Tascam Digital Portastudio 788 Owners Manual

							6 – Location operations–Direct location
 TASCAM 788 Digital PortaStudio 61
Direct location (ii)
As well as the ABS and MTC timings just described, 
it is possible to locate to a “musical” time, when the 
display shows bars (measures) and beats, and the 788 
is synchronized to a tempo map.
NOTE
This method of location only has any meaning when the 
788 is synchronized to a tempo map (see “Synchroniza-
tion” on page 94). If the 788 is not synchronized to such a 
tempo map, bars and beats in this screen have no 
meaning.
1Make sure the transport is stopped. You can-
not perform this direct location when playing 
back or recording.
2If the “home” display is not shown, press the 
HOME/ESC key.
3There is an “underline” cursor at the top of the 
screen. 
If the top left of the screen does not show 
BAR 
(that is, it shows 
MTC or ABS), press the Ó 
key until the cursor is under the left field, and 
turn the dial clockwise until 
BAR is showing.4Use the Ó and Á keys to move the cursor to 
either of the following: bars (3 digits), or beats 
(2 digits). 
The tempo value cannot be altered here—it is 
set by the tempo map (see “Entering and edit-
ing the tempo map” on page 98).
5Use the dial to increase or decrease the number 
over the cursor (in the illustration , the cursor 
is under the “bars” value).
If you increase the “beats” value past the maxi-
mum number of beats on a bar at that point in 
the tempo map, the number will “wrap 
round”; that is, the “bars” value will increase 
by one, and the “beats” value will be set to 
0.
6When you change a value, the values on the top 
line will start to blink and will continue to 
blink for a few seconds.
If you press the 
EXIT key (or the STOP key) 
while the values are blinking, the time value 
will be reset to the previous value before you 
started to edit it.
7Press 
ENTER while the values are blinking to 
set the value, or 
PLAY to start immediate play-
back at that value. Also, if you do not press any 
keys or turn the dial for a few seconds, the val-
ues stop blinking, and the new time value that 
has been set becomes the current playback 
position.
Bars (measures)Beats 
						

							6 – Location operations–Location marks
62 TASCAM 788 Digital PortaStudio
Location marks
As mentioned earlier, the 788 allows you to set up to 
999 location marks in each song. These location 
marks are stored in slots which may either be empty, 
or filled with a location point value.As each mark is entered, its slot is filled (from 1 
through 999). If a mark is deleted, the slot it occupied 
becomes available for another mark to be entered,
Location marks are handled in the following way:
Entering location marks
Location marks can be entered when playing back or 
recording, in jog mode, or when the transport is 
stopped. They cannot be entered when fast forward 
or rewind is taking place.
There are two ways of entering location marks:
1Press and hold the
 SHIFT key and press the 
LOCATE key.or
1Press the 
MARK/CHAR INSERT (MOVE) key.
2When a mark has been entered, the location 
value is entered into the next available slot, and 
the number of this slot (now the number of the 
mark) is shown on the screen on the right, 
below the time line.
Active location marks
When you have entered location marks, as playback 
progresses, and the playback point passes the points 
at which the marks are located, the marks’ titles are displayed on the screen. The location mark which is 
shown on screen is referred to as the active mark.
This active mark can be accessed easily for titling, 
deletion and editing, as explained below.
Giving a title to the active location mark
You can give a title to the active location mark while 
playing back or recording, or while the playback is 
stopped.
1When the active mark’s current title is dis-
played (this will be 
Mark xxx when the 
mark is first set), press and hold down the 
SHIFT key and press theMENU/TITLE key. The pop-up screen appears on the display, and 
you can edit the title as described in “Entering 
and editing titles” on page 26.
2When you press 
ENTER after editing the name, 
the new name replaces the old mark name.
TIP
You can use the USER WORDs here (see “USER WORD” 
on page 33) to enter mark titles quickly.
Deleting the active location mark
You can delete the active location mark while play-
back is stopped, but you cannot delete it while play-
ing back or recording (a message, 
TRANSPORT 
MOVING
, appears briefly if you try).
1To delete the active mark, press the 
MARK/
CHAR DELETE
 (SILENCE) key. You do not 
have to confirm the deletion, but the word 
Clear ! appears briefly on the display.2When the active mark has been deleted, the 
mark immediately before the active mark (if 
there is one) becomes the active mark, and its 
title is shown on screen.
NOTE
You cannot undo a mark deletion. 
						

							6 – Location operations–Using the location mark list
 TASCAM 788 Digital PortaStudio 63
Editing the active mark
This process is sometimes referred to as trimming. 
This is a similar process to the jog positioning of the 
playback point (see “Jog positioning” on page 50), 
except that in this operation, the final position is 
stored as the position of the active mark.
You can edit the active mark when playback is 
stopped. You cannot edit the active mark when 
recording or playing back.
1Make sure that the mark you want to edit is 
shown on the home display and that playback 
is stopped.
2Press the 
MARK/CHAR TRIM (COPY TO) key. 
The display shows 
TRIM and a view of the 
waveform of the currently selected track at the 
active mark.
3Press the 
SELECT key of the track that you 
want to view. The display changes to the wave-
form of that track.
Although the location mark applies to all 
tracks, if you have a track selected with noth-
ing or little recorded on it at that point, it will 
be impossible to see or hear anything using this 
function.
4Use the Ó and Á keys to zoom out and in 
respectively horizontally. This is, pressing the 
Á key will increase the amount of space on the 
screen taken by a certain amount of time, and 
pressing the Ó key will make the same amount 
of time take less space on the screen. The three 
zoom levels available are: 
x 1, x 2 at about single-frame accuracy), and 
x 32 at about 
10-sub-frame accuracy (shown below the time 
display).
5Use the § and ¶ keys to adjust the vertical 
scale (the way that the volume of the sound is 
shown). The zoom levels here are 
x 1, x 2, 
x 4, x 8, x 16 and x 32. Pressing the 
§ key increases the vertical scaling of the dis-
play, and pressing the ¶ key decreases the 
scale.
TIP
If you can’t see any waveforms when you first enter this 
display, press the 
§ key to zoom the volume so that you 
can see the quiet passages.
6Use the dial to move the cursor. You can moni-
tor the jogged sound of the selected track 
through the monitoring system.
NOTE
You cannot move the mark to a position before the previous 
mark or after the next mark.
7To move past the edge of the screen, press and 
hold the 
F FWD and REW keys to play the 
tracks forwards or backwards at normal speed 
for a rough position. When you release the 
keys, the playback will stop.
8Press 
ENTER to accept the new position as the 
location mark value (the playback position is 
now the new position), and return to the home 
screen.
9Press 
EXIT to return to the home screen with 
the playback position being the point which 
has just been set, but the location mark value is 
unchanged.
Using the location mark list
Every time a location mark is stored, it is entered into 
a list, and every time a mark is deleted, it is removed 
from the list.
You can use this list to select a mark for location, or 
for giving a title to a mark. You cannot edit the time 
value of a mark, or delete a mark using the list.To see the list, press the LOCATE key: 
						

							6 – Location operations–Using the location mark list
64 TASCAM 788 Digital PortaStudio
There are two ways in which the list can be viewed; 
by title (
TITLE) and by time value (TIME), as 
shown by the tabs on the top of the screen.
Use the Ó and Á keys to change between the two 
views:
NOTE
Even when the time display on the home screen is shown 
in bars and beats, or the MTC time display is selected, the 
marks’ time values are always shown using the absolute 
time values.
The IN, OUT and TO location marks are always dis-
played at the top of the list.
Other items in the list is always sorted in time order, 
not the order of the location mark names or numbers.
Locating using the list
To locate using the location mark list:
1Press the 
LOCATE key.
2Use the Ó and Á keys to change to either the 
TITLE or the NAME view of the list.3Select the location mark using the dial (or the 
§ and ¶ keys).
4Press 
ENTER. The playback point jumps to the 
selected location mark.
Using the IN OUT and TO marks
These are special cases. When these marks have been 
set, you jump to them simply be pressing the 
IN, OUT or 
TO key, as appropriate. You can use the list as 
described above, but there is no need for this.
Titling using the list
1Press the LOCATE key.
2Use the Ó and Á keys to change to either the 
TITLE or the TIME view of the list.
3Select the location mark to be renamed, using 
the dial (or the § and ¶ keys).
4Press and hold down the 
SHIFT key and press 
the 
TITLE (MENU) key.
5Give a title to the mark, using the procedure 
described in “Entering and editing titles” on 
page 26.6When you press 
ENTER to confirm the name, 
the screen returns to the list.
NOTE
You can select a mark for titling from either the TITLE 
or the 
TIME view of the list.
Two marks can have the same title (but it is not a very sen-
sible idea to give the same title to more than one mark), but 
they cannot have the same time value.
It is not possible to rename the IN , OUT or TO marks—
these have special functions, and cannot be renamed. 
						

							TASCAM 788 Digital PortaStudio 65
7 – Track editing
About track editing
One of the most useful features of a disk-based 
recorder such as the 788 is the ability to edit material 
easily. When working with a stereo tape recorder in 
the past, the usual editing method involved a white 
pencil, a razor blade and sticky splicing tape. This 
was not an easy process, and was very difficult to 
undo if there were any mistakes,
The 788 allows you to edit songs, copying and mov-
ing material from one part of a song to another. This editing is known as non-destructive editing, meaning 
that the operation does not actually destroy data, and 
you can undo mistaken editing operations easily.
If you have ever used a word-processor on a com-
puter, you will probably find most of the 788’s edit-
ing operations pretty simple. If you have never used a 
computer, the 788’s editing operations are nothing to 
be scared about—just read through this section to see 
how it all works.
IN, OUT and TO
We have previously seen how the IN, OUT and TO 
points can be used for punching and for location. 
They are also used in these track editing operations.
The IN point marks the start of the part of the track 
which is selected when editing a part of a track 
(rather than a whole track). The OUT point marks the end of the part of the 
track which is selected when editing part of a track.
The TO point marks the final destination of a copy 
or a move operation.
Entering the edit mode
1Make sure that the 788 is stopped (not playing 
back or recording).
2Press the 
TRACK EDIT key (just below the 
screen).3Use the 
JOG/DATA dial to highlight the track 
editing function you will be using.
4Press the 
ENTER key.
5Select the appropriate values, as described 
below.
6Press 
ENTER/YES to perform the operation, or 
EXIT/NO to exit without performing the 
operation,
Track editing functions
The track editing functions available on the 788 are:
COPY->PASTE
COPY->INSERT
MOVE->PASTE
MOVE->INSERT
OPENCUT
SILENCE
CLONE TRACK
CLEAN OUT
See the sections below for details of how to use these 
functions.
Remember!
You can undo any of these operations (see “UNDO 
and REDO” on page 69). Even if you delete all the 
material on every track using these functions, you 
can still get it back with only a few key-presses.TIP
Although you cannot use virtual tracks as the source for 
copy and move operations, you can assign a virtual track to 
a track temporarily to (say) copy part of a virtual track to an 
already-assigned track and then reassign the original. 
						

							7 – Track editing–COPY -> PASTE
66 TASCAM 788 Digital PortaStudio
COPY -> PASTE
This function takes the section of a track or tracks 
marked by the IN and OUT points, copies it, and 
places it at the TO point on the chosen track or 
tracks. 
The original source is left unchanged.
The copy operation overwrites anything which is 
already recorded at the destination. The destination is 
the same length as it was before the operation.
You can copy the section more than once in one oper-
ation.
You can change the following values:
Src.Trk This sets the source track or tracks 
from which the section is copied. Choose 
1,through 
8 to select an individual track. Choose 1/2, 3/
4
, 5/6 or 7/8 to select a pair of tracks. Choose 
1-8 to select all active tracks.
Dst. Trk This sets the destination track or 
tracks to which the selected section is pasted. What 
you can select here depends on what you have 
selected for the source track. If you have selected a 
single track, you can select tracks 
1 through 8 here. 
If you have selected a pair of tracks (for instance, 
1/2), you can only select track pairs here. If you 
have selected all active tracks (
1-8), then this is the 
only option available to you here.
Times This is the number of times that the 
selected section is pasted into the destination track or 
tracks. You can set this value from 
1 to 99.
Press 
YES to perform the operation or NO to leave 
this screen.
TIP
You can also use the SHIFT + TRIM key combination to 
enter this function easily.
COPY -> INSERT
This function takes the section of a track or tracks 
marked by the IN and OUT points, copies it, and 
places it on the chosen track or tracks, inserting it as 
new material, starting at the TO point.
The original source is left unchanged.
The insert operation adds the selected section as new 
material to the destination. Nothing is overwritten on 
the destination, as any existing material following the 
TO point is moved to the end of the newly-inserted 
section. The destination is longer than it was before 
the operation.
You can copy the section more than once in one 
operation.You can change the following values:
Src. Trk This sets the source track or tracks 
from which the section is copied. Choose 
1,through 
8 to select an individual track. Choose 1/2, 3/
4
, 5/6 or 7/8 to select a pair of tracks. Choose 
1-8 to select all active tracks.
Dst. Trk This sets the destination track or 
tracks into which the selected section is inserted. 
What you can select here depends on what you have 
selected for the source track. If you have selected a 
single track, you can select tracks 
1 through 8 here. 
If you have selected a pair of tracks (for instance, 
1/2), you can only select track pairs here. If you 
have selected all active tracks (
1-8), then this is the 
only option available to you here.
Times This is the number of times that the 
selected section is inserted (end-to-end) in the desti-
nation track or tracks. You can set this value from 
1 
to 
99.
Press 
YES to perform the operation or NO to leave 
this screen.
OUT IN TO
OUT IN TO
OUT IN TO
OUT IN TO 
						

							7 – Track editing–MOVE -> PASTE
 TASCAM 788 Digital PortaStudio 67
MOVE -> PASTE
This function takes the section of a track or tracks 
marked by the IN and OUT points, and moves it to 
the chosen track or tracks, starting at the TO point.
After the operation, the selected section of the source 
between the IN and OUT points is replaced by 
silence.
This operation overwrites anything which is already 
recorded at the destination. The destination is there-
fore the same length as it was before the operation.
You can change the following values:Src. Trk This sets the source track or tracks 
from which the section is taken. Choose 
1,through 
8 to select an individual track. Choose 1/2, 3/
4
, 5/6 or 7/8 to select a pair of tracks. Choose 
1-8 to select all active tracks.
Dst. Trk This sets the destination track or 
tracks to which the selected section is moved. What 
you can select here depends on what you have 
selected for the source track. If you have selected a 
single track, you can select tracks 
1 through 8 here. 
If you have selected a pair of tracks (for instance, 
1/2), you can only select track pairs here. If you 
have selected all active tracks (
1-8), then this is the 
only option available to you here.
Press 
YES to perform the operation or NO to leave 
this screen.
TIP
You can also use the SHIFT + INSERT key combination 
to enter this function easily.
MOVE -> INSERT
This function takes the section of a track or tracks 
marked by the IN and OUT points, and moves it to 
the chosen track or tracks, inserting it as new mate-
rial, starting at the TO point.
After the operation, the selected section of the source 
between the IN and OUT points is replaced by 
silence.
The insert operation adds the selected section as new 
material to the destination. Nothing is overwritten on 
the destination, as any material following the TO 
point is moved to the end of the newly-inserted section. The destination is therefore longer than it 
was before the operation.
You can change the following values:
Src. Trk This sets the source track or tracks 
from which the section is taken. Choose 
1,through 
8 to select an individual track. Choose 1/2, 3/
4
, 5/6 or 7/8 to select a pair of tracks. Choose 
1-8 to select all active tracks.
Dst. Trk This sets the destination track or 
tracks into which the selected section is inserted. 
What you can select here depends on what you have 
selected for the source track. If you have selected a 
single track, you can select tracks 
1 through 8 here. 
If you have selected a pair of tracks (for instance, 
1/2), you can only select track pairs here. If you 
have selected all active tracks (
1-8), then this is the 
only option available to you here.
Press 
YES to perform the operation or NO to leave 
this screen.
OUT IN TO
OUT IN TO
OUT IN TO
OUT IN TO 
						

							7 – Track editing–OPEN
68 TASCAM 788 Digital PortaStudio
OPEN
This function “opens up” a silent gap between the IN 
and OUT points on the chosen track or tracks.
The source and destination are the same, and after the 
operation, the track is split at the IN point, with the material which followed the IN point now moved to 
follow the OUT point. The result is therefore longer 
than the original.
There is only one value that you can change:
Src. Trk Select an individual track (1 
through 
8), a pair of tracks (1/2, 3/4, 5/6, 
7/8), all of the eight active tracks (1-8) or all 
tracks, including the virtual tracks (
all).
Press 
YES to perform the operation or NO to leave 
this screen.
CUT
This function deletes the material between the IN and 
OUT points on the chosen track or tracks and “closes 
up” the gap.
The source and destination are the same, and after the 
operation, the material which followed the OUT point now moved to follow the IN point. Material 
which was between the IN and OUT points is 
deleted. The result is therefore shorter than the 
original.
There is only one value that you can change:
Src. Trk Select an individual track (1 
through 
8), a pair of tracks (1/2, 3/4, 5/6, 
7/8), all of the eight active tracks (1-8) or all 
tracks, including the virtual tracks (
all).
Press 
YES to perform the operation or NO to leave 
this screen.
SILENCE
This function is equivalent to recording silence 
between the IN and OUT points on the chosen track 
or tracks.No material is added or deleted, and the length of the 
result is therefore the same as that of the original.
There is only one value that you can change:
Src. Trk Select an individual track (1 
through 
8), a pair of tracks (1/2, 3/4, 5/6, 
7/8), or all of the eight active tracks (1-8).
Press 
YES to perform the operation or NO to leave 
this screen.
TIP
You can also use the SHIFT + DELETE key combination 
to enter this function easily.
OUT IN
OUT IN
OUT IN
IN
OUT
OUT IN
IN 
						

							7 – Track editing–CLONE TRACK
 TASCAM 788 Digital PortaStudio 69
CLONE TRACK
This copies a track or pair of tracks to another track 
or pair of tracks. The IN and OUT points do not have 
any meaning here.
There are two values that you can change:
Src. Trk Select an individual track (1 
through 
8), or a pair of tracks (1/2, 3/4, 5/6, 
7/8).
Dst. Trk This sets the destination track or 
tracks to which the source track is cloned. What you 
can select here depends on what you have selected 
for the source track. If you have selected a single 
track, you can select tracks 
1 through 8 here. If you 
have selected a pair of tracks (for instance, 
1/2), 
you can only select track pairs here.
Press 
YES to perform the operation or NO to leave 
this screen.
If you try to select the same track as a destination that 
you have selected as the source, when you press the 
YES key, a message will appear: SAME 
TRACK
.
Redo the operation with a different set of tracks.
CLEAN OUT
This deletes all the material in a track or tracks. The 
IN and OUT points do not have any meaning here.
There is only one value that you can change:Src. Trk Select an individual track (1 
through 
8), a pair of tracks (1/2, 3/4, 5/6, 
7/8), or all of the eight active tracks (1-8).
Press 
YES to perform the operation or NO to leave 
this screen.
If you need to delete the contents of a virtual track 
that is not currently assigned to a track, you must 
assign it to a track and then perform this operation.
UNDO and REDO
Unlike a tape recorder, but like most word-proces-
sors, you can undo your mistakes (the 788 remem-
bers up to the last 999 operations you perform in 
each song). What is more, you can undo your undo 
operations (redo).
The operations that you can undo are:
The different track editing functions described in 
this section 
Recording operations Auto punch operations
Mastering operations 
In addition, all these operations are stored as part of 
the song on the disk; even when you turn the machine 
off, the history of all the previous operations is stored 
ready for next time.
What this means is that you can finish your work for 
the day, come back in the morning with fresh ears, 
and decide that maybe you didn’t want that overdub 
after all. With the 788, this is no problem. 
						

							7 – Track editing–UNDO and REDO
70 TASCAM 788 Digital PortaStudio
Undoing and redoing actions
1Press the UNDO/REDO key and a list of the 
operations that you have done since the start of 
the song is shown on screen:
The first action (
START UP) is numbered 
0, and all the actions after this are then num-
bered in order. They are named: 
RECORDING, AUTO PUNCH, 
COPY->PASTE, etc.
2Use the dial to scroll through the list until the 
cursor highlights the action to where you want 
to undo. 
3Press 
ENTER, to return to the point in your 
work just before you made your mistake.You can also redo an action that you have undone in 
exactly the same way.
TIP
As well as using the dial to scroll through the list, you can 
also use the 
UNDO /REDO key to position the cursor 
automatically at the event before or after the current event.
If you press the 
UNDO key (unshifted) , the cursor moves 
to the event immediately before the current event. Press 
ENTER to undo the last event.
If you press 
REDO (SHIFT + UNDO), the cursor moves 
to the event immediately following the current event (i.e. the 
last action that has been undone). Press the 
ENTER key 
to redo this action.
NOTEN
Performing an action after the redo clears the list of re-
doable actions (i.e. those actions which have been 
undone).
An undo/redo example
Here’s an extremely simplified example (in fact, it’s 
extremely unlikely that you’d work this way, but it 
shows the principles involved):
This is the history of a recording session so far. Sup-
pose that you decide that items 11 and 12 in the list 
are not needed (in other words, the first take (9) with 
its correction (10) have been overwritten by 11 and 
12, but you feel that the original take (9) with its cor-
rection (10) has more energy, so you want to retrieve 
it:
1Press the 
UNDO key.2Use the dial to scroll down to the step to where 
you want to undo (here it’s 10).
3Press 
ENTER.
Now you have the track back again. If you press the 
UNDO key, you’ll see that there’s a check mark 
beside 10 - this shows that this is the “undo mark”.
Notice that we can still see items 11 and 12. This is 
because we can still redo them, if we decide that the 
first vocal take (9 and 10) wasn’t so great after all.
To redo them is just as simple as undoing them: press 
the 
UNDO key, highlight the step to which you want 
to return, and press 
ENTER.
>RECORDING 12This is yet another retake of the lead vocal RECORDING 11Another attempt at the whole of the lead vocal AUTO PUNCH 10A try to correct a bad note in the lead vocal RECORDING  9First try at the lead vocal AUTO PUNCH  8Repairing the bad guitar bridge RECORDING  7Recording the guitar solo RECORDING  6Piano (alternative part) RECORDING  5Piano RECORDING  4 Guide vocals RECORDING  3Bass line COPY->PASTE  2Looping the drum part RECORDING  1Basic drum loop START UP  0Beginning of song
 RECORDING 12This is yet another retake of the lead vocal RECORDING 11Another attempt at the whole of the lead vocal>AUTO PUNCH 10A try to correct a bad note in the lead vocal RECORDING  9First try at the lead vocal AUTO PUNCH  8Repairing the bad guitar bridge RECORDING  7Recording the guitar solo RECORDING  6Piano (alternative part) RECORDING  5Piano RECORDING  4 Guide vocals RECORDING  3Bass line COPY->PASTE  2Looping the drum part RECORDING  1Basic drum loop START UP  0Beginning of song
This line marks the 
point to where we have 
made the undo