Zoom Gear & Home Recording Forum

I am having trouble during mixdown/bounce. Granted, I have only had my PS04 since Dec 07 and this is my first multi-track recorder. My hunch is that what I am experiencing is operator error.

I am in SONG mode (not sure if that make a difference) and have a drum and bass part programmed. I have 4 tracks of various rhythm and fills that I have recorded. The ZOOM manual seems to imply that I can take those 4 tracks and bounce them onto a single V-take, 2 V-takes if I want stereo. What I end up with is 4 V-takes, essentially each track is shifted to the target V-take. In other words, I want to bounce to V-take 5. I follow the manual's procedure but what I end up with is Track 1 goes to 1-5, track 2 to 2-5, etc. Perhaps this is what it is supposed to do and I am misreading the manual? The PS04 only allows me to select tracks 1 & 2 OR 3 & 4 for bouncing.

Any clarification on the actual capability of the PS04 or a clearer procedure would be much appreciated!

It's been a while - but did you only arm the track(s) you want to bounce to?

Nick was the resident guru on PS-04 but lost his website (or at least the turorial has moved).

I'm not quite sure just what you are doing to start with. Mainly because I didn't find anything in the manual (just downloaded -- I have the HD16) about bouncing the drum/bass audio to a regular track; and hence I don't understand how you could have four regular tracks of "rhythms and fills"

On the HD16, to convert drum/bass from internal (MIDI based) to a WAV audio track requires a special bounce operation, explicitly selecting the drum OR the bass as the "recording source".

As for bouncing, you must set the unit into BOUNCE mode. The "current" takes in the four tracks are the playback source (if you've set the option to NOT mute the recording tracks). For 4->1(mono) or 4->2(stereo) you will have to set it to not mute the destination tracks. You will also have to specify explicit destination takes on those tracks (can't leave it as "current" as those are the track/take you are playing). Set the panning/levels of the playback; arm the record track (or pair), "rewind", record... See the example on page 43, right column [Whoops, there's the footnote that says you can include the drum/bass -- apparently on this unit bounce and mastering are the same process... The HD16 bounce is from "user track" to "user track", but mastering is to a dedicated mastering track pair -- and only mastering tracks can be burned to an audio CD)

SONG mode is used for linking drum/bass patterns (patterns having been created in pattern mode, or maybe built-in). There is no real "track" involved here, a pattern is just a list of on/off events for drums or bass hits; a song is list of patterns and repeats.

PS-04 manual, pages for bounce mode:

31-35 - brief description, basic bouncing

42-45 - technical details, combining multiple tracks during bounce

Sorry if I sound rude, but this doesn't make any sense. It's not possible. You can only write two tracks (takes) at one time, not four. (In fact, I think the PS-04 and/or SmartMedia cards don't have enough throughput for more than two tracks.)

If I am allowed a free interpretation of what you wrote, I would say you are not listening to bounced tracks but to your original tracks. You need to follow the instructions on page 33, section 5-4, in the manual.

Again, I'm not being rude, just a bit straightforward with my theory. Let us know how you progress and once you have the track, feel free to post it in the New Songs section.

I don't know what I was thinking - thanks Albert - you are exactly right.

Thanks Howard

I have moved ISP's a couple of times and i cannot get the files to read with my current ISP and i will udate the links in the FAQ's in case they may be needed in the future when i work it out but i wouldn't think they would be with the old outdated recorder.

Outdated? Well, maybe so, but I am surprised that I am getting more visitors to and emails from my PS-04 site than when the device was current. These are new users who say they just got their units - so I'm thinking there are Ps-04's on the used market in a price range that makes them more affordable, so they are going through a revival of sorts.

At eBay, there is at least one new PS04 auction a day and they use to be sold at less than $150,00. Last year, I have bought mine new from a US seller that probably was aware that it was running out of production and it cost me less than 170 US$.