A few recording and effect questions

[Mollie]

Hi everyone
This is my first post, though I have been lurking, and reading others posts on and off for a long time. I've had my dp 24 for about 3 years and I am half way through my 3rd album, all without any major issues. However, there are one or two things that I have never managed to get my head around. They may be small things, but they still annoy me a bit. I wondered if anyone could shed some light on them.

1. When assigning an input channel (eg input A), you can open the mixer screen and then select source (input A again). this then gives you a few options for tweeking the input signal from source A. The equaliser works the way it should, but no effects can be added. The options are there, just like if you had selected a channel, but nothing happens. Have I got this all wrong, or is there just something I've missed?

2. How does the copy/paste options work? If your song has repeating patterns, like 12 bar blues, is it possible to just play just one measure and then paste it as many times as necessary? I've tried this once or twice and everything went to the wrong place and played at the wrong time.

3. What parameters do people suggest setting reverb and delay effects at to get the best sound, (I realise this is a subjective question). I have always been hopeless with effects, and don't even use pedals when playing live, but just wondered what everyone else was doing.

please keep up the good work everyone, I love reading all your posts.

 

[sj_rydell]

Hi......I just joined as well. I have used Tascam products for years. My post follows yours. I take it you are satisfied, 3rd album, that is great. Do you do everything on the dp-24 or do you use computer software as well. Can you do a whole album just on the workstation alson?

Thanks, sj

 

[Mollie]

I've done the whole lot on the Tascam, rubbish vocals and all. I've tried to use a DAW, but can't be bothered to relearn everything. I'm just looking for advice to improve my already existing skills.
The Tascam's been great, though I'm generally a bit of a technophobe, all my music, and everyone elses, would never see the light of day without it. And I still keep thinking of more tunes.

 

[Phil Tipping]

Hi and welcome to the forum. My posts tend to be overly verbose so just ignore the bits you already know

1. FX can be added to inputs via the Mixer screen, but as with all FX, the Mixer screen only shows/controls basic FX settings: on/off for Insert FX and levels for Send FX.

There are 3 types of FX in the default MultiTrack mode: Insert(Dynamics), Insert(Guitar), and Send. The first one can be applied to Inputs directly and is configured via the Dynamics screen. This is what you see with the INSERT EFFECT on/off setting in the Mixer screen if an Input/Source is selected.

The other two FX are configured via the Effect screen, and they can also be applied to Inputs, albeit indirectly as it depends how your Inputs are routed, e.g. you can route them via the Send FX for monitoring, or via the Insert(Guitar) FX if they are assigned to a track (regardless of whether you are recording).

The Effect screen is a bit confusing as it handles both Insert(Guitar) FX and Send FX; the F1 button marked Guitar or Send switches between the two modes. If you keep an eye on the top-right of the Effect screen you should see Track nos. appear for Insert FX, but nothing for Send FX. This is because the Send FX is 'global' and only the send levels are specific to individual tracks and inputs. These levels are set in the Mixer screen so again, keep an eye on the selected item on the top-right.

It's clearer (maybe?) if you look at the block diagram (page 99 for the DP24). The functions and signal flow are fairly easy to follow with enough patience, although it doesn't show how they are allocated to the menu screens, nor does it spell out the restrictions in how many FX you can use simultaneously... but that aside, and if you'll excuse the long post, here's a walkthrough of some of it...

The Inputs A-H come in at top-left, and if you follow the signal path from left to right, you'll see the Insert(Dynamics) block followed by an EQ block. When you select a source in the Mixer screen, the INSERT EFFECT shows/controls the on/off setting for the Dynamics FX allocated to that source (the on/off control is duplicated in the Dynamics screen). Ditto for the EQ settings.

After the EQ block, the signal continues to the right onto the various buses (6 vertical lines labelled at the top). It goes to the Send 1 & 2 buses via Send level controls. These Send levels are set in the Mixer screen but the Send FX itself is configured in the Effect screen. If you follow the Send buses down to the bottom you'll see the Send FX block on the left. More confusion here as it's just labelled EFFECT, and it's not clear which way the signals flow as there are no arrows, but stick with it and you'll see the Send bus outputs to the right, through the Send Master levels (again set in the Mixer screen - they're global levels so it doesn't matter which track or input is selected) and then out to the EFFECT SEND jack sockets on the far right.

Send 1 (only) also loops back to the input of the Send FX block. The FX outputs go via the Return levels (set in the Effects screen) to the Stereo & Bounce buses, so these levels control how much of the internal FX appears - if the Returns (or Master 1) are zero, it doesn't matter how high the Send levels are, you won't hear any internal FX!

If you go back to the Input section at the top-left of the diagram, the signal after the EQ block can also flow down and left to the Input Assign block. This is shown below in the Track 1-24 section, where all the Sources can be assigned to individual tracks via the Assign screen.

The box to the right labelled V-TRACK represents the sd-card, so these are wave file(s) which can be recorded or played back. There's another FX to the left of V-TRACK called Insert(Guitar) and another to the right so you can also apply one of these Insert FX to a track as it's recording or playing back. There's another EQ block on the right so you can apply further EQ on playback only. The Rec/Play setting is in the Effect screen (Guitar mode!). You don't need to be recording for some of this routing to be heard; just pressing Rec arm for the individual track(s) is sufficient.

2. Copy/Paste. Yes you can make multiple copies. If the paste goes to an unexpected time, maybe you've not set the destination start point. The start & end time points for the slice to be copied/pasted are defined by the In & Out settings as you'd expect, but the non-intuitive bit is that the current play position defines the paste start time point (the 'To' value, page 60), so if you're not setting this, you'll get what seems like random pastes.

If you are setting this ok, then maybe your time settings are not accurate enough. The rotary control is by default a coarse time setting. For finer control, press the Jog Play button and for more accuracy, press the right cursor arrow as reqd.(page 55).

3. Reverb/delay settings. Will leave that to the experts

 

[Mollie]

Thanks Phil
A lot to take in there, but a great help all the same. I've tried looking at the block diagram a few times, but it sends me cross eyed.

 

[Steve144]

I'm loving reading all the questions and answers this forum has. I've learned a lot and am enjoying playing around and trying different things until something works, but I've noticed that question and queries about the effects keeps coming up again and again.
If the Tascam boys read these posts they must be getting the message that the way the effects works isn't great. I got the DP-24sd and love it, but I up graded from the Boss BR-1600 where you can have any number of effects (comp, reverb, delay etc) on any number of tracks in any order and its simple to do so, so the technology is straight forward.
I sometimes get the feeling that because Tascam were the first to come up with the Portstudio they think they know best. I would never slag them, but they really could make things much simpler.
But, the bottom line is, its great gear and I apologies for straying into the Roland/Boss camp for a few years - its good to be back.

 

[Mollie]

I see where your coming from Steve. I started with a Boss br 532, back when digital stuff first came out, and it was dead easy to use. You would think someone from Tascam would have looked at this site and made the same conclusions as you, but it seems not. Perhaps we are such a small segment of their market that they don't care, perhaps there is technical/cost issues, who knows.