1) Don't try to do looping using the button labeled LOOP on the VS-880. This button is used to loop sections of a song for rehearsal and auto punch in /punch out.
2) Before using the Scrub Button, you must first CALIBRATE THE JOGWHEEL.
3) Before using the Scrub Button, you must also first CALIBRATE THE SCRUB button.
4) The hardest part about looping audio on the VS-880 is finding the edit points. The easy part is jamming through the button presses.
CALIBRATE THE JOGWHEEL
Use the [<] and [>] cursors to calibrate the jogwheel. Press the [<] cursor about 6 times. In the display, the value under the MEASURES indicator will be flashing. Notice the jogwheel has clicks when you turn it. With the jogwheel calibrated to MEASURES, each click of the jogwheel will advance the play position by exactly one measure. (If you try this on a song where a tempo map is not set up, it won't work.) Press the [>] cursor about 6 times. Nothing in the display blinks, but you will notice a tiny arrow in the time display. The time display reads MINUTES, SECONDS, FRAMES, and HUNDREDTHS of FRAMES. With the jogwheel calibrated to this setting, each click of the jogwheel will advance the play position by about 10 hundredths of a frame. Notice how the counter jumps by about 10 with each click. Now try the same thing, but this time press and hold SHIFT as you slowly turn the jogwheel. Now each click moves the edit line by exactly one hundredth of a frame. This is splitting hairs!! (See page 29 of the Application Guide for a more detailed description of this phenomenon.)
CALIBRATE THE SCRUB
When using the Scrub function in the VS-880, it is possible to scrub both forward and backward. That is, you can turn the jogwheel both clockwise and counterclockwise to find an edit point. If you are trying to find the beginning of a note or a kick drum, you will most likely be turning the jogwheel clockwise. If you are editing dialog, and need to find the end of a spoken word, for example the end of the following sentence "Heinz makes great catsup", you would likely locate just past the spoken part, and scrub backwards until you hear the "p p p p" sound which indicates the end of the word "catsup". This type of backwards scrubbing is somewhat rare, except in editing dialog, and doing radio and TV spots.
When every you use the Scrub function, you must tell the VS-880 in advance whether you plan on scrubbing forward (clockwise) or backwards (counterclockwise). Here's how to do it:
Forward Scrubbing: Press the PREVIEW TO button once.
Backwards Scrubbing: Press the PREVIEW FROM button once.
Since about 90% of the time when I use Scrub to find an edit point I'm scrubbing forward into the beginning of a note, I automatically press the [PREVIEW TO] button once before pressing [SCRUB].
CONCLUSION
Before using Scrub, just do the following: Press the [>] cursor 6 times. (Look for the arrow to show up in the Time Display) Press the [Preview To] button once.
LOOPING
For an example, we will select a drum part recorded by a live drummer on Track 2-1. We will select four measures to be looped. The loop will land on Track 3-1. Here's how to do it:
1) Calibrate the jogwheel. Right cursor [>] six times. Look for arrow in time display.
2) Calibrate the Scrub Mode. Press [Preview To] once.
3) Play drum track. Just before downbeat of first measure to be looped, put Locator 1 just before downbeat of measure 5 to be looped, put locator 3 down on the fly.
4) Press stop. Go back to Locator One (which should be in front of downbeat)
5) Press SCRUB, CH EDIT 2. Slowly turn jogwheel clockwise until you hear beginning of kick drum of first measure. To get exactly on the beginning of the kick drum sound, press and hold SHIFT while rocking the jogwheel back and forth to decide on exact beginning of kick drum.
6) Once you've found actual beginning of kick drum, press STOP. Then (very important) CLEAR the Locator 1 and re-write it at this new position. (Actual button presses: STOP, CLEAR+LOC 1, LOC 1)
7) Repeat steps 4 through 6, except this time for Locator Three. Use scrub to find beginning of actual downbeat, then re-write Locator 3 at this position.
8) Check the accuracy of your Locators. From Locator 1, press play. You should be right on a downbeat. Ditto for Locator 3. If you aren't, go back to step 5 and try again using Scrub.
9) With the exact beginning of each downbeat clearly saved as Locator 1 and Locator 3........
Now the easy part - the button jamming, as I call it. Button presses are indicated in brackets. Questions which come up in the VS-880s display are shown in quotes. The right hand cursor button is shown as [>]. The right hand Parameter button is shown as [>>].
Tap the TRACK button under the display until you see "Track Copy ?" in the display.
Press [YES] cursor."Copy Trk ?-? -> ?-?" Press [CH EDIT 2], press [>], then [CH EDIT 3]
Display now reads "Copy Trk 2-1 -> 3-1" Press [>>] once to get to the next page.
"TRK Copy St = ?" Press LOC 1, then press [>>]
"TRK Copy From = ?" Press LOC 1, then press [>>]
"TRK Copy End = ?" Press LOC 3, then press [>>]
"TRK Copy To = ?" Press LOC 3, then press [>>]
"TRK Copy Times = ?" Use jogwheel to select number of loops you want, then press [>>]
"Track Copy OK?" Press [>]
(Notice during editing in the VS-880, you must continue to press the [>>] to step through each page of the edit.)
Pull down fader 2, bring up fader 3. Press LOC 3 to get to the beginning of your loop. Press PLAY. If your loop doesn't sound right, press UNDO and try it again. Double check your locators. With a few practice runs, you'll get this down so you can do perfect looping on the very first try.
Laura Tyson [ltyson@compuserve.com]
2/18/98
1998/03