Tascam Digital Multitrack Recorder DA-98 Owners Manual

							Section 11 – External control  
11-2 – 1.00 – 06/97
1) Go to menu group 6, move the cursor to Rec
Dly
 (Record Delay) and press ENTER:
2) Use the 
UP and DOWN keys to select the record 
delay in frames.
This is the time that the DA-98 should delay 
between receiving a record command and actually 
starting to record. 
This value can be between 
0 and 9, or defaults 
to
Auto. The value of the Auto setting depends 
on the emulation selected, as shown below:
The delay is calculated in the following way: the 
first frame boundary of the video signal received 
at the 
VIDEO IN after the record command is 
received is counted as”1”. This number is incre-
mented as subsequent frames are received, and 
when it equals the record delay value as set above, 
recording starts.
If the value is set to
0, recording starts instantly 
on receipt of the command, and if to 
1, when the 
first frame edge is received.
If no correct video sync signals are being received, 
or if video sync mode is not enabled for some rea-
son, internal data frame timing (every 30ms) is 
used instead.
This delay is also used for controlling the timing of 
the monitor switching.
11.1.4 Cue-up tally
When a locate command is received while the 
DA-98 is in 9-pin protocol mode, the transport locates to the desired position, and then goes into 
pause mode. 
What is then returned to the controller depends on 
the following setting:
1) Go to menu group 6, move the cursor to 
Cueup Tly (cue-up tally), and press ENTER:
2) Use the 
UP and DOWN keys to select between 
Stop and Still. 
Some controllers will only take their next action 
when they know that the controlled slaves are 
stopped. Select the 
Stop value for use with these 
controllers. 
Other controllers (e.g. the LYNX II and MicroL-
ynx synchronizers) make a distinction between 
pause and stop. When using such synchronizers, 
select the 
Still value.
11.1.5 Fast wind speed
There are two basic methods for locating used by 
controllers. The first method is to send a locate 
command. The second is to send fast wind and 
shuttle commands.
If the usual high speed winding of the DA-98 is 
used with the second method, the tape will almost 
invariable overshooot each time and never come to 
rest. For that reason, you can select between the 
fast wind modes (at 100 times play speed) and fast 
shuttle (8 times play speed) depending on the 
method used by your controller.
1) Go to menu group 6, move the cursor to 
Fast Spd (fast wind speed) and press 
ENTER:
Record Delay
1 Frame
Emulation Frames
PCM-70503
BVH-30004
BVU-9506
BVW-753
PCM-8000
BVH-20004
DVR-105
TASCAM0
Cueup Tally
Stop
Fast Wind Speed
x 100 
						

							Section 11 – External control
06/97 – 1.00 – 11-3
2) Use the UP and DOWN keys to select between 
100 and 8.
To determine whether your controller is sending 
(a) locate commmands or (b) fast wind com-
mands, enter a locate operation from the remote 
controller. 
If a true location command is being sent, the 
screen display will show the location point for a 
few seconds and only the fast forward and rewind 
keys will light. If the second type of command is 
received, the display will not change, and the fast 
forward and rewind indicators will light steadily, 
and the 
SHUTTLE indicator will flash.
11.1.6 Track mapping
When a controller arms and records on tracks, you 
need to specify which tracks on the controller cor-
respond to particular tracks on the DA-98. The 
video controller protocol allows for control of up 
to eight digital and four analog audio tracks. The 
setting described here allows you to map control-
ler tracks to DA-98 tracks.
This mapping does not imply any correspondence 
between the user interface of the controller and the 
DA-98 tracks–it refers to the relationship between 
the command signals transmitted by the controller 
and the DA-98 tracks. The relationship between 
the user interface of the controller and the com-
mand signals must be determined using the con-
troller itself.
1) Go to menu group 6, move the cursor to 
Trk
Map
(track mapping) and press ENTER:
The lines above show the analog and digital tracks 
to which the DA-98 tracks on the bottom line are 
currently assigned.
The terms “analog” and ‘digital” used here have 
nothing to do with whether tracks actually are ana-
log or digital. They correspond to the “Analog” 
and “Digital” tracks which the controller uses.
In the assignment above, therefore, when the con-
troller refers to analog track 3, it is actually addressing DA-98 track3, and when referring to 
digital track 4, it is addressing DA-98 track 8.
2) Use the UP and DOWN keys to select the track 
mapping for use with your setup. The pre-set 
options available are shown below:
There are no user-settable track mappings, but the 
pre-set mappings are designed to cover every cir-
cumstance.
11.1.7 Timecode track mapping
This is a special instance of track mapping, where 
the track corresponding to analog track 3 in the 
controller’s command signals is mapped either to 
the digital audio track selected above (11.1.6, 
“Track mapping”), or to the DA-98’s dedicated 
timecode track.
1) Go to menu group 6, move the cursor to 
TC
Rec EN
 and press ENTER:
Track Mapping
Ana 1234
Dig 1234
Trk 12345678
DA-98 
track 
Þ
12345678
Analog1234
Digital1234
Analog
Digital12345678
Analog12341234
Digital
Analog11223344
Digital
Analog
Digital12341234
Analog
Digital11223344
TC Record Enable
disable 
						

							Section 11 – External control  
11-4 – 1.00 – 06/97
2) Use the UP and DOWN keys to select between 
enable and disable.
If you choose disable, the track referred to by 
the controller’s command signals as “analog 3” 
will be the audio track designated as “analog 3” in 
the 
Track Mapping menu above. If you 
choose enable, the DA-98’s timecode track will be 
mapped to the track referred to by the controller’s 
command signals as “analog 3”.
11.1.8 Remote track arming
You may sometimes want to disable the arming of 
tracks from the remote system (either TASCAM 
bus, MIDI or 9-pin). 
Since many video editors, etc. only provide for the 
control of four tracks, this means that you cannot 
control the eight tracks of the DA-98 from the edi-
tor, and so remote track arming should be dis-
abled, allowing you to control the tracks locally.
1) Go to menu group 3, move the cursor to 
Trk
Arm
, and press ENTER:
2) Use the 
UP and DOWN keys to select between 
enable and disable.
11.2 Bus protocol
If Bus protocol is selected (see 11.0.1, “Selecting 
the control source (protocol)”), the DA-98 can be 
controlled by controllers such as the TASCAM 
ES-61.
Each DA-98 must be assigned a unique number 
between 1 and 127, as described below.
11.2.1 Assigning a MIDI and Bus ID to the 
DA-98
A MIDI ID is used in a MIDI Machine Control 
setup to identify each unit in the MIDI chain. The 
same number is also used as a Bus identifier.
One (and only one) of up to 127 units can be des-
ignated as the MIDI Timecode Master for the 
whole chain.This MIDI ID is not the same as a MIDI Channel 
number (even though some units’ manuals may 
refer to it as a “channel number”), and is not con-
nected with the Machine ID (see 9.2, “Machine ID 
and master/slave settings”). To set the MIDI ID:
1) Go to menu group 7, move the cursor to 
MIDI ID, and press ENTER:
2) Use the 
UP and DOWN keys to select a value 
between 
001 and 127, making sure that this 
ID is unique in your setup.
You can also use the function keys as number keys 
(see 5.2.2, “Using the function keys as number 
keys”) to enter the MIDI ID directly.
You can also select the value 
Receive All, 
which allows the DA-98 to accept all MMC com-
mands transmitted over the MIDI network (this 
setting has no effect if Bus is selected).
11.3 MIDI Machine Control
As well as control from the 9-pin RS-422 port, the 
DA-98 can also accept commands received at the 
MIDI IN port (page 3-1) using the MIDI Machine 
Control protocol.
Set the MIDI ID using the method described 
immediately above.
The MMC commands used by the DA-98 are 
listed in see 15, “Options, specifications and refer-
ence”.
The control source must be set to 
MIDI (see 
11.0.1, “Selecting the control source (protocol)”) 
for this to be effective.
The implementation of the MIDI Machine Control 
protocol and the commands which are available 
are described in 15.3, “MMC Bit Map Array”.
11.3.1 MMC commands and the DA-98
An example of a MIDI sequencer being used to 
control a DA-98 (using the auto-punch of the 
sequencer to punch in and out on the DA-98 
Remote Track Arming
enable
MIDI/Bus ID
001 
						

							Section 11 – External control
06/97 – 1.00 – 11-5
tracks) is given below. Note that the sequencing 
software must be able to transmit MMC com-
mands and also to sync to MTC for this to be 
effective:
The sequencer is set up to transmit MMC com-
mands, and is set so that it synchronizes to 
SMPTE/MTC. 
When a “transport” command is given from the 
sequencer, the appropriate MMC command is 
transmitted to the DA-98. When the DA-98 has 
located and starts playback (or recording), the 
MTC is transmitted back to the sequencer, which 
locks in and starts at the correct point. 
In this way, though the DA-98 is the timecode 
master, the sequencer is the transport master.
The arrangement shown here uses 2 inputs to the 
sequencer. The same effect could be achieved with 
the intelligent use of filtering mechanisms.
MIDI OUT
(MTC)
MIDI OUT 
(keyboard events)MIDI OUT (1)
(MMC commands)MIDI OUT (2)
(musical data) MIDI IN (1)
(MTC)
MIDI IN  MIDI IN (2)
(keyboard events) 
						

							Section 11 – External control  
11-6 – 1.00 – 06/97 
						

							Section 12 – Menu and parameter reference
06/97 – 1.00 – 12-1
12 – Menu and parameter reference
12.1 Menu groups
This section provides a quick guide to the menus and their functions, providing a list of menus in each menu 
group, the parameters available in each menu, and the values that each parameter can take (default values are 
underlined). There is also, wherever appropriate, a reference to the section of the manual which describes the 
function.
Please note the 12.2, “Menu item index” which provides an alphabetically-sorted list of menu functions.
12.1.1 Menu group 0
Menu itemParameter(s)Va l u e sReference
Track Delay TimeTrack
Delay time
Unit1 through 8,All
-200
 through 7200 (samples) -4 
through 
150 (msec) – default 0
sample, msec
8.3, “Track delay”
Track CopyTrack source Input (digital or analog) 1 through 8 or track 1 
through 8. Default is straight-through input to 
tracks assignment8.11.1, “Track Copy 
(channel-to-track 
routing)”
Enabled Turns track copy operations 
on or off
Vari SpeedEnabled
AmountFix, Vari
-6.0%
 through +6.0% (default is 
0.0%)8.5, “Vari speed 
(pitch control)”
Memo 1Time value Defaults to 00:00:00:008.1, “Autolocation”
Memo 2
Locate Pre-roll
Minutes and 
seconds00min00sec through
 
59min59sec
8.1.3, “Setting the 
location pre-roll 
time”
DelayMemo1
TrkCopyMemo2
VariSpdLocPre 
						

							Section 12 – Menu and parameter reference  
12-2 – 1.00 – 06/97
12.1.2 Menu group 1
12.1.3 Menu group 2
Menu itemParameter(s)Va l u e sReference
Punch-in PointTime value Defaults to 00:00:00:006.6, “Punch-in and 
punch-out”
Punch-out point
Pre-roll Post-
roll
Pre-roll time
Post-roll time00m05s through 59m59s
00m03s
 through 59m59s
6.6.4, “Editing the 
pre-roll and post-
roll times”
Crossfade TimeMilliseconds10 ms through 200 ms in 10 ms steps 8.4, “Crossfade 
times”
DitherType of ditheroff, Rectangular, Triangu-
lar8.13, “Dither”
Rec MuteTrack mutingOn or off for each track 8.12, “REC MUTE 
(recording silence)”
Menu itemParameter(s)Va l u e sReference
Shuttle MuteEnabledoff or on8.6.2, “Shuttle mut-
ing”
TDIF Word LengthLength in bits of 
incoming data16 bit, 20 bit, 24 bit8.10.2, “Selecting 
word length”
Analog In/Out
Reference LevelReference level 
in dB-16dB, -18dB, -20dB8.7, “Reference lev-
els”
Level Meter ModeHold time
Release rate0to 9 seconds or Continue(default 
1)
Slow, Fast, Medium
8.8, “Meter modes”
Sine OscillatorEnabledoff, 440 Hz,1kHz8.9, “Sine oscillator”
Power-on
MessageUp to 20 alpha-
numeric charac-
tersIf INIT is selected, defaults to TASCAM.
CLEAR clears all entered characters.
A through Z, 1through9, -, . and 
space may be entered8.14, “Setting the 
power-on message”
InPointX-Fade
OutPointDither
Pre/PostRecMute
ShtlMuteMeterMode
WordLenSineOsc.
RefLevelPwrOnMsg 
						

							Section 12 – Menu and parameter reference
06/97 – 1.00 – 12-3
12.1.4 Menu group 3
12.1.5 Menu group 4
Menu itemParameter(s)Va l u e sReference
Machine IDMachine ID for 
synchronization1 through 169.2.2, “Setting 
machine ID”
Machine OffsetTime value to 
frame accuracyDefaults to +00:00:00:00
±02:00:00:00
9.3.1, “Setting 
machine offset”
Time ModeTime referenceABS, TC10.1.3, “Selecting 
TC or ABS timing”
Control
ProtocolTy p e  9Pin, MIDI, Bus, off11.0.1, “Selecting 
the control source 
(protocol)”
Remote Track
ArmingEnabledenable, disable11.1.8, “Remote 
track arming”
Menu itemParameter(s)Va l u e sReference
TC Chase Indiv.
RecEnabledenable, disable10.7.11, “Individual 
recording while 
chasing timecode”
Rechase modeMode
Windowrechase, free
1 sec
, 2 sec
10.7.9, “Rechasing 
timecode”
Error BypassTime in frames10 Frame, 30 Frame10.7.10, “Bypassing 
timecode errors”
Timecode OffsetTime to sub-
frame accuracyDefaults to +00:00:00:00.00
±12:00:00:00.00
10.7.2, “Setting 
timecode offset”
Park PositionTe s t
Manual entryoff, on
00s00f
 through 2 seconds minus 1 frame10.7.6, “Park posi-
tion”
McnIDCtrlPrt
McnOffsetTrkArm
TimeMode
TcChsRecTCOffset
RechsModeParkPosi
ErrBypass 
						

							Section 12 – Menu and parameter reference  
12-4 – 1.00 – 06/97
12.1.6 Menu group 5
a. If the ABS-Ofs (Absolute timing with offset) option is selected, the bottom line of the display changes to allow 
direct entry of the desired offset value.
Menu itemParameter(s)Va l u e sReference
TC Frame ModeFrame Rate30 D F, 30 ND F, 29.97DF, 
29.9 7 NDF, 25 F, 24 F
10.3, “Selecting the 
frame rate”
Output TC TimingOutput refer-
enceAnalog, Digital10.4.4, “Timecode 
output timing”
Output TC SourceSource of time-
code outputTAPE(ABS or TC Track), 
External (regen), 
External (reshape)
10.4.2, “Timecode 
output”
Fast LTC ModeLinear time-
code in fast 
wind05 Frame, Leap, off10.4.3, “Timecode 
output format”
Video ResolveEnabled
Modeon, off
free, re-sync
10.6, “Video resolu-
tion”
Tape TC ModeModeTcTrack, ABS, ABS-Ofsa, ABS-
13
, ABS-23
10.2, “Tape time-
code mode”
TCFrameFastLTC
OutTcTmgVidRslv
OutTcSrcTapeTC 
						

							Section 12 – Menu and parameter reference
06/97 – 1.00 – 12-5
12.1.7 Menu group 6
12.1.8 Menu group 7
Menu itemParameter(s)Va l u e sReference
Emulation
DeviceDevice namePCM-7050, BVH-3000, BVU-
950
, BVW-75, PCM-800, BVH-
2000
, DVR-10, TASCAM
11.1.2, “Emulation”
Record DelayTime in frames0 through 9 frames or Auto(the number 
of frames depends on the selected emulation)11.1.3, “Record 
delay”
Track MappingTrack maps Various mappings of DA-98 tracks to analog/
digital. Default is DA-98 tracks 1 through 4 
correspond to analog tracks 1 through 4 and 
DA-98 tracks 5 through 8 correspond to digital 
tracks 1 through 4.11.1.6, “Track map-
ping”
TC Record EnableEnableddisable, enable11.1.7, “Timecode 
track mapping”
Fast Wind SpeedReferenced to 
play speedx 100, x811.1.5, “Fast wind 
speed”
Cueup TallyMessage to 
remoteStop, Still11.1.4, “Cue-up 
tally”
Menu itemParameter(s)Va l u e sReference
MTC OutputOutput
Fast wind mode
Stopon, off
on
, off
on, off
10.4.5, “Using 
MIDI Time Code 
(MTC)”
Function Key
Mode SelectMode for func-
tion keysMenu, Locate Position, 
10 K ey
5.2, “Function key 
modes”
MIDI/Bus IDMIDI ID for 
MMC001 through 127,Receive All11.2.1, “Assigning a 
MIDI and Bus ID to 
the DA-98”
Locate Position
(Function Key)Enabledoff(if function key mode is 
“
Locate Position”, location 
point is displayed. If the function key mode is 
not “
Locate Position”, off is 
displayed)8.2.2, “Editing func-
tion key memories”
Function key
Time value
F. 1 through F.10
Defaults to 00:00:00:00
EmlDevTCRecEN
RecDlyFastSpd
TrkMapCueupTly
MTCOutMIDIID
FunctModeLoc(Func)