Export question

[Saxomohawh]

The manual is not very clear about how to exort a whole project. They only tell you how to export a "track". Now my memory card is full so I need to move data to a PC and delete it from the Tascam to free up space. I would also want to do this for backup reasons. I am not talking about exporting a mixed and mastered stereofile, but the whole project with all recorded tracks, and I want to be sure that I will be able to load it back so it is exactly like it was before. Do I click all the recorded tracks for export? And will the system recognize this as a project so I can load it back and all tracks appear correct in time and with correct track number. Or is there any other way to make backup copy of the whole memory card?

At the moment Tascam wont even let me export one single track, "Export file too big". But that is probably because the card is full (?) I got an error and message "card full" while recording. So I guess I must delete something before I can export anything at all (?)

 

[Saxomohawh]

Actually , there is a function called "restore" to backup a whole song (p 67), I'll look into that, but I would still like to know if there is a way to clone or backup the whole sd card.

 

[RustyAxe]

The easiest thing to do is just copy the entire SD card to a hard drive. I create a folder on my Mac called "DP24 Backups", in that folder I create folders name yyyymmdd_DP24. And into that I copy the entire contents of the card ... ending up with:

DP24 Backups
2016082o_DP24
dp-24.sys
AUDIO DEPOT
MUSIC
SONG_0001
SONG_0002
SONG_0003
UTILITY
20160821_DP24
dp-24.sys
AUDIO DEPOT
MUSIC
UTILITY

If I want to put everything back I just copy from the Mac' MUSIC folder's SONG_xxxx folder to the MUSIC folder on the SD card. You need to avoid naming conflicts ... there can't be two SONG_0001 in the MUSIC folder, of course. Everything would be there as it was ... except your input assignments, if you've changed them since working that project.

The error in EXPORT is indeed because the card is full. The EXPORT function needs space to create the new WAVS in the AUDIO DEPOT folder (each track will be one WAV file). EXPORT does NOT export the original stems, but rather, it assemble the bits and pieces (over dubs, punch in/out, etc) of each track into a single WAV per track.

 

[Saxomohawh]

Thanks! Some details: You say you copy everything from the card, but to put everything back you only copy the content to the "MUSIC" folder (that is only one of the folders). Is it so that to put the projects/songs back I only need the MUSIC folder, but all the rest is good to have if the card would crash completely?

What I did before I read your reply was to copy the MUSIC folder to my PC, however I have not yet tried to copy it back.

 

[Phil Tipping]

Agree with RustyAxe apart from Input Assignments, which are held within each song folder. Just a bit more clarification...

Folders within the Music folder contain everything reqd. for an individual song including its mixdown/master .wav file (if you've made one), so you can copy these song folders in their entirety to & from a computer. You can move/delete any of them but there must always be at least 1 song folder in the Music folder. Whatever folders are left in the Music folder will show up in the Song Load list. The name of the folder defines the song name so you can rename it if you like. The other .wav files within it are work files containing fragments of audio (with 'z's in their name to indicate they are not for public consumption) and I'm guessing the .sys file contains the settings for each song (FX, assigns etc) and all the pointers which allows it to piece together each track from the fragments (which is what the export process does when you export a track file into the AudioDepot folder).

The mixdown/master wave filename (and it's 'z' undo version) is based on the song name so if you rename song folders from a computer, you need to keep the master filenames in step if you want to retain the ability to re-master the mix. Note the .wav extension for these needs to be upper case otherwise the system won't recognise them.

I'm also guessing the .sys file at the outer level of the sd-card contains global settings like screen brightness, power-off timeout etc. When you format a card, this file is created using the current settings, along with an empty song in the Music folder.

You can restore your own set of songs for a card by just copying whole song folders back into the Music folder. I plant 2 songs this way onto newly formatted cards: a !Reset song for resetting all FX & gain settings to zero, and a !RefTones song containing reference tones (left/right/central) and audio snippets.

(Update: note my original posting for this was incorrect re. location of master files - now corrected)

 

[RustyAxe]

I was wrong about the routing, thanks for pointing that out, Phil. Yes, I usually copy the entire card for backup after every recording session (the non-music files are tiny in comparison).

 

[Doodle46]

I do not have computer software, only my dp-32sd and a laptop. Unintentionally, an unknown number of tracks transferred to Audio Depot in my computer, 19 of which are the total number of tracks in my song. NOW, I have no idea what to do with these tracks, or how to put them together for my completed song.

 

[Saxomohawh]

Doodle46, what are you trying to do? What/why do you want to transfer to the PC? Do you want to export each channel from a recorded, not yet mixed song, for editing or mixing on the computer?

 

[Doodle46]

Thank you for your interest. I’m pleased to tell you that my issue is resolved. To answer your question though: To begin with, I am more acquainted with the Tascam neo2488. With that machine, I recorded my song, multi-mixed it, mastered it, and ended up wth the song (CD) in my hand. I never bothered using usb. I inserted the cd into my computer and there was my song, no problem.
“Fast-forward to today!” I did not understand that, from Audio Depot, the DP-32 transfers “Tracks,” and not the complete song. SO! I ended up with all these tracks transferred to my computer, and became confused as to how to put them together to make the complete song.
When I wrote this post, I did not know that the first item in that long line of tracks was, in fact, my complete song. Now I that I know that... my issue is resolved... I hope! : )
Thanks again. I hope this made some kind of sense.
_ Doodle46

 

[Saxomohawh]

If you have made a final mix on Tascam and you want to export it, you can connect via usb and then copy it directly from the MUSIC folder. It is the file named SONGNAME.WAV (where SONGNAME is your name of the song).

 

[Doodle46]

Got it! Thanks a lot.

 

[Doodle46]

With so much help from Mr Tipping, and others on the forum, I am seeing some daylight. For example: I’m learning the benefits of Bouncing, and it’s making my recording life easier. “Thank you” to everyone for your input.