT and TO points can be used for punching and for location. They are also used in these track editing operations. The IN point marks the start of the part of the track which is selected when editing a part of a track (rather than a whole track). The OUT point marks the end of the part of the track which is selected when editing part of a track. The TO point marks the final destination of a copy or a move operation. Entering the edit mode 1Make sure that the 2488 is stopped (not play- ing back or recording). 2Press the EDIT TRK key (below the monitor controls). 3Use the wheel to highlight the track editing function you will be using and press the ENTER key. 4Select the appropriate values, as described below. 5Press YES to perform the operation, or NO to exit without performing the operation. Track editing functions The track editing functions available on the 2488 are: COPY->PASTE COPY->INSERT MOVE->PASTE MOVE->INSERT OPEN CUT SILENCE CLONE TRACK CLEAN OUTSee the sections below for details of how to use these functions. NOTE You can undo any of these operations (see “UNDO and REDO” on page 54). Even if you delete all the material on every track using these functions, you can still get it back with only a few key-presses. Although you cannot use virtual tracks as the source for copy and move operations, you can assign a vir- tual track to a track temporarily to (say) copy part of a virtual track to an already-assigned track and then reassign the original.
4 – Recorder TASCAM 2488 User’s Guide 51 COPY -> PASTE This function takes the section of a track or tracks marked by the IN and OUT points, copies it, and places it at the TO point on the chosen track or tracks. The original source is left unchanged. The copy operation overwrites anything which is already recorded at the destination. The destination is the same length as it was before the operation. You can copy the section more than once in one oper- ation. You can change the following values: Src.Trk This sets the source track or tracks from which the section is copied. Choose 1 through 24 to select an individual track. Choose 1/2, 3/4, 5/6 etc. to select a pair of tracks. Choose 1-24 to select all tracks. Dst. Trk This sets the destination track or tracks to which the selected section is pasted. What you can select here depends on what you have selected for the source track. If you have selected a single track, you can select tracks 1 through 24 here. If you have selected a pair of tracks (for instance, 1/2), you can only select track pairs here. If you have selected all tracks ( 1-24), then 1-24 is the only option available to you here. Times This is the number of times that the selected section is pasted into the destination track or tracks. You can set this value from 1 to 99. Press YES to perform the operation or NO to leave this screen. NOTE You can also use the SHIFT + TRIM key combination to enter this function easily. COPY -> INSERT This function takes the section of a track or tracks marked by the IN and OUT points, copies it, and places it on the chosen track or tracks, inserting it as new material, starting at the TO point. The original source is left unchanged. The insert operation adds the selected section as new material to the destination. Nothing is overwritten on the destination, as any existing material following the TO point is moved to the end of the newly-inserted section. The destination is longer than it was before the operation. You can copy the section more than once in one operation.You can change the following values: Src. Trk This sets the source track or tracks from which the section is copied. Choose 1 through 24 to select an individual track. Choose 1/2, 3/4, 5/6 etc. to select a pair of tracks. Choose 1-24 to select all tracks. Dst. Trk This sets the destination track or tracks into which the selected section is inserted. What you can select here depends on what you have selected for the source track. If you have selected a single track, you can select tracks 1 through 24 here. If you have selected a pair of tracks (for instance, 1/2), you can only select track pairs here. If you have selected all tracks ( 1-24), then 1-24 is the only option available to you here. Times This is the number of times that the selected section is inserted (end-to-end) in the destination track or tracks. You can set this value from 1 to 99. Press YES to perform the operation or NO to leave this screen. OUT IN TO OUT IN TO OUT IN TO OUT IN TO
4 – Recorder 52 TASCAM 2488 User’s Guide MOVE -> PASTE This function takes the section of a track or tracks marked by the IN and OUT points, and moves it to the chosen track or tracks, starting at the TO point. After the operation, the selected section of the source between the IN and OUT points is replaced by silence. This operation overwrites anything which is already recorded at the destination. The destination is there- fore the same length as it was before the operation. You can change the following values:Src. Trk This sets the source track or tracks from which the section is taken. Choose 1 through 24 to select an individual track. Choose 1/2, 3/4, 5/6, etc. to select a pair of tracks. Choose 1-24 to select all tracks. Dst. Trk This sets the destination track or tracks to which the selected section is moved. What you can select here depends on what you have selected for the source track. If you have selected a single track, you can select tracks 1 through 24 here. If you have selected a pair of tracks (for instance, 1/2), you can only select track pairs here. If you have selected all tracks ( 1-24), then 1-24 is the only option available to you here. Press YES to perform the operation or NO to leave this screen. NOTE You can also use the SHIFT + INSERT key combination to enter this function easily. MOVE -> INSERT This function takes the section of a track or tracks marked by the IN and OUT points, and moves it to the chosen track or tracks, inserting it as new mate- rial, starting at the TO point. After the operation, the selected section of the source between the IN and OUT points is replaced by silence. The insert operation adds the selected section as new material to the destination. Nothing is overwritten on the destination, as any material following the TO point is moved to the end of the newly-inserted section. The destination is therefore longer than it was before the operation. You can change the following values: Src. Trk This sets the source track or tracks from which the section is taken. Choose 1 through 24 to select an individual track. Choose 1/2, 3/4, 5/6, etc. to select a pair of tracks. Choose 1-24 to select all tracks. Dst. Trk This sets the destination track or tracks into which the selected section is inserted. What you can select here depends on what you have selected for the source track. If you have selected a single track, you can select tracks 1 through 24 here. If you have selected a pair of tracks (for instance, 1/2), you can only select track pairs here. If you have selected all tracks ( 1-24), then this is the only option available to you here. Press YES to perform the operation or NO to leave this screen. OUT IN TO OUT IN TO OUT IN TO OUT IN TO
4 – Recorder TASCAM 2488 User’s Guide 53 OPEN This function “opens up” a silent gap between the IN and OUT points on the chosen track or tracks.The source and destination are the same, and after the operation, the track is split at the IN point, with the material which followed the IN point now moved to follow the OUT point. The result is therefore longer than the original. There is only one value that you can change: Src. Trk Select an individual track (1 through 24), a pair of tracks ( 1/2, 3/4, 5/6, etc.), all of the tracks (1-24) or all tracks, including the virtual tracks (all). Press YES to perform the operation or NO to leave this screen. CUT This function deletes the material between the IN and OUT points on the chosen track or tracks and “closes up” the gap. The source and destination are the same, and after the operation, the material which followed the OUT point now moved to follow the IN point. Material which was between the IN and OUT points is deleted. The result is therefore shorter than the original. There is only one value that you can change: Src. Trk Select an individual track (1 through 24), a pair of tracks ( 1/2, 3/4, 5/6, etc.), all of the “real” tracks ( 1-24) or all tracks, including the virtual tracks ( ALL). Press YES to perform the operation or NO to leave this screen. SILENCE This function is equivalent to recording silence between the IN and OUT points on the chosen track or tracks.No material is added or deleted, and the length of the result is therefore the same as that of the original. There is only one value that you can change: Src. Trk Select an individual track (1 through 8), a pair of tracks ( 1/2, 3/4, 5/6, etc.), or all the tracks (1- 24 ). Press YES to perform the operation or NO to leave this screen. NOTE You can also use the SHIFT + DELETE key combina- tion to enter this function easily. OUT IN OUT IN OUT IN IN OUT OUT IN IN
4 – Recorder 54 TASCAM 2488 User’s Guide CLONE TRACK This copies a track or pair of tracks to another track or pair of tracks. The IN and OUT points do not have any meaning here. There are two values that you can change: Src. Trk Select an individual track (1 through 24), or a pair of tracks ( 1/2, 3/4, 5/6, etc.) or the MASTER stereo track. Dst. Trk This sets the destination track or tracks to which the source track is cloned. What you can select here depends on what you have selected for the source track. If you have selected a single track, you can select tracks 1 through 24 here. If you have selected a pair of tracks (for instance, 1/2), you can only select track pairs here. Press YES to perform the operation or NO to leave this screen. If you try to select the same track as a destination that you have selected as the source, when you press the YES key, a message will appear: SAME TRACK. Redo the operation with a different set of tracks. CLEAN OUT This deletes all the material in a track or tracks. The IN and OUT points do not have any meaning here. There is only one value that you can change:Src. Trk Select an individual track (1 through 24), a pair of tracks ( 1/2, 3/4, 5/6, etc.), or all the tracks (1- 24 ). Press YES to perform the operation or NO to leave this screen. If you need to delete the contents of a virtual track that is not currently assigned to a track, you must assign it to a track and then perform this operation. UNDO and REDO Unlike a tape recorder, but like most word-proces- sors, you can undo your mistakes (the 2488 remem- bers up to the last 999 operations you perform in each song). What is more, you can undo your undo operations (redo). The operations that you can undo are: The different track editing functions described in this section Recording operations Auto punch operations Mastering operations In addition, all these operations are stored as part of the song on the disk; even when you turn the machine off, the history of all the previous operations is stored ready for next time. What this means is that you can finish your work for the day, come back in the morning with fresh ears, and decide that maybe you didn’t want that overdub after all. With the 2488, this is no problem.
4 – Recorder TASCAM 2488 User’s Guide 55 Undoing and redoing actions 1Press the UNDO/REDO key and a list of the operations that you have done since the start of the song is shown on screen: The first action ( START UP) at the bottom of the display is numbered 0, and all the actions after this (above this) are then numbered in order. 2Use the wheel to scroll through the list until the cursor highlights the action to where you want to undo. 3Press ENTER, to return to the point in your work just before you made your mistake. You can also redo an action that you have undone in exactly the same way. TIP As well as using the wheel to scroll through the list, you can also use the UNDO /REDO key to position the cur- sor automatically at the event before or after the cur- rent event. If you press the UNDO key (unshifted), the cursor moves to the event immediately before the current event. Press ENTER to undo the last event. If you press REDO (SHIFT + UNDO ), the cursor moves to the event immediately following the current event (i.e. the last action that has been undone). Press the ENTER key to redo this action. NOTE Performing an action after the redo clears the list of re- doable actions (i.e. those actions which have been undone). An undo/redo example Here’s an extremely simplified example (in fact, it’s extremely unlikely that you’d work this way, but it shows the principles involved): This is the history of a recording session so far. Sup- pose that you decide that items 11 and 12 in the list are not needed (in other words, the first take (9) with its correction (10) have been overwritten by 11 and 12, but you feel that the original take (9) with its cor- rection (10) has more energy, so you want to retrieve it: 1Press the UNDO key. 2Use the wheel to scroll down to the step to where you want to undo (here it’s 11—the first retry of the original take). 3Press ENTER. All steps up to and including the selected step are now undone.Now you have the track back again. If you press the UNDO key, you’ll see that there’s a check mark beside 10 - this shows that this is the “undo mark”. Notice that we can still see items 11 and 12. This is because we can still redo them, if we decide that the first vocal take (9 and 10) wasn’t so great after all. To redo them is just as simple as undoing them: press the UNDO key, highlight the step to which you want to return, and press ENTER. Items above the “undo” line are visible and you can redo them until you perform another action after the undo operation. For instance, if you decided that you wanted to have another go at repairing the lead guitar bridge… >RECORDING 12This is yet another retake of the lead vocal RECORDING 11Another attempt at the whole of the lead vocal AUTO PUNCH 10A try to correct a bad note in the lead vocal RECORDING 9First try at the lead vocal AUTO PUNCH 8Repairing the bad guitar bridge RECORDING 7Recording the guitar solo RECORDING 6Piano (alternative part) RECORDING 5Piano RECORDING 4 Guide vocals RECORDING 3Bass line COPY->PASTE 2Looping the drum part RECORDING 1Basic drum loop START UP 0Beginning of song RECORDING 12This is yet another retake of the lead vocal RECORDING 11Another attempt at the whole of the lead vocal>AUTO PUNCH 10A try to correct a bad note in the lead vocal RECORDING 9First try at the lead vocal AUTO PUNCH 8Repairing the bad guitar bridge RECORDING 7Recording the guitar solo RECORDING 6Piano (alternative part) RECORDING 5Piano RECORDING 4 Guide vocals RECORDING 3Bass line COPY->PASTE 2Looping the drum part RECORDING 1Basic drum loop START UP 0Beginning of song This line marks the point to where we have made the undo
4 – Recorder 56 TASCAM 2488 User’s Guide You could undo all items up to item 7: …and then re-record the guitar bridge. After this, though, if you wanted to restore the vocal tracks which we’d recorded, you wouldn’t be able to. The new recording would replace everything above the line”. NOTE Performing an action after the redo clears the list of redoable actions (i.e. those actions which have been undone). Virtual tracks When you use the 2488, you can record “spare” tracks; for instance, different versions of the lead vocals, and pick and choose between the different versions to find the one which works best. These “spare tracks” are known as virtual tracks. With the 2488, you can record up to 250 tracks per song. From those 250 tracks, you pick the ones that you want and fit them together to make your finished mixed song. This can be re-takes of the same mate- rial (for instance, many attempts by a singer to cap- ture the perfect vocal line), or alternative tracks (different guitar lines or effect settings, etc.). This allows you much more freedom to experiment than a tape recorder can provide.When a virtual track is assigned to be an “active” disk track, it cannot be assigned to any other track. Virtual tracks are mono tracks. You need to assign one virtual track to each track of a stereo pair. To assign a virtual track to a disk track: 1Press the shifted VIRT TRK key. 2Use the channel SELECT keys or the (Ó and Á keys) to select the disk track to which the virtual track will be assigned, as shown by the inverted numbers at the bottom of the screen. Repeated pressing of the stereo channel SELECT keys (13/14 through 23/24) changes between the odd and even numbered channels of that pair. 3Use the wheel to choose which virtual track will be assigned to the disk track and become active. 4Press ENTER (or PLAY) to make the assign- ment, or EXIT to exit the track assignment screen without actually making the assignment. RECORDING 12This is yet another retake of the lead vocal RECORDING 11Another attempt at the whole of the lead vocal AUTO PUNCH 10A try to correct a bad note in the lead vocal RECORDING 9First try at the lead vocal AUTO PUNCH 8Repairing the bad guitar bridge>RECORDING 7Recording the guitar solo RECORDING 6Piano (alternative part) RECORDING 5Piano RECORDING 4 Guide vocals RECORDING 3Bass line COPY->PASTE 2Looping the drum part RECORDING 1Basic drum loop START UP 0Beginning of song AUTO PUNCH 8This was the second go at repairing the bridge>RECORDING 7Recording the guitar solo RECORDING 6Piano (alternative part) RECORDING 5Piano RECORDING 4 Guide vocals RECORDING 3Bass line COPY->PASTE 2Looping the drum part RECORDING 1Basic drum loop START UP 0Beginning of song All the previous items have now gone Track 1: Drums Left Track 2: Drums Right Trac k 3: L ead Gu i t ar Track 4: Rhythm Guitar Track 5: Saxophone Trac k 7: L ead v o c al s Track 6: Bass line Track 8: Backing vocals Assigned playback tracks Different harmony arrangements for backing vocals Lead vocal attempts Bass line played on different instruments Saxophone takes Rhythm guitar experiments with different effect settings Different takes of lead guitar line Virtual tracks Tracks 9 through 24 use other virtual tracks (not shown here for clarity) Here, we pick the best takes from the virtual tracks and assign them to our playback tracks.
4 – Recorder TASCAM 2488 User’s Guide 57 5In this screen, you can press the TITLE key to name the highlighted virtual track for future reference. If you have not worked with a system using virtual tracks before, you may find it a little confusing. Some ideas to bear in mind: A virtual track can only be assigned once (a virtual track cannot be used on two active tracks at the same time). When you start a song, virtual tracks 1 through 24 are assigned to active tracks 1 through 24. If you’re recording a difficult part, you don’t have to re-record over the top of “almost, but not quite perfect” takes. Keep these for later, just in case you never get a better take. Simply assign a different virtual track when you record the next take. You do not have to select all the final “active” tracks at the same time. For example, if you have recorded the drum part of a song, and you have recorded three different takes of the bass line on three different virtual tracks, you can assign these three virtual tracks to three disk tracks and use the faders to listen to each of them in turn (for simplic- ity, these illustrations show only the first eight tracks).Then pick the one that fits best, and you can re-use the other two unused disk tracks with new virtual tracks—keep the alternative takes for the future if you change your mind later on. Alternatively, if you want to assemble a track for the whole song, you could assign the three different takes of the part to three different active tracks and use the track editing functions to copy and paste the good parts of each track to make a perfect whole. Then use the two non-perfect tracks with other vir- tual tracks for new parts. NOTE Of course, virtual tracks take up disk space, even when you’re not using them. If you really don’t need a virtual track, you should assign it temporarily to a disk track and then clean it out to save disk space. Varispeed operations (pitch and SSA) You can play back and record at speeds which are greater or less than the original (±6%) to allow for differences in tuning, etc. It is also possible to play back a selected pair of tracks at the same pitch, but slower than the original (the SSA—Slow Speed Audition feature). This allows you to rehearse tricky lead lines, etc. at a slower speed, and can be combined with repeat playback (“Repeat” on page 46) for easy rehearsals. NOTE The monitoring status of the tracks played back using the pitch (varispeed) or SAA features is exactly the same as for normal playback,; that is, if they have been assigned to a channel, the volume, etc. is controlled by the channel fader and controls. Virtual tracks (drums) Virtual tracks (different takes of the bass line) 12345678 The three best bass takes Drums Virtual tracks (drums) Virtual tracks (different takes of the bass line; the best one has now been selected for use, and the other two are unused) 12345678 The best bass take Drums
4 – Recorder 58 TASCAM 2488 User’s Guide Pitch 1Press and hold the PITCH/SSA key for about a second and release it. The indicator lights and the display changes: 2If the PITCH CONTROL section at the left of the screen is not active (it is not surrounded by the thicker frame), press the Ó key to move the cursor there. 3Use the wheel to change the pitch from -6.0% to +6.0% in 0.1% steps. If playback is being car-ried out while this is done, you will be able to hear the change. 4Press the PITCH/SSA key to return to the home screen and once again to turn off the pitch change. NOTE The above steps can be carried out while playback is stopped or in operation, but cannot be carried out dur- ing recording. It is also possible to start playback while adjusting the pitch, but not to start recording at that time. To use the set pitch When the pitch change value has been set in the way described above, and the 2488 shows the home screen, simply press the PITCH/SSA key briefly to turn the indicator on and to change the pitch. Press the PITCH/SSA key briefly once again to turn off the pitch change. SSA (Slow Speed Audition) 1Press and hold the PITCH/SSA key for about a second and release it. The indicator lights and the display changes: 2If the SLOW SPEED section at the right of the screen is not active (it is not surrounded by the thicker frame), press the Á key to move the cursor there. 3Use the channel SELECT keys to select the tracks which will be played back. These tracks are always in pairs. 4Use the wheel to change the speed between 50%, 60%, 70%, 80%, and 90% (the displayed val- ues are approximate). If playback is being car- ried out while this is done, you will be able to hear the change. NOTE The above steps can be carried out while playback is stopped or in operation, but cannot be carried out dur- ing recording. It is also possible to start playback while adjusting the speed, but not to start recording at that time. 5Press the PITCH/SSA key to return to the home screen and once again to turn off the SSA mode. To use the SSA When the speed change value has been set in the way described above, simply press the PITCH/SSA key briefly to turn the indicator on and to change the speed, but without changing the screen display. Press the PITCH/SSA key briefly once again to turn off the speed change.