panning while bouncing on a 688

[heatmiser]

Greetings!

This question is kinda specific, but maybe a fellow tascam 688 user can help me here...

Ok, I try to avoid bouncing as much as possible, but every once in a while I have something that simply will not fit on the 8 tracks provided. I have a copy of the manual and have read the section on bouncing many times. I have successfully bounced any number of tracks onto other tracks in the past, and I swear I used to be able to pan the tracks that are being bounced to get something of a stereo spread on the mixdown to the new track(s) onto which the material is being bounced.

But now I can't seem to get that to happen any more. Everything else seems to work just fine. I can adjust the levels and add effects if wanted, but the pan knobs have no effect. The manual simply asks that you establish a few settings and then pan to taste, but this alone does not work. btw - panning works fine in normal (non-bouncing) mixdown scenarios. Also, I am using the factory preset scene 9 as recommended in the manual.

Any trick to this that any of you have discovered? Thanks in advance .

[Bobby Darko]

hey man,
i have two 688's and I can do almost evrything with them but one thing and this seems to be your problem too. What I do, don't know if it helps, I burn any given mix to my cd burner (stand alone), and put the two tracks back on track one and two (panned L-R) on a new tape. It's a little more work maybe, but the quality is much much better than bouncing and you have full control panwise.

ps. you have to get a cd burner for this but those are dirt cheap nowadays. I use a philips and it's great.

[heatmiser]

Thank you Mr. Darko. I was hoping you'd chime in, but didn't want to call you out and make you feel obligated to respond. I have admired your studio for some time.

Ok, so you have this problem too. I don't feel so bad. I have tried your technique in the past with my old 4-track fostex (I have a sony stand-alone cd burner) and it worked pretty well. I had forgotten about that.

The 688 doesn't have RCA inputs though - just xlr and 1/4", so I guess I'd need cables that would go from 2 RCA (to the cd burner) to two 1/4" plugs (to the 688). Is that what you did? The lack of RCA inputs has kept me from importing any external pre-recorded source (like a cd) in the past.

Do you synch your 2 machines, or just have one for backup?

Thanks again!

[Bobby Darko]

Thanks for the head up heatmiser, always willing to help btw.

Yep, rca to jacks does the trick pretty well (pretty cheap too, but get a good quality cable!!). Be carefull not to go above 0db on your cd burner, but keep the volume up as much as possible.

I use my second 688 as a backup and for live fieldrecording mixing with my band (project). It's also cool because I can mix at home now, while tracking at the studio.