Got my DP32

BikerDude

New member
Went ahead and bought myself a nice Christmas present.
DP32SD.
World conquest is imminent.
Well more like unlikely. But into the breach my brothers!
Can't wait to mess with it.
Hopefully I can get a day this weekend.
I'm switching from a DP02 which I've gotten good results with but I'm feeling the lack of tracks.
Hopefully the similarity will be enough to give me a good start.

Psyched!
:D
 
Congrats on your new recording platform. They're great machines - I love mine. Now that you're a DP-32SD owner... probably the hottest tip anyone could give you is to watch the Phil Tipping youtube series. You will gain a *global* understanding of this machine's capabilities as well as limitations:

Phil Tipping tutorial series - video 1
 
Congrats on your new recording platform. They're great machines - I love mine. Now that you're a DP-32SD owner... probably the hottest tip anyone could give you is to watch the Phil Tipping youtube series. You will gain a *global* understanding of this machine's capabilities as well as limitations:

Yeah I already found those vids.
It appears that the machine has idiosyncrasies.
Mostly when it comes to the effects. But it's just an adjustment.
It's always a matter of getting my "process" down.

One of the good things with this machine is that I won't need to disconnect and connect things as often.
It has more inputs. Don't need to fiddle around as much.
So far I'm loving it.
I won't be going software just yet.
Which is good. I love the "portastudios".
 
OK so first review.

First off the learning curve was not too steep owing to the fact that I've been using a DP02 8 track tascam machine for several years.

The good.
The resulting recordings sound magnificent on the machine. (More later)
The basic effects are very good. Delay, compression.
I haven't explored all the others since I generally forgo the guitar effects for my own gear.

The Bad
And this is very bad. I made 2 recording each consisting of many tracks, mixed down and then shut down the machine.
Took out the SD card and put it in my laptop. It mixes down to .wav files. Ok I'd prefer MP3 but I can get past that.
Copied over the wav's and went back to the machine. Put the SD back in and started it. Then when opening either of the 2 songs I get a "file error".
Ouch! This is a BIG gotcha. I looked online and it seems very common and the prevailing wisdom is that the SD card that comes with the machine is the problem.
OK I did think of putting a fresh one in when I started. I'll do this when I have time to use it again this weekend but if I get the same results it will be going back.
I wasn't really a fan of going SD and I already miss the CD burner from the DP02 which was way more convenient. People always caution to back up all songs before making changes and to be honest I won't live with that. It needs to be more reliable than that.
I'm taking comfort in the post from the user who shared this experience and then replaced the SD card and never had another problem since. For several years.
That's what I'm after. I love the quality of the recordings that I did get but to my blame I didn't mix them quite loud enough.
Sounded fine on the machine but on computer the overall volume is low and that was what I went back to the machine for.
Not being able to open the files means I will need to do them all over. Which was like 6 or 8 hours of work. Down the drain.
Not good.
 
Hi you need to export the files first.then copy them to your pc
have a look at Pill tippings tutorials on this as it can be a bit confusing.
Hope this helps.
Tyros....
 
Hi you need to export the files first.then copy them to your pc
have a look at Pill tippings tutorials on this as it can be a bit confusing.
Hope this helps.
Tyros....

Why do I have to export them?
The mixdown files work perfect on my pc. That doesn't seem to be the issue.
The only thing I want on the PC is the final mix. I don't care about the individual tracks.
I'm doing nothing on the pc. It's just the destination for the final mix of the song.
It's when I put the SD card back in the Tascam gets to where the songs won't open on the recorder.
I get a file error message.
I'm hoping that I don't need to connect a computer to get to the music.
Ideally I'd like to just carry the SD card downstairs and put it into my laptop and copy over the final mix file.
If I need to connect a computer to use this thing. Well that blows.
 
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Have you made a 'Master File' yet? You should be able to get the master file to the computer via the SD card.
From the manual (have you read it?)
Section "10 - Mixing Down and Mastering Tracks"
 

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Have you made a 'Master File' yet? You should be able to get the master file to the computer via the SD card.
From the manual (have you read it?)
Section "10 - Mixing Down and Mastering Tracks"

Yes. Again that's not the problem.
I can get to the master file fine.
I can play it on the pc.
But the songs won't open on the Tascam recorder any longer.
I took out the SD card and carried it downstairs to my pc and copied the master over and it works fine.
Then I carried the SD card back upstairs, put it back in the Tascam and turned it back on.
Now trying to open either song shows a "file error".
Is this going to happen every time that I copy the master file over to the PC?
How did things get corrupted?
I have no clue.
 
Sticking to basics.. going from SD to laptop, did you copy/paste, or drag/drop?

I don't remember.
How does that effect corrupting the song files?
Again. I had no problem getting the master file onto the PC.
BTW I'm a software engineer so none of these concepts are difficult for me.
But right now it feels like the Tascam is made of spider webs and if you make the wrong move it will get corrupted.
 
Just checking the easy stuff first.. like fuses. Drag/drop wouldn't corrupt necessarily, but it [EDITED] remove them from the SD card. Do the files (still) appear on the SD when re-inserted into your computer? The folders may remain, but they could be empty.

EDIT : Could possibly
 
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Yes. Again that's not the problem.
I can get to the master file fine.
I can play it on the pc.
But the songs won't open on the Tascam recorder any longer.
I took out the SD card and carried it downstairs to my pc and copied the master over and it works fine.
Then I carried the SD card back upstairs, put it back in the Tascam and turned it back on.
Now trying to open either song shows a "file error".
Is this going to happen every time that I copy the master file over to the PC?
How did things get corrupted?
I have no clue.
Sorry, I was interpreting it that you were able to get the individual tracks to the PC, but not the mix.

- Are you doing a full shutdown of the Tascam before removal of the SD card? (I did note you powered the Tascam back on after re-inserting the card)
- Not playing any files directly from the SD card, just simply copying the files to the PC hard drive?
- If you 'Lock' the SD card after removal from the Tascam, copy the files to the PC, and 'Unlock' before re-inserting into the Tascam, do files get corrupted? This should block the PC from doing something to the file structure.
- Possibly anti-virus/malware program that may be scanning the SD card and doing something?
- What OS do you have on the PC?
- 'I looked online and it seems very common and the prevailing wisdom is that the SD card that comes with the machine is the problem..'
Very possible it could be a wonky SD card. I didn't even try the included one with my DP24SD, just went straight to a Sandisk 32gb card that was recommended and have had no issues, however I have not yet tried transferring a mix as of yet via SD card as the Tascam and my PC reside close other and I've been using USB.
 
Sorry, I was interpreting it that you were able to get the individual tracks to the PC, but not the mix.

- Are you doing a full shutdown of the Tascam before removal of the SD card? (I did note you powered the Tascam back on after re-inserting the card)
- Not playing any files directly from the SD card, just simply copying the files to the PC hard drive?
- If you 'Lock' the SD card after removal from the Tascam, copy the files to the PC, and 'Unlock' before re-inserting into the Tascam, do files get corrupted? This should block the PC from doing something to the file structure.
- Possibly anti-virus/malware program that may be scanning the SD card and doing something?
- What OS do you have on the PC?
- 'I looked online and it seems very common and the prevailing wisdom is that the SD card that comes with the machine is the problem..'
Very possible it could be a wonky SD card. I didn't even try the included one with my DP24SD, just went straight to a Sandisk 32gb card that was recommended and have had no issues, however I have not yet tried transferring a mix as of yet via SD card as the Tascam and my PC reside close other and I've been using USB.

Yeah I'm being sure to shutdown before messing with the card.
I can't remember if I played from the SD card or not.
That did cross my mind since Media Player might put a file into the directory.
But in any event I played only one of them.
As soon as I heard the mix on my computer I decided that it needed more overall volume and went immediately upstairs to do another mix.
But both songs won't open. So I'm crossing that off the list.
Windows 7 I believe is the version.
I was using the card that came with the unit and others have had problems apparently.
I have another card that I plan to use.
 
I see the Tascam forums are full of this problem. Here's one guy who found his answer - which worked for others as well.


File error when loading a song | TASCAM Forums


- - I just dug out my DP-03SD to see if I could recreate the problem(s).

Yeah I saw that.
I'm actually pretty confident that I will find a solution. I just don't have the time till this weekend.
A couple people found that there would be several zero length files in the song directory.
Removing them has fixed the issue in several cases.
I think it has to be something like that because I can open and play the demo songs that came with the Tascam.
So I don't think the card is corrupted.

I will try to rescue the 2 songs when I have time and then I'll be using the SD card that I bought.
I checked the supported cards list and it's on there so hopefully I should be good.
Hopefully it won't continue.

I love using it and I was super pumped about the sound I was getting even first time around the block with it.
It just seems a lot better than the DP02. Fuller sound. Compression of course helps. I was using an outboard compressor which is a very old Allisis unit that I've never been very fond of. The compression built into the 32 seems a lot better.
 
Actually this seems like the most relevant thread from the Tascam forums.
I hope I'm like the guy who had problems with the supplied card and put in a new one, formatted and never had another problem.
But it seems the issue is very very common. I really hope I can get past all this. I want to love the unit.

Tascam no longer makes reliable equipment? | TASCAM Forums

Kind of depends if your PC is hosing something up on the card. Have you tried as I suggested to 'lock' the card after removal from the Tascam so the PC can't write to it or alter data? If the locked card is OK it sort of points to the PC doing something that needs to be identified.
 
Dp32

Went ahead and bought myself a nice Christmas present.
DP32SD.
World conquest is imminent.
Well more like unlikely. But into the breach my brothers!
Can't wait to mess with it.
Hopefully I can get a day this weekend.
I'm switching from a DP02 which I've gotten good results with but I'm feeling the lack of tracks.
Hopefully the similarity will be enough to give me a good start.

Psyched!
:D
Congratulations of your DP32. I've had mine for several 3-4 years and two moves and it's still doing well. A couple of things to be aware of...if you use it to record live, remember that tracks 9+will account for two tracks, whether you use them that way or not. I'd recorded 8 tracks on 1-8 and then when it came time to add drums at another venue, I could only use 4 of the higher numbered tracks. It's a delight to use and it's fairly forgiving should you mess p levels a bit.
Have a great time with it.
 
OK all is well
I didn't bother messing around with 2 lost tracks
I just put in a fresh 32 gig card and formatted it and recorded a couple new ones
Copied the masters over to my pc and all is good
I can reopen both tracks after words
Still getting my sea legs a little bit
I had been using my DP02 for so long that I had all the levels down to a science
It's a bit different on the 32
But I was able to get a couple of semi acceptable tracks
I had to raise the volume on one later using software but it's ok
I'm at best a hobbiest so don't expect much

SINNER MAN by Greg Engel | Free Listening on SoundCloud
 
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