HELP New user of TASCAM 564 P-Studio

[HOPEWELL]

Hello Everyone,
I have noticed this BBS awhile back and read it occassionally. But now that I am actually trying to put some music together, it seems like the place to go. Seems
to be a lot of knowledge here.

Anyway, My background:Electronics Engineer,(started the hardway, Technician 1st). 20 years ago I used to be the production director of an FM Radio station. So I am familiar
with many audio terms techniques etc (Analog). I have always played the drums on and off my whole life. I now find myself divoriced and am returning to my 1st love music.

I have a TASCAM 564 porta studio and am just starting to learn and use it. Is this a good thing or not? I have gotten a couple musicians together and the band is forming.
We seem to have a good chemistry and are getting tighter
everyday (Alternative Rock).

What's the deal with the 564? I hear some good things,and I
hear some bad things. They took it off the market and I'm
not so sure why. The one I have was Mfg. August 1997. I will probably eat my words but at a little more than a glance at this thing, I am not sure whether it can do what I thought and was led to beleive it can do.

I barely have the basic knowledge of how music is recorded,
tracked together, mixed, EQd, compressed, normalized etc.

I am trying to understand the best way to produce a song on
the thing. i.e.I Cut 4 tracks: vocals, bass, lead guitar, and rythm guitar (Song 1). Was this a mistake? I still have to put down the drum track/s and backing vocal etc. I thought that I could just combine a few tracks and bounce them forward. It seems that I can't combine tracks 3 & 4 and 1 & 2 by bouncing them forward to say 3 & 4. Can this be done in one operation or do I have to combine 3 & 4 by bouncing to 4 and then combine 1 & 2 by bouncing to 3. If I bounced all tracks (1 thru 4) to 3 & 4 they would be the same.
It seems that the edit functions can only be used within a
single song. In other words I could not copy pieces of a song into another or even bounce a part of a song into anther. Am I wrong or not.

What should the PANS be when bouncing? If I am bouncing all tracks forward or two tracks into one, what which level meters should I looking at?

When I cut a song, and I know it will take 6 or 7 tracks,
should I cut two tracks then bounce them forward? and so on... That would suck if you needed to change or add an effect to a track.

When is the best time to EQ on this thing before or after bounce or when you record.

My head is spinning. I know electronics and impedances the
whole nine yards, how to play and create music but am lacking in some basic fundamentals which might need to be approached differently due to some seemingly limitations on
this thing. WOW or it just could be me "OPERATOR ERROR"

We just want to put some recordings down hopefully of digital demo quality.

I have a Peavey 8 channel mixer that mixes down my drumset.
I feed the stereo output of that into the 564. Where is the best place to input this?

A bit confused . . .

I just rambled on. After reading this. I wouldn't blame
anyone for no giving me a response. Guess I might have done
better by saying: got a 564 any suggestions/input?

Thanks for letting me pollute your BBS.

HOPEWELL

[bonomo]

I have a 564 and after reading the manual and
trying to record it has gor me all confused.
help