Muting inputs during stereo recording

[leighelse]

I had my first session with my BR-1600 this afternoon. It went surprisingly smoothly: it's a logical device, and I wasn't put off by the need to scroll through menus to get at the functions I wanted. I don't think the track I was working on is ready to share (it's mostly a capella, and I'm not a singer), but if I keep at it ...

There was one thing I couldn't figure out. When you're recording in multi-track mode, inputs one to eight obviously map to tracks one to eight: that's straightforward. However, when recording in stereo mode (which I did at one point) there seems to be no way to mute inputs you're not using. I had a microphone open and my breathing and foot-tapping ended up on top of the piano track. I turned the input trim right down, but the mic was still live. In the end I unplugged it - but there's got to be a better way, surely?

A related thing is that, when overdubbing some parts, I pulled the vocal track fader right down. I expected that to remove the vocal track completely from the mix, but no. It was still audible although very quiet. Is this normal? I realise I can mute tracks, and that's what I did, but I was surprised. There were no effects on the track (I've been caught by pre-fader sends in the past).

I got today's opportunity by getting ahead with some of the work I've committed to; that and clients not getting back to me. If I'm good I might get another afternoon next weekend.

[bruno]

To be honest, I think the only way is to unplug - at least I'm not aware of anyway to cut the input, will have a poke around to see the next time I fire up the machine.
B

[leighelse]

Thanks for your reply Bruno. I believe I've found it.

Page 260 of the Owner's Manual says:

Although you will be able to record eight inputs whenever either [MULTI-TRACK] or [STEREO TRACKS] has been selected from INPUT SELECT, you may in certain cases prefer not to record some of these input sources. In such a case, you can use Level Calibration's muting function to turn muting on and off using a single button.

It looks straightforward, at least in the manual.

[Blooby]

I assume your unwanted track bled onto a new track when you recorded it. You can quickly turn on/off tracks or mute them by pressing the buttons at the bottom of the faders (when it's not playing or recording).

Blooby

[leighelse]

No, the extraneous microphone signal ended up on the stereo pair I was recording. But I've tested the Level Calibration's MUTE function and it works as stated, so I know what to do about that in future.

The MUTE function resets every time you boot the machine, which is a good safeguard against senior moments (my mic's stopped working; I wonder why?).

[AndyR]

Another one solved before I got to it!

This used to REALLY bug me and was the source of extra noise/hiss on some of my earlier recordings. Even now, I still forget to mute if I'm in a rush sometimes.

I record all keys, electric guitars, and bass, through a mixing desk that is always plugged into inputs 7 and 8. So I record using Stereo input and choose the tracks I want to record on.

But I also have a large condensor mic plugged straight into input 2. Even with phantom power off and input 2's trim all the way down - you'll still get a little bit of something added to your stereo mix! And if you have left some dynamic mics plugged in... well, all the swearing and foot-stomping can get added as well!

I used to think it was a design fault until one day I wanted to record a stereo image of an acoustic guitar using several mics... I was about to unplug everything and reroute all the mics through my mixing desk, when I suddenly realised that that was why all the inputs are live on both Multi and Stereo (and I was VERY grateful too, that day)

But, personally, I'd rather they didn't reset the MUTE on power up... my senior moments tend to lead to several instrument parts getting tracked before I notice the meters reacting to the loud "OH F**KITY F**K F**K!!" as I hit stop on an aborted take - when I check out the other parts, yeah, there's the heavy breathing, the chair moving across the room, etc, etc... (I could just about cope with the "why isn't my mic working?", in this case, because my mind works in a "well you muted input 2 last time, it should still be muted now" kind of way)