Tascam Digital Portastudio 2488 User Guide

							 TASCAM 2488 User’s Guide 59
5 – Mastering
 When all your tracks have been recorded, it’s time to 
make a stereo mix onto CD. These operations are all 
controlled from the 
AUDIO CD menu.
NOTE
The operations all deal with songs on the currently-
selected partition. If the song you want is on another 
partition, you must select another disk partition as the 
active partition before proceeding (see “Selecting the 
active partition” on page 65).
All mastering operations are accessed from the AUDIO 
CD
 menu.
1Press the MENU key and navigate to AUDIO CD.
2Press ENTER.
Pre-mastering
The start of the pre-mastered material is always the 
00:00:00.00 point, and the end of the pre-mastered 
material is the OUT point.
Before starting the pre-mastering process, make sure 
that if you are using the sub-mixer, this is assigned to 
the stereo outputs.
1Set the OUT point at the position where you 
want the pre-mastered material to stop.
2On the AUDIO CD menu, move the cursor to PRE 
MASTER
 and press ENTER.
The screen changes to the home screen, but 
with the word 
MASTERING at the top left of the 
screen.If any 
REC READY indicators are on, they are 
turned off, and they cannot be turned on again 
while pre-mastering is being carried out.
While pre-mastering, transport controls work in the 
usual way, except that:
 Playback and fast forward will stop at the OUT 
point, and the playback position cannot move past 
this point.
 Auto punch operations are disabled.
 Jog and trim are disabled.
 Pitch control and SSA are disabled.
 Direct location is disabled.
 Recording is carried out as explained below.
Recording the pre-master
To record the pre-master stereo tracks, press and hold 
the 
RECORD key, and then press the PLAY key. Both 
the 
PLAY and the RECORD indicators light.
Recording always starts (regardless of the current 
position) at 00:00:00.00.
The mastering records the effects of all mixer set-
tings and effect settings, etc. 
If you do not stop the recording before the OUT 
point, it will automatically stop at the OUT point. If 
you stop the recording at the OUT point, the master 
recording will stop there, and the length of the track 
will be from the 00:00:00.00 point to the point where 
the recording stopped.
NOTE
The minimum length for a CD track is four seconds. 
Make sure that all mastered recordings are at least this 
length.The maximum length for a CD track recorded from the 
2488 is 80 minutes. Tracks made from the 2488 should 
not exceed this length,
During the mastering operation, all channel opera-
tions (EQ, send, fader/pan) can be carried out, either 
from the 2488’s controls, or by means of MIDI com-
mands.
NOTE
While you are recording the master, synchronization 
and the sub-mixer can be used to add synchronized 
MIDI sound sources to the stereo master mix.
You can set and edit effect parameters and recall 
effects from the effect libraries while mastering.
It is also possible for you to make assignments while 
mastering, and recall scene memories.
When you have mastered the recording, you can 
either re-master the recording (simply press and hold  
						

							5 – Mastering
60 TASCAM 2488 User’s Guide
the RECORD key and press the PLAY key again) or 
proceed to the master check operation (see below).
Mastering operations are included in the undo list. If 
you make an almost perfect pre-master, but all other attempts after that fail to achieve the perfection you 
are looking for, you can decide to use the almost-per-
fect original, and undo all the less-than-perfect 
attempts which followed.
Exiting mastering
To exit the mastering operation and allow normal 
operation:
1If the display does not show the home screen, 
press the 
HOME key.
2Press the EXIT key to remove the MASTERING 
from the display.
Checking the master
When the master has been recorded, you will almost 
certainly want to check it. After exiting from the 
mastering mode:
1On the AUDIO CD menu, move the cursor to 
CHECK MASTER and press ENTER.
The screen changes to show the 
CHECK MASTER 
screen, which shows the title of the current 
song and its running time.
All monitoring is now from the 
STEREO selection 
only. All other monitor selections are disabled and 
cannot be changed.
No faders or other mixer controls (including assign-
ment) have any effect. The only possible control is of 
the monitor volume is through the 
MONITOR con-
trols.The transport controls work in the following way:

PLAY plays back from the current position to the 
end of the master track.

REW and F FWD move the playback position back-
ward or forward at 10x, 50x, 100x or 1000x the 
normal playback speed (as usual), but the wind 
“speed” is not shown on screen.

STOP stops playback or “winding” at the current 
position.
 Recording is disabled.
 All location functions are disabled.
 Jog, varispeed, SSA, repeat, etc. are disabled.
NOTE
While playing back the master track, it is output from 
the 
STEREO (and DIGITAL OUTPUT) jacks as well as 
from the 
MONITOR and PHONES jacks. It is therefore 
possible to use the pre-mastering and master check 
functions to mix to a DAT or MD recorder, etc.
Exiting master checking When you have lis-
tened to the master, you may decide to proceed with 
burning a disc, or you may want to re-master the 
song.
In either case, press the 
EXIT key to return to the 
home screen, and restore the assignments, etc. which 
were in operation before the master check.
Trimming the master
You may sometimes want to trim the beginning or the 
end of a master track after checking it. For example, 
you may have made a perfect mix, except that there is 
too much “dead time” or a cough, fret noise, etc. 
before the start of the track, or there may be too much 
time after the end of the track, as the OUT point was 
not set correctly.To correct these, without having to do the whole mix 
again:
1Make sure the 2488 is in “normal” mode, that 
is, not in the master check mode or mastering 
mode.
2Move the playback position to the approxi-
mate position where you want to trim (either 
the start or the end of the master). 
						

							5 – Mastering
 TASCAM 2488 User’s Guide 61
If you want to trim the start of the master:
3
Set the IN point to be the 00:00:00:00 point. 
4Use the jog control to set the OUT point to the 
exact position where you want the master to 
start.
If you want to trim the end of the master:
3
Set the IN point to the point where you want 
the end of the master to be, using the jog 
method to set the point. 
4Set the OUT point to be some way after the 
existing OUT point.
In both cases (trimming the start and trim-
ming the end):5
Use the Track Edit CUT function to cut all 
tracks between the IN and the OUT point. You 
must select the 
all option for the master track 
to be cut in this way.
If you are trimming the end of the master:
6
Make sure that the OUT point is now located 
at the real end of the track (where you set the 
IN point previously).
In both cases (trimming the start and trim-
ming the end):
7
Play back the master track, as described 
above. The start and end should now be as you 
want them.
Recording to CD-R
There are two ways of using the 2488 to record a disc 
either a track at a time; TAO (Track At Once) with 
the disc being finalized after the last track has been 
recorded, or a number of tracks together; DAO (Disk 
At Once), with the disc being finalized at the end of 
the session.
Recording many tracks at once allows you to reorder 
the tracks on the disc. It also allows you to put vary-
ing lengths of silence between tracks (ranging from 0 
to almost 10 seconds).Remember that whichever method you use to record 
your CDs, you can record a maximum of 99 tracks on 
one CD, the minimum length of a track is four sec-
onds, and the maximum track length you can record 
from the 2488 is 80 minutes.
NOTEI
It is not possible to record a disc using both methods of 
recording. If you record a disk using the track method, 
you cannot then add a number of tracks together, but 
you can add single tracks. Likewise, if you record a num-
ber of tracks together, you cannot add any tracks (singly 
or together) later on.
Recording to CD-R (TAO recording)
Before starting this operation you must make sure 
that there is a recordable disc inserted in the CD-RW 
drive. If there is no recordable disc (that is, a CD-R 
or CD-RW disc that has not been finalized), the 2488 
shows an appropriate message.
1Make sure the 2488 is in “normal” mode, that 
is, not in the master check mode or mastering 
mode. On the 
AUDIO CD menu, move the cursor 
to 
CD WRITER and press ENTER.
The 2488 checks the CD-RW drive. If there is 
a valid disc in the drive containing at least one 
pre-mastered song, the display shows a list of 
the songs which have been mastered on the 
current disk partition.
NOTE
If a song has been recorded, but has not been mastered, 
it will not appear in the list.If you want to change partitions, see “Selecting a disk” 
on page 32.
2Use the wheel to select the song to be recorded, 
and press 
ENTER.
You may now rename the song using the 
TITLE 
key.
3Choose at this point whether you want to 
finalize the disc.  
						

							5 – Mastering
62 TASCAM 2488 User’s Guide
If you finalize the disc at this stage, you cannot 
record any further songs on it. If you do not 
finalize the disc, you will not be able to play it 
on ordinary audio CD players.
NOTE
If you choose not to finalize the disc at this point, you 
can finalize it later, without recording another song.
4Press ENTER to continue, and EXIT if you 
want to choose a different song.
5You are asked if you are sure that you want to 
record the song. Press 
ENTER to proceed with 
the recording, or 
EXIT to cancel. 
6If there is not enough space on the internal 
disk for preparation, or on the CD disc for the 
song that you have selected for recording, the 
2488 gives an appropriate error message.
7The 2488 makes an image of the song on disc 
(to allow for smooth and easy transfer) and 
then starts writing it to the CD. 
The top line of the display gives an indica-
tion of the time remaining for the operation.
While the image and writing to disc is going 
on, all the 2488 controls are disabled, and no 
action is possible.
NOTE
DO NOT TURN OFF the 2488 or the CD-RW drive while 
this writing operation is taking place. You will almost 
certainly spoil the disc and may corrupt the song data.
Two seconds of silence are added to the end of each 
track recorded to disc in this way.
8To check the recorded disc, use the CD PLAYER 
option described below.
Finalizing the disc
When you have recorded the last track on the disc, 
you must finalize it in order to allow it to be played 
on ordinary CD players, but you can check the 
recorded tracks using the 2488’s 
CD PLAYER function.
The CD-RW drive must contain an unfinalized disc 
before you start the process.
1Make sure the 2488 is in “normal” mode, that 
is, not in the master check mode or mastering 
mode. On the 
AUDIO CD menu, move the cursor 
to 
FINALIZE and press ENTER.
A pop-up screen asks if you are sure. Press 
ENTER to continue, EXIT to stop the finalize 
process.
If you continue, the CD session is closed and 
the finalizing material (Table of Contents or 
TOC) is written to the disc. 
NOTE
You cannot record further tracks on a finalized disc. You 
can only finalize a disc once, and you cannot unfinalize 
a disc. 
The CD-RW drive eject button is locked while writing is 
going on. You can only eject the disc after writing has 
finished.
If you use CD-RW media, you cannot play the resulting 
discs in most audio CD players.
Recording to CD-R (multiple tracks)
When recording multiple tracks, the tracks can be 
recorded in any order, and varying lengths of silence 
can be added.
Once a CD has been made in this way, no further 
tracks can be added, as the CD is automatically final-
ized at the end of the operation.
There must be a recordable CD disc in the drive 
before starting this operation.
1Make sure the 2488 is in “normal” mode, that 
is, not in the master check mode or mastering 
mode. On the 
AUDIO CD menu, move the cursor 
to 
CD WRITER and press ENTER.The 2488 checks the CD-RW drive. If there is a 
valid disc in the drive, the display shows a list 
of the songs which have been mastered on the 
current partition.
NOTE
If a song has been recorded, but has not been mastered, 
it will not appear in the list.
If you have a song in another partition which you want 
to add to the list in the current partition, you should 
copy it from the old partition to the current partition 
(see “Copying songs” on page 29).
Use the wheel to scroll through the list of 
songs, and when you highlight a song that you  
						

							5 – Mastering
 TASCAM 2488 User’s Guide 63
wish to add to the final CD, press the INSERT 
key.
A check mark (✔) appears by the title of every 
selected song. There is no need to worry about 
the final running order of the CD at this stage.
If you have made a mistake in adding a song to 
the list, you can remove it by highlighting the 
title and pressing the 
DELETE key.
2When you have added all the songs to the list 
that you want to record on the CD, press 
ENTER.
NOTE
If you have only selected one song, the procedure from 
now is as if you had highlighted the song and pressed 
ENTER, as described above. Read that section, and 
ignore the remainder of this section.
The screen changes to the song order screen (if 
you want to return to the song selection 
screen, press 
EXIT).
3Use the wheel to scroll through the list of 
songs. 
4When a song title is highlighted, use the § 
and ¶ keys to move it up and down in the list. 
As the song is moved up and down in the list it 
remains highlighted.
5Select further songs for rearrangement using 
the wheel.
6When you have completed the running order, 
press 
ENTER.
The screen changes to the “gap setting” 
screen. This allows you to set the gap between 
tracks on the CD (press 
EXIT to return to the 
song order screen)
7Use the § and ¶ keys to move the cursor to 
the gaps between the songs on the CD.
8Use the wheel to set the time in seconds 
between songs, from 
0.0 seconds (no gap) 
through 
9.9 seconds in 0.1 second steps.
NOTE
When you come to play back the disc on a CD player, 
the start of the gap will appear as Index 0 on the track 
following the gap, and the start of the track will appear 
as Index 1. Because the gap counts as a part of the 
track, the total length of the track and gap together 
cannot exceed 80 minutes.
9When all the gaps have been set, press ENTER. 
A pop-up asks if you are sure. Use the 
YES key 
to proceed with writing the CD or the 
NO key 
to cancel the operation.
10When you press YES, a disk image is made of 
each song in turn, which is then written to the 
CD. 
NOTE
DO NOT TURN OFF the 2488 or the CD-RW drive while 
this writing operation is taking place. You will almost 
certainly spoil the disc and may corrupt the song data.
11When the last song has been written, the disk 
is finalized. You can now eject the disc and 
play it in a CD player.
NOTE
The CD-RW drive eject button is locked while writing is 
going on. You can only eject the disc after writing has 
finished.
If you use CD-RW media, you cannot play the resulting 
discs in most audio CD players. 
						

							5 – Mastering
64 TASCAM 2488 User’s Guide
Playing back CDs using the 2488
If an audio CD (either finalized or unfinalized) is 
inserted into the 2488’s CD-RW drive, the 2488 can 
play it back.
The sound is output through the 
MONITOR and 
PHONES jacks. The only control over the sound 
from the 2488 is through the 
MONITOR control knob. 
All other mixer controls are disabled.
1Make sure the 2488 is in “normal” mode, that 
is, not in the master check mode or mastering 
mode. On the 
AUDIO CD menu, move the cursor 
to 
CD PLAYER and press ENTER.
The screen shows:
Whether the disc is finalized or not
The number of tracks and the total running 
time of the disc.
The track list and the lengths of the tracks. 
The current track is indicated by an arrow 
(when the CD player function is first 
entered, the track number will always be 1)
The stereo meters also show the level of the 
audio recorded on the disc
The 2488 transport controls are used to con-
trol playback of the CD, as explained here:
PLAY starts playback from the current playback posi-
tion. While the disc is locating, the 
PLAY indicator 
flashes, and while playback is actually taking place, 
it lights steadily
STOP stops playback at the current position
REW and F FWD take the playback position forward 
or backward one track, while playback is stopped
The wheel can also be used to move the playback 
position forward or backward one track while play-
back is stopped
All other playback functions are disabled
NOTE
While this screen is displayed (the CD Player function is 
active), the eject button on the CD-RW drive is disabled. 
To eject the CD, press 
EXIT to exit the CD player func-
tion, and then press the CD-RW drive eject key. 
						

							 TASCAM 2488 User’s Guide 65
6 – Disk management and file import/export
Disk management
The 2488 formats its hard disk into multiple parti-
tions. One of these partitions is in FAT-16 format and 
is used for exchanging files between the 2488 and a 
USB-equipped computer. The FAT partition is a fixed 
size, and does not appear in the disk partition or song 
menus, as it is only used for file exchange. The parti-
tion is only accessed with the backup and restore 
operations using USB and the wave import/export 
and SMF import operations.The rest of the hard disk is formatted in the 2488 
“native” format, further subdivided into partitions 
(see the section below for details of how to do this). 
These partitions are not accessible from a computer.
File names on the FAT section are restricted to 8.3 
format (
FILENAME.EXT). Any files taken from the native 
partitions to the FAT section are automatically 
renamed appropriately. Any long filenames taken 
from a computer to the 2488 are also renamed auto-
matically by the 2488.
Selecting the active partition
As explained above, the “native” part of the hard disk 
may be divided into partitions.
When a partition is selected, it is said to be active, 
and data from other partitions is not accessible.
To select a partition:
1With the transport stopped, from the DISK 
menu, highlight 
SELECT, and press ENTER.
2Use the wheel to select the partition (the free 
space on each is shown at the side of the 
screen).
3Press ENTER to confirm the selection. The 
current song is saved, if necessary, before the 
partition is selected. 
Enabling and disabling USB
When the 2488 is connected to a personal computer 
for backup/restore or file transfer to and from the 
2488’s FAT partition, the USB must be enabled 
(opened) on the 2488 side in order to allow the 2488 
and computer to communicate. After the data trans-
fer, the USB must be disabled (shut off).
1With the transport stopped, from the DISK 
menu, highlight 
USB OPEN/CLOSE, and press 
ENTER.
2The 2488 saves your data, restarts, and a 
popup message appears. While this popup is showing, you are “locked 
out” of any operations on the 2488. It can only 
be used as a USB disk.
3Connect the 2488 to the personal computer.
4Perform all USB operations with the personal 
computer (file copy, etc.).
5Disconnect the computer (you should first see 
“The 2488 and USB” on page 73).
6Press EXIT to close the USB and restart the 
2488. 
						

							6 – Disk management and file import/export
66 TASCAM 2488 User’s Guide
Formatting the disk 
WARNING
When you perform this operation, all data on the 
native part of the disk is destroyed. This operation can-
not be undone. Before performing this operation, make 
sure that all songs and data that you want to keep are 
backed up, either to disc or to a personal computer (see 
“Backup and restore” on page 72).
When you format a disk, you can also change the size 
of the native partitions. All partitions are created with 
the same size, which may be 4, 8, 16 or 32 
gigabytes
1.
This operation does not affect the FAT partition.
1With the transport stopped, from the DISK 
menu, highlight 
FORMAT, and press ENTER.
2The hard disk size is shown at the top of the 
screen, and the partition size is shown below 
this. Use the wheel to change the partition size.
3Ask yourself once more if you want to format 
the disk and erase all the data on it. Press 
ENTER to continue with the format operation. 
Press 
EXIT to halt the operation. 
4If you continue with the format, a popup mes-
sage appears to ask you once again whether 
you are really sure you want to format the 
disk.
Press 
ENTER to continue with the format, and 
EXIT to stop the process.
NOTE
While the format operation is taking place, the HD 
indicator lights and you cannot perform any operations. 
Make sure that you do not turn off the 2488 during the 
format operation.
5When the format operation is complete, a new 
blank song is automatically created on each 
partition.
Reformatting individual partitions
In addition to formatting the whole disk, it is possible 
to clean out and reformat the entire contents of indi-
vidual partitions.
NOTE
When you perform this operation, all data on the 
selected partition is destroyed. This operation cannot 
be undone. Before performing this operation, make 
sure that all songs and data that you want to keep are 
backed up, either to disc or to a personal computer (see 
“Backup and restore” on page 72).
1With the transport stopped, from the DISK 
menu, highlight 
REFORM, and press ENTER.
2Use the wheel to select the partition to be 
reformatted, Press 
ENTER.
A popup message appears.
3Ask yourself once more if you want to format 
the partition and erase all the data on it. Press 
1. A gigabyte is defined here as 1024 megabytes. 
A gigabyte holds just under four hours’ worth 
of 16-bit mono audio. 
						

							6 – Disk management and file import/export
 TASCAM 2488 User’s Guide 67
ENTER to continue with the format operation. 
Press 
EXIT to halt the operation. 
NOTE
While the format operation is taking place, the HD 
indicator lights and you cannot perform any operations. Make sure that you do not turn off the 2488 during the 
format operation.
4When the format operation is complete, a new 
blank song is automatically created on the 
partition.
Reformatting the FAT partition
If the FAT partition is full, you should follow the pro-
cedure below.
NOTE
Do not attempt to format the FAT partition using a 
computer. Use only this procedure to perform the 
operation.
Note that it is not possible to erase individual files 
from the FAT partition using the 2488 alone. To do 
that, you must connect the 2488 to a computer, and 
treat the FAT partition as a computer hard disk.
1With the transport stopped, from the DISK 
menu, highlight 
FAT REFORM, and press ENTER.
2A popup message appears.
3Ask yourself once more if you want to erase all 
the data on the FAT partition. Press 
ENTER to 
continue with the operation when a popup 
appears, or press 
EXIT to halt the operation. 
When the FAT partition has been erased, 
three directories (folders) are automatically 
created, named 
WAVE, SMF and BACKUP). Use 
these folders for audio files, Standard MIDI 
Files and backup data respectively.
NOTE
When you perform this operation, all existing data on 
the FAT partition is destroyed. This operation cannot be 
undone. Before performing this operation, make sure 
that all data on the FAT that you want to keep are 
backed up to a personal computer (see “Backup and 
restore” on page 72).
CD-RW erase
To erase a CD-RW disc created on the 2488, you 
must use this function. You cannot erase such a disc 
on any other equipment.
Also note that you must erase the whole disc. You 
cannot erase individual data files (or songs on an 
audio disc). This operation cannot be undone. Once 
the data is erased from the disc it cannot be recovered 
from the disc. Make sure you have copies of any data 
you might want in the future.1Insert the CD-RW disc to be erased into the 
drive (use the drive eject key or the tray open/
close function described below to do this).
2With the transport stopped, from the DISK 
menu, highlight 
CD-RW ERASE, and press 
ENTER. A popup confirmation message 
appears.
Alternatively, press 
EXIT to cancel the opera-
tion.
3After the disc has been erased, the drive tray 
opens automatically.
CD EJECT
You can use this function to open the disc drive tray. 
You can also use the drive button itself to open and 
close the tray, and you can push the tray itself, when 
it is open, to close it.1With the transport stopped, from the DISK 
menu, highlight 
CD EJECT, and press ENTER. 
2The tray opens and a popup appears. Remove 
or change or insert the disc. 
						

							6 – Disk management and file import/export
68 TASCAM 2488 User’s Guide
File import and export
The 2488 can import and export the following file 
types:
 WAV audio files (see below)
 SMF (Standard MIDI files) for playback by the 
2488 internal tone generator
The WAV files used by the 2488 are assigned to vir-
tual tracks. Since virtual tracks are mono, the audio 
files used must be also be mono.The sampling frequency must be 44.1 kHz, and the 
word length may be either 16 or 24 bits.
Note that if you are importing a 16-bit audio file for 
use in a 24-bit song, you will only enjoy 16 bits of 
resolution in the imported audio—the 2488 cannot 
magically recreate the extra eight bits. And if you 
import a 24-bit audio file into a 16-bit song, the bot-
tom eight bits will be truncated.
USB import (audio files)
USB file import is done using the FAT partition (see 
above). 
1Select the DISK option and press ENTER and 
then select the 
USB OPEN/CLOSE option and press 
ENTER.
2Connect the 2488 to the computer. 
The 2488 will appear as a removable disk on 
your computer system.
3Drag and drop the wave file(s) from your com-
puter’s disk to the 2488. 
4You can now disconnect the 2488 from the 
computer (see “Using USB for backup and 
restore” on page 73).
5Press EXIT to dismiss the popup message on 
the 2488. 
The 2488 restarts.
6Now copy the files from the FAT partition to 
the virtual tracks. From the 
WAVE IN/OUT menu, 
select the 
USB IMPORT option.
7Use the wheel to select the wave file that you 
want to use. Press 
ENTER.
8Now you can select the virtual track to which 
the wave file will be copied. Press 
ENTER.
9Assign the virtual track to a 2488 track (see 
“Virtual tracks” on page 56).
NOTE
You can repeat step 3 as many times as you like (pro-
vided there is space on the disk), followed by steps 6 
through 9 as many times as you like.
USB import (SMF files)
You can also import Standard MIDI Files through the 
USB connection. For full details of how to use the 
SMF files and the tone generator, see “MIDI” on 
page 76.1Select the DISK option and press ENTER and 
then select the 
USB OPEN/CLOSE option and press 
ENTER.
2Connect the 2488 to the computer.