Tascam 788 Owner's Manual

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

Contents

Tascam 788 Owner's Manual Manual pdf 15 page image

1 – Introductory concepts–Synchronization and the 788TASCAM 788 Digital PortaStudio 15Quick setup and the assign screenThe 788 allows you to see your current assignmentseasily in two ways (as explained in more detail in“Assignment on the 788” on page 36):Firstly, when you press a mixer channel’s SELECTkey, it flashes, along with the inputs that have beenassigned to it.Secondly, to see the whole map of the current assign-ments, press and hold down the SHIFT key whilepressing the ASSIGN MAP key:Inputs are listed down the left side of the screen, anddestinations along the top. A black mark at the inter-section of the input and destination means an assign-ment of the input to the destination.As well as this map, the 788 also allows you to set updifferent commonly-used assignment maps using theQUICK SETUP key.The assignment maps that you can set up in this wayare: RECORDING (where the inputs areassigned to the mixer channels (and hence to thetracks on a one-to-one basis), MIXDOWN, wherethe recorded tracks are routed to the stereo outputbus, and BOUNCE 7/8 where tracks 1 through6 are routed to the stereo bus, which in its turn isrouted to channels 7 and 8.There is also a special library, as described elsewherein this manual, where custom routing patterns can bestored and retrieved (as well as a library for storingthe whole of the mixer’s settings).Synchronization and the 788One of the other key features of the 788 is its abilityto synchronize with other equipment. This is espe-cially useful when working with MIDI equipment, asthe MIDI instruments do not actually need to berecorded until the final mixdown stage.Instead, one way of working is to record the basicMIDI tracks (say a bass and drums sequence) on asequencer, and play it back as a guide “click” orbacking track while recording guitars, vocals, etc.Alternatively, the acoustic tracks may be recordedfirst, and MIDI tracks added later as atmosphere.In either case, at mixdown, the 788 provides you witha sub mix facility, that allows the inputs to be routedthrough to the master stereo mix in addition to thetracks recorded on disk.There is no “right” or “wrong” way of working—youshould choose the method that works best for youand your material.Note that in either case, the MIDI must be accuratelysynchronized to the acoustic recorded material at alltimes.There are three basic methods of synchronizationbetween the 788 and a MIDI system, brieflyexplained below. Full details of how to use these syn-chronization facilities are provided in “Synchroniza-tion” on page 94.Timecode synchronizationTimecode is a way of specifying an absolute positionin a recording. It is expressed in hours, minutes, sec-onds, frames and bits. The number of frames in a sec-ond depends on the timecode type—these are relatedto the audio-visual industry where timecode (some-times known as “SMPTE” or “SMPTE/EBU” time-code originated. There are five major “flavors” oftimecode supported by the 788:The 788 converts internal timecode so that it can betransmitted over MIDI (MIDI Time Code or MTC)and this is the way in which the 788 transmits andreceives timecode.Frames/second (fps) Timecode type24 Movie25 PAL/SECAM TV29.97 drop NTSC color for broadcast29.97 non-drop NTSC color TV30 non-drop NTSC mono TV