PSYCHCOWBOY'S QUICK GUIDE TO TRACK/MIX/MASTER A 10 TRACK SONG


Examples of symbols:



I.  Before recording, let's create and name a new song:

Press [song] several times until the screen says 'Song New?', press [y]*.  'Create New Song?' [y], 'sure?'[y], 'store current?' [n]**.  Press [song] several times to 'name/protect', [y], use dial and [y] to change 'InitSong' to the name of your new song.  Press [play/display]*** to return to main screen.

(* When you create a new song does the screen say '44k MT1' in the condition/marker column?  Good. This is the highest quality setting for 8-track recording on the 880.   Once you start recording a song, the "M-mode" cannot be changed for that song.  MT2 is slightly lower quality, MAS is highest quality but allows you only 6 tracks.  You can use [dial], [par], and [y] keys to change the M-mode)

(** 'Store current?' asks you if you want to store any work that you have done after your last store, e.g. after your most recent [shift]+[store])

(*** Whenever you are lost try either [par], [y], or [dial] to move forward on the screen, and use [play/display] to return to main screen)


II.  OK, Let's start recording:

Press [fader] until it lights yellow.*   Press [status 1], note that [select 1] flashes yellow.  This shows that input 1 will record onto track 1.  Return [fader] to green.  Press [rec]+[status 1] to light [status 1] key red indicating that track 1 is armed and ready to record.  Press [rec], and then [play] to begin recording.  When finished recording, return [status 1] to green, i.e. green for listening, red for recording.   Repeat procedure for tracks 2 - 6. 


(* Either the Roland manual and video calls yellow orange, or I'm color blind, for this cheat sheet there are three button colors; green, yellow {orange?}, and red).

(Note A: Let's say you want to record snare mic plugged into input 2 onto track 7: [status]+[clear] clears current track assignments, [fader yellow] [status 7]+[select 2], return [fader] to green.)

(Note B: Let's say you want to hear vocal with reverb while you are recording it on to track 3: [shift]+[select 7] (this chooses effect #1), [select 3] [dial] to 'post-fade', this assigns effect#1 to track 3 for listening during recording but records it dry, i.e. without effects, hint: always record dry, and apply effects during mixdown)

(Note C:  Try to record all input and submix levels fairly hot, i.e. with the meters in the top 30%.  In the last step we will push it right to the top with MTK compression.)

After recording 7 tracks, let's say your track sheet looks like this:

  T1 T2 T3 T4 T5 T6 T7 T8
V1 Guitar1 Guitar2 Lead Vocal   Bass Kick Snare Ride
V2                

(note: T = track, V = virtual layer)


III.  Now let's do a submix of T1,2,5,6,7,8 in stereo to T3,4 at virtual layer 2.

 [shift]+[select 2] [select 3] [dial] to 'A:2', this moves to virtual layer 2 (i.e. V2) for T3 so that vocal track T3V1 will be unaffected, do the same for T4.  Now T3 and T4 are on V2.   Move T3 and T4 pans to center, move T3 and T4 faders to 0, this should be done whenever mixdown recording to a channel-linked pair.  Press [select 3] to light T3, [shift]+[select 6] [par] to 'channel link', [dial] to 'on'.  Now T3 and T4 are channel-linked for a stereo mixdown.

With fader green, press [status 3]+[select 1,2,5,6,7,8], now T1,2,5,6,7,8 source tracks will be mixed on to destination pair T3/4.  [rec]+[status 3] to arm T3/4 for recording.  Begin recording, adjusting volume, and pan for each track.  When you have all submix settings perfect, press [scene] and then [loc 1].  Now you have saved all submix track assignments and settings.  Your submix template for this song can now be recalled any time by pressing [scene] and then [loc 1].  This will save you having to do all the above steps again.  Sweet huh?

(HINT:  Record 30sec or so of your favorite store-bought mix to t1/2v8.  Save this as SCENE 4.
During mixing toggle back and forth to scene 4 as a reference to get EQ, effects levels etc. "like  the pro's")

Now lets record harmonica (harp t5v2), and harmony vocal (h-voc t2v2).  Make sure to set v-layer when recording these two new tracks.  Let's also track exchange to move vocal t3v1 to t1v2: after setting t3 at v1 and t1 at v2, [track] to 'track exchange' [y], [select 3]+[status 1], [par] and/or [y]. 

Now your track sheet looks like this:

  T1 T2 T3 T4 T5 T6 T7 T8
V1 Guitar1 Guitar2     Bass Kick Snare Ride
V2 Lead Vocal H. Vocal SubmixL SubmixR Harp      
V3                


IV.  Now you are ready to set final mix-down of t1,2,3,4,5 at v2 onto channel-linked t5/6 at v3.**

Follow the same procedure that you did for the submix.  Make sure the t3 and t4 have channel-link off, but that t5 and t6 are channel-linked together.  When you have all the mixdown settings perfect, store them as [scene][loc 2].  Now with the touch of the [scene][loc2] button you can re-do your final mixdown, or [scene][loc1] to go back and redo your submix.  The scene locations save everything; v-layers, EQ, effects, track assignments, pans, and fader levels.


V.  Now lets master the final mix t5/6v3 to t7/8v3.

Set destination pair t7/8v3 on channel link and receiving input from un-channel-linked source t5/6v3.

Now lets insert MTK on source tracks t5/6v3on.  Press [EFFECT] button to "effect 1".  Press [SHIFT] + [DIAL] to quickly scroll through effects to an MTK setting, say MTK:ClnComp.  Press [YES].  [SHIFT]+[SELECT7], [SELECT5], [PAR] to INS-L.   Now MTK:ClnComp is inserted onto track 5.  [SELECT6], [PAR] to INS-R. Now tracks 5/6 will have MTK compression inserted on them as they are mixed onto destination pair 7/8. 
Start recording with 7/8 faders on 0dB, and adjust 5/6 faders until 7/8 levels are bumping up against the top of the meter without distorting.  This will get you close to "store-bought" CD volume.  Save this as SCENE 3.

If you need to you can use [track] 'cut' to trim the front and end of t7,8 v2.  Now its time to optimize and save.  [song] to 'optimize' [y,y,y,y], this gets rid of all takes except the most recent, e.g. you probably did several takes of each part on v1, and several takes of of the mixes on v2 an v3.  Optimize saves the final take of each track and v-layer, and increases remaining memory since unwanted pre-final takes are erased from the memory.  [shift]+[store] [y] saves all your work.


VI.  Now let's make a CD of your new song.

Place blank CD the CDR that is scuzzy connected to your 880.   [song] to 'cd-r write' [y] choose track at once' to leave a 2sec gap between each song.  Also choose 'write w/finalize' if you just want one song on the CD or 'write w/o finalize' if you will add other songs to the same CD.  Use [par] and [DIAL] for 4x speed for faster burning.  Use the [y] and [par] buttons until 'now working' appears.  It takes about 15 minutes to convert a song to an audio file, but then only about 5 minutes to write additional CD's with that same song. When you are ready to back up your data, [song] to 'cd-r back-up?'.  CDR Back-up takes about twice as long as CDR Write, unless you turn verify off.

PsychCowboy
psychcowboy@yahoo.com