Tascam 788 Owner's Manual

Also see for PORTASTUDIO 788: Supplementary guide Addendum Tutorial Brief guide

Contents

Tascam 788 Owner's Manual Manual pdf 13 page image

1 – Introductory concepts–AssignmentTASCAM 788 Digital PortaStudio 13Multi-take punch-ins on the 788Similar to the concept of “virtual tracks”, and also tothe editing procedure above, is the idea of multi-takepunches.The 788 allows you to repeat a punch-in section,playing or singing the same phrase many times untilyou stop the punch procedure. All the successivetakes of this phrase are stored on disk, and you canaudition them all, and pick the best one to insert intothe track.Instant location on the 788With a tape recorder, you must always wait a certainamount of time before moving from one part of asong to another. This is because it takes time for tapeto be wound or rewound (even with the fast DTRS orDAT systems, moving between the start and end of arepeated section takes a definite amount of time).However, a disk-based system like the 788 does notneed to rewind, and therefore if a section is beinglooped, the start can follow immediately after the endsection. This can be a little unnerving for musiciansbrought up on tape systems, and so the 788 allowsyou to set the period between the end and the start,simulating a tape rewind time.You can set many location marks throughout a 788song, allowing you to jump instantly around even thelongest pieces of music.Recording techniqueRemember, the 788 is a tool which helps you createrecordings. Although it has many features which willassist you in making high quality recordings easily,the use of a 788 (or indeed, of any piece of equip-ment) does not in and of itself guarantee a perfectrecording.Above all else, we encourage you to learn to listencritically to your recordings—this will enable you tomake the most from your equipment and add to yourultimate enjoyment.AssignmentWhen recording signals on a multitrack system, theoutputs of the signal sources (microphones, instru-ments, effect returns or previously-recorded multi-track tape tracks) must be plugged into theappropriate channels of the mixing console andassigned or routed to the appropriate destination.When recording the first tracks, the destination willusually be the track or tracks of the multitrackrecorder on which the signal will be recorded.In the mixdown phase of a project, the destinationwill usually be the stereo pair to which the tracks willbe mixed (usually on another recorder).In a conventional system, to change (say) a micro-phone signal from input channel 1 of the mixer toinput channel 4, it is either (in a small setup) neces-sary to unplug the microphone from the mixer andreconnect or (in larger setups) to use a patchbay,where all the inputs and outputs are permanentlyconnected at the rear of a “patch panel” and links aremade using patch cords on the front. Digital patch-bays are also available for the connection of digitalsignals.The 788 internal patchbayWith the 788, no external patchbay is necessary. Theunit incorporates its own digital patchbay with manyadvanced features. The techniques of actually mak-ing the assignments in this internal patchbay areexplained in more detail in “Assignment on the 788”on page 36. This section provides a brief overview ofthe facilities available when using the assignmentpatchbay of the 788.The illustration here tries to show that although thesound sources may be connected to the same inputsof the 788 throughout a session, the signals from