Tascam MD-801P Mk II, MD-801R/P Mk II 45,

4 - Recording operations

TASCAM MD-801R/P Mk II

4–5

MD-801R model only.

4.3.1General notes on recording using

the MD format

Because the MD method of recording is somewhat

different to a linear recording method, such as tape,

you should note the following points.

• The message

Disc Full

may appear on the

display before the available recording time on the

disc has all be used.

This may be because more than 255 tracks hav e been

recorded on the disc.

• The sum of the total recorded time, and the dis-

played remaining available time may not equal the

theoretical total capacity of the disc.

This is because of the nature of the MiniDisc track

structure. At least two seconds are used for every

MiniDisc track, regardless of the audio structure. In

addition, “bad sectors”, caused by dirt, scratches, etc.

are automatically skipped and ignored, which means

that they are unavailable for recording. We always

suggest that you leave some “safety net”, and do not

attempt to record a program of exactly 74 minutes on

an MD marked as 74 minutes.

• Erasing a track will not make the time the exact

length of the erased track available for recording.

This is on account of the nature of the MD recording

format, and has to do with block size, etc. If you are

familiar with computer systems, you may be aware

of a simiular limitation with regard to ﬁle size on

some operating systems.

4.3.2Rebuilding the TOC

It is possible to rebuild the TOC, which will free up

recording space if a heavily-edited disc is being used.

With the MD-801 stopped, press the

EDIT

key

[18]

Turn the

DATA

dial

[12]

until the display

shows:

Turn the

SHUTTLE

wheel

[13]

clockwise to

rebuild the TOC (counterclockwise to cancel

the operation).

When the display shows

Complete

, and

the

TOC WRITE

indicator

[19]

lights, press the

TOC WRITE

key to write the new TOC to disc.

NOTE

Depending on the condition of the disc (how

many edits ha ve been perf ormed, etc.), it may

take a considerable amount of time for the

T OC to be reb uilt. In rare cases, the recording

capacity of the disc may not be increased,

even after the TOC has been rebuilt in this

way.

• The number of tracks that have been intentionally

recorded, and the number of tracks displayed may

not match.

When the transport encounters dirt or scratches, etc.,

the current track is ended, and a new track is started.

This automatically-created track is marked by the let-

ters “

Cont !!

” being added to the end of the

track title. This “track” cannot be combined using the

editing methods available. To av oid the occurence of

such “tracks”, it is important to keep the MD media

clean and dust-free.

NOTE

Every time recording is halted, the TOC is

updated. As always, avoid turning off the

power while the TOC is being written. In addi-

tion, you should be aware that if you have

performed editing operations that you do not

want to commit to disc, and then do some

recording, the edit operations will be sa ved to

disc when recording stops. You may want to

eject the disc without writing the edits (see

[3]

) before recording, to avoid this situation.

Like most other forms of recordable media, MDs

incorporate a write-protect tab, which can prevent

you from accidentally overwriting precious record-

ings. If you try recording with a disc that has had the

tab set to the “protect” position (open), the display

will show:

If you want to record on this disc, you must eject the

disc, close the write-protect tab and record again.

4.3.3Basic recording

This gives the basic instructions on how to record.

There are a number of different recording-related

options which may be selected, as described else-

where in this section.

TOC REBUILD? W_Protected!