5 - Basic operations
TASCAM DA-78HR
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2Enter shift mode, and enter the sub-mixer
mode.
3Make the level and pan settings for the tracks
which are to be combined, as described in 7.4,
“Sub-mixer”. See this section for full details of
how to o p era te the su b-mi xer.
4You can use the DA-78HR’s SPDIF (COAXIAL),
TDIF-1 and an al og outp u ts to mon itor tracks 7
and 8. Only tracks 7 and 8 will be output from
the TDIF- 1 and analog outputs, and the other
track outputs will be muted.
5Arm tracks 7 and 8.
6Record tracks 7 and 8.

5.3.4 Returnin g to A LL ANALOG setting

After tracks have been set individually, it may be
necessary to return the inputs to all analog. It is then
easy to return to all digital (see 5.3, “Input selec-
tion”), but setting all inputs to “all track” would be a
somewhat pointless s etting!
1While the unit is in “patchbay” mode, as
described in 5. 3.2, “Input patchbay ro uting”,
press and hold down one of the ▲ or ▼ keys,
and press the other of these keys.
The routing will change to all analog (ALL
ANALOG).
5.4 More on digital recording
The DA-78HR is a ble to accept (and output) digital
signals at the DIGITAL I/O connect or in TD IF-1
format.
The DA-78HR should be connected to other TDIF-1
equip ment us i n g a PW-8 8D or PW-88D L conn e ctor
cable.
NOTE
Only use a TASCAM digital cable when making digi-
tal audio connections to the DA-78HR. Other types of
cable may cause damage to the system, and the
warranty will be voided if such damag e is c a used by
use of the wr ong ca bl es.
The DA-78HR sho uld be set to be either a word
clock master or a word clock slave when connected
to other digital equipment. There can only be one
word c lock ma ster in a se tup.

5.4.1 Sampling freque ncy and word

length

If you attempt to record digitally from a digital
source which has a different frequency from that pre-
viously recorded as the DA-78HR’s tape format, the
Fs indica t or corr espond ing to t he tape’s s ampli ng
frequency will start to flash. This indicates a fre-
quency mismatch.
Recording with different sampling frequencies is not
recommended – problems will certainly occur on
replay of such a recording.
If you attempt to record digitally from a digital
source with a word length (5.1, “Formatting a tape”)
different from that for which the tape has been for-
matted, errors will occur. A good rule is therefore to
keep one word length and one sampling frequency
throughout a tape.

5.4.2 Sele cting in put word l ength

When data is accepted through the DIGITAL I/O con-
nector, the word length o f the incoming d ata must be
set. This can be selected from between 16-bit, 20-bit
or 24-bit. This is not the same as the resolution
recorded on tape.
To set the word length:
1Press the SHIFT key s o that the SHIFT indicator
is flashing, and press the MENU
key until the
display show s AUDIO. 1 -- (AUDIO1--).
2Press the SUB MENU key until the display
shows TDIF. ;; (TDIF xx, where xx is the cur-
rent input word length).
3Use the ▲ and ▼ keys to choos e betw een 24 , 20
and 16-bit word lengths.
We sug gest t hat you ex peri ment with the dith er
settings (7.11, “Dither”) if you find you are
recording quantization noise at low levels when
the input word le ngth is set t o 20 or 24 bits and
you are recording at 16-bit resolution. Though
you will lose a little in the signal-to-noise ratio,
total harmonic distortion figures will be
improved.
NOTE
If you ar e dubb i ng tra cks fro m a DA-8 8, this value
must always be set to 16 bits.
5.5 Overdubbing
Overdubbing subsequent tracks is carried out in a
very similar way to recording the first tracks.