Tascam DP-02 Mixdown Mixup

[derf3rd]

Hello All,

At almost 53, I've decided to join the age of digital recording. I'm also new to the forum so please be kind!

I bought the DP-02 because it seemed perfect for a one-man, one-guitar set up and because it had a very familiar design (sort of like my old analogue 4-track cassette). Anyway, I've slid a bit off the learning curve on my first try and could use some advice.

A trip through the manual and I was able to lay down and mix 8 tracks of guitar and vocals. My question is this: Between my guitar bumping, clearing of the throat and my count down, I have 13 seconds of gook. When I go to Master mode, the mastering process begins at the 00:00:00 point and I can't seem to be able to change that. I can eliminate the the noise from the master by hitting master/record at the 13 sec mark but then my master has 13 secs of silence before the beginning of the song. Is there a way for me to reset the counter to the 0 mark closer to the actual beginning of the song so that when I'm in the mastering mode, I only have a couple of seconds of blank lead into the intro?

Also, when using the internal metronome, is there a way to play around with and set up the beat, level and tempo BEFORE going into the recording process? I only seem to be able hear the metro if I hit Play or Record so the process of getting the beat and tempo right before I start the actual recording is a bit tedious. Is there an easier way?

Sorry...these may sound like dumb questions and the answers may be staring me right in the face but any insight here would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

[A Reel Person]

The Mastering track starts at 00:00:00 (by definition) and runs to the OUT point. Set the OUT point. (is what the manual says).

Use the Track Edit function to do a CUT.TRK, (1-8 or ALL), using 00:00:00 as the IN point, and just before the downbeat as your OUT point. This snips that bit of studio noise out and moves the OUT point to 00:00:00. The track will be shorter after the edit. Render your master with the edited track.

If you ever revisit or want to retrack the tune an "need" the 13 seconds preroll time back, there's the UNDO function,... as long as you don't clear the History data of the song.

I had the same issue with 7 seconds of (silence) preroll. I had the same question, but your question really made me think!