Zoom Gear & Home Recording Forum

Hello every-one out there.I just aquired a ps-04 trying to find my way around it. No doubt I will be asking all sorts of questions as I am not that good with things like this. However I very much hope that I may get some help from you good people. The guy I bought this from pionted me in your direction saying that collectivly you know all there is to know.

Best Regards Wally

Hi Wally,

Welcome to the forum. Feel free to ask anything.

BTW, do you by any chance worship Sungodv?

Hi Wally -

Welcome to the forum.

Lots of help here -- just ask (or search past threads).

Initial advice: Don't try to learn everything the PS04 can do all at once. Take it one step at a time.

DCM

Welcome Wally,

Go to the PS-02, PS-04 sub-forum, http://www.2090.org/zoom/bbs/viewforum.php?f=2 , and look at the stickies. Quite a lot of information.

Also, some of us have a few hints and tips on our websites.

The PS-04 is a great unit. Love to hear some of your recordings.

Howard

Thank you all for your warm welcome. As I said I am trying to find my way around. Why I bought this is to make recordings of myself playing keyboards & the lady who sings. (we go around care homes) I have had enough of pubs clubs & hotels. Am I able to record me on 1 track and at the same time her on another and then to balance it all and save it to whatever? if this is poss how do I do it? what page in the book tells me?
I find the book mind blowing I think the same guy wrote it who wrote the book for my Tyros 2 hope you can help.

Regards Wally

No, you can only record one track at a time on the PS-04. It seems to be intended for the solo artist who wants to be a "one man band" and lay down all the parts one at a time.

As far as saving, each track you record is saved to the memory card as soon as you hit "stop". You can transfer one or more tracks to your computer for editing or mixing. The tracks are recorded in a proprietary format, so they will need to be converted before being useful on your computer. You can do that with a utility you can download from the Zoom web site.

The manual sucks. Well, maybe that's too strong. But it is difficult for most folks who check in here out of frustration. You can use the rig to record a live gig, but it will be a single mono track.

For a beginner's tutorial, click on the link in my signature below (PS-04 Recordings) to see what I wrote, including links to various audio programs and the Zoom Card Manager utility.

Your adventures into care homes is a great thing. I used to play with a guy and that's what we'd do. We also played a couple of restaurant gigs, but in the care facility, we had full attention. Currently, I go into schools and libraries with another musician to play for kids. Quite rewarding.

Wally -

You can't record to two tracks, but you can later mix down to a pair of stereo tracks.

Assuming you want to do everything on the PS04 (and not take your raw tracks and put them onto a computer for mixing in another program -- which many people do here with great success), what you'd have to do is record your piano part to one track. Then record the vocal to another track, while she monitors the original piano recording. Mix those two tracks together into a stereo pair with whatever processing, spacing, you like.

You could also copy the piano track into a third track, use different processing on both, then mix them together with the vocal into the stereo pair.

DCM

I beg to differ from previous replies. You CAN record two tracks at a time. It is clearly stated in the specs at Zoom.co.jp.
It's been a while since I had my PS-04 switched on, but when I use it I always combine the internal mic with either an instrument or an External mic plugged into the Input jack, recording on two different tracks. If you connect your instruments through some kind of pre-amp you can also assign them to two separate recording tracks.

See page 55 in the manual.

I hope I'm not confusing the issue.

Good Luck

Ouch - you are absolutely right! Duh! I had my head around the internal mic plus input jack - I think one mutes the other, but I'm not sure.

So, to the above I add - to record two tracks at a time, you need to use a Dual Patch. Go from your mics to your mixer to the Line Input. Record on tracks 3 and 4.

Thank you for pointing out my error. I feel dumb. But that's how I learn.

Now it's my turn to apologize.

Thanks for all your help on this one I am going to go to page 55 and see if I can get it to work for me.....I'll let you all know

Wally

Duh!

Ya know . . . I thought I remembered something like this, and I even looked in the manual first and couldn't find it, so I thought, "must have been a different unit."

Do we get points for at least trying to be helpful?

DCM

Wally, welcome to the group. Do make sure you post your creations on the new songs forum.

John