Model 12 Mixdown and Stereo Export a Portion of a Live recording

[CLane.Studio]

Ok. So here's the situation and what I would like to do. I have a 2 hour LIVE recording. 4 tracks (2 vocal and 2 guitars). During the recording, I marked the starts and stops of each song. I would like to mixdown and stereo each song separately as some of the songs require some volume, eq. and effect adjustment based on the use of acoustic and electric guitar. My thought was that could start and stop the mixdown recording of just the one song. Which is what I did. Basically, pressed record and at 2 min 30 sec I presses stop to complete the mixdown. Seemed to work. But when I exported the stereo mix, it exported the entire 2 hour recording. is there anyway to mixed and master portions of a multi track recording on the desk? I was hoping to be able to do this outside of the DAW, as none of the volume, eq. and effects record to the individual tracks when brought into the DAW. Really just looking for an easy way to master each song from the full 2 hour live session.
Thanks in advance for the help with this.

 

[JSchmo_Bass]

I don’t think you can.

you’ll need to use a DAW to split the filesz.

This is exactly why I put “autodivide” at marks very very high on the wish list for the Model series. I really don’t understand why Tascam didn’t do this. Their simplest field recorders have this function.

such a pain in the arse to have to export to a DAW just to slice a longer recording into sections.

 

[CLane.Studio]

Thanks JS.
Agreed. To be a true stand alone, as advertised, i would expect to be able to export between markers at a bare minimum. I wonder if the Zoom L12 has the same issue.
I would also like the tracks exported to care the eq and effects settings.

 

[Mark Richards]

If you find yourself in a bind, this TASCAM utility program may be a solution.

It permits saving only the portion of a stereo file between user selected In/Out Points and saves/exports to various sample/bit rate combinations, with optional short auto-fade.

 

[CLane.Studio]

A cool little app, but still adds more steps and means I have to master the whole recording. Looking to export mixes for several songs, from the desk, from one long live recording.

 

[Blue Monster 65]

Could you record the part you want to a single stereo track, then master that?

 

[CLane.Studio]

I’m not sure I follow. I have 4 live recorded track (2 vocal and 2 guitars) for a total of 13 songs in 1 2 hour recording session. I want to mix these down and stereo export separately so I can make adjustments to some of them on the deck.

 

[Blue Monster 65]

What I was wondering was if you could forward your recording to the part you want, mix that down to a stereo channel and then download just that. I've never tried this - I've only used the entire recording and edited in my DAW, so I'm just curious if it could be done.

 

[JSchmo_Bass]

This is a good idea. Not perfect fix for this, but potentially useful for quick mix downs of parts of a rehearsal or series of takes to email to the band for their review...

 

[CLane.Studio]

Right. I gotta. I tried that, only mixing down between 2 markers then exporting that to the stereo mix. Unfortunately, this didn’t work. It exported the entire 2 hour session. This is frustrating.

 

[Hammarlund]

Well, you can clear your master tracks I think (either directly or by swapping in an empty stereo track from 7/8 or 9/10.)

If you start w/ a cleared master and then use the jog wheel to start playback at a mark, ending after one song, then you'll have a single song on the master.

Yes, it will export the whole things-but all of it will be blank except for what you want. I'm not actually sure how that will effect things like file size but I expect that there may be a pretty simple utility to trim the blank space.

 

[CLane.Studio]

That does work. While the mix down of the portion of the song is quick as you get deeper into the length of the 2 hour session the stereo exports take to long because it exports the whole session with empty space before the portion you mixed down. Not sure why it won't just export the portion you mixdown. I would also be great to be able to pick a file name for the export rather than always writing over the last one. Looks like we have no choice but to bring the whole thing into the DAW. I would be nice if all the markers entered on the Model 12 transferred to the DAW, as I thought is was supposed to. I've been experimenting with Reaper, as the Studio One Prime I have is to limited and i don't wanna drop $300 on the full version, yet.

 

[Mark Richards]

Not sure why it won't just export the portion you mixdown.

Because the markers do not set In/Out points, only jump-to points.

From what I can see in the Model 12 OM, you've basically recorded one 2 hour "song", and now you're stuck with the on-board limitations of the Model 12 (and 16 and 24 too).

Looks like we have no choice but to bring the whole thing into the DAW.

Yep. That's the basic design concept for the Model 12/16/24 series: FOH mixer with on-board MTR; edit and master using a DAW. The videos in the stickies pinned at the top of this forum show some ways to do that.

Your only other option using only the Model 12 is to mix the 2 hour 4 track "song" in real time, which is why I pointed you to the TASCAM Hires editor as a last resort to tease out each actual song from the resulting 2 hour stereo master.

That's one of the differences between these Models and the DP series stand-a-lone self contained portastudios. The slice 'n dice, and mixing/mastering you need to do are easy to accomplish on a portastudio.

 

[Logrinn]

I don’t think you can.

you’ll need to use a DAW to split the filesz.

This is exactly why I put “autodivide” at marks very very high on the wish list for the Model series. I really don’t understand why Tascam didn’t do this. Their simplest field recorders have this function.

such a pain in the arse to have to export to a DAW just to slice a longer recording into sections.

It should be pretty simple and straightforward. You don’t need to ”export” the file, but instead put the SD card in your computer and import the file. And you don’t need a DAW per se, but could make do with a wave editor to chop the longer file into smaller parts (ie the songs).
If these are saved to the card again, you only need to open these in the Model 12 again to do your mixing.

This ought to be done in just a couple of minutes.

Personally, I would do the mixing in the DAW.
I’m not a big fan of DAW’s, but this is what they’re good at.

 

[CLane.Studio]

Well rats. Maybe I should have got a portastudio instead of the model 12.

 

[JSchmo_Bass]

Nah, the Portastudios are not good at live mixing. Model12 is a great mixer - my band sound substantially better live through this than any previous mixer...

Again, “divide at marks” feature solves this.

Its gonna be a common thing for bands to capture long sessions and not have time to divide or sort out the songs until after...

 

[CLane.Studio]

Thanks JS. Good to hear. I really do like the M12.
One thing I have been doing, via a foot pedal during the live recording, is adding marks at the beginning and end of each song we record in a long session. I was under the impression the marks we translate into the DAW, (reaper in my case). Is that not the case? I have also been using the pedal to start and stop recording during a long live session as well.

 

[Freebird]

Hm... He... my brain might be to "organized" to make this solution work for you since I do realize that "time" is of the essence when recording a live session... at least in front of an audience. Might be a little bit different/easier in a rehearsal session though.

Why not pre-prepare the amount/number of tracks/songs you are going to use during the session... name them by name or number and have them ready (but EMPTY) in your MTR/SD-card. And then start and stop them as you/the band plays through them.

Yup... I know... in a LIVE setting that's problematic if you don't have an "dedicated engineer" that takes care of that. To do that at the same time as speaking to the audience, tune your guitar etc is truly a bit over the top to manage at the same time. But if the tracks/songs are already pre-programmed it might be doable with "A Little Help From My Friends" as Joe Cocker used to sing.

Any way... in this scenario you would have SEPARATE tracks/songs to do a mix down within the Model 12 itself, and no need for a computer/DAW.

 

[Mark Richards]

...the Portastudios are not good at live mixing. ...

Agree. The portastudios are targeted to home studio use, and excel for ease of use when mixing and mastering 24/32 tracks to a 2-track stereo master.

While The DP-24/32/SD can be used as a "live" mixer, it's limited to 8 inputs; as an MTR, to recording 8 tracks simultaneously; and EQ/FX require using the first level menus that must be set input by input or track by track (not difficult, but could be a pain in a "live" venue setting).

Why TASCAM didn't include the ability to set In/Out points on the Model 12/16/24 series (except for punching) speaks to their IMO short-sighted focus on integrating a DAW as the the actual workhorse for mixing and mastering.

 

[CLane.Studio]

Thanks for all the replies and I am glad to know that it's not just me. I do like the idea of setting up separate songs ahead time. Has anyone had any luck with the makers on the model 12 showing up when opening on your DAW?