DP-24 Stereo Tracks

[Matt Smith]

Hello all.
Thanks in advance for any response offered here.
Firstly my questions / comments are regarding the DP-24sd. (Wish I had bought the 32 track version but too late for that now...)
Secondly many thanks to Phil Tipping for his vids and guides. Highly recommended and very helpful.

I would love to hear examples of how all of you folks have been able to incorporate the use of stereo tracks in your recordings. The apparent inability to pan these tracks in a mix seems a rather disappointing limitation inherent in this machine, considering they use up half the tracks available. I know other comments etc. have touched on the issue in these forums as well as the above mentioned vids, but I have been trying to find a way around it and have come to the conclusion that perhaps there simply isn't one.

In any case your comments / suggestions / ideas would be most welcomed.

Thanks again.

Matt

 

[SimonPD]

Hi Matt,

I took delivery of a DP-24SD a couple of days ago and am loving it.

First use of stereo track 23/24 has been to import a stereo Conga wav file from Logic. Not had any problems panning this in the mix.

Off the top of my head another use for the stereo tracks could be to take inputs from external stereo sound modules. By recording midi timing data on a mono audio track one could slave a number of boxes with panning being done inside each module before it reaches the DP.

 

[Matt B]

I am not at my machine to try this. Can you clone the stereo track to two mono tracks, adjust your pan there, and bounce the two tracks back to the single stereo track?

I often use the stereo tracks as mono tracks. I also use them for stereo drum tracks, stereo vocal tracks (processed with Izotope Nectar), and for stereo recordings of guitar (two mics). I think I have bounced several mono tracks to a stereo track, though I can't remember the specific event.

Matt B

 

[David Porter]

You could use the dedicated stereo tracks by 1) sending stereo signals from either a stereo guitar effects processor or stereo keyboard, 2) as destination tracks from a bounce of your choosing, 3) converting them to mono tracks to use in any way above.... at least.

 

[Phil Tipping]

Glad the videos & guide helped, Matt S. It's a bit early for me at the moment so this might be my brain playing tricks but the only disadvantage with using a stereo track is that you waste a channel; there's no limitation with panning as long as you assign the mono signal to both left & right sides of the track, e.g. for input A the Assign box shows A-A.
Although the pan control for a stereo tracks turns into a balance control, it's not a problem if both left & right signals are the same. A balance control alters the relative levels of the left & right signals, so if the signal was stereo and you had a sound on the left side, it would disappear when you pan right... but if the signals are the same, then no signals will disappear as the other side makes up for it.

 

[Matt Smith]

Thanks for your comments guys - much appreciated.
The stereo track thing has thrown me a curve ball that I am struggling to get my head around before I spend hours recording only to find I have taken the wrong approach.
I think I get it now tho. After referring to the block diagram yet again and reading your responses it is apparent that bouncing is the way to achieve the stereo field placement I had envisioned. If I bounce a left & right pair of tracks to a dedicated stereo pair, panning will be retained (assuming the destination balance is still at center) because the bounce feed back to the V-track box comes after playback panning . It just requires an extra step in the process. Thank God for virtually noiseless digital bouncing.
As an aside, after experimenting a bit this morning I noticed there is a big difference in the resultant stereo field between feeding a mono signal to both sides of a dedicated stereo pair and feeding a separate left and right pair. Something else to keep in mind i guess.

Thanks for your help with this. It has no doubt saved me some serious headaches.

Matt

 

[SocProf]

The stereo tracks are great with digital drum kits since each drum pad and cymbal is panned in the stereo field.

 

[hilltopstudios]

I have been using a 2488 Mk II for a long time but I was recently in Guitar Center where I found a used mint condition 32SD which I quickly snagged and here's why. Love my 2488 but it had only 6 stereo tracks and 12 mono tracks.

At least 85% of my synthesizers have stereo outputs, guitars are recorded thru a Pod HD which has a stereo output and vocals go thru a TC Helicon Voicelive Touch which has a stereo output. Only time I needed a mono track was for a miced acoustic guitar, mandolin or other acoustic instrument. On the 2488 I quickly used up the stereo tracks and then had to resort to pairs of mono tracks panned hard left and right to record more stereo sourced gear. This made mixing a little more troublesome as I had to remember many tracks consisted of two faders.

The 32SD has 12 stereo tracks and only 8 mono tracks which works out great for me.