Location marks

Maurits

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Hello everybody, it's Maurits with yet another display of ignorance.

My problem is as follows: With my DP I used the auto punch-in/out feature using location marks. That went very well. However, now I'd like to remove the marks. The manual says: "1. Press the F FWD or REW button to move to the mark that you want to delete. 2. Press the MARK SET button to delete the location mark."
When I do exactly that, the red dots on the timeline remain and also when I use transport, the transport stops at the location points. In other words, the marks are not deleted. Do I miss something? Can anyone give me a pointer?
Thank you all so much in advance!
Kindest regards,
Maurits
 
Maurits, it can be confusing.

This issue has come up several times in the past, so today I made a post in the Production Tips sticky to summarize things.

If you still have any questions, please come back to this thread and we'll try to answer them.
 
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Thank you Mark and Tony so much! Very usefull! I moved my punch in-point to zero (where it was I remember now, because of the red dot) and the punch out-point to where te recording ends. A green dot remained on the out-point but I could remove that manually by following the manual.

And yes, I have another question. A similar topic as I asked before. I didn't quite understand the answer back than but the practical solution you came up with I implemented and that seems to work just fine. Anyway, my question is this: I have an external compressor unit I would like to use. In one way I'd like to use it to plug in my bass guitar and then plug my comp into my DP. I have an active bass as well as a passive one. Further more I want to use it for my vocals with a condenser mic and thus with phantom power. I want to feed the comp with the pre fader-aux signal from the channel the mic is pluged in and than feed the comp-signal into the next channel to put it on track (is that a good idea?). The comp has two settings namely -10 dBV and +4 dBu. Can someone tel me for each purpose what setting I should use? I looked it up in the level diagram but still I don't understand a thing about it. I have to admid I feel pretty dumb...

And yet again, thank you so much!
 
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I have an external compressor...I'd like to use it to plug in my bass guitar and then plug my comp into my DP
Easy. Done all the time.

I want to use [the external compressor] for my vocals with a condenser mic and thus with phantom power...I want to feed the comp with the pre fader-aux signal from the channel the mic is pluged in and than feed the comp-signal into the next channel to put it on track.
It's helpful if you use portastudio terminology (e.g. there's no such thing as a "pre-fader aux signal" on the portastudio. The portastudio does not have "channels"; it has Inputs and Tracks.)

I assume you want to plug the condenser mic into the Input "A" XLR jack but not record Input A on a Track. Rather, you wish to use the Input "A"/ Send 2/Pre-Fader to run the mic signal out to the external compressor, return the compressed mic signal back to the Input "B" 1/4" phone jack of your portastudio, and Assign Input "B" to a Track to record the compressed signal. Yes?

That's a reasonable way to use an external compressor to add compression to a vocal in real time.


The comp has two settings namely -10 dBV and +4 dBu. Can someone tel me for each purpose what setting I should use?
Look on the Specifications page in your Owner Manual in the "Analog Audio Input/Output" section for the rated input (signal in) level of the standard 1/4" TSR jack and the rated output (signal out) level for the Send Jacks.

Compare that to the compressor's rated input/output signal levels.

Use the compressor's rated input/output levels that match the portastudio's rated 1/4" Phone jack input level and Send Jack output level:
  • Portastudio/Send Out jack to Compressor/In
  • Compressor/Out to Portastudio/ 1/4" Phone Jack In
 
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Hello Mark and mjk, thank you both for your answers! And forgive me my inadequate terminology. I wasn't aware of any porta studio jargon, leave alone mastering it. Anyway Mark, what you described is indeed what I meant.

I will look it up in the respective manuals and see if I can understand that. And mjk, also thank you for the link! I will study that also!

You all are golden!
 
Okay, I read the sticky. That was what I read before. But I still don't understand how HiZ and LowZ translate to dBu and/or dBV. Anyway, I know now though that the rated input level for the TRS-input of the DP is +4 dBu. Is it safe to assume that this fits the +4 dBu setting on my compressor? The rated output level for the effect sends jack however is -10 dBV. That coincides with the -10 dBV setting on my compressor. Since I can't set the input and output separately, I have to choose.
The specifications in the manual of my compressor says:

Audio Input

Impedance 60 kOhms
Nominal Operating Level +4 dBu / -10 dBV switchable
Max Input Level +21 dBu balanced and unbalanced

Audio Output

Impedance <40 Ohms balanced and unbalanced
Max Output Level +26 dBm balanced, +21 dBm unbalanced

So what do you guys think I should do?
 
While I think of it, I learned that running a -10 dBv signal into a +4dBu input is not optimal but none the less better than the other way around. So if the TS-input of my DP can handle +4 dBu, it is safe to use the +4 dBu setting on my compressor. Although the input Send signal is -10 dBV, it should not be problematic to run it through the compressor set at +4 dBu. Setting the compressor at +4 dBu will give me the hottest signal. Am I seeing this right?
 
On the other hand, when I set my compressor to -10 dBV it matches my input Send signal and running the compressed signal through my +4 dBu input wouldn't hurt either. I can imagine that the settings of the pots and the reading of the level meters on the compressor are than accurate in opposition of when I set it to +4 dBu. Do I see that right also?
And when I do set it to -10 dBV, would it help to run my compressed signal into the XLR-input? I understand that XLR-input is better adjusted to a lower signal. Do I see this right or am I way of..?
 
Also because the rated input level of the XLR-input is -14 dBu. Although I'm not sure how close that is to -10 dBV...
 
Never use a mic input for line level signals.

Use the 1/4" TRS jack and try a few settings to see what sounds best. Start with the lowest levels and work up from there.
 
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Maurits - as mj said. This is the wonderful world of standards ;) If you buy your gear without doing the research, you're going to have to accept these mismatches. As you've seen, some gear is helpful in having both -10 & +4 options; there are also devices with separate switches on inputs and outputs so this would have been useful in your case.
You're right in that -10 sends and receives lower voltages than +4, so that's really all you need to know. Just use common sense and always start tests with gains turned right down to avoid damage, and turn things up *slowly*. If you're careful, the worst that can happen is you get more noise if the signal is too low, or it distorts if it's too loud.
If you can't achieve an acceptable compromise, you'll need to add devices to transform the voltages, either with a dedicated matching unit or, if you have multiple external units, see if they will chain together such that the levels match.
 
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Thank you Phil, I was getting that impression also. Research would have been useful but I bought the DP because the workflow of a DAW was not working for me. Before that I had a eight track recorder on audio cassette. For obvious reason that was no longer cutting it. All the external gear I'd like to use or at least try out are just lying around. Thank you though very much for your pointer! Will do...
 
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Hello everybody. At the risk of boring you silly, I thought it would be courtly to let you know that I now have accomplished unity gain. Only still just with the DP and the compressor but it makes life way easier. Thank you all double time and no doubt I'll be asking you stuff soon again...
 
Prior to finding this forum I was equally confused with how to delete location marks. The method I now use, based on lots of trial and error, is as follows.
  1. Set MARK IN and MARK OUT to zero
  2. Start from location zero (hit STOP REW)
  3. Press FFWD to move to each marked location.
  4. If a mark is present (based on MARK <#> showing on the home screen) press the MARK SET button. If a mark is not present, press FFWD to move to the next marked location.
  5. When the end of the song is reached or the FFWD button doesn't go anywhere, you've deleted them all.
  6. To double check you can then start pressing REW, following the same procedure, until you reach location zero.
 
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"Location Marks" are discussed in detail in the Production Tips sticky pinned at the top of the DP24/32 forum - see post #69.
 

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