November 8, 1998

http://www.reedkotler.com

Congratulations on your purchase of the TR-400 Digital Music Study Recorder.

The TR-400 has been designed to provide a lifetime of enjoyment.

Take minute to inspect the contents of this box.

You should find:

1. TR-400 digital music study recorder
2. 120 volt, 60hz AC power adapter, 9 VDC, 500 mA, positive inside terminal, negative sleeve
3. Registration Card
4. Warranty Information
5. This manual

We have made this manual as short as possible so that it is practical for someone to read it carefully and thoroughly. Please take the time to do this now and feel free to follow the instructions with your unit as you read through the manual.

Certain keys on the TR-400 are called accelerator keys. The function of these keys will accelerate if the key is held down as opposed to just pressed and released immediately.

The keys 7 , 8 /= are accelerator keys. In addition, certain double key combinations, i.e. begin/faster, begin/slower, end/faster, end/slower will accelerate their functions when held down continuously.

First place your TR-400 on a flat table.

Locate the "LINE IN" jack on the top left-hand side of the TR 400.

Connect an audio source (CD player, stereo output, tape recorder) to this input of your TR-400. You will need a stereo cable (not included) to do this. . While it is marked "LINE IN", the TR-400 can accept either line level input or headphone output from an audio source.

To listen to the output of the TR-400 you must either:

1. Connect a pair of stereo headphones to the TR-400 HD PHONE jack located on the right hand-side next to the HD PHONE volume jack and/or
2. Connect an output device which is driven by line level input such as a stereo system or pair of powered speakers (such as those powered multimedia speakers used for computers) to the LINE OUT jack on the back of the TR-400.

Connect the power adapter to the "PWR" jack located on the left-hand side of the TR-400. Next plug the adapter in an appropriate electrical receptacle.

Turning the unit on.

The unit may now be turned on by turning the ON/OFF switch located on the left hand side of the TR-400 (just below the PWR jack) to the ON position.

Upon turning the unit ON, the led above the 8 /= should start blinking slowly and the led to the left of FASTER should be lit.

The R/R+L/L switch on the left hand-side of the TR-400 determines whether the left, right or left and right audio input channels will be recorded. Usually the particular instrument you are transcribing is more strongly heard on the left or right audio input.

When the led above the 8 /= is blinking slowly, then the unit is in the record standby state. That means it is ready to begin recording. Whenever the unit is in the stopped state (this will be explained later), pressing the 8 /= will cause the unit to enter the record standby state. (If you ever accidentally press this key and enter the record standby state, you can cancel it by hitting the 4 /< key).

When the unit is in the record standby state, you can hear the audio input device connected to the TR-400.

Before recording, you should set the recording level to get the best fidelity on playback and also to avoid recording "too hot" which will result in a digital clipping noise. Recording "too low" will also result in decreased playback fidelity.

In the upper left corner of the TR-400 is the RECORD VOLUME control .

Best fidelity will be achieved when the recording level is just below the point at which the audio will start to make a digital clipping sound. As you listen to your music, make this adjustment right now before recording. If you think that a later section of the music may be much louder, you may want to fast forward ahead and set the record level using a later point in the music.

You are now ready to record some music. (Make sure that you are in the record standby state. I.e. that the led above the FF/REC is blinking slowly.)

Play some music from your audio source (CD player, tape player, stereo).

When your music reaches the point at which you want to start recording, press the 8 /= key. The led above the 8 /= key should now begin blinking more rapidly. This means that the unit has entered the record state (i.e. is now recording).

When the 8 /= led stops blinking, that means it has finished recording and is in the stopped state. It will stop recording when all the memory for recording is used up, i.e. after 150 seconds. While it is recording, you can also make it stop recording before the memory for recording is used up by pressing 8 /= again. In either case, the led above the FF/REC should be off when the unit has stopped recording.

The music recorded by the unit shall be referred to as the "recording".

The various playback keys of the unit operate on a portion of the recording called the playback region. When you first record some music, the playback region is the entire recording. Later we will see that it is possible to restrict the playback region to be just a portion of the recording..

The unit has three playback states: stopped, play and pause.

The led above the 4 /< indicates the current playback state. The state is:

1. stopped if the led is off;
2. play if the led is blinking;
3. pause if the led is on continuously.

There is also associated with playback, the notion of the playback position. Initially the playback position is at the beginning of the playback region. As the music plays, the playback position moves towards the end of the playback region.

Pressing the 4 /< will cause the following to happen:

1. If the unit is in the play state, it will cause the unit to stop playing. The playback position will be left at the place it was when the 4 /< key was pressed.
2. If the unit is in the stopped state, it will cause the unit to play (enter the play state) from the beginning of the playback region.

When in the play state, pressing the ; key will cause the unit to enter the pause state and the playback position will remain where it was when the pause state was entered. When in the pause state, no sound will be heard. To leave the pause state, press the ; key again which will cause the unit to reenter the play state.

The two remaining playback keys are the 7 (rewind) key and the 8 /= key.

The 7 key will operate when the unit is either in the play or stopped state. Its effect will be to move the playback position back towards the beginning of the playback region. The unit will reenter the play state as soon as the 7 key is released.

The 8 /= key will only function as fast forward when the unit is in the play state. Otherwise, it will cause you to enter record standby mode. If you accidentally enter record standby mode, you can cancel it by hitting the4 /< key .

Fast forward will cause the playback position to move rapidly towards the end of the playback region.

Try playing back some music, rewinding, stopping, etc. in order to get a feel for how these keys work.

To slow music down, you use the FASTER and SLOWER keys. The leds to the left of those keys indicate the amount of slowdown. In this section we will discuss the method of slowing down music and in the next section we will discuss ways to adjust the slowdown process for best sound fidelity.

The FASTER and SLOWER keys may be pressed while the unit is in the stopped state or play state.

The unit may play back at full, 3/4, 2/3, 1/2, 1/3, 1/4, 1/5, 1/6, 1/7 and 1/8 speed.

Full speed is when the single led next to the FASTER key is lit. 1/8 speed is when all leds are lit. Normally, the speed will follow the order above when pressing FASTER or SLOWER. If you press SLOWER when you are at 1/8 speed, the unit will return to full speed. Similarly, if you press FASTER when the unit is at full speed, the unit will go to 1/8 speed.

Try playing back some music and making it go slower or faster by pressing the FASTER and SLOWER keys.

The TR-400 has 4 presets for the slowdown process.

We have chosen the default preset (upon "power up") to cover the widest number of situations (instrument, speed, etc).

However you may choose any of the presets for playback. Each one has a little different quality and you will have to experiment to find the one you like best for a given recording. The initial preset is 1.

To change the preset, while in the stopped state press down the BEGIN key, hold it down and then press the; key, continuing to hold the BEGIN key down. This will change the preset to the next in the list (1->2, 2->3, 3->4 and 4->1). You will notice that one of the four leds normally used for the playback speed will blink. The blinking led indicates which preset (1-4) is now selected. By continuing to hold down the BEGIN key and pressing the ; key, you can change which preset number you are using.

Presets 1 and 3 are essentially unique presets. Preset 1 is the default and will work very well in almost any situation. Preset 3 has a lot of presence and will give especially good sound for medium tempo saxophone, bass and jazz guitar. Presets 1 and 3 may have a slight pulsating noise component if the music has a very large dynamic range (like with solo piano). Usually the sound is not there at all, is so faint that it won’t even be noticed or can easily be ignored. If the sound bothers you, you can switch the next preset (i.e. 1->2, 3->4). In other words preset 2 is preset 1 with that noise removed. However removing that noise is at the expense of some clarity in the original sound so it’s really up to you which preset you choose. The thing to remember with all of this is that the TR-400 is a tool and the most important thing is to choose the preset which allows you to hear most clearly the notes, length of notes and position of the notes in time.

When transcribing music, usually we do not want to keep listening to the entire recording.

Thus we want a playback region that consists of the portion of the music that we are currently transcribing.

The playback region has a left and a right boundary in time. For example, the playback

region might be that portion of the recording starting at 5 seconds and ending at 10 seconds.

When you first make a recording, the playback region is set to the entire recording. Thus if you recorded 80 seconds of music, the left edge of the playback region is at time 0 seconds and the right edge of playback region is at time 80 seconds.

There are numerous ways to alter to playback region.

The left edge of the playback region is most easily set using the BEGIN key and the right end using the END key.

The following steps are taken:

1. Enter the play state.
2. When the playback reaches the part of the recording that you want to be the beginning of the playback region, press the BEGIN key. (If you want the playback region to begin at the beginning of the recorded music, then you can omit this step).
3. When playback reaches where you want the playback region to end, press the END key. (If you want the playback region to end at the end of the recorded music, then you can omit this step).

The above actions will be the same whether the led above the BEGIN or END key is already lit or not. (The meaning of the led will be explained below).

The led above the BEGIN key indicates that the playback region begins at a time later than the absolute beginning of the recorded music. While in the stopped state, if the led above BEGIN is lit, pressing BEGIN will cause the led to turn off. Thus this is the method for resetting the playback region to begin at the absolute beginning of the recorded music.

The led above the END key indicates that the playback region ends at a time earlier than the absolute end of the recorded music. While in the stopped state, if the led above END is lit, pressing END will cause the led to turn off. Thus this is the method for resetting the playback region to end at the absolute end of the recorded music

The playback region is made bigger or smaller by moving (in time) the right or left edge of the playback region.

Pressing the END key down, holding it down and then pressing the "SLOWER" key will move the right edge forward in time. Pressing the END key down, holding it down and then pressing the "FASTER" key will move the right edge backward in time.

Pressing the BEGIN key down, holding it down and then pressing the "SLOWER" key will move the left edge forward in time. Pressing the BEGIN key down, holding it down and then pressing the "FASTER" key will move the left edge backward in time.

Pressing the these key combinations with a single press will move the applicable edge 0.1 seconds. Holding the key down will accelerate as far as how much the applicable edge moves.

These keys will have this effect while the unit is in the play or stopped state.

Normally when we reach the end of the playback region, the unit will enter the stopped state. If you wish for it to go back to the beginning of the playback region and playback again (in other words to loop) then you enter the play state by holding down the BEGIN key and then pressing 4 /< instead of just pressing 4 /< .

One application of continuous playback is its use in transcribing chords. One can enable continuous playback and then create a small playback region that just surrounds the chord you are trying to transcribe. Experiment with different speed selections to get the best sound. The chord should ring out and you can try matching the chord on your instrument until it sounds the same as the one that the TR-400 is playing.

You may connect your guitar or keyboard to the instrument jack of your TR-400 unit.

Adjust the volume of your guitar using the volume control on your guitar.

Adjust the volume by for the keyboard using either the keyboard output or keyboard headphone volume control (depending on which keyboard output you used).

There is a function of the TR-400 that we call the bass isolator. It will in general filter out all instruments except for the bass.

When you use this option, it changes the recorded sound so it’s an irreversible process.

To use the bass isolator, after recording the music, press the 8 /= key, release it, and then press the ; key and release it. Both the 8 /= and 4 /< leds will go on for a few seconds.

When the leds go off, you can play back the music again.

You can apply the bass isolator more than once to get increasing bass isolation but the sound will deteriorate if you apply it too many times. Generally you should apply it until you only hear the bass.

After creating the isolated bass, you may find it still useful to transpose the pitch up one octave to even better hear the bass. This will cause the speed to increase so you will want to slow the speed down after that. This will clear up some of the negative sound effects brought on by the bass isolator.

To transpose one octave up, press the 8 /= key and then press the BEGIN key. The led above the 8 /= key will be lit while the transpose is being done.

Happy transcribing.

Reed Kotler and Bruce Rittenbach

Features include:

• Digitally records 150 seconds of music.
• Playback speed full, 3/4, 2/3, 1/2, 1/3, 1/4, 1/5, 1/6, 1/7, 1/8
• Playback controls play, rewind, pause, fast forward
• Playback region selection controls

begin/end region, expand region, contract region, shift region left, shift region right,

continuous loop, all (select entire recorded music as playback region)

• Left/Right/Left+Right channel select on record.

Inputs:

Stereo Line input

¼ inch stereo/mono instrument input

Outputs:

stereo line output

Stereo Headphone output

Headphone volume control

Power: 9 volt external power adapter (included).