Hey Lee Flier!!! I need some help with my brand spanking new Yamaha AW4416

[Jedi]

Hey Lee, I've got a few "baby" questions with the AW4416 that I'm sure you can answer in a millisecond. Whatz up with the limited playback stuff? I'm reading the manual and I'm just not getting it. The real reason I'm asking is because I routed input 2 to tracks 5 & 6 and I routed input 6 to tracks 11 & 12. I hit the REC and Play button at the same time and thought I was recording all 4 tracks. I hit the "monitor" button in the mixer section, and when I hit play I only got tracks 5 & 6. And yeah, I had all four tracks blinking in the Rec trk. select part. Is their something I'm missing. So get back when you can, and if any and all(um hmm....DAN SOUTH :D ) Yamaha AW4416 users have any input to add, I would love to hear it. Thanks all, Lincoln Ross Dead Black Jedis

[Tedster]

(Cartman voice): YOU BASTARD!!! I just got back from Michigan. My buddy Greg bought one of those. He's a bastard, too. He also bought some Event monitors and a TLM 103...and a cool keyboard (don't know much about keys, but it's the one McCartney's keyboard player was using on his recent tour). So he's a REEEEAAALLY big bastard. I got a rock. :D :D :D

[Dan South]

Jedi, Make certain that you have record enabled the tracks by pressing the red track buttons just below the channel meters. Are you able to record on a single track? Try that first. The routing on the AW can be a brain twister. Best to try something simple at first. You can play back 14 tracks if you are recording on a single track, fewer if you are recording mutiple tracks simultaneously. You can select which tracks to mute on the first page of the Tracks button series of pages, but the AW will randomly mute tracks first, and you'll have to switch them. Not that the mute buttons on the fader channels are NOT used for this operation.

[Philip OKeefe]

First of all, I'll assume you're using Version 2.0 software (it will say so on the "splash" screen at startup...) If so, are you ussing the Quick Routing feature or doing the routing via setup? Are you recording at 24 bit or 16 bit? The AW4416 can record on up to 16 tracks at once, but there are a few limitations pertaining to simultaneous recording / playback of tracks. For example, if you record enable one track, two tracks will automatically be muted and will not play back. If the tracks that are muted are ones you MUST hear, just mute a couple of other tracks (ones that are not crucial for monitoring while doing the overdub) and then unmute the tracks the AW "automatically" muted when you record enabled the tracks. Have you hit the "all mute off" icon on the main screen?

[Lee Flier]

Hey Jedi, Congratulations on your new baby! Phil and Dan pretty much already asked you all the things I would have asked, so try their suggestions and if you still can't get it, give a little more detail as to how you're doing the routing. Also, you might want to sign up for the AW4416 user group, there are some great folks on there (I hang out there myself) who can help out with all your newbie questions: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aw4416 Good luck!

[eh steve]

Jedi, [url=http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AW4416/]Here[/url] is a great resource for the AW. *edit* D'oh! *edit*

[Jedi]

Thanks all. Hey Tedster, I'm a little bit of a bastard too. I got some Events and I'm happy with them also. I also got that Rode NTK that I wanted so badly. Bastard, I am :D . I hope to hear your trip from Michigan was cool. Hey Dan, Phil, and Lee, Thanks for all the suggestions. I'm recording to 24 bit. I recorded on two tracks already, but I haven't checked the "all mute off" on the main screen. I'll check for that, thanks. I'm not routing through the Quick Rec., I just did the regular routing and everything came through fine. I hit the rec buttons under the meters and everything came through. I hit record and so the little line under the track number in the meter screen so I thought I was really rockin'. So you can imagine my dismay, when I hit playback and only two of the four tracks I recorded played back. I'm going keep working with it of course, and try all your suggestions. Thanks guys. And thanks for those links Lee and W8less. Ted's bastard :D , Lincoln Ross Dead Black Jedis

[Lee Flier]

[quote]Originally posted by Jedi: [b] I'm not routing through the Quick Rec., I just did the regular routing and everything came through fine. I hit the rec buttons under the meters and everything came through. I hit record and so the little line under the track number in the meter screen so I thought I was really rockin'. So you can imagine my dismay, when I hit playback and only two of the four tracks I recorded played back. [/b][/quote]Well, if you saw signal on the meters and you see a "ribbon" for each of the four tracks on the Track screen, it recorded just fine and your problem is something in the playback. It's possible that track muting is enabled for those tracks, which you can see in the Track screen if so, and it can be remedied by hitting "All Mute Off." Otherwise, your playback routing may be screwed up. A common error is to be on the wrong channel layer when routing (e.g. input instead of monitor). Make sure you didn't accidentally route monitor channels 11 and 12 somewhere else besides the stereo buss.

[Jedi]

Thanks Lee, I just finished messing around with it, and I got everything playing back. I'm watching the video as we speak. I'm getting there. Things are sounding great, tho. thanks again, Lincoln Ross Dead Black Jedis

[Lee Flier]

Glad to hear it, Jedi! And yeah, that was gonna be my next question: how's it SOUND? :) Don't be shy about piping up with any other questions, there's a bit of a learning curve on that machine and it has a few idiosyncracies but once you get used to it, you're set.

[Kendrix]

Hey Jedi. Congrats and have fun with the new baby. I bought mine in May. It will take just a little while to get familiar with. I had been working on another Yamaha digital mixer and the UI had allot in common with the AW. Even so, I actually read the manual and it took just a little while to get comfy. (I almost always read the manual before buying anything this complex so I can really understand what its up to.) One thing I ve found improved the already good sound is using the inserts on channels 1,2 or Digi ins to bypass the analog input sections of the AW. This seems to yield a more neutral, natural sound. IMHO. Cheers

[Jedi]

Thanks for the tip, Kendrix. I'll try that out. I got a quick question, folks. What's the point of routing a track to a different bus than the stereo bus. I was reading the manual and it was saying to route track 1/2 to 1/2 intead of the stereo bus. I know this might be an idiot question, but what is the reason for doing this? Is it to run those tracks to outboard gear? Little stuff like this confuses me when I read manuals. I am working all of the tutorial materials(I must admit slowly), but I'm really trying to burn something as quick as possible. I want to do a test run to see what other things I might need for my project studio like an external clock, treatment for the walls, etc. That's why I started this thread to kind of jump start me on some basic applications. thanks a lot folks, Lincoln Ross Dead Black Jedis

[Lee Flier]

[quote]Originally posted by Jedi: [b] I got a quick question, folks. What's the point of routing a track to a different bus than the stereo bus. I was reading the manual and it was saying to route track 1/2 to 1/2 intead of the stereo bus. I know this might be an idiot question, but what is the reason for doing this? Is it to run those tracks to outboard gear? Little stuff like this confuses me when I read manuals. [/b][/quote]Don't feel too badly, because the AW4416's operation manual basically sucks. :D To simplify things, I don't know if you've used analog consoles much, but pretend the AW is a split console (separate tracks for inputs and monitoring). Imagine instead of 16 faders you've got a big console with 48 channels. The first 32 or so channels would be available as input channels, that is, you could assign them either to the stereo buss (for effects returns) or to the inputs on the "tape deck." The last 16 channels would be returning back from the "tape deck" so you can monitor. That's what the different fader layers on the AW are like, except that on this imaginary console you can only see 16 channels at a time. On the input layers, if say you're recording a guitar into input channel 1, but you want to record it on track 6, you would route input channel 1 to buss 6, then on the monitor layer you would bring up channel 6 which would be sent to the stereo buss so you can hear it. You normally wouldn't send the monitor channels to anything but the stereo buss, unless you're doing a submix. Say you're mixing down 6 different backing vocal tracks (recorded on tracks 1 thru 6) to two available tracks (say 7 and 8) so you can free up the original tracks. To do this, instead of routing monitor channels 1 through 6 to the stereo buss, you'd send them to busses 7 and 8, record-enable tracks 7 and 8, and hit Record. You can monitor your submix via monitor channels 7 and 8. I don't know how much previous experience you have with consoles and routing, but hopefully that makes sense. :)

[Kendrix]

If Im understanding correctly, I beleive Ive used this "alternate" routing in order to print some effects from the on-board algorythms. This allowd me to re-configure the effect for another sound - and I had the recorder channels to spare.

[Jedi]

Yes Lee that makes a ton of sense. I guess I was just one step ahead. I thought the input should go straight to the Stereo bus. Now, I see the input goes to a bus, which goes to the recorder track which goes to the stereo bus, sheesh :D . OK, I thought I understood it ;) . All kidding aside, yeah I'm getting it. Thanks for the comments Lee and Kendrix, they're really clearing my mind. I understand that printing to free up an effect, Kendrix, thanks. That's something I would definitely need to know, I do a lot of printing to track. I'm a daring(foolish) soul :D . I'm off to get to work on the thing, Lincoln Ross Dead Black Jedis

[saucyjack]

Lincoln, congrats on the machine...I've had the AW for few years now...3 album projects later I'm still happy with it.The AW can take some time to wrap your head around...best to way to learn it is just start recording and deinitely check out the Yahoo AW group.