clevodrummer said:
I am curious about the choices of panning when recording. I know that the manual says you dont have to change tracks, just pan odd # tracks to the left, and even numbered to the right.
To avoid confusion, lets say I have recorded something on track 1, than I want to record on track 3, instead of just panning, I put track 1 into safe, and then I buss the source right into track 3 and pan at center.
Is this o.k., or even if I go direct into track 3, should I pan track 3 all the way to the left, or pan in the center.
I just find I am more apt not to make a mistake when I stay away from panning, and run my source right into the track itself and pan it in the center.
Any thoughts?
Generally, although I don't think it matters, if oyu are using 'direct' mode, I'd keep the pan centered. Now to use the Buss L and Buss R mode, in the scenario you described, keep the pan on the input (channel 1) hard left, put track 1 in safe mode, and track 3 in buss L, and what you record, will only end up on track 3.
One thing I have mentioned here before, but I'll say again is I had an epiphany with my recorder (actually a 424mkii), when I came to realize the difference between "channels" and "tracks." When you are recording, all the stuff that you plug a source, and adjust with faders, pan knobs etc (basically everything on the left half of the machine), are channels - nothing more than any other mixer. However those sounds can be sent to track 1, 2, 3, or 4, depending on your intentions. Lets say you have 4 things plugged in channels 1-4. Anything panned L can go to track 1 and/or 3, and anything panned right can go to tracks 2 and/or 4. If you have something panned centered, if you have, for instance, track 1 in 'buss l' and track 2 in 'buss r' mode, it will go to both tracks. If you have the source track panned 75% right, 75 % of the sound will end up on track 2 and only 25% on track 1.
Also, using this technique, rather than the direct mode, you could record up to 6 (or more? - not sure on the mkiii) sources just to tracks 1 and 2 in a stereo pair. You could put 6 mics on your drum kit, pan them to where you see fit, and record them as such on tracks 1 and 2 in full stereo.
But, back to your original idea - here's what I'd do - pan channel 1 hard left. record your first instrument onto track 1 with 'buss l' selected. for your second instrument, rotate the pan knob hard right. Switch track 1 to 'safe' and track 2 to 'buss r'. Record 2nd instrument. To record the 3d instrument, rotate the pan knob back hard left, and switch track 2 to 'safe' and track 3 to 'buss l'...and so forth. This way, all you are doing is moving the safe-buss switches, and panning knob. if you are recording similar instruments (2 or 3 guitar tracks, or 2 or 3 vocals) you never need to unplug the mic from the channel 1 input, or reset the trim, or fader, or eq, or anything. This also works well, if you recorded a pretty good take, but want to see if you can do it a little better. Just switch to the next track (if they're not all full) and try a second take, without recording over the pretty good one.
Wow, see what happens when you catch me right after lunch - I don't ever shut up....