» OWNER’S MANUAL 9101411800
Table of Contents Important Safety Instructions .............3 1. An introduction to the Porta02 .......4 1.1 Multitrack recording – a brief introduction..................4 1.2 Some safety notes and precautions ..............................5 1.3 What you need to make recordings................................8 1.4 Connecting the Porta02 ..........8 2. Parts of the Porta02 ........................9 3. Making your first recording...........13 3.1 Setting up ..............................13 3.
Important Safety Instructions CAUTION: • Read all of these Instructions. • Save these Instructions for later use. • Follow all Warnings and Instructions marked on the audio equipment. 1) Read Instructions — All the safety and operating instructions should be read before the product is operated. 2) Retain Instructions — The safety and operating instructions should be retained for future reference. 3) Heed Warnings — All warnings on the product and in the operating instructions should be adhered to.
1 An introduction to the Porta02 1 – An introduction to the Porta02 The TASCAM Porta02 MiniStudio allows you to produce recordings which are not possible with an ordinary stereo cassette recorder. We suggest that you read at least this section 1 and also 3, “Making your first 1.1 recording” before you start using the Porta02. Spending a little time reading now will save you a lot of time in the future. You can read the rest of the manual at any time.
1 An introduction to the Porta02 and on A/V cue-equipped cassette recorders. L R 4 R 3 R 2 L IEC (Philips) stereo cassette CUE R 1 TASCAM 4Tr 4Ch (Porta02 format) Notice that the stereo cassette arrangement allows you to use both sides of the cassette, by playing the tape in the other direction. The Porta02, however, uses the whole width of the tape.
1 An introduction to the Porta02 • audio equipment). If any liquid or any objects such as paperclips, guitar picks, etc. fall inside the Porta02, do not try to operate it. Return it to a TASCAM service center for repair. If the case of the Porta02 becaomes dirty, clean it only with a damp (not wet) cloth, moistened with a little • detergent. Do not use solvents or thinners, etc. to clean the Porta02, as these will damage the surface. There are no parts inside the Porta02 that you can repair by yourself.
1 An introduction to the Porta02 1.2.4 Cleaning the heads You should clean the tape heads of the Porta02 regularly to keep it working properly. Dirt and tape oxide buildup on the heads will force the tape away from the tape head gaps that record and playback. Head cleaner will remove the dirt and restore the sound quality.
2 Parts of the Porta02 1.3 What you need to make recordings Apart from the Porta02 itself, you will need: • Some monitoring equipment (some kind of amplifier and speaker system). • • Headphones, if you intend doing any work with microphones. These will avoid acoustic feedback (“howlround”) when recording. Additionally, headphones are sometimes useful when panning tracks on mixdown, as you can hear the precise position of each track.
Parts of the Porta02 Parts of the Porta02 9
Parts of the Porta02 [1] POWER IN and switch Use this jack to connect the PS-P2 AC adaptor which comes with your Porta02. When connecting the power, make sure the power switch is off (slide it to the right, as you look from the back). [4] This 1/4” jack allows you to connect a pair of stereo headphones to the Porta02. WARNING Do not use headphones equipped with a mono jack. This will cause damage to the Porta02’s headphone amplifiers.
Parts of the Porta02 clockwise to MIC for any channel which is recording a microphone. Instruments such as electric guitars produce a signal which is between MIC and LINE levels and the TRIM control should therefore be somewhere between fully clockwise and fully counter-clockwise. See 3.3, “Setting the level” for full details of how to adjust the TRIM controls for different input sources. [9] POWER indicator This yellow light is lit when the Porta02 is connected to the power supply and switched on.
Parts of the Porta02 IN jacks. They should be used together with the TRIM controls (see 3.3, “Setting the level”) to adjust the levels of the signals routed to the tape tracks. • • [16] RECORD indicator This red indicator lights when the RECORD and PLAY keys are pressed, and at least one of the REC FUNCTION switches is not in the SAFE position. • • Pressing RECORD and PLAY while both REC FUNCTION switches are set to SAFE has the same effect as pressing PLAY.
3 Making your first recording 3 – Making your first recording This section describes how to make a 4-track recording using the Porta02. For this, we will assume that you are making a recording of your voice on two tracks (1 and 2), using a microphone, and recording a part of a stereo CD or cassette on the other two tracks (3 and 4). Make sure you know what you are going to say. Start by making sure that you have all the equipment listed in 1.3, “What you need to make recordings”. 3.
3 Making your first recording 3) Play the tape for about 10 seconds and then stop the tape. 4) Press the counter reset button. 3.3 Setting the level The aim of this section is to teach you to set the input level so that the average signals coming from the microphone will light the 0 meter indicator, and the loudest will light the +6 indicator. 1) Make sure all OUTPUT LEVEL controls are set to 0. Put on the headphones and set the PHONES LEVEL to the 0 position.
3 Making your first recording 3.4 Recording the first track 1) Set the REC FUNCTION switch of INPUT 1 to 1. You are now ready to record on track 1. Make sure the REC FUNCTION switch of INPUT 2 is set to SAFE, so you don’t record on it by accident. 2) Press the RECORD key (which will also press the PLAY key) and start recording the first spoken track. If the level as shown by the meters now seems a little high, you can “back off” on the fader a little.
3 Making your first recording 3.5 Recording the next track Since you plugged the microphone into MIC/LINE 1 / MONO, and didn’t plug anything into MIC/LINE 2, the microphone signal is split as if it was plugged into both channels. 1) Take fader 1 to the 0 mark. 2) Set the level for input channel 2 in the same way as you set it for input channel 1 (see 3.3, “Setting the level”). 3) Set REC FUNCTION switch for INPUT 2 to 2. You are now ready to record on track 2.
3 Making your first recording 3.6 Recording the stereo backing Now that tracks 1 and 2 are filled with spoken words, we’ll put some backing music behind them. We’ll assume that you’re using a CD player here (of course, it may be an MD player or a cassette player). NOTE This is a test recording and will not be used except as a test.
3 Making your first recording 3.7 Mixdown Make sure that your mastering recorder is connected to the monitoring system. 1) Set both REC FUNCTION switches to SAFE, and move both faders down to 0. This will stop any extra unwanted noise from the inputs appearing in the final mix. 2) Make sure the mastering recorder is ready to record, and put it into record pause mode. Do not start recording yet. If you are using a tape for mastering, make sure that you are not recording over anything you want to keep.
3 Making your first recording 7) Mix the tracks, fading the backing music on tracks 3 and 4 to taste. 8) At the end, stop both machines. Rewind the mastering recorder. 9) Set the amplifier input source to the mastering recorder, and replay your mix. 10) If you are not happy with the mix, you can do it again, either recording over the old mix, or adding the new mix after the old one. Congratulations! You have now completed your first recording project with the Porta02.
4 Hints and advanced tips 4 – Hints and advanced tips This section gives a few hints and tips which may be useful to you when you make recordings using the Porta02. 4.1 Recording techniques Learning how to record is an art, not a science. One of the best teachers is experience. However, there are a few things mentioned here which may be useful to you, and there are several good books on the subject which can explain the theory of recording and some of the techniques. 4.1.
4 Hints and advanced tips 4.1.3 Metering In general, you should not try to record at too high a level, and the +6 indicator should not be lit more than half the time (at the very most). The meters display the input levels to the channels at all times except when playing back with the input channels in SAFE mode.
5 Troubleshooting ing the Porta02 tracks to the mastering machine, as the Porta02 does not use noise reduction. Of course, on the final stereo mix, you can use noise reduction on the mastering machine. track tape in the Porta02. The left and right stereo tracks of the mastering recorder can be used as tracks 1 and 2 of the Porta02, leaving tracks 3 and 4 ready for recording.
6 Specifications The PAN controls don’t work Recorded sound is distorted when recording Recorded sound distorts on playback.
6 Specifications LINE outputs (2 x RCA jacks) Output level Output impedance Headphone output (1/4" stereo jack) Output level Output impedance Frequency response Signal-to-noise ratio Total Harmonic Distortion Channel separation Erasure –10dBV 10kΩ 60mW + 60mW 30Ω 50Hz – 12.5kHz ±3dB 43dB Better than 3.0% (400Hz, –10dB) Better than 40dB (at 1kHz) 65dB (at 1kHz) 0 dBV is referenced to 1 volt Changes in features or specifications may be made without notice or obligation.
