Fostex D80 Backup tip

  • Thread starter Thread starter richthirst
  • Start date Start date
R

richthirst

New member
Discovered a cool way of backing up D80 tracks and though it's probably deadly obvious to some people I only just came up with the idea but it works great.

An unexpanded D80's only way of backup is via the Digital Out to a DAT machine. Well, actually anything that records Digital Audio, like a PC with a sound card with digital I/O.

Get a half decent PC with a fair sized, fast-ish drive, hook up your soundcard to the D80, go to a sound recording program, point it at your Digital In, hit record and do the standard 'Save Program' on your D80.

Once dumped to computer you can either leave it there till you need it again or compress the file so it fits on a CD-R - Gadget Labs WaveZip 2.0 is available in the freeware domain and does a great job.
 
when you load it back in, how do you get it to put all the files back inthe same time location?

i.e., put the vocal harmony on track seven back at 00:20:25...for example.
 
Hey Longwave,

To load it back in, go through Setup on your D80 to 'Load Program', get your PC ready to play back the WAV you recorded using the 'Save Program' function. When the D80 says 'Start playing', starting playing the WAV file and sit back and wait.

The WAV file was saved to your computer with markers for each of the tracks and it's setup data so when you play it back it goes back into the D80 in the right places.

This is by no means a quick solution but it is reliable and dirt cheap if you can't find lots of 3Gb drives.

Gimme a shout if I haven't explained this too well :)
 
more D80 questions

i was about to put up a new thread, but maybe you can help me with this...
i just got a Maudio DIO card, with spdif optical ins/outs, and i would like to be able to import the tracks from my D80 into Acid or logic...only problem is i dont have a d 80 manual. rght now all i get is distorted signal . please help!
thanks so much,
matt
 
CaveDweller,

Can you be more specific, what output on the D80 are you getting the distorted signal from?
 
i am trying to use the lightpipe connection to transfer from the D80 to my computer, so i can add more tracks and mix in acid (or logic, if i figgure out how to use it). i imagine it would be similar to the backup tip described above. the problem is the digital signal i am getting is distorted. is ther some settings on the D80 that have to be tweaked? i am totally lost for using the advanced features on the D80
 
Hey CaveDweller,

There aren't any advanced functions involved with the digital out on the D80, they just sort of do what they do.

You can't choose what you send down the digital out so if you're just monitoring the digital out whilst playing back I doubt you'll get anything useful.

The digital out is normally used for syncing other D80s during playback and then you can also hook it up to a DAT recorder / PC with Digital I/O to record Program data. This Program data is just 44.1Hz 16 Bit Audio Data streamed out of the digital out to the 'recorder' (be this PC or DAT) and is filled with beeps and tones to tell the D80 where to put stuff if you want to load it back into the machine at a later date.

Something to try:

Go into the D80 setup - Hit 'Disp Sel' until the word 'Setup' lights up and hit 'Yes'

Use the data wheel to scan through the options and stop when you get to 'Save Program'

Hit 'Yes'

It'll probably say 'DAT?', hit 'Yes' again.

It'll now say 'Sure?', at this point start your computer recording audio through it's digital in.

Now hit 'Yes' on the D80 again and it will start dumping the current program through the digital out. Leave it doing this until you've seen plenty of activity on the meter displays showing that it's started recording the actual audio off the D80.

You can hit 'Stop' on the D80 at anytime to stop dumping the program. Then go back to your PC, stop recording and have a listen to the stuff dumped. If it's still distorted you need to look at a couple of things.

It's more likely that it's either the cable or the computer's settings that you're hooking the D80 up to.

If the cable and computer settings are fine then it might look like the digital out on your D80 may be faulty.

Gimme a shout if you have any problems,

Cheers,
Rich.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top