Analog Recording; Reference Levels; Finalizing Discs - Tascam CD-RW5000 Owner's Manual

NOTE
You cannot use the manual track division
facility if the automatic synchronization is
selected. Make sure that this facility is turned
off before you start recording with manual
track divisions.
It is possible to switch between manual and
automatic track division, even while recording
is taking place, when the sync start facility is
turned off.
We suggest that before making the CD, you play
back the source material, and make a note of the
times at which the track divisions will occur. When
you are actually recording, use these notes and the
time counter on the CD-RW5000 or on the source
device in order to cue you for the track entries.
Prepare to start recording as described above, but
make sure that TRACK INCR MANUAL is shown
on the display. If it is not, you should press the
AUTO/MANUAL key until it appears.
At the points where you want to enter a track divi-
sion, press the RECORD key [17] or [45], or the
TRACK INCR key [39] on the remote control unit.
Pressing any of these keys will write a track division,
and will increment the track number by one.
NOTE
The CD standard states that a track cannot be
less than four seconds in length. Do not
attempt to make tracks which are shorter than
four seconds. Also bear in mind that there can
only be 99 tracks on a CD.

4.5 Analog recording

The CD-RW5000 can accept analog signals in either
balanced or unbalanced format.
The automatic synchronization facility is not avail-
able when making recordings from analog sources.
The balanced signals received at the XLR-type con-
nectors should be at professional +4 dBu level, and
the unbalanced signals received at the RCA jacks
should be at –10 dBV levels. Select the appropriate
input using the SOURCE key [8].
4 - Recording operations
When recording from analog sources, you should
take care that the signal level is low enough to avoid
distortion on the finished CD.
The INPUT level controls [10] should be used to
adjust the level of the input signal, with reference to
the meters.
The controls neither cut nor boost the signal when
they are at the 2 o'clock position.

4.5.1 Reference levels

The meters on the CD-RW5000 are similar to the
meters on other digital equipment; their highest read-
ing is OVER , i.e. harsh-sounding digital clipping
occurs when this signal level is reached.
The meters on analog equipment are typically refer-
enced to a "nominal" level (which is either +4 dBu or
–10 dBV), shown as 0 dB on the meter. Typically,
signals are recorded so that they go above this nomi-
nal level, and the meter can go "into the red" without
unpleasant distortion being apparent.
The 0 dB marking on the meter of an analog device,
and the 0 dB marking on the CD-RW5000's meters
therefore refer to different levels.
When dealing with mixed analog-digital audio sys-
tems, it is common to refer to a "reference level".
This level is the level which is displayed on the digi-
tal equipment's meters when a signal at the analog
nominal level is received by the digital equipment.
The actual level of the nominal signal depends on the
input at which it is received (balanced = +4 dBu,
unbalanced = –10 dBV).
In the case of the CD-RW5000, this reference level is
–16 dBFS. When the REC LEVEL controls are at
their nominal position (see above) and an analog sig-
nal which registers 0 dB on the analog equipment's
meter is input, this would be equivalent to a reading
of –16 dB on the CD-RW5000's meters.
Another way to view this is to think of 16 dB of
headroom being available when a nominal level ana-
log signal is input.

4.6 Finalizing discs

When all material has been added to a disc, it must
be finalized to allow it to be played on a standard CD
player.
Finalizing the disc writes a permanent table of con-
tents (TOC) to the disc, and "closes" it so that no fur-
ther recording is possible (in the case of a CD-RW
TASCAM CD-RW5000
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