Tascam Digital Production Environment SX-1 Quick Start Guide
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Chapter 7 –Basic Moves TASCAM SX-1 Quick Start Guide 31 NOTE You are doing this so that you can monitor the signal off the HDR’s output. Leaving Channel 1 feeding the L/R bus, at the same time that it is feeding the input to a Take that is record-enabled, will result in phasing of the signal. Phasing is a time-delay related anomaly that results when a signal from a source arrives at the listen- ing position from two different distances (causing some frequencies to cancel each other out). It is a nasty, unpleasant-sounding thing in most cases… 8Navigate back to the Track screen.9Record-enable your Take; either by pressing the button to the left of the icon, or by pressing the REC arm key for channel 17 on the surface. 10Bring up fader 17 (which is HDR 1 return) to unity ( 0). 11Adjust the level using the analog input GAIN knob on the top panel of the SX-1. 12Press PLAY and RECORD, and make some recordable sounds with your sound source. 13After a few seconds, press STOP and you should see the waveform appear on Audio Test. On the LCD 1On the TRACKS page, press the Take/Slot soft key, and select New Audio Take from the menu that appears. 2Press the EDIT NAME key (bottom right), and using the same principles you learned in naming a project, name this Take Audio Test. 3If you want to change (or simply verify) the input or the output of the Take, you can use the Select Source and Select Dest soft knobs to see what is currently selected for each, and to change the setting if you wish. 4Press the 1–16 key on the FADER BANKS sec- tion of the slanted front panel, and then press and hold the SELECT key for channel 1 on the surface. The LCD view should then auto- matically change to the CHANNEL page (you have just selected channel 1 for viewing).5Bring up fader 1 (analog input 1) to unity ( 0). 6Press the BUSS ASSIGN button (bottom right) and then the ST button from the menu that appears. This removes Channel 1’s output from the L/R bus. NOTE You are doing this so that you can monitor the signal off the HDR’s output. Leaving Channel 1 feeding the L/R bus, at the same time that it is feeding the input to a Take that is record-enabled, will result in phasing of the signal—a messy, undesirable business. 7Press the TRACK screen key again, and record arm your audio Take; either by select- ing the Take on the Track screen (highlighting it) and then pressing the RECORD button (top right of the screen), or by selecting the 17–32 fader bank and pressing the REC arm key for channel 17 on the surface. 8Bring up fader 17 (which is HDR 1 return) to unity ( 0). 9Adjust the level using the analog input GAIN knob on the top panel of the SX-1. 10Press PLAY and RECORD, and make some recordable sounds with your sound source. 11After a few seconds, press STOP and you should see the waveform appear on Audio Test.
Chapter 7 –Basic Moves 32 TASCAM SX-1 Quick Start Guide Recording MIDI For both the following examples, make sure you have the MIDI output of a MIDI controller of some type (keyboard controller, drum machine, guitar synth, etc.) connected to the MIDI IN of the SX-1. Also, make sure you have a sound source available if your controller does not support sounds, and that the SX-1’s MIDI A output jack is connected to this devices’s MIDI IN (if your controller is also your sound source, just make both connections on the same box). Also, don’t forget to connect the audio output of your sound source to an audio input on the SX-1. For the purposes of this exercise, use analog inputs 3 and 4. These examples use the Test Project set up earlier. On the VGA 1Navigate back to the Track screen, and click the icon on the next slot down from Audio Take with the mouse (next to the icon). 2Select New MIDI Take from the pulldown menu, and release the mouse button. 3Name your MIDI Take as MIDI Test, and select OMNI as the MIDI input to this Take if it is not already selected. 4Select the one of the 16 channels on MIDI Out A that you want to use. If you are not using a multi-timbral sound source (meaning that it can only play back one sound at a time), select A: MOut M1. 5Record arm your MIDI Take; either by pressing the button to the left of the icon, or by pressing the MIDI A key in the FADER BANKS section of the slanted front panel, and then pressing the REC arm key for MIDI A Channel 1. 6Make sure you have remembered to bring up the audio faders where your sound source is returning, so that you can hear your MIDI source. You connected your source to analog inputs 3 and 4, so select the 1–16 fader bank, and bring up the faders for channels 3 and 4. 7With your channel record armed, you should be able to play notes on your controller and hear them through the console. 8Press PLAY and RECORD, and play some notes on your controller. They should appear instantly on the MIDI Test Ta k e . On the LCD 1On the Track screen, use the keypad’s cursor keys to select the slot beneath Audio Test, and press the TAKE/SLOT soft key. 2Select New MIDI Take from the menu that appears. 3Using the Select Source soft knob, select Omni as the input source. Using the Select Dest knob, select MIDI OUT A Mout A1 as the destination. 4Record-arm your Take, either by pressing the RECORD button (upper right) on the Track screen, or by pressing the MIDI A key in the FADER BANK section, and immediately pressing the REC key of MIDI A Channel 1 (the first fader).5Make sure you have raised the audio channel 3 and 4 faders (where your sound source is coming into the console) so that you can hear it. 6With your Take record-enabled, you should now be able to hear your MIDI device when you play it. 7Press PLAY and RECORD and play some- thing on your MIDI controller. You should see MIDI data immediately written on MIDI Test .
Chapter 7 –Basic Moves TASCAM SX-1 Quick Start Guide 33 Using Locate Points and Autopunch Locate points enable you to navigate through a project quickly and easily, which is an absolute necessity when speed is important. Follow the steps here to learn how to store and recall locate points, as well as how to use the autopunch facilities. A word about the CAPTURE key The opera- tion of the SX-1’s CAPTURE key may require a bit of explanation for some users. When the key is pressed, the location of the playhead (its current time value, whether or not the transport is moving) is “captured” and held. Once captured, that time loca- tion can be stored in a number of places. These avail- able registers flash when a value is captured, letting you know that you can store the time value there. Possible locations for captured values include locate points, auto punch points, edit points and loop points. The main concept to understand is that the time value is captured by pressing the CAPTURE key, not when you store that value in one of the available registers. The paradigm in the following instructions works the same for all types of storable points on the machine. Setting a locate point 1Move the transport to your desired location. 2Press CAPTURE in the LOCATE section of the surface. You will notice that a number of indicators flash in various places, letting you know that the time value you just captured can be stored in any of them.3Press the LOCATE key in the LOCATE section. 4Press a number on the numeric keypad and then press the ENTER key. 5You have just saved a locate point. Recalling a Locate Point 1Press the LOCATE key in the LOCATE section of the surface. 2Press a number that corresponds to a stored point and press ENTER on the keypad. 3The transport will be moved to that time location. TIP You will notice that pressing the LOCATE key will always come up with the last point chosen. You can use this as a quick return point, as no matter how far you fast forward, rewind or play, the last point you chose will always come up first. Using Autopunch Autopunch allows the SX-1 to perform automated punch in and punch out at defined points. The following steps explain how to use Autopunch. 1Cue the SX-1’s transport to the spot where you would like to punch in (or enter record). 2Press CAPTURE. 3Assign the captured value as the punch in point by pressing the IN key in the AUTOPU NC H section of the surface. 4Cue the transport to the spot where you would like to punch out (or exit recording).5Press the CAPTURE key again. 6Assign the captured value as the punch out point by pressing the OUT key in the AU TO P U N C H section. 7Enable Autopunch by pressing the ENABLED key in the AUTOPU NC H section. You will notice that the RECORD key flashes as an additional indication. 8Record-arm the Take you will be recording on.
Chapter 7 –Basic Moves 34 TASCAM SX-1 Quick Start Guide 9Cue the transport to a spot before the punch in point, and press PLAY (you do not have to press RECORD). When the transport passes the punch in point, it will enter record mode. When it passes the punch out point, it will exit record mode. Updating the SX-1 software From time to time you may need to install or update the software in the SX-1. TASCAM will send you software installation CDs when a new version becomes available. Follow the steps below to install or update your sys- tem software: 1Eject the CD-RW drive tray. If there is noth- ing in the drive, you can press the small but- ton on the lower right side of the front of the drive itself to eject the tray. If a disc is already loaded, navigate to one of the screens ( Master, Project) that has an eject button and use that. 2Insert the software CD-ROM into the drive and close the tray. 3Power down the SX-1. 4When the SX-1 is fully shut down, reboot the machine. 5The normal boot sequence will be inter- rupted with the software CD-ROM in the drive. A prompt will appear, asking you if you wish to Install operating system or Update operating system from the CD-ROM. Choosing Install wipes the whole drive, while choosing Update leaves the projects and audio alone, replacing only the system software. 6Decide which action suits your present situa- tion and make your selection. The SX-1 will install software in the manner you selected. 7When the installation is finished, click the EXIT button, and remove the CD-ROM from the tray when it pops out. DO THIS QUICKLY, as the tray will close (with or without your fingers) in a few seconds. 8That’s it. You’ve successfully updated your software. The SX-1 will restart, displaying a number of mes- sages as it does so. Depending on the software installed, it might need to flash the onboard SH Rom. If so, the SX-1 will display the message updating panel software with a progress report. It may then restart, becoming fully operational on bootup.
TASCAM SX-1 Quick Start Guide 35 Chapter 8 – A quick look at a few shortcuts The SX-1 is a deep machine, and while it is easy to use, it could be some time before you learn all of its capabilities. The following are short examples of some time-savers you can use to get a job done quickly. Make a quick headphone mix. This short example assumes a few things. It assumes that: 1. You have a mix on the faders that sounds good to you. 2. You have a pair of headphones connected to the SX-1.3. Those headphones are being fed by the Cue bus. Holding down the SHIFT key on the numeric keypad, press the CUE key in the virtual channel strip. You have just copied your stereo mix to your Cue mix. You can now move the Cue faders and change the mix slightly to better suit your performers’ needs (perhaps they need click but you don’t, for instance). Make 5 different mixes for different players quickly 1Use the previous example as Step One. 2On the Routing screen, route the outputs of Aux sends 5 and 6 to the Stereo Out jacks on the top panel. NOTE This means that you now have all of the Auxs being sent externally: Aux Sends 1-4 are being sent out their default jacks on the top panel, while Aux Sends 5 and 6 are being sent from the Stereo outs (XLR). 3Use Aux sends 1-6 (in pairs) to make three mixes for your players. 4Connect the AUX SEND 1-4 and STEREO OUT jacks to an external headphone amplifier. This means that you now have 5 mixes running at the same time: The Stereo Mix (you are listening to in the Control Room), the Cue Mix (one set of head- phones), Aux 1-2, Aux 3-4, and Aux 5-6. This scenario should cover most live tracking situa- tions for medium-sized ensembles. Quickly move all of your faders (on the current layer) back to unity. Holding down the CANCEL key in the numeric key- pad, touch a fader. You will notice that it moves back to unity.You can hold down CANCEL and run your hand along all the faders to quickly bring them up to unity. Quickly make a Fader Group Holding the SHIFT key on the numeric keypad, press any three channel SEL keys on the surface. You have just made a fader group. The channel whose SEL key you touched first has become the group master, while the next two channels became the slaves. To dissolve the group, simply repeat the above steps. Quickly Solo-Safe a channel (or channels) The ability to solo-safe a channel or bus is extremely handy when mixing. Essentially, this enables you to remove a channel from the operation of the solo bus (it does not exempt the channel from mutes, how- ever). This means a channel that is in solo-safe will always be heard unless it is muted.To solo-safe a channel, first press the SOLO key on the master channel on the surface (which puts the surface into solo ready mode). With the master solo light lit, hold down SHIFT and press a channel’s SOLO key. That channel is now in solo-safe.
Chapter 8 –A quick look at a few shortcuts 36 TASCAM SX-1 Quick Start Guide This can easily be verified by looking at the VGA’s Mixer screen—the solo buttons of channels in solo safe are no longer green in color, as the rest are. Quickly link a pair of channels on the console Simply press the SEL keys for both channels at the same time. Remember, these must be coincident channels (1 and 2, 3 and 4, etc). If you only want to link certain things, right-click on the LINK button on the Mixer or Channel screens, or go to the LCD Links page. Quickly mixdown a number of sources to a stereo pair 1Solo the channels (this can include audio coming into the mixing console from another device) you would like to mix together. 2Get your balances where you like them. This can include as much automation as you wish. 3Enable Mixdown mode, but do not select Create Mix. This can be done from the VGA’s Track screen on the Global tab, or from the Mix screen on the LCD.4Give the stereo file you’re about to make a name that you’ll remember. You can do this on the same screen from which you enabled Mixdown mode. 5Cue the transport back to where you would like to begin, and press PLAY and RECORD. Everything coming out of the L/R bus is now being recorded to a separate stereo file (actu- ally two mono Takes). It is now easy to unload all of the Takes you have just comped together to save space, and load in the new pair. You can re-import these Takes in the same way you would normally load Takes into a project. Quickly use the LCD and the VGA screens to show separate things You can use the LCD’s Track screen to show you your position, and use the VGA Overview screen to show you a virtual meter bridge (as well as any other com- bination of the two screens).Press the TRACK screen key in the MAIN DISPLAY MODE section, and then press Alt 4 on the PS/2 keyboard. Track a drum kit, even though you have no free mixer channels Suppose you had the HDR returning to 16 channels of the console, and also had a slaved TASCAM MX-2424 returning to 24 channels as well (con- nected via two ADAT cards and the internal ADAT lightpipe I/O). That would use all of your 40 mixer channels, but you still need to track a large drum kit to the MX-2424! This can be done easily on the SX-1. Simply: 1Connect your 16 microphones to the Analog mic inputs. 2Route all of the 16 analog inputs to Mixer Bypass inputs (there are 16 available).3Route all of the Mixer Bypass outputs to ADAT outs 1-24 (where the MX-2424 is con- nected). 4Record enable the MX, and set your levels using the knobs on the top panel for each channel. 5Monitor these levels by turning up the mixer channels the MX is returning to. NOTE Any external recorder can be used in this manner, pro- viding you have the correct complement of I/O for the recorder. In this case, you are using the SX-1 as a moni- toring console, and only using the preamps to go “straight to tape”.
Chapter 8 –A quick look at a few shortcuts TASCAM SX-1 Quick Start Guide 37 Quickly select every MIDI note on a MIDI Take To do this, just Alt-click on any note with the mouse. All of the notes in the entire Take will be selected. Quickly name a number of similar types of things The SX-1 was designed to adhere to a number of tra- ditional computer-style commands. One such com- mand is the use of the Ta b key (on the PS/2 keyboard). You can use this key to jump quickly between text fields of a similar type, like the names of mixer channels or Takes.Try this: on the VGA’s Mixer screen, click in the name field for the first channel on the left. Type in a name, and then press the Ta b key. You will notice that the cursor jumps to the next channel’s name field, mak- ing it very easy to name all of the channels on a bank quickly.
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