Tascam Comprehensive Guide for CD RW 5000 Recording and Finalizing Techniques

NOTE

You cannot use the manual track division facility if the automatic synchronization is selected. Make sure that this facility is turned off before you start recording with manual track divisions.

It is possible to switch between manual and automatic track division, even while recording is taking place, when the sync start facility is turned off.

We suggest that before making the CD, you play back the source material, and make a note of the times at which the track divisions will occur. When you are actually recording, use these notes and the time counter on the CD-RW5000 or on the source device in order to cue you for the track entries.

Prepare to start recording as described above, but make sure that TRACK INCR MANUAL is shown on the display. If it is not, you should press the AUTO/MANUAL key until it appears.

At the points where you want to enter a track divi- sion, press the RECORD key [17] or [45], or the TRACK INCR key [39] on the remote control unit.

Pressing any of these keys will write a track division, and will increment the track number by one.

NOTE

The CD standard states that a track cannot be less than four seconds in length. Do not attempt to make tracks which are shorter than four seconds. Also bear in mind that there can only be 99 tracks on a CD.

4.5 Analog recording

The CD-RW5000 can accept analog signals in either balanced or unbalanced format.

The automatic synchronization facility is not avail- able when making recordings from analog sources.

The balanced signals received at the XLR-type con- nectors should be at professional +4 dBu level, and the unbalanced signals received at the RCA jacks should be at –10 dBV levels. Select the appropriate input using the SOURCE key [8].

4 - Recording operations

When recording from analog sources, you should take care that the signal level is low enough to avoid distortion on the finished CD.

The INPUT level controls [10] should be used to adjust the level of the input signal, with reference to the meters.

The controls neither cut nor boost the signal when they are at the 2 o’clock position.

4.5.1 Reference levels

The meters on the CD-RW5000 are similar to the meters on other digital equipment; their highest read- ing is OVER, i.e. harsh-sounding digital clipping occurs when this signal level is reached.

The meters on analog equipment are typically refer- enced to a “nominal” level (which is either +4 dBu or –10 dBV), shown as 0 dB on the meter. Typically, signals are recorded so that they go above this nomi- nal level, and the meter can go “into the red” without unpleasant distortion being apparent.

The 0 dB marking on the meter of an analog device, and the 0 dB marking on the CD-RW5000’s meters therefore refer to different levels.

When dealing with mixed analog-digital audio sys- tems, it is common to refer to a “reference level”. This level is the level which is displayed on the digi- tal equipment’s meters when a signal at the analog nominal level is received by the digital equipment. The actual level of the nominal signal depends on the input at which it is received (balanced = +4 dBu, unbalanced = –10 dBV).

In the case of the CD-RW5000, this reference level is –16 dBFS. When the REC LEVEL controls are at their nominal position (see above) and an analog sig- nal which registers 0 dB on the analog equipment’s meter is input, this would be equivalent to a reading of –16 dB on the CD-RW5000’s meters.

Another way to view this is to think of 16 dB of headroom being available when a nominal level ana- log signal is input.

4.6 Finalizing discs

When all material has been added to a disc, it must be finalized to allow it to be played on a standard CD player.

Finalizing the disc writes a permanent table of con- tents (TOC) to the disc, and “closes” it so that no fur- ther recording is possible (in the case of a CD-RW

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