Tascam Digital Portastudio 788 Owners Manual

							7 – Track editing–UNDO and REDO
 TASCAM 788 Digital PortaStudio 71
Items above the “undo” line are visible and you can 
redo them until you perform another action after the 
undo operation. 
For instance, if you decided that you wanted to have 
another go at repairing the lead guitar bridge…
You could undo all items up to item 7:…and then re-record the guitar bridge. 
After this, though, if you wanted to restore the vocal 
tracks which we’d recorded, you wouldn’t be able to. 
The new recording would replace everything above 
the line”.
 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
 AUTO PUNCH  8This was the second go at repairing the 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
All the previous item
s have now
 
gone 
						

							72 TASCAM 788 Digital PortaStudio
8 – Mastering and backup (CD-R)
The 788 can use a SCSI-connected CD-R or CD-RW 
drive for mastering and for backing up songs.
We strongly suggest that you contact your TASCAM 
distributor or visit the TASCAM Web site for up-to-
date information regarding the compatibility of your 
CD-R or CD-RW drive with the 788.
You should also make sure that the CD-R and CD-
RW media you use for recording and backing up 
songs meet the requirements specified by the drive.
NOTE
You cannot use the features here with an “audio” CD-R or 
CD-RW unit such as the TASCAM CD-RW2000. The CD-R 
drive used for these operations must be connected via 
SCSI.Although you can connect CD-RW drives to the 788, and 
you can record on CD-RW media, you cannot use the 
erase capabilities of the drive or the media while recording 
songs from the 788. However, when you are backing up 
material to CD-RW media, you can erase old data from 
CD-RW discs using the CD-RW drive and re-use the discs.
Following common usage, we use the word “disc” to 
describe CD and CD-R and CD-RW media, and “disk” to 
describe the hard disk or any removable SCSI mass-stor-
age media (except CD discs).
Unless otherwise stated, we use the term “CD-R drive” to 
refer to CD-R and CD-RW drives, and the term “CD-R disc” 
to refer to both CD-R and CD-RW media.
Connection
As explained in “SCSI issues” on page 17, each SCSI 
device connected to the 788 must have a unique ID. 
The IDs used for the 788 internal hard disk and for 
the internal SCSI controller are 0 and 7. You should 
therefore not use either of these IDs for the CD-R 
drive, and if any other SCSI devices are connected, 
you should not use their IDs for the CD-R drive, 
either.
The last unit in the chain (if the CD-R drive is the 
only device connected to the 788, it will be the last unit) should be terminated. Some drives have internal 
termination, some require an external terminator. 
Consult the documentation of the device to discover 
what termination is required for your CD-R drive.
Finally, remember that you should NEVER connect 
or disconnect SCSI devices with the power applied to 
them. If you make or break connections with the 
power turned on, there is a very real risk that you will 
damage the SCSI units.
Notes regarding the handling of CD-R discs
There are additional precautions that you should take 
when handling CD-R and CD-RW discs, that are dif-
ferent to those that you should take when handling 
ordinary CDs.
Avoid touching the recording (non-label) side of a 
disc on which you will be recording. Recording on 
a disc requires a cleaner surface than playing back, 
and fingerprints, grease, etc. can cause errors in the 
recording process.
CD-R discs are more sensitive to the effects of heat 
and ultraviolet rays than ordinary CDs. It is impor-
tant that they are not stored in a location where 
direct sunlight will fall on them, and which is away 
from sources of heat such as radiators or heat-gen-
erating electrical devices.Always store CD-R discs in their “jewel cases” to 
avoid dirt and dust accumulating on their surfaces.
Do not put labels or protective sheets on the discs 
and do not use any protective coating spray.
When labeling CD-R discs, always use a soft oil-
based felt-tipped pen to write the information. 
Never use a ball-point or hard-tipped pen, as this 
may cause damage to the recorded side.
Dirty discs may be cleaned using a soft dry cloth 
and/or a commercial CD cleaning fluid or ethyl 
alcohol. Do not use thinner, gasoline, benzene or 
LP cleaning fluid, as these will damage the disc.
If you are in any doubt as to the care and handling 
of a CD-R disc, read the precautions supplied with 
the disc, or contact the disc manufacturer directly. 
						

							8 – Mastering and backup (CD-R)–Mixdown
 TASCAM 788 Digital PortaStudio 73
Mixdown
As mentioned earlier, you can mix the contents of the 
recorded tracks, as well as inputs from the sub-mixer, 
to the 
STEREO OUTPUTs, which can then feed a 
DAT or cassette recorder, etc.
The 788 provides you with an additional feature, 
allowing you to “pre-master” the stereo mix to the 
788’s hard disk, so that you can audition the mix and 
re-do it if necessary, before committing it to disc.
Once the pre-master track has been recorded, it can 
be used many times, meaning that many CD copies of the same track can be recorded directly from the 
788. As suggested in “Checking the master” on 
page 74, this pre-master track can also be recorded 
on non-CD-R media.
In addition, since the pre-master mix is saved as part 
of the song, any song which has been pre-mastered 
can be selected as part of a track list, allowing a 
whole CD to be produced from previously-recorded 
songs.
Pre-mastering
Pre-mastering can be carried out without the CD-R 
drive connected, as it uses the 788’s hard disk only.
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 all recorded tracks are assigned to mixer chan-
nels, and 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 (“Set-
ting the IN and OUT points” on page 52).
2With the transport stopped, press the 
MENU 
key.
3Move the cursor to 
CD-R, and press ENTER.
4Move the cursor to 
PRE MASTERING 
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 (“Direct location (i)” on 
page 60).
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 788 
is 70 minutes. Tracks made from the 788 should not 
exceed this length,
During the mastering operation, all channel opera-
tions (EQ, send, fader/pan) can be carried out, either 
from the 788’s controls, or by means of MIDI com- 
						

							8 – Mastering and backup (CD-R)–Mixdown
74 TASCAM 788 Digital PortaStudio
mands (see “MMC and MIDI functions” on 
page 101).
TIP
While you are recording the master, synchronization and 
the sub-mixer are active, and you can use these features 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, but it is not possible to recall scene or 
routing memories (“Routing and scene libraries” on 
page 91).
When you have mastered the recording, you can 
either re-master the recording (simply press and hold 
the 
RECORD key and press the PLAY key again) or proceed to the master check operation (see “Check-
ing the master” on page 74).
Mastering operations are included in the undo list 
(see “Undoing and redoing actions” on page 70). 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 opera-
tion and allow normal operation:
1If the display does not show the home screen 
(see “The “home” display” on page 26), press 
the 
HOME/ESC key).
2Press the 
EXIT/NO 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:
1With the transport stopped, press the 
MENU 
key.
2Move the cursor to 
CD-R, and press ENTER.
3Move the cursor to 
CHECK MASTER and 
press 
ENTER.
The screen changes to the home screen, but 
with the word 
MASTER TRACK at the 
top of the screen, the title of the current song, 
(it can be edited and changed from this screen) 
and the total time in minutes and seconds of 
the master track.
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 and 
PHONES jacks.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, vari speed, SSA, repeat, etc. are disabled.
TIP
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 possi-
ble 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 CD-R, or you may want to re-master the 
song.
In either case, press the 
EXIT/NO key to return to the 
home screen, and restore the assignments, etc. which 
were in operation before the master check. 
						

							8 – Mastering and backup (CD-R)–Recording to CD-R
 TASCAM 788 Digital PortaStudio 75
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 788 is in “normal” mode, that is, 
not in the master check mode or mastering 
mode.
2Move the playback position to the approximate 
position where you want to trim (either the 
start or the end of the master).
If you want to trim the start of the master:
3Set 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 (see “Setting the IN and OUT points” on 
page 52).
If you want to trim the end of the master:3Set the IN point to the point where you want 
the end of the master to be, using the jog 
method to set the point (see “Setting the IN and 
OUT points” on page 52). 
4Set the OUT point to be some way after the 
existing OUT point.
In both cases (trimming the start and trimming the 
end):
5Use the Track Edit 
CUT function (see “CUT” 
on page 68) 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:
6Make 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 trimming the 
end):
7Play back the master track, as described in 
“Checking the master” on page 74. The start 
and end should now be as you want them.
Recording to CD-R
There are two ways of using the 788 to record a CD-
R: 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 788 is 70 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 number of 
tracks together, you cannot add any tracks (singly or 
together) later on.
Recording to CD-R (track recording)
Before starting this operation you must make sure 
that there is a recordable disc inserted in the CD-R 
drive. If there is no recordable disc (that is, a CD-R 
or CD-RW disc that has not been finalized), the 788 
shows an appropriate message.1Make sure the 788 is in “normal” mode, that is, 
not in the master check mode or mastering 
mode.
2With the transport stopped, press the 
MENU 
key.
3Move the cursor to 
CD-R, and press ENTER. 
						

							8 – Mastering and backup (CD-R)–Recording to CD-R
76 TASCAM 788 Digital PortaStudio
4Move the cursor to CD WRITER and press 
ENTER.
The 788 checks the CD-R drive. If there is a 
valid disc in the drive containing at least one 
pre-mastered song, the display shows the 
screen below (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 want to change partitions, see “Selecting a disk” on 
page 32.
5Use the dial to select the song to be recorded, 
and press 
ENTER.
You may now rename the song using the 
SHIFT 
+ 
MENU (TITLE) key.
6Choose at this point whether you want to final-
ize the disc. 
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.
TIP
If you choose not to finalize the disc at this point, you can 
finalize it later, without recording another song.
7Press ENTER to continue, and EXIT if you want 
to choose a different song.
8You are asked if you are sure that you want to 
record the song. Press 
ENTER to proceed with 
the recording, or 
EXIT to cancel. 
If 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 788 
gives an appropriate error message.
9The 788 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 indication 
of the time remaining for the operation.
While the image and writing to disc is going 
on, all the 788 controls are disabled, and no 
action is possible.
NOTE
DO NOT TURN OFF the 788 or the CD-R 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.
10To check the recorded disc, use the CD 
PLAYER
 option described below (“Playing 
back CDs using the 788” on page 78).
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 788’s CD PLAYER func-
tion (“Playing back CDs using the 788” on page 78).
The CD-R drive must contain an unfinalized disc 
before you start the process.
1Make sure the 788 is in “normal” mode, that is, 
not in the master check mode or mastering 
mode.
2With the transport stopped, press the 
MENU 
key.
3Move the cursor to 
CD-R, and press ENTER.
4Move the cursor to 
CD FINALIZE and 
press 
ENTER.5A pop-up screen asks if you are sure. Press 
ENTER to continue, EXIT to stop the finalize 
process.
6If you continue, the CD session is closed and 
the finalizing material (Table of Contents or 
TOC) is written to the disc. A countdown timer 
at the top of the screen lets you know the time 
until the finalization is complete.
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-R 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. 
						

							8 – Mastering and backup (CD-R)–Recording to CD-R
 TASCAM 788 Digital PortaStudio 77
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 788 is in “normal” mode, that is, 
not in the master check mode or mastering 
mode.
2With the transport stopped, press the 
MENU 
key.
3Move the cursor to 
CD-R, and press ENTER.
4Move the cursor to 
CD WRITER and press 
ENTER.
The 788 checks the CD-R drive. If there is a 
valid disc in the drive, the display shows the 
screen above (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 want to change partitions, see “Selecting a disk” on 
page 32. 
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).
5Use the dial to scroll through the list of songs, 
and when you highlight a song that you 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.
6When 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 in “Recording to CD-R (track 
recording)” on page 75. 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.
7Use the dial to scroll through the list of songs. 
8When 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.
9Select further songs for rearrangement using 
the dial.
10When you have finalized 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)
11Use the § and ¶ keys to move the cursor to 
the gaps between the songs on the CD.
12Use the dial to set the time in seconds between 
songs, from 
0.0 seconds (no gap) through 
9.9 seconds in 0.1 second steps. 
						

							8 – Mastering and backup (CD-R)–Recording to CD-R
78 TASCAM 788 Digital PortaStudio
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 70 
minutes.
13When 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.
14When you press 
YES, a disk image is made of 
each song in turn, which is then written to the 
CD. A countdown timer at the top of the screen gives an indication of how long the process will 
take.
NOTE
DO NOT TURN OFF the 788 or the CD-R drive while this 
writing operation is taking place. You will almost certainly 
spoil the disc and may corrupt the song data.
15When 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-R 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.
Playing back CDs using the 788
If an audio CD (either finalized or unfinalized) is 
inserted into a CD-R drive connected to the 788, the 
788 can be used to play it back.
The sound is sent to the 788 through the SCSI con-
nection, and is output through the 
MONITOR and 
PHONES jacks. The only control over the sound 
from the 788 is through the 
MONITOR control knob. 
All other mixer controls are disabled.
1Make sure the 788 is in “normal” mode, that is, 
not in the master check mode or mastering 
mode.
2With the transport stopped, press the 
MENU 
key.
3Move the cursor to 
CD-R, and press ENTER.
4Move the cursor to 
CD PLAYER and press 
ENTER.
The screen shows:
The elapsed time of the current track.
Whether the disc is finalized or notThe current track and its length (when the CD 
player function is first entered, the track number 
will always be 1)
The total number of tracks on the disc
The total play time of the disc (including any gaps 
between tracks)
The stereo meters also show the level of the audio 
recorded on the disc
The 788 transport controls are used to control play-
back of the CD, as explained here:

PLAY starts playback from the current playback 
position. While the disc is locating, the 
PLAY indi-
cator 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 for-
ward or backward one track, while playback is 
stopped
The dial 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-R drive is disabled. To 
eject the CD, press 
EXIT to exit the CD player function, 
and then press the CD-R drive eject key. 
						

							8 – Mastering and backup (CD-R)–Backup using CD-R
 TASCAM 788 Digital PortaStudio 79
Backup using CD-R
As well as allowing you to record the final mix to 
CD-R, the 788 also allows you to back up all of a 
song (tracks, virtual tracks, edits, undo history, effect 
settings, etc.) to CD-R.
This is a relatively cheap and portable way of storing 
your work. Even if you produce large songs and use 
smaller hard disk partitions (e.g. 1 GB), this function 
allows you to store the song reliably and safely, reuse 
the hard disk space, and reload (restore) the song 
from CD-R and continue work on it.
If the total amount of data that makes up a song is 
more than the capacity of a single CD disc, the 788 
can split the backup over a series of discs. When you come to restore the song, it will ask for the discs in 
order and reassemble the song internally.
NOTE
There must be sufficient space on the 788 disk partition for 
this backup to be able to take place (at least 640 MB). If 
you have selected a partition size of 512 MB, backup can 
never take place of a song recorded on that partition. For 
this reason, we recommend using a large partition size 
when formatting a new external disk (“Formatting a disk” on 
page 31)
Backup discs cannot be played in a CD player (or read in a 
computer). They contain the audio data of a song in a form 
which can be read only by the 788.
Backing up a song
Before you start backing up, make sure you have a 
supply of blank CD-R discs. You cannot use discs 
that have already been used for mastering (and you 
cannot use backup discs for mastering, either).
You can only back up one song at a time.
1Put the first disc into the CD-R drive.
2Make sure the 788 is in “normal” mode, that is, 
not in the master check mode or mastering 
mode.
3With the transport stopped, press the 
MENU 
key.
4Move the cursor to 
DATA BACKUP, and 
press 
ENTER.
If there is no recordable disc in the drive, the 
screen shows an error message, otherwise the 
screen shows a list of the songs on the current 
partition.If the disc is a CD-RW disc in a CD-RW drive, 
and it has been used for 788 backup before, 
you have the option to erase the old data.
5Use the dial to highlight the song to be backed 
up. 
The 788 reads the song and performs some 
“housekeeping” tasks. At the end of this, it 
shows how many CD-R discs will be needed for 
the backup.
6If you have the discs ready and you want to 
proceed, press 
YES. If you do not have the discs 
ready, press 
NO.
7If you press 
YES, the 788 makes an image of 
the song; its tracks, virtual tracks, playlist, 
edits, etc. and prepares to write this data. A 
countdown appears at the top of the display, 
providing a guide to how long the current 
operation will take.
8If the backup is too big to fit on one CD-R disc, 
when the first disc is full, it is automatically 
ejected, and a message asks you to put in the 
next disc.
9When the last disc has been written, it is 
ejected, and the song which was current when 
the backup started is reloaded. 
						

							8 – Mastering and backup (CD-R)–Backup using CD-R
80 TASCAM 788 Digital PortaStudio
NOTE
The backup operation may take some time, as a song may 
have many different parts to it. If you use the 
DELETE 
UNUSED
 function before backing up the song, this 
may save some time and space (“Deleting unused space 
from a song” on page 30).
DO NOT TURN OFF the 788 or the CD-R drive while this 
backup operation is taking place. You will almost certainly 
spoil the disc and may corrupt the song data.CD-R backup discs are finalized and cannot be reused for 
any other purpose (but CD-RW discs can be erased for 
other backups).TIP
Label your discs as soon as you make them, using a soft 
water-based felt-tip pen. It is important that you keep notes 
of what is on each disc for future reference.
Restoring data from CD-R
This operation is basically the reverse of the backup 
operation.
Before you start restoring a song, make sure that you 
have all the discs that were used to back up the song. 
If some of the discs are missing, you will not be able 
to restore the song (you cannot load half a song).
1Put the first (or only, if there is only one) disc 
of the backup set into the CD-R drive.
2Make sure the 788 is in “normal” mode, that is, 
not in the master check mode or mastering 
mode.
3With the transport stopped, press the 
MENU 
key.
4Move the cursor to 
DATA RESTORE, 
and press 
ENTER.
The 788 reads the title of the song from the disc 
and asks you if you want to continue.
5Press 
YES to continue, NO to eject the disc and 
cancel the operation.
6If you go ahead with the restore, the 788 copies 
the data from the CD-R disc to the active disk 
partition. A bargraph on screen shows the 
progress.
7If the backup is spread over more than one 
disc, when the first disc has been read, it is ejected, and a message asks you to put in the 
next disc. Insert the next disc and press 
YES.
If you insert the wrong disc (out of sequence or 
from a different backup set), the 788 ejects the 
“bad” disc and asks you again for the correct 
one. If you really cannot find the right disc, you 
must press 
NO to cancel the restore.
If you cancel the restore operation part of the 
way through, none of the song is restored, and 
the 788 goes back to the state before the restore 
was started.
8When data is restored from the last disc, the 
disc is ejected, and the previous song (before 
the restore operation was started) is loaded.
NOTE
If the song which has been restored has the same name as 
a song which is currently on the partition, there will be two 
songs with the same name. We suggest that you rename 
one of them after the restore operation, to avoid confusion 
(“Entering and editing titles” on page 26).
It is possible to make two different backups of a song, each 
with the same name, at different stages of the song’s devel-
opment. If you mix up the backup sets and insert a disc 
from the wrong set into the middle of a backup, the 788 is 
smart enough to recognize this, and it will eject the “bad” 
disc and ask you for the correct disc.