Motorola MF-P01 Hints and advanced tips, Recording with effects, Recording more than four tracks

Hints and advanced tips

MF-P01, and may damage the amplifier. Only use outputs which are marked LINE OUT, PRE OUT, DIRECT OUT and so on. Avoid using any outputs marked SPEAKER OUT, SP OUT, 4Ω, 8Ω, 16Ω or the like.

Recording with effects

Professional recordings often use effects like digital reverberation on vocals, etc.

You can add effects such as a reverberation by plugging a source (instrument or microphone) into an effects unit, and plugging the unit into the MF-P01. Note that the effects unit must be able to accept microphone-level signals when connecting a microphone.

In addition, you will need to use the internal balance control in the unit to decide how much of the "dry" (unaffected) sound will be passed through to the MF-P01 for recording.

If you do not have access to a reverberation unit, you can try recording vocals in a very "live" room (without many furnishings).

When you’re not recording

Try to get into the habit of always leaving all the REC FUNCTION switches in the "off" state unless you are actually recording or rehearsing a take.

This will stop you recording by accident (remember that pressing RECORD with all the REC FUNCTION switches to "off" is the same as pressing PLAY).

Recording more than four tracks

Although the MF-P01 has only 4 tracks, it is possible to produce a mix with more than four sounds. There are two methods, as shown below.

Method 1:

•By playing along with the track sounds while mixdown recording, you can also mix an additional sound together with tracks 1 through 4.

In this case, the "live" sound is fed via the MIC/ LINE input, so it is always positioned in the center.

1)Record on all four tracks of the MF-P01, and set all REC FUNCTION switches to "off".

2)Adjust settings of LEVEL and PAN for all tracks for mixdown.

3)Connect the source for the extra input to the MIC/ LINE jack.

4)Use the INPUT LEVEL fader to adjust the levels of the input signals against the tape tracks.

5)Adjust the recording level of the master recorder using the MASTER control of the MF-P01 or the input level control of the master recorder.

Method 2:

For this method, there must be an ordinary stereo cassette recorder used as the master recorder.

1)Make mixdown recording to a TYPE II cassette tape with no noise reduction according to the pro- cedures described in "Mixing down tracks" on page 12.

2)Load this mixed tape in the MF-P01.

The mixed-down signals are played back from tracks 1 and 2, and you can now record additional materials on tracks 3 and 4.

There are a few points to remember:

•Although you can repeat this process of mixing 4 tracks to 2 and then adding 2 more, as you repeat the mix process, noise and hiss will build up to a point where the quality becomes unacceptable.

•The master recorder must have its noise reduction turned off when mixing the MF-P01 tracks to the mastering machine, as the MF-P01 does not use noise reduction. Of course, on the final stereo mix, you can use noise reduction on the master recorder.

•Once you have mixed the four tracks to two, you cannot adjust their levels or pan positions again on the new tape. Think ahead to what tracks you will record on the new tape, and mix accordingly.

14 PORTASTUDIO MF-P01