Tascam Pocketstudio 5, Getting Started Manual

Page: 16 / 28

5 – Your first song using the Pocketstudio 5
16
TASCAM Pocketstudio 5 Getting Started
Setting up the rhythm
The first thing to do is to set the tone generator to the
“pattern” setting.
1 From the “home” screen, press
MENU
and
then enter the
SYSTEM
menu.
2
Use the cursor to move to TgMode , and the
wheel to select
PATTERN
.
TIP
While you are in the
SYSTEM
menu, you may decide
that you want to think in terms of bars and beats, not
minutes and seconds. Set the
Time
parameter to
Bars/Beats
if you want to work this way (see
“Choosing the time type” on page 22 of the reference
manual).
Selecting the pattern
From the home screen,
press the MENU key, and enter the PATTERN
menu.
Select a category and style to use as a backing.
You can also adjust the structure of the song, arrang-
ing fills, intro, verses, etc. into the order that fits your
song, and you can also adjust the chord changes
throughout the song, as well as adjusting the relative
levels, pan positions, etc. of the instruments.
See the reference manual describing the use of pat-
terns (“Patterns on the Pocketstudio 5” on page 7) for
full details of how to do these operations.
Start playback using the PLAY
y
key.
Bring up the TG and MASTER faders to their nomi-
nal positions so that the meters show some life, and
adjust the headphone volume using the headphone
level control
A
until it is comfortable. Do not use the
TG or the MASTER faders to adjust the monitoring
level in the headphones.
Adding the rhythm guitar
The first thing to do is to make sure your guitar is in
tune. Happily, the Pocketstudio 5 contains a tuner—
you don’t need other equipment.
1 Connect the guitar to the Pocketstudio 5.
Make sure the switch on the right of the
Pocketstudio 5
D
is set to the
GUITAR
posi-
tion. Plug your guitar into the Pocketstudio
5’s
GUITAR IN
jack.
NOTE
NEVER plug your guitar amplifier speaker output into
the Pocketstudio 5. If you do, will almost certainly dam-
age the Pocketstudio 5 and your guitar amplifier. You
may have an output marked LINE OUT on your ampli-
fier. If such a jack exists, you may use that, but you must
make sure that the selector switch on the Pocketstudio
5 is set to
LINE
and not
GUITAR
(even though the
instrument you are playing is a guitar!).
2 Assign the
GUITAR IN
to track 1.
Press and hold the
INPUT A GUITAR
key and
make sure the
REC READY
lights for tracks 1
and 2 flash rapidly (you will be recording on
tracks 1 and 2 in stereo).
3 Adjust the levels. Make sure that your gui-
tar’s pickup volume and tone controls are set
to the level you want.
NOTE
N
If you have exceptionally powerful pickups on your gui-
tar, you may find that the red
OL indicator by the
INPUT A key flashes on loud passages. This means that
you are overloading the input stages of the Pocketstu-
dio 5, and you should reduce the input level using the
GUITAR/LINE control.
Make sure the Pocketstudio 5 is showing its
home screen (“The “home” screen” on
page 10). You’ve already adjusted the
MASTER fader, haven’t you?
R e c o r d : T r a c k i n g
T g M o d e / P a t t e r n
T e m p o : - - - - - - -
T i m e : A B S
;
C t g r y / R o c k 1
S t y l e : 6 0 s H r o c k
T e m p o : d = 1 0 0
A r n g e : P r e s e t . ;