BR-532

[boldward]

I am really enjoying my second-hand recorder. (sometimes it has been frustrating and 'character-building'. 'You will be laying down your own recordings within minutes!!' ...Yeah, right!!) Anyway, with several masterpieces on the card, I learn that I must bounce them down to one (or two?) tracks before I can transfer (upload? post? offload?) them to my PC. I have tried the bounce feature but have lost a lot of clarity and volume. Is this to be expected or is my m/c faulty? Good luck to y'all!!

[Blooby]

I would make sure you are not "double-dipping" on the reverb.  In other words, if you haven't recorded the individual tracks dry, then additional reverb will back it lose plenty of definition.

To answer your question, as long as things are panned and leveled, you should lose any more clarity than you would hear upon playback before the bounce).

64, our fearless moderator, is a whiz when it comes to troubleshooting.  If you don't figure it out, I would p.m. him.

Blooby

[64Guitars]

The BR has a built-in mixer section with 8 input channels (4 tracks, stereo drums, and stereo input) and 2 output channels (left/right stereo mix). Bounce mode merely records the output of the mixer section to another pair of tracks (so, yes, you need to record to 2 tracks because it's stereo). The track faders control the input levels of the mixer and the Master fader controls the output level. So, the Master fader is your recording level. This is an important point which Roland fails to make clear in the manual. You must set the Master fader for a good signal level on the output (L/R) level meters in order to get a good recording. From your description, it sounds like you probably had the Master fader too low during bouncing. Also, if you bounced to one track instead of two, your recording will be mono which may sound less clear because you'll have lost all separation between the tracks.

64, our fearless moderator, is a whiz when it comes to troubleshooting.  If you don't figure it out, I would p.m. him.

Thanks, Blooby. However, I'd like to point out to everyone that it's best to ask all of your questions about recording in the forum rather than sending a PM to me or anyone else. That way, other members can learn from the replies as well. Public sharing of knowledge and experience is what forums are all about. Beginners should not feel embarrassed to ask their questions publicly. You're not alone. From listening to the great music that's posted here, you might think that all the members are experts at recording and you're the only beginner. But you'd be wrong. We currently have over 1500 members, but I'd estimate that only 100 to 200 of those members post regularly. Of the remaining members, I suspect that most are beginners who read the messages to pick up tips, but are too shy to ask any questions of their own. That's a shame. They could learn much more by getting involved and asking their questions in the forum. And, by doing so, they'd be helping all of the other beginners who have the same questions but are too shy to ask.