OWNER'S MANUAL Digital Multitrack Recorder DA-78HR

5 - Basic operations
30 TASCAM DA-78HR
signals or to perform track-bounce operations with
the SPDIF (
COAXIAL
) input selected.
Note that whatever digital source is selected, the
appropriate clock must be selected. If you are record-
ing from (say) a CD player, which typically cannot
accept a word clock, as well as from a TDIF-1 source
(e.g. a TASCAM digital mixer) the DA-78HR must
be set to accept the clock from the
DIGITAL IN
(see
5.2.2, “Selecting a clock source”). This clock must
then be sent from the
THRU
of the DA-78HR to the
IN of the TDIF-1 device, which must be set as a
word sync slave.
1
Press the
SHIFT
key so that the
SHIFT
indicator
is flashing, and press the
MENU
key until the
display shows
AUDIO. 1-- (
AU DI O1 --
).
2
Press the
SUB MENU
key until the display
shows
D. IN (
D IN
) followed by the current
setting.
3
Use the ▲ and ▼ keys to change between
TDIF (
TDIF
) and SPD (
SPDIF—COAXIAL
).
NOTE
S
You cannot use the SPDIF (
COAXIAL
) output from the
sub-mixer while accepting a signal from the SPDIF
(
COAXIAL
) input.
You must use a tape formatted at the sampling fre-
quency of this input (i.e. you cannot use the SPDIF
(
COAXIAL
) input to record a CD on a 48kHz tape.
Varispeed is also not possible when recording using
this input.
5.3.2 Input patchbay routing
To route inputs to tracks whose numbers do not cor-
respond to those of the inputs, or to mix the types of
input source (digital, analog or off-tape):
1
Follow steps 1 through 3 in 5.3, “Input selec-
tion” above,
2
Press the
REC FUNCTION
key of the track to
which the input will be routed.
3
The display changes to show the track number
of the destination track, together with the
source (e.g.
TRK 1 A1 (
TRK1 A1
) shows that
track 1 has been selected, and that analog
input 1 is the source.
4
Use the ▲ and ▼ keys to change the input
source from
A1 through A8 (analog 1 through
8),
D1 through D8 (digital 1 through 8) and T1
through
T8 (track 1 through 8).
5
To select another destination track, press that
track’s
REC
FUNCTION
key and repeat the
process.
NOTE
If your setting results in all tracks being fed on a one-
to-one basis from the same i nput source (analog or
digital), the display will change to show this, a few
seconds after the patchbay operation that caused
this to be the case.
The meters can be used to see the
patchbay assignment using the
meters, as shown here. Each
meter gives the status of its corre-
spondingly-numbered track.
Press
SHIFT
and one of the
REC
FUNCTION
keys (as described in
4.1.1, “Peak meters”) to toggle
this meter mode off and on. The
default at power-on is for this
mode to be on.
Because of the limitations of the
number of meter segments avail-
able, each segment is used to rep-
resent two input possibilities. The top third is used to
show track sources, the middle third is used for digi-
tal, and the lower third for analog sources.
With a digital recorder such as the DA-78HR, track
crosstalk is almost negligible (better than 90dB at
1 kHz). For this reason, you do not have to worry so
much about the constraints of choosing physical
track locations as you do with analog recordings.
5.3.3 Track bouncing
If you need to copy a track to another track at any
time in the recording process, remember that track
copying in the digital domain will add no noise or
distortion. A digital copy is a “clone” of the original,
and no loss of quality is incurred.
The DA-78HR allows you to copy tracks digitally,
and you can use the internal sub-mixer (see 7.4,
“Sub-mixer”) to combine all tracks (level and pan
can be set) to tracks 7 and 8.
NOTE
Because the DA-78HR also allows a track to be
replayed and recorded onto itself, all eight tracks can
be mixed internally and merged into tracks 7 and 8.
The basic method for going about this is:
1
Exit shift mode and enter the
MIXDOWN
mode.
T 7/8
T 5/6
T 3/4
T 1/2
D7/8
D 5/6
D 3/4
D 1/2
A 7/8
A 5/6
A 3/4
A 1/2