Mini-Studio: Are separate tracks lost in mixdown/mastering?

[spantini]

I'm using a Tascam DP-03SD and have all my songs recorded - ready to go to mixdown and mastering.

I'm asking this question here because I don't know if this is specific to Tascam or do other all-in-one mini studios work this way.

What I want to do is make a master to send in for copyrights and for general listening, and... retain the original separate tracks (prior to mix/master) so I can email them to band members for dubbing their parts.

When I mixdown, are the individual tracks in the un-mixed form still there? Or are they converted into a 'song mix' for mastering? Or... are the individual tracks still there in mixdown, but convert to a 'master song' in mastering?


Do I need to make copies of all songs prior to mixdown and mastering? Should I make copies of all my tracks and copy them to a folder on my desktop for later use, then proceed with mixdown and mastering with the original tracks?

I'm not using a DAW, just the DP-03SD and my PC with Windows MediaPlayer.

 

[RFR]

Don't know the specifics of that machine, but with the sd card it would be easy enough to store the files on your computer.
This would be a good idea anyway.

 

[spantini]

I was planning on doing that after creating .WAV files for each song when mastered. Since I haven't gone through this with this new equipment yet, I'm not sure if mastering a song, which creates a .WAV file, writes over the original separate tracks, or is it newly created and stored with the original tracks intact.

I reckon I'll just have to jump in and see what happens. I was just wondering if anyone here has already done this with the DP-03SD.

Thanks again, RFR.

 

[RFR]

What files are the multi tracks in? Not wav?

It would be ideal if you could transfer 8 individual wav files to your computer.
Opens up possibilities. Let's face it. Sooner or later you'll get a daw.

 

[DM60]

From the manual:

You can also undo the creation of a stereo master track. In
other words, after recording the stereo master track multiple
times, you can undo and use a stereo master track that you
recorded earlier.

It doesn't touch your original tracks. Which wouldn't make sense really. From what I read from the quote, you can have multiple mixdowns.

 

[spantini]

What files are the multi tracks in? Not wav?

It would be ideal if you could transfer 8 individual wav files to your computer.
Opens up possibilities. Let's face it. Sooner or later you'll get a daw.

I believe the tracks are stored on the FAT partition of the SD card, as .FAT files, I presume.

From the manual:

It doesn't touch your original tracks. Which wouldn't make sense really. From what I read from the quote, you can have multiple mixdowns.

That's terrific! I can just mix/master and save each song as a .WAV file. The master .WAV contains the individual tracks, the mixdown with FX, and the final .WAV master - all as one song. As you've found in the manual, it can all be reversed. I like that!

I guess my speed reading the paper manual didn't help any. I downloaded the PDF manual so I can search (and find) these things in the future.

Thank you again!