Moaning again

[Steve144]

I'm trying so hard to stay positive about my recent purchase of the DP-24sd, but again I have been absolutely astonished and very annoyed at the lack of basic stuff on this great looking machine.
Here's my latest moan: I was working on a song - lets call it 'Song One'. It used 7 tracks and when I felt happy with the recording I began to mix it. After an hour or two I felt I needed a break so loaded another song - lets call that 'Song Two' and played around with it to take my mind off of Song One for a while.
After a short time and a beer I decided to return to Song One and carry on with my mix, but guess what? All the setting had changed because I'd used different settings on Song Two. I cannot believe that the DP-24 doesn't save settings. Is it me or is that an absolute basic thing?
If what I'm saying is correct then for me to do what I did today I would need to spend a lot of time writing down all the settings for Song One before going to Song Two and then when I return I'd need to go into every single setting hoping that I'd correctly written down the settings and re-entering them.
I've come to the conclusion that to save myself loads of writing and boring knob twiddling then I should only work on one song at a time.
I don't like to keep comparing, but the machine that I'd upgraded from (Boss BR-1600) had sometime called 'SCENE'. You could have up to 99 'scenes' per song and these were different mixes that were saved and recalled and the touch of a button.
I'm really hoping that someone with read this and get back to me saying, "No, you idiot, just do this or that and all settings are saved", but somehow I don't think that's going to happen.

My Boss machine is still sitting in the corner on my room and I'm seriously thinking of going back to it.

Anyone want to buy a DP24-sd? One careful owner, almost new but lacking in so many basic things - what a shame.

I am kidding about going backwards, I just wanted to express how disappointed I am at the mo.

 

[Bobbydebarbes]

I have to check (not 100% sure) but did you think to "save" once you mixed tracked one ?

 

[Phil Tipping]

Can you give an example of which settings weren't restored and I'll try and replicate it. As far as I'm aware, it should save everything - assignments, effect settings, routing etc. with each song whenever you either:

• load a new song
• press save explicitly
• shut down by holding the power on/off button

If you switch off at the mains without doing a clean shutdown, you could lose settings.
Are you using the latest firmware?

 

[Mollie]

Hi Steve144
Yes, this has happened to me a few times as well. My solution = finish one job before going on to the next. Using the save function may work, but having been caught out a few times, like you have, I don't trust it enough. I always make sure I finish a song before moving on.

 

[Steve144]

Thanks Lads for your replies. I've been away for a few days, but as soon as I can I'll look into the 'save' function a bit more. I was quite surprised that my setting weren't saved before so hopefully I was wrong and they will be saved in the future. That really would be a result as I was a bit miffed.
Cheers.

 

[Steve144]

I'm happy to say that I was completely wrong. Pressing the SAVE button does seem to save setting. That's good news and saves a lot of time. Thanks all.

 

[Phil Tipping]

Does this mean the automatic save which is supposed to occur when you load another song or power-down is not reliable? I've often wondered why Tascam retained an explicit Save function when it would appear you don't need it.

 

[Steve144]

I'm beginning to think that. It certainly didn't save when I expected it to without doing the button press. Maybe it was me, but I have now got into the habit of hitting it every now and again..... We shall see.

 

[Steve144]

OK..... I've had my DP-24 a couple of months now and had a good play with it..... Its a great looking machine and does what a multi track recorder should do, but I'm afraid I'm not happy with it.
A few really obvious things seem to be missing or unavailable. I am comparing everything to my old Boss BR-1600, but as TASCAM invented the portastudio one would assume they knew what people wanted and would be the leaders, but it seems not.
Because this kind of gear is so inexpensive these days I'm not as annoyed as I would have been if I'd spent a couple of grand, but I have to say that if I was going to buy a multi-track today I wouldn't be going for this one.
Every function seems to be achieved in the most complicated way, nothing seems easy and obvious. For example: when mixing down a very basic thing that everyone needs is compression on a vocal or instrument - no chance. Am I wrong or is this one of the most basic things about mixing?
While mixing I needed to change a level on one track very specifically, but while in mixdown mode it wont allow you to go to the mixer screen - WHAT???? I couldn't believe this, surely the mixer screen is absolutely essential when mixing?
Anyway, as I said..... It looks good.

 

[Phil Tipping]

There is a compressor during playback/mixdown, but there's only a single instance of it so you can only insert it on one track at a time (see sticky post re. effects). Not ideal, but if you've got several tracks, you'd have to compress each one separately via a bounce.
The track faders are used for mixdown - you don't need to go into the Mixer screen.
Would be interested to know what machine you'd get instead of the Tascam. There didn't seem to be many choices when I was looking.