Hello, not new to Tascam, but new to the DP-24

[Cobrapc]

I'm an unpublished songwriter, singer, and guitar player, not a guitarist.

I had a small recording studio with a Tascam 4 track back in the early 90s, mostly for my family, but ended up making $50K doing in-store advertising tapes. Now I've built another, larger, studio for local songwriters to get a decent demo cheaply, and a way to meet people to jam with.

Some of the functions of the DP-24 are easy enough, but I cannot get my master to an audio file. I've read some parts of the manual on mastering, got that, but haven't found out how to make that WPS file. I'm overwhelmed, and haven't even started on the V-verb yet!!

I'll keep on that manual, but if you know a button I have to push, PLEASE let me know.

 

[Phil Tipping]

I don't have the CD version but no-one's replied yet so I'll have a go with the DP-24SD model...
There are 2 steps: mixdown & mastering. The Mixdown/Mastering buttons toggles through these modes and back to the default Multitrack mode. The display shows which mode you're in.

Mixdown mode takes the original song and creates a new wave file under the song folder which is under the Music folder. You can play the mixdown back to check it by switching to Mastering mode. You can't get to Mastering mode until you've created a Mixdown file.

To Mixdown, you need to set the IN & OUT points, typically for the start & end of the song, but you can pick any slice. If you leave them at 0 & 0, or set the interval too short, it won't go into Mixdown mode ("Error Trk Too Short").

Press Record (in Mixdown mode!) to process the song and create the Mixdown file. You can twiddle faders and other controls as reqd.

Switch to Mastering mode. You can now press Play to hear the new file. If you don't like it, switch to Mixdown and repeat. The original song data remains intact.

To Master this Mix file, switch to Mastering mode, set EQ, COMP & NORM as reqd, then press Record. The Mix file will be processed and another new file is created in the song folder. The original Mix file is renamed so you can Undo the process, but each time you master, the master file will be overwritten. If you stay in Mastering mode, you can playback this file by pressing Play.

So you can choose which file to copy out from the song folder - there's no need to master if you're happy with the mixdown file.
I don't know how you burn files to a CD with the CD model, but this might be enough to get you going.

Note the mixdown & master files are created in the song folder, not the AudioDepot folder. The filenames are based on the song name and can be transferred to a computer for processing, archiving etc. if reqd. Any other wave files within the song folder such as zz0001 etc. are internal work files and should not be processed. If you want to process individual tracks, you should use the Export function which collates the work files into the AudioDepot folder.

 

[bob blank]

Ok,
after I master, it is seemingly, saved, but, my next master overwrites or deletes my first saved master. ...and each new master does the same to the previous song.
Help
Help
So, I just make a CD of each song...then I can download it to a pc, or just play, etc.
Then back to master and repeat this time wasting process...
Help
Help
Bob

mountainhighstudios@yahoo.com

 

[Phil Tipping]

Think you need a dp-24 expert Bob. On the dp-32sd model, the system allows a single mixdown/master file for each song, so it will get overwritten if you re-mix/master the same song... but if you mix/master a different song, you get a different master file so there's no clash. Maybe the cd model behaves differently? One scenario which might cause your problem is if you've recorded a very long take covering several real songs and are trying to split it up and mix/master each sub-song by setting the In/Out points for each section. In this case the 'song' in Tascam terms is the same, so you will overwrite the master for each one unless you copy/rename the file each time.