Looping w/DP-006

[Leah Rogan]

Hi - new to this forum and have a quick question.

Received and just started using my TASCAM DP-006. Have some recording experience using Pro-Tools.

Am I able to create, say, a 2 bar loop into a 2 minute recording?

The TASCAM manual kind of sucks - there is only one reference to looping in it!

I assume it will involve setting in and out points, etc.?

Have done some searching online - there are a couple of YouTube vids but seem to be more about looping a track in playback only (for jamming, etc.).

Any guidance would be appreciated. Thanks in advance!

 

[dctdct]

Indipendent of the DP type you exactly use: It is not explicitly a looping device. You can set IN/OUT margins and use "repeat" function to have something similar to al loop. But there is always a short break this way. Not best suited for quick spontaneous looping. And you cannot change the tempo.
What I did and what works is to COPY (append) a prepared sequence of one or more tracks to the actual song and repeat this until you have 5-10 minutes ready to play back.
I have different songs with several tracks just to have different basic rhythmic combination for a quick jam. But I really don't need it very often. Better using my drum machine and have there some prepared basic patterns.

 

[Leah Rogan]

Hi dctdct - thanks for the info! So I'm better off looping using PT then importing that .wav as a track? Mind you, I got the TASCAM unit for 'quick' recoding of song ideas only - not a prof-level mix w/plug ins or whatever, so I know the device is limited.. but still love it lol.. I don't have a portable drum machine but want to get one - any recommendations on one that'd be compatible with the DP-006? Thanks again for the help!

 

[shredd]

Set desired IN & OUT points and use [COPY->PASTE]. It's in the manual.

Though the manual, admittedly, is about as useful/effective as a US Congress-person.
So - the basic idea:

• Record your 2-bar passage, as cleanly/neatly as possible.
• Set in/out points (using bar-time instead of real-time will help here)
• Copy and paste at the out point (you can specify how many times you wish to paste it - so you can take a 2-bar passage and paste it 50 times and end up with 100 bars).

 

[Mark Richards]

Leah, I see the moderators moved your thread.

According to the most current DP-006 OM (pp 65-71) on the TASCAM support page for this product, the available Track Edit functions are: Clone Track, CleanOut, Silence, Cut, Open.

"Copy" and "Paste" functions are not listed in the OM. In fact, the word "paste" doesn't appear in the DP-006 OM at all (evidenced by a word search of the acrobat .pdf file).

Typical of TASCAM's incompetent manuals, they use the word "copy" when they mean something else (as in "copy" for "clone").​

The"Repeat" function only works as a playback function between the pre-set "In/Out" points for a previously recorded Track. It cannot be used to created a lengthy loop from a shorter recorded segment.

In these respects the DP-006 differs from the DP-008 and the larger portastudios.

Regarding portable drum machines, some guitar stomp boxes like the Digitech RP360 have both drum and looping capability.

I use Singular Sound's BeatBuddy drum machine (~$380US) for my own personal projects. A BeatBuddy Mini goes for about $150US.

Drum machines and stomp boxes typically operating at line level should be compatible with the DP-006 line level input jacks.

 

[shredd]

Leah - sorry for the bad info - I thought yr DP006 would have the same functionality as my DP008. I didn’t read the ‘006 manual…

 

[Leah Rogan]

Awesome - thanks to you all for your help!

@shredd I plan on getting the DP-008 eventually so it's all good! And big lol at your Congressperson comment lol...

@Mark Richards thanks for the suggestions! One thing I haven't tried is recording some kind of loop using Pro-tools, save it as a .wav and uploading it as a track. That way I can record some jams that way

Thanks everyone!