randygo

OK, I didn't mean to sound so harsh. I've been around enough salesmen and other reps in my career to become a little cynical. Out of curiosity, I'd be interested in seeing an architecture block diagram for the DR-1. I'm still somewhat skeptical that the device is unable to prevent the addition of the monitored playback signal with the recorded signal, but I suppose there could be some hardwired limitation internally. The presence of the mix-balance control led me to believe more was happening in the digital realm under firmware control than might really be the case. Cheers, Randy

That's complete bullshit - but I guess he is more of a marketing person than a tech. Oh well, can't really fault them - they might feel such a trivial feature addition could jeopardize sales of their multitrackers, but I doubt it. At least they don't encode in RDAC like Roland - decoding RDAC to WAV was a really, really hard problem to solve. :-) On the positive side I suppose the future for my program looks brighter, as Tascam may never make it obsolete. I think I'll add a few more features, perhaps a Windows interface and charge say, $10, for it. Cheers, Randy

Right, I understand that. I have plenty of multitracks and I don't expect the DR-1 to be one. However, the overdub feature would be infinitely more useful if it allowed a "no mix" option. It would only require a few lines of code in the firmware to implement. It would expand the appeal of the device to a larger set of consumers and Tascam could sell far more units. The first thing I though of when I heard this device had an "overdub" feature was whether I could create a scratch track and then monitor it and capture multitrack ideas as separate takes. If I can monitor one track while recording another, why should I be confined to mixing in the monitored track? I can carry this thing in my pocket everywhere I go. If I'm at a friend's place who happens to be a great guitarist, why not let him play a solo or two against my song when inspiration strikes? Captured at 24bit, using only this one tiny device. Then I can later pull it into my DAW for sequencing, editing, etc. My program allows me to do that. The DR-1 is 99% of the device I've been dreaming of. It would be nice if it was 100%. Cheers, Randy

I need to clean the source up a bit, its not quite ready for other eyes at the moment. The basic principle of operation is very simple. The program phase-inverts the A track and adds it to the A+B track. If the mix balance was set to maximum at the time of the overdub, then the A track was recorded at unity gain in the A + B track so it cancels out completely, producing a pristine B track. There is a complication through. I don't know if its a bug, a feature, or an intentional trick on Tascam's part, but the overdubbed track ( A + B ) is not perfectly in sync with the A track. It starts recording earlier by about 25 or 26 samples (random!) on my unit. So my program needs to determine what this offset is and account for it before calculating the difference of the two WAV files. I currently do a simple analysis of the first two seconds of the candidate output files at different offset values between 0 and 100. Whichever candidate is "quietest" is deduced to be the correct offset value to recover the B track. If Tascam can fix this random offset problem the program would be trivial. Cheers, Randy Guitarfxr, I don't have much to say to the Tascam rep, but you might want to relay the following concerns: 1) Why are overdubbed tracks 25-26 samples out-of-sync with the original monitored track? 2) Can Tascam implement a new overdub mode that lets you monitor track A and record track B without also mixing in track A ? Maybe show options like "OFF", "ON", "NOMIX" or something like that when the overdub choice list comes up upon hitting record. That would completely eliminate the need for my program. Thanks, Randy

Hello all, I just got myself one of these units on Friday. I was hoping I could use its overdub function to create parts for my multitrack projects, i.e., monitor a track on the DR-1 and record a new isolated part in sync. However, the monitored track is always mixed in to the overdubbed track. No worries though, as I have created a Windows command-line program that will "unmix" the originally monitored track out of the overdubbed track. Tascam lets you create A and A+B. My program will give you B. Hopefully Tascam will provide a record mode in a future firmware update that does what I describe. Here is where you can download my program: http://www.integrand.com/dr1/undub.exe Here is the help text when you run the program without arguments: ************************************************************* * * * Undub (Version 1.00) * * * * Copyright Randy Gordon (randy@integrand.com) * * * * * * Description: * * * * This program works with Tascam DR-1 files that are * * created using the DR-1's 'Overdub' mode. It will * * extract an overdubbed signal in isolation by removing * * the monitored signal from it. When creating the * * overdub, ensure that the monitored track is started * * at the beginning and the mix balance is set to * * the maximum. * * * * With the Tascam DR-1 you perform the following: * * * * 1) Create a track to monitor (Signal A) * * 2) Create an overdub track (Signal A+ * * * * This program allows you to recover Signal B alone. * * * ************************************************************* Usage: undub [options] where options include: -o : override default out file name -s : override automatic offset detection eg.: undub DR000018.wav DR000023.wav [/code] Cheers, Randy