Zoom R20 - Region Full

[rick4001cs]

I'm getting this message as I try to split a track into segments.

Region full!

To add a new region,
delete the existing region.

What is this all about?

 

[Blain]

I'm getting this message as I try to split a track into segments.

Region full!

To add a new region,
delete the existing region.

What is this all about?

Hi. Did you ever resolve this? I have exactly the same problem.
Cheers

 

[ikarma5902]

Same issue but different. When recording live band practice the R20 stops recording at 45 minutes. After that it’s Region Full?!? Have to create new project and set it all up again to record 45 minutes again. Any help? Thanks

 

[64Guitars]

When recording live band practice the R20 stops recording at 45 minutes. After that it’s Region Full?!? Have to create new project and set it all up again to record 45 minutes again.

From page 71 of the R20 manual:
"A project can have a maximum of 1350 bars. Recording will stop automatically if it reaches this length."

The number of bars in your project depends on the tempo and time signature. For example, if the tempo is 120 BPM and the time signature is 4/4, then you'll use up 30 bars per minute (120 BPM divided by 4 beats per bar). Coincidentally, 1350 ÷ 30 = 45 minutes. So, at 120 BPM in 4/4 time, your maximum recording time is 45 minutes because at that point you'll have recorded 1350 bars which is the maximum that the R20 can record in a single project. Faster tempos will use up bars at a higher rate. For example, 240 BPM in 4/4 would use up 60 bars per minute, so 1350 bars would only last 22½ minutes. And slower tempos will use up bars at a lower rate, so you'll get longer recording times. For example, 60 BPM in 4/4 would use up 15 bars per minute, so 1350 bars would last 90 minutes.

If I were you, I'd check the total number of bars in your project each time that you stop playing between songs. To be on the safe side, I'd stop recording when the bar count gets close to 1,000, then start a new project for the next group of songs. Better still, just start a new project for each new song. Then you'll have no worries about reaching the maximum bar count.

Update (2022-09-01): Just thought of another possible solution. Since you want to record multiple songs, presumably of varying tempos and time signatures, then you probably don't care what the project's tempo and time signature are set to. So when you create a new project to record your band's practice session, set the project's tempo to 40 BPM (the minimum value allowed) and the time signature to 6/8. Since there will be 6 beats to each bar and 40 beats each minute, you'll use only 6⅔ bars per minute. So you'll be able to record for 3 hours and 22½ minutes before you hit the 1350 bars limit.

Update (2022-09-08): In theory, the maximum recording time should be 3 hours, 22½ minutes with the tempo at 40 BPM and a time signature of 6/8. However, I just checked this on my R20 and found that the maximum recording time in 3/4 and 6/8 is exactly the same. So you'll get the longest recording times in 4/4. You can find the maximum recording time on the R20 by scrolling to bar 1350 and switching to the Level Meter View Screen to see the time in minutes and seconds. Here are the maximum recording times for the minimum tempo (40 BPM), an average tempo (120 BPM), and the maximum tempo (250 BPM).

Maximum Recording Time (min:sec)

Time Signature​	40 BPM​	120 BPM​	250 BPM​
3/4​	101:15​	33:45​	16:12​
4/4​	135:00	45:00	21:36
6/8​	101:15	33:45	16:12​

As you can see, the longest recording time possible on the R20 is 135 minutes (2 hours, 15 minutes) which you can achieve by setting the tempo to minimum (40 BPM) and the time signature to 4/4.

 

[64Guitars]

I'm getting this message as I try to split a track into segments.

Region full!

To add a new region,
delete the existing region.

What is this all about?

The total number of regions in all of your audio tracks and your drum track cannot exceed 50 per project. Depending on how you record, you might not use very many regions in your audio tracks, but you could use quite a few in your drum track. For example, let's assume your drum track has the following arrangement:

Intro
Verse 1
Chorus
Verse 2
Chorus
Bridge
Chorus
Verse 3
Chorus
Outro

Each of those sections in the drum arrangement is a region, so this drum track has used 10 regions. Now you only have 40 regions available for all of your audio tracks. If each audio track consists of just one long region, then that's no problem. But if you record several regions per track and/or start splitting regions, then you could reach the limit. For example, if your project has 5 audio tracks, each consisting of 8 regions, then that's 40 regions. Add to this the 10 from the drum track and you've reached the 50-region limit. If you then try to split another region, you'll get the region full error because that would result in 51 total regions in the project, which isn't possible because it exceeds the 50-region limit. Of course, the more tracks you record, the more likely you'll hit the 50-region limit. If you recorded to all 16 tracks, you could only have (on average) about 3 regions per track before you hit the 50-region limit.

I don't know if that's what's causing the error in your particular case but it's a possibility to consider. Count the total number of regions used in your project on all of your audio tracks and your drum track. If that total is 50, then that's why you're getting the region full error when you try to split another region. Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be a Join Regions function to complement the Split Regions function. So I guess you'd have to export a track containing multiple regions to a WAV file, then load that WAV file into an empty track and delete the multi-region track in order to free up those regions to allow more splitting in the other tracks. Of course, that means that the new track with the WAV file will now consist of just one long region, so you'll no longer be able to move the former regions of that track since they no longer exist. But it's a trade-off you'll have to make if you reach the 50-region limit and want to continue splitting regions or adding new regions.

 

[narvik]

From page 71 of the R20 manual:
"A project can have a maximum of 1350 bars. Recording will stop automatically if it reaches this length."

The number of bars in your project depends on the tempo and time signature. For example, if the tempo is 120 BPM and the time signature is 4/4, then you'll use up 30 bars per minute (120 BPM divided by 4 beats per bar). Coincidentally, 1350 ÷ 30 = 45 minutes. So, at 120 BPM in 4/4 time, your maximum recording time is 45 minutes because at that point you'll have recorded 1350 bars which is the maximum that the R20 can record in a single project. Faster tempos will use up bars at a higher rate. For example, 240 BPM in 4/4 would use up 60 bars per minute, so 1350 bars would only last 22½ minutes. And slower tempos will use up bars at a lower rate, so you'll get longer recording times. For example, 60 BPM in 4/4 would use up 15 bars per minute, so 1350 bars would last 90 minutes.

If I were you, I'd check the total number of bars in your project each time that you stop playing between songs. To be on the safe side, I'd stop recording when the bar count gets close to 1,000, then start a new project for the next group of songs. Better still, just start a new project for each new song. Then you'll have no worries about reaching the maximum bar count.

Update (2022-09-01): Just thought of another possible solution. Since you want to record multiple songs, presumably of varying tempos and time signatures, then you probably don't care what the project's tempo and time signature are set to. So when you create a new project to record your band's practice session, set the project's tempo to 40 BPM (the minimum value allowed) and the time signature to 6/8. Since there will be 6 beats to each bar and 40 beats each minute, you'll use only 6⅔ bars per minute. So you'll be able to record for 3 hours and 22½ minutes before you hit the 1350 bars limit.

Update (2022-09-08): In theory, the maximum recording time should be 3 hours, 22½ minutes with the tempo at 40 BPM and a time signature of 6/8. However, I just checked this on my R20 and found that the maximum recording time in 3/4 and 6/8 is exactly the same. So you'll get the longest recording times in 4/4. You can find the maximum recording time on the R20 by scrolling to bar 1350 and switching to the Level Meter View Screen to see the time in minutes and seconds. Here are the maximum recording times for the minimum tempo (40 BPM), an average tempo (120 BPM), and the maximum tempo (250 BPM).

Maximum Recording Time (min:sec)

​

Time Signature​	40 BPM​	120 BPM​	250 BPM​
3/4​	101:15​	33:45​	16:12​
4/4​	135:00	45:00	21:36
6/8​	101:15	33:45	16:12​

As you can see, the longest recording time possible on the R20 is 135 minutes (2 hours, 15 minutes) which you can achieve by setting the tempo to minimum (40 BPM) and the time signature to 4/4.

Hello,
I registered here just so I can say THANK YOU for posting this (found through a duckduckgo search).
It's been driving me up the wall, as all my recordings stopped at 45 minutes. I need to record something just slightly over 2 hours in length, and you have provided the solution here. This info was VERY hard to find, so many thanks for posting the detailed explanation and spreadsheet.

Cheers!

 

[afcapp]

As someone who loved recording on a Tascam Porta 1 and the last time i recorded anything was the late 80’s the word “region” has me confused. Im used to track 1, track 2 etc and having the length of the cassette be my limitation. With 1350 max regions does each track you make take away from the number of regions you have left? I usually do a drum track, bass track, 2-3 guitar tracks and maybe keyboard and vocals. My songs are 5-6 minutes long. Is that too many things to do? Im thinking of buying an R20 because it reminds me of the Tascam but i am braindead when it comes to digital. I just need something easy to use so i stop forgetting everything…..lol thanks in advance!

 

[TalismanRich]

I think that in this case, a "bar" is inclusive of all channels. It's a slice of time, regardless of the number of tracks. Regions seem to be different. They look like they can be variable in length, and per track.

I actually find that this is a strange way of doing things. Maybe it's to assist in the editing process. I have the R24, and the first time I used it, I started recording (44.1/16) with a 16GB card. At almost 6 hours later, I hit the stop button and I had all 8 hour tracks to work with, each 6 hours long and 1.8GB in size. It just about filled up the 16GB card.

I now use 32GB cards, and do 44.1/24 which gives me right at 8 tracks/8 hours potential recording time which is right at the maximum file size for a FAT32 file. So far, I haven't come close to recording an 8 hour event. The one I did 2 weeks ago was just under 3.5 hours. I don't do any editing in the Zoom. I pull all the tracks into Reaper for editing/mixing.

 

[64Guitars]

With 1350 max regions does each track you make take away from the number of regions you have left?

You're confusing the terminology. The Zoom R20 has a limit of 1350 bars per song project. There is also a limit of 50 regions per song project.



Notice that a track can have multiple regions (as in track 3 above), or it can have a single region for the whole track. Also, a region can be placed anywhere in the track. In the screenshot above, the region for track 1 starts at bar 1 but the first regions of tracks 2, 3 and 4 start at bar 2 and the region in track 5 starts at bar 3.

Every track you record will contain at least one region. So, yes, each track you record reduces the number of regions available in the song project. But 50 regions should be enough. For example, if you recorded all 16 tracks but only used one region per track, then you've used 16 regions and there are still 34 regions available in that song project.

As someone who loved recording on a Tascam Porta 1 and the last time i recorded anything was the late 80’s the word “region” has me confused. Im used to track 1, track 2 etc and having the length of the cassette be my limitation. With 1350 max regions does each track you make take away from the number of regions you have left? I usually do a drum track, bass track, 2-3 guitar tracks and maybe keyboard and vocals. My songs are 5-6 minutes long. Is that too many things to do? Im thinking of buying an R20 because it reminds me of the Tascam but i am braindead when it comes to digital. I just need something easy to use so i stop forgetting everything…..lol thanks in advance!

From what you've said, I don't think the Zoom R20 is the best choice for you. I'd suggest looking at the Boss Micro BR-80 or BR-800, or the TASCAM DP-008EX or DP-03SD.

 

[gbferrell]

I don't get it: if you aren't using midi or the machine's built in drum machine in a project, why would the recorder even consider 'bars'? A .wav file is just an audio recording over a stretch of time. Can't this recorder be configured to not consider 'bars' at all? When I record with my Cakewalk DAW, time signatures and tempos are not even considered- except in the musician's head.