Tascam Digital Portastudio 2488 User Guide

8 – MIDI
 TASCAM 2488 User’s Guide 79
Time signature
In order to accurately display bars and beats, the 
2488 needs to know the time signature of the music 
being played.
Most pop and rock is in 4/4 time, but there are some 
famous exceptions, and many music outside these 
fields is in other time signatures. 
Music may also change time signature part of the 
way through.
1With the transport stopped, from the SYNC/MIDI 
screen, select 
TIME SIGNATURE, and press ENTER.
2This is very similar to the tempo...

8 – MIDI
80 TASCAM 2488 User’s Guide
Patterns
In addition to being able to play SMF pieces, the 
2488 can also play backing patterns (drums and per-
cussion only).
Select 
PATTERN as the player mode to enable this fea-
ture (“Internal module mode” on page 76).
When the pattern mode is selected, pressing the 
MIDI 
PLAYER
 key brings up the PATTERN ARRANGE screen:
To select a “global” playback style from this screen, 
press 
ENTER. The PRESET STYLE LIBRARY screen is 
shown:
Use the wheel to select from...

8 – MIDI
 TASCAM 2488 User’s Guide 81
4Press ENTER.5Move the “line” cursor to the point to where 
the block will be copied and press 
ENTER once 
again. The block is copied.
NOTE
If you select the bars and beats display (“Markers” on 
page 42), this reflects the settings made here.
Selecting the drum kit
The 2488’s tone generator includes a number of dif-
ferent drum kits, which you can use to give a differ-
ent sound to your songs.
When a preset style is loaded, a suitable drum kit is 
also loaded along...

8 – MIDI
82 TASCAM 2488 User’s Guide
MIDI Time Code
With the transport stopped, from the SYNC/MIDI menu, 
select the 
SYNC option and press ENTER:

SOURCE can be INTERNAL (the 2488 acts as the master 
unit) or 
EXTERNAL (the 2488 takes its synchroniza-
tion from another unit).
FRAME TYPE refers to the format of the MTC sent 
and received by the 2488. This can be either 
24 
(film), 
25 (EBU TV), 29D (29 fps drop-frame, used 
with NTSC color), 
29ND (29fps non-drop, also used 
with NTSC color), or 
30...

8 – MIDI
 TASCAM 2488 User’s Guide 83
GENERATOR can be OFF, MTC or CLOCK. OFF and MTC 
explain themselves. See below for an explanation 
of the 
CLOCK setting.
NOTE
Timecode (including MTC) does not include any infor-
mation about bars and beats or tempo. MIDI Clock does 
not contain any information about the absolute time at 
which events take place.
MIDI clock
MIDI Clock and associated MIDI commands (Start/
Stop, Song Position Pointer etc.) can be transmitted 
from the 2488 when it is in 
INTERNAL...

84 TASCAM 2488 User’s Guide
9 – General preferences
There are four sets of general preferences that you 
can make in order to customize the 2488 to your 
working style.Access all of these through the PREFERENCES menu.
Global preferences
These all affect the overall operation of the 2488
Key sense time  Some of the keys on the unit 
have two different functions, spending on whether 
they are pressed and released in a short space of time, 
or whether they are pressed and held down for a 
longer period.
The...

9 – General preferences
 TASCAM 2488 User’s Guide 85
CATCH: the fader level remains the same initially. 
However, if you then move the physical fader so 
that the physical level becomes the internal level 
(the faders “catch” the internal level), the physical 
level changes at that point. This ensures that there 
are no sudden leaps in volume due to a difference 
between the physical fader and the internal setting.
NOTENOTE
Note that the setting made for this option will apply to 
the current song, and...

86 TASCAM 2488 User’s Guide
10 – Specifications, etc.
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10 – Specifications, etc.
 TASCAM 2488 User’s Guide 87
Level diagram
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10 – Specifications, etc.
88 TASCAM 2488 User’s Guide
Dimensional drawing
Specifications
Audio connections
MIC/LINE inputs (A to D) Combined XLR-1/4 TRS connector
XLR Input impedance: 2 k
Ω
Input level: –57 dBu (MIC) to –10 dBu (LINE)
Nominal input level: –10 dBu
Maximum input level: +6 dBu
1/4” TRS Input impedance: 8 k
Ω
Input level: –43 dBu (MIC) to +4 dBu (LINE)
Nominal input level: +4 dBu
Maximum input level: +20 dBu
MIC/LINE inputs (E to H) 1/4 TRS connectors (input H also has a GUITAR front panel...