Part VIII–Data Entry, System & File Management
176
TASCAM SX-1
Reference Manual
Drives and the SX-1
The SX-1 comes with one internal IDE hard drive -
segmented into two virtual hard drives or
partitions –
one for audio and one for the system software. These
partitions are seen by the SX1 as separate drives
(because they have separate formats), and can be
managed as such (meaning that you can manage files
on one partition without affecting the other). As well,
the machine comes with UltraWide SCSI capability,
accessed either by the port on the rear panel, or the
slot underneath the CDRW drive on the front of the
unit.
The internal drive is formatted to BFS, but the SX-1
is capable of mounting all three previously men-
tioned format types and their variations via SCSI:
BFS, FAT32, HFS, and HFS+.
It is possible to have as many as four external drives
running in conjunction with the internal drive, in spe-
cific configurations that will be covered in a few
pages. Even though the internal drive is formatted to
BFS, you can connect any combination (up to four)
of HFS, HFS+ and FAT32 drives via SCSI and have
them running at the same time.
NOTE
Even though they cannot be viewed through the SX-1’s
user interface, the formats for FAT32 and HFS drives
work exactly the same as they do when connected to
their desktop counterparts. This means that if you were
to connect an HFS drive (that you had an SX-1 project
on) to a Mac, you would see the folders and icons you
are used to.
What is actually put on the drive
A project created on the SX1, when moved to a desk-
top system, would be displayed in much the same
way that a project created in any other application
would look.
There are three basic folders created by the SX-1 on
a hard drive, the first of which is the TL Projects
folder (the main folder for SX-1 projects). Inside the
TL Projects folder sit the individual Project folders
themselves, with each Project Folder labeled by the
name entered on the New Project screen, and each
containing a number of different files:
• an Audio Files folder (which contains the raw
audio files, or Clips, from the Project)
• a Data Files folder (which contains all of the data
written to eq, compression, effects processors, etc)
• a Track Files folder (which contains all of the Take
data – basically, all of the EDL information, or
which files get placed at which time)
• a single file named “something.tl”, which is the
Project file itself.
There are two other folders: TL Imports and TL
Exports. These folders serve as buffers for the SX-1
software, which cannot directly read or store certain
types of data without conversion. When an SMF file
is exported to the internal drive, the file ends up in
the TL Exports folder. The TL Imports folder can be
used as a storage area for audio you intend to import
into an SX-1 session, as well as storage for data you
wish to remain immune from a Disk Cleanup
command.
NOTE
It is important to note that you cannot place any data
inside the TL Imports folder from within the SX-1 itself.
The only way to put files inside the TL Folder is by
mounting the drive on a desktop computer. As well,
once you have data in this folder, the only way to delete
those files (without affecting the other data on that
drive) is to move the drive to an external machine.
Obviously, reformatting the drive will clear all of the
data on the drive.
If you never connect a SCSI drive to the SX-1 and
then take that data to a desktop computer, this infor-
mation is largely irrelevant (because all of these
operations are transparent when working on the unit
itself). However, it is always a good idea to know
how something in your system works (and what to
expect), should you attempt to do something you
have never done before.
NOTE
It is worth mentioning that the SX-1 and the units it
derives from (the MX-2424 and the MM series of TAS-
CAM recorders) are some of the only machines available
with the ability to mount common drive formats. These
units are some of the only machines available that write
time-stamped SDII and Broadcast Wave audio files
natively, meaning that there is no need for conversion
when taking your data to another system. This flexibil-
ity is one of the core design concepts behind the SX-1.
