My New SOP

[-mjk-]

Wow! As an aside, I've been on the forums for a little over a month, and this is message #134! Honestly, am I talking too much?

So far, I've had NO errors of any kind since upgrading to 1.10, and doing stuff that would have earlier caused weird errors. I think this is fixed!

 

[-mjk-]

Dunno where else to put this, but.... the guitar effects worked great on my B3 sound! I used one of the amps and goosed the gain just enough to make it sound like my old Leslie.

 

[Mark Richards]

...i make complicated submixes in mixdown mode, then apply mastering tools to the submix before importing to a clean stereo track pair. ....

mjk, that's one of the greatest production methods I've seen posted since I've been a forum member. I've been using custom multi compression for years, and tried your approach myself to do a remix of one of my songs...your way producers much better results, and so much easier to do a final mix. Thanks for sharing.

Wow! As an aside, I've been on the forums for a little over a month, and this is message #134! Honestly, am I talking too much?

Heck no! Active participants make a great forum.

 

[-mjk-]

Thanks Mark. Just making sure. This is a great collection of people.

Back on topic: Since getting the new SD card, and upgrading to the latest firmware for the DP-32 (not SD), I have not experienced one single error of any kind. I'm using the machine as if it were a tape-based recorder. Deleting unused at the end of each session, but not being particularly concerned with it. The machine is now very reliable and I'm getting release-worthy tracks. After decades of 2" tape machines, I'm honestly astonished at how good these things are. And, it sits on my desk! Wish I had it 30 years ago! The only down side is, your friend comes over and says "This is your 32 track digital studio???" and laughs.... And then you press the Play button. I live for those moments, hehe.

 

[-mjk-]

mjk, that's one of the greatest production methods I've seen posted since I've been a forum member. I've been using custom multi compression for years, and tried your approach myself to do a remix of one of my songs...your way producers much better results, and so much easier to do a final mix. Thanks for sharing.

Hi Mark. I'm a bit embarrassed because I was so focused on the technical side of the conversation that I did not actually notice the high compliment you paid me in the above statement. Thank you very much, sir. With your experience and background, that's quite an endorsement! 感謝您 (Have fun with Google translate, hehe).

 

[Mark Richards]

-mjk- said "...I'm a bit embarrassed...Thank you very much"

別客氣
and there's
不需要感到尷尬。

How'd I do? .
(Please don't tell me I just ordered Dim Sum over-nighted to Tennessee! )

 

[-mjk-]

Lol! I understood what you meant, but it looks like machine translation. We say "don't mention it" as 不客氣 - very close. (Edit: people do say that expressed in that way sometimes. I was speaking from my own personal experience) And embarrassed mostly is expressed as 不好意思. You scored high for the use of traditional Chinese and not simplified!

 

[-mjk-]

I think what I'm going to do is upload a clip of some tracks I've cut, and start a discussion on making the tracks thick, and making them breathe. I know this will make eyes roll, and maybe have me committed, lol, but the best tracks, and subsequently the best mixes are almost like living things. Tracks and mixes should convey a subtle movement, like breathing, but of course where appropriate. That makes the song itself sing. I have what I think is a good example clip for that.

 

[David Porter]

Please do! You are the water, I am the sponge.

 

[-mjk-]

lol!

 

[-mjk-]

I didn't really want to start a new thread, so I'll post this here.

I've been experimenting with an idea I had to increase the flexibility of sends, either adding another send or being able to connect more than 1 device to the output of a send.

It occurred to me that the monitor output could be used as a send, as anything that the monitor select can monitor will come out the Monitor jacks in the rear. So, one can connect the studio monitors to the Stereo out for monitoring (might need a small mixer to adjust the level, but that can easily be dealt with, and shouldn't be a problem with powered monitors), and use the Monitor out jacks for another send. If it was set to Send 2, then anything on the Send 2 bus would come out on both jacks, in mono. So, you would have:

Send 2 Jack
Monitor L/R
Headphone L/R

For a total of 5 identical sends.

With 1 internal effect, and 1 insert effect, that's a lot of effects, (granted 5 on the same sources, but you get the point).

Now, this is really crazy. I have been thinking about how I could get a stereo send to use for effects. Since the Monitor bus can monitor both Bounce and Stereo, there must be a way to do it.

[Edit A: I realize that this has no practical application, but I just wonder if there is a way to do it. What I would really like to be able to do, is to assign things to the Bounce bus during Mixdown mode.]

My experiments have shown (by monitoring both the Stereo and Bounce buses simultaneously) that when in Bounce mode, any Track Select button takes that source off the stereo bus. After I thought about that a moment, I went "duh, of course." You monitor bounced tracks on the destination track after it's armed. But, no arm, or no fader up on that track, then no output on the stereo bus (what we used to call 2-mix). But unless you can record something, or use it at Mixdown, it has no use. The problem is, if you used the bounce bus to send to an effect, the moment you tried to assign that input to the destination track, it would appear on the Bounce bus and you'd have a serious loop.

But, since pressing Select buttons while in Bounce takes sources off the 2-mix, why couldn't I just press all the buttons on tracks that I did not want on the stereo effects send and use the 2-mix bus as my stereo send? Then I could take the effects return and assign them to the Bounce bus to keep them off the 2-mix. I'd have to keep all the faders on selected tracks down and I couldn't monitor the returns on the 2-mix. But I could monitor them on the Bounce bus. It would be a very weird monitor mix for sure, but for a specialized Bounce with stereo effects, it could be managed.

That is, I think....

I'm not going to try that until I can think more about it. But I'd like to hear from users with more experience on the DP machines than I.

[Edit B: My usual way of using Mixdown mode for track assemblies is better, but if I need a stereo send, I have to use both sends and that kills the internal effects. I really wish I could assign sources to the Bounce bus in Mixdown mode.]

 

[Mark Richards]

to increase the flexibility of sends, either adding another send or being able to connect more than 1 device to the output of a send.

If I'm understanding you mj, you're sort of trying to accomplish what this useful little TEAC gem can do: distribute one or two line-level signals to four discrete line-level devices, two discrete stereo line-level devices, or some combination thereof.



Meant to be a 4 in x 2 out line-level signal combiner, it also works in reverse (2 in x 4 out) as a line-level signal distributor.

Thinking in reverse of the labeling, The "Left" (white RCA plug) or "Right" (red RCA plug) become input signal sources that each can be sent to each of the the "Track" output jacks discretely or in combination.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SETUP
For example, again thinking in reverse of the labeling:

• the "Left" RCA plug (now an input) might be a feed from "Send 1",
• the "Right" RCA plug (now an input) might be a feed from "Send 2".

• "Track 1" might be connected to a mono Reverb;
• "Track 2" might be connected to a mono Vocal Processor;
• "Track 3" might be connected to a mono EQ; and
• "Track 4" might be connected to a mono Compressor.

APPLICATION
Set the "Track 1" switch to "L" and the "Send 1" feed signal ("L") goes to the Reverb. Set the "Track 1" switch to "R" and the "Send 2" feed signal ("R") goes to the Reverb. Set the "Track 1" switch in the center and both the "Send 1" and "Send 2 feed signals go to the Reverb.

Or, in a different configuration, using the DP stereo outs instead of the Sends as the input source:
"Track 1" (set to "L") and "Track 3" (Set to "R") could provide a stereo signal to a stereo signal processor;
"Track 2" (set to "L") and "Track 4" (Set to "R") could provide a stereo signal to a stereo EQ.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The discouraging news: TEAC no longer sells this, but I have seen it once or twice over the years on reverb.com and e-bay.
EDIT:
There's one on e-bay right now (ends 12/31/18):
https://www.ebay.com/itm/TEAC-AX-20...h=item36419bdd56:g:DUUAAOSwx-lb9FhX:rk:1:pf:0

But, I imagine there also must be reasonably priced line-level signal distributors on the market now that can do the same thing.
===========================
ps - I wouldn't encourage using the headphone out jack for any purpose other than feeding a headphone. It's a LowZ jack (32 Ohm) that puts out a very strong signal (70 mW or more per side).
===========================

 

[-mjk-]

Mark! I spit my beer! I have one of those in a box of vintage gear! The box also contains the rest of an entire Teac 4 track studio, with console, 4 track recorder, DBX and cables. I've never used any of it.

Sounds like that little box might find a home on my desk!

I know you can use distribution amps and so forth - I'm just exploring permutations.

I hear you about the headphone jack, but if you know what you're doing, it's another output you can use. But you might have to build a little network to match it to something.

When I get home, I'm going to dig that thing out of the box!

Thanks Mark!

 

[-mjk-]

This morning, I confirmed something:

• Made a work mixdown.
• Opened USB port
• Changed mixdown filename on SD card
• Copied mixdown to Google Drive from SD card
• Went braindead and closed USB connection without changing filename back
• Went back to Mastering mode to listen to the track
• Experienced "Error" message
• Machine paused, waiting for me to press F1
• F1 took machine back to Multitrack mode
• Opened USB port and changed Mixdown file name back to original
• Closed USB port
• Pressed Mixdown/Mastering button
• Machine when into Mixdown mode
• Pressed M/M button again
• Machine returned to Multitrack mode.

The machine will not return to Mastering mode. I did not change the file extension of .WAV

It looks like if you go to Mastering mode with a bad file name, it disassociates the corresponding zz file and gives up. It doesn't know who the new file is because it doesn't match the zz filename.

Would someone else please confirm this by going into Mastering mode with the wrong filename? I would appreciate that.

 

[Mark Richards]

please confirm

mj, The song.sys file is updated with each mixdown/master. So even though you changed the name back, the .sys file went out of sync when it "corrected" the "file error" so you would be able to create a mix.

I never change the .wav file name directly on the SD card. I always copy, then rename the copy of, the current mixdown/master .wav file.

• This keeps the song.sys file in sync with the most current mixdown/master .wav file.
• It also allows me to rename any of the copied mixes back to the name of the current mixdown/master .wav file, and copy it back to the SD card so I can load whichever mix version I want to hear.

The only solution I can see for what happend is to use Audio Depot to get your work mix back, then go to Mixdown/Record (using imported stereo work mix) to get the song.sys file back in sync.

 

[-mjk-]

Hi Mark. Now you understand what happened the last time. That's a good technique to get the mix back, thanks! Bullet point #2 is well taken.

 

[Mark Richards]

mj, I followed your exact sequence over several iterations changing one variable at a time. Eventually I was able finally to narrow it down to the song.sys file. That hadn't occurred to me before because the method I've been using never gets the song.sys file out of sync with the most current mix file.

One more mystery solved!

 

[-mjk-]

Yeah! We like it when we can quantify things! Thanks for putting time into it.

 

[Sam Trenholme]

Here it is gentlemen. No wonder people are confused.

This must be a typo, nothing more. And, yes, as I type this, https://tascam.com/us/product/dp-32sd/spec has that 64gb card listed as compatible, but, when I tested a brand new 64GB card I got for my digital camera, things did not work: A quick format exits right away and the DP-32SD says “NO CARD”; a full format locks the recorder; the card is good because I was able to subsequently format and take pictures with it in my digital camera.

 

[-mjk-]

Sam, once I tried formatting a 64 gig card and I walked away and left it for about five hours. When I came back it it done just a small percentage. My machine didn't exit. I think it probably would never have finished the format however.