Tascam Digital Portastudio 788 Owners Manual

1 – Introductory concepts–Real and virtual tracks on the 788
 TASCAM 788 Digital PortaStudio 11
If we sample this photograph, which originally con-
tains pure white, pure white and almost every shade 
of gray in between, we must convert it to a fixed 
number of gray levels. Here, we can see that the more 
grays we use to represent the picture, the more realis-
tic the photo appears. 
Note that we use the number of bits (a bit is either 
“on” or “off”) to show how many grays are used to make up the...

1 – Introductory concepts–Real and virtual tracks on the 788
12 TASCAM 788 Digital PortaStudio
Editing
One of the most useful features of a disk-based 
recorder such as the 788 is the ability to edit material. 
When working with a stereo tape recorder, the usual 
way of editing was with a white pencil, a razor blade 
and sticky splicing tape. In this way, unwanted parts 
of tape could be removed, and parts of a song (e.g. 
verses, choruses, intros) could be moved from one 
part of the song to another....

1 – Introductory concepts–Assignment
 TASCAM 788 Digital PortaStudio 13
Multi-take punch-ins on the 788
Similar to the concept of “virtual tracks”, and also to 
the editing procedure above, is the idea of multi-take 
punches.
The 788 allows you to repeat a punch-in section, 
playing or singing the same phrase many times until you stop the punch procedure. All the successive 
takes of this phrase are stored on disk, and you can 
audition them all, and pick the best one to insert into 
the track.
Instant...

1 – Introductory concepts–Assignment
14 TASCAM 788 Digital PortaStudio
these inputs may be assigned to different mixer chan-
nels as required during the recording process.
Although only a few dashed lines are shown here for 
simplicity, it is possible to connect any of the shown 
inputs to any of the eight mixer channels.
Every mixer channel is tied directly to the associated 
recording track on disk. This means that when 
recording, the output of mixer channel 1 always feeds recording track 1, mixer...

1 – Introductory concepts–Synchronization and the 788
 TASCAM 788 Digital PortaStudio 15
Quick setup and the assign screen
The 788 allows you to see your current assignments 
easily in two ways (as explained in more detail in 
“Assignment on the 788” on page 36):
Firstly, when you press a mixer channel’s 
SELECT 
key, it flashes, along with the inputs that have been 
assigned to it.
Secondly, to see the whole map of the current assign-
ments, press and hold down the 
SHIFT key while 
pressing the 
ASSIGN...

1 – Introductory concepts–MIDI external control (MMC, etc.)
16 TASCAM 788 Digital PortaStudio
When synchronizing acoustic recordings to MIDI 
instruments using MTC, the 788 can act as a time-
code master or a slave with respect to your MIDI sys-
tem. Of course, your sequencer must be able to use 
MTC in order to do this.
In other words, when the 788 acts as a timecode mas-
ter, the sequencer determines its playback/record 
position from timecode received from the 788.When the 788 acts as a timecode...

1 – Introductory concepts–SCSI issues
 TASCAM 788 Digital PortaStudio 17
MIDI remote control
In addition to the transport control described above, 
the 788 is able to accept MIDI Program Change mes-
sages to change mixer scenes, and routing tables, etc. 
as well as previously-set effector settings.It can also accept Control Change messages, which 
allow a sequencer, for example, to control mixer 
parameters as well as individual effector parameters, 
so that remote control of the sound can be carried out...

1 – Introductory concepts–Further reading
18 TASCAM 788 Digital PortaStudio
SCSI devices and backing up
The 788 contains a large, fast hard disk, which allows 
the recording of many songs on the same disk.
However, if you keep all your material, eventually 
this disk will fill up, and you must do some “house-
cleaning” to sweep away the unwanted material. 
The 788 incorporates a very useful feature which 
allows you to back up a song to CD-R or CD-RW 
media. These discs can hold a lot of data. In the...

TASCAM 788 Digital PortaStudio 19
2 – Getting started
This section explains some of the principles of using 
your 788. It is not a “tutorial”—there are so many 
different ways in which the 788 can be used that it 
would probably not be useful for us to give you step-by-step instructions here covering every possibility. 
Instead, we have provided you with general instruc-
tions that will work in most cases.
Precautions, etc.
Treat the 788 with the same care and respect that you 
would treat a notebook or...

2 – Getting started–Power-on
20 TASCAM 788 Digital PortaStudio
Power-on
When the power is turned on, the display shows the 
power-up screen. All the front panel indicators light 
briefly.
The disks are then scanned, and the 788 performs 
internal self checks.
You will probably be able to hear the sound of the 
disks as the startup progresses. Depending on the 
number of disks connected to the 788, this may take a 
little time. 
After the check is complete, the 788 loads the song 
you were last working...