Welcome to the forum. I don't own this particular type of portastudio, but I'll take a stab at helping you sort this out.
I'll assume you own a DP-03SD, and not the older DP-03, yes?
The DP-03SD portastudio is both
- A multi-track recorder/reproducer that creates 8 individual tracks; and
- A mastering recorder/reproducer that creates an interleaved stereo master file.
when I inserted the mini-USB cable to transfer to my PC, the 'USB' screen wouldn't go away no matter what button I pressed.
(a) DP-03SD connection to and disconnection from a computer can be found on pages 60 and 61 of the owner manual (OM). According to the OM, when disconnecting, you need first to disconnect on the computer end. The USB screen stays on until the computer disconnects.
(b) Information about transferring files from the SD Card to the computer can be found in the OM, page 60. It's typically a three-step process: create a file or files in one of the system-assigned folders on the SD Card FAT partition; connect to a computer; copy from the SD Card FAT partition folder to the computer.
it did transfer my 'mix' but it was missing the guitar tr5ack (#5)...I need to know that I can actually export a finished track when I need to.
(a) If you're trying to export one or more of the multitrack files, that's called "Exporting Tracks" and is explained in the OM, page 64. The files are exported to the "WAVE" folder of SD Card FAT partition.
(b) If you're trying to export the interleaved stereo master file, that's called "Exporting a Stereo Master Track" (OM, page 65) and first requires "Creating a Stereo Master Track" by mixing down the individual tracks to an interleaved stereo master file (OM, page 49). The stereo master file is exported to the "WAVE" folder of the SD Card FAT partition.
(c) Backing up the entire song folder to your computer is a two-step process that's explained on pages 61 and 62 of the OM. The entire song folder is backed up to the "BACKUP" folder of the SD Card FAT partition.
...is there a simple 'save' button...
(a) According to the "Contents" section at the front of the OM, "Saving a song" is found on page 30.
(b) The stereo master track file is saved when it's created during the mixdown process. It will be overwritten if a new mixdown is made subsequently. However, the stereo master track file can be named (e.g., "Mix 1", Mix 2", etc.) and then exported (see 'b' in the previous section) if you want to create and save several version of your mix.
(c) Several Menu driven functions will automatically save a song before being executed (identified as needed throughout the OM).