ZOOM R20 how to use the rhythm track with available loops, time signatures, touchscreen drums, etc 

I appreciate the feedback. I hope to still post a little more about the unit in the next few days.

@@GazRendar Tell us everything because I was planning to get this and replace my R8 but this video of yours is showing me the zoom r20 is less. Drum is the most important part of song creation. And when this area over looked then its a total failure. Even the little drum machine in the R8 people might scuff on I mix it so good it would go for grammys because they are really good especially the default one and maybe the Urban one. It seems a weird thing that nothing in the market exist with good drum or rhythm creation section and ability to record studio microphones. Akai force comes to mind but there is no 8 track of audio record ability and NO GUITAR EFFECTS. That is a deal breaker. You need to hear what I do with R8 You won't believe it at all. I am just learning how to make the drums work perfectly and mix them to the max perfection. That they end up sounding like premium loops people sell. Well thanks please make longer videos about this Machine so we can know more. especially around rhythm and creating a song even a mini song just to see what we will experience when or if we try. Because other people just not making these videos.

I appreciate that. And hope you're able to get your R20 soon.

I just ordered one through Guitar Center and it shipped immediately from Kansas City. I have it now. Just sayin'. 😁

That's not bad as a workaround. Recently, I've been recording eighth note clicks from a separate device as an audio track and then using that to help me sync audio regions. Not perfect, but you can make it work.

Happy to help!

Yeah, the L series just wasn't what I was looking for and I needed something more than my R8. I was skeptical when I bought the R20, but I've warmed up on it quite a bit and I like the purchase now, and I'm hoping with some firmware updates and tweaks this thing could be great.

Happy to help! I hope to get some more detailed R20 content up soon, and I've been able to use it more and more now, so I can provide a few more opinions about the device going forward.

You're welcome. Thanks for watching!

@@GazRendar If I could indulge you a bit more, do you have any MTR recommendations in this post 2023 NAMM? Thanks🙂

You know, I didn't really see any multitracker recorders covered at NAMM. No one seems to really be making them other than Tascam and Zoom at this point. 20-25 years ago, everyone had multiple models in the golden age of multitrackers. Now? Not so much. There were plenty of new USB audio interfaces that I saw. The only new multitrack recorders were the handy type of recorders, like that new Zoom line of 32-bit M-series MicTraks. They are multitrack recorders, but they offer little in the way of effects or track editing post-recording. The other style of multitracker that is evolving is something like the MPC ONE-like units, but that's more for multitracking MIDI tracks. Otherwise it's the mixing board / recorder hybrid models that people seem to be gravitating towards. Those have tons of input flexibility, but again, little in the way of effects of track editing. I'm still waiting to see if Zoom drops a successor to the R24 (the R28?) and if Tascam is going to update their aging DP24 and DP32 models.

@@GazRendar Thanks so much for your detailed reply & insight! I guess everyone is going “in the box” route with DAWs now. I love the standalone capabilities & instantly being able to lay down ideas quickly, and just about anywhere of a MTR. Thanks again. Just subscribed to your channel. Please keep up the great content!

Thank you! I do indeed spend time tweaking and adjusting to normalize my volume levels to mostly be in the -6 to -10 dB range for my productions. Some stuff goes high or low, but I try my best to keep it consistent!

Using the time stretch is cool, but yeah, I'm finding it to be a little tricky to line it up perfectly. And yes, moving tracks, or parts of tracks around is so much easier on the R20 than it is on the R24 (or for me, on my R8). If you are a guitar player, I think the R20 has the potential to be a really good fit for you.

@@GazRendar I'm finding it difficult to move trax that are in stereo , the drum trax won't move either , so once you have laid down a track I like to move it further down the screen, plus when you insert an effect to guitar it seems that every track gets the same effect ! It's getting tricky now :(

@@GazRendar Can you use a small rubber tipped wand instead of using your fingers all the time ?

@@roberttambuscio1061 As long as it is a capacitive stylus, yeah, that probably works. If I find one lying around I'll try it. You just won't be able to do the two finger commands, like pinch to zoom and stuff.

@@GazRendar Y

No, and it's a bummer that it doesn't do that. When you create a project and initially adjust the bpm, it seems like it makes the appropriate adjustments for the loops. But if you lay down some tracks and loops and then want to adjust the bpm and slow it down by like, 10 bpm? No, then everything gets jacked up. Changing the tempo after the project has been created and after you laid down tracks only changes the timeline grid at the top. Everything that is already in place stays static and doesn't get automatically time stretched. As a work-around, you could convert your completed drum loop track that probably has a bunch of regions and export that as a single audio file. Then re-import that audio file into a fresh track and manually use the time stretch feature to correctly lock into what might 10 bpm slower. Not a great work-around, but other than starting a whole new project from scratch, that's all I can think of...

@@GazRendar thanks for letting me know

As of firmware v3.00, there is no way to change the tempo within song. As a work-around for that...say you have a song that is mostly 120bpm but you have a bridge part that slows down to 100bpm...you could create a project that is all 120bpm and has your tracks that have your verse-chorus-verse-chorus or whatever. Then create a second project that is 100bpm and has your bridge, record your tracks there, then make a third project that like has your 120bpm chorus-chorus-outro or something. Mix down the three parts separately. Then combine all three into one new project...then mix that down into one final mix for your song that has the 100bpm bridge part in there. That's obviously labor-intensive and it sucks, but I think it would work. Also as of v3.00 there is no way to loop a section. I wish there was....I would use it to figure out how to fit a guitar solo into a song or something. For work arounds, you sort of have two options here. If you only have one or two active tracks (like you laid down a drum loop and a rhythm guitar and you want to figure out guitar fills now) you can just touch the audio regions of those one or two tracks and then drag the white tab on the side to have the R20 continuously copy and paste them over and over and over. That essentially creates a loop so you can workshop your guitar fills. Or option 2, you can place markers at the start and stop points of the section you want to loop and you can flip back and forth between those marker start and stop points. The caveat is that you sadly have to do it manually by hitting buttons on the R20. Here's a video that shows how I set up markers within songs on my R20: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-UpKxt5DFidY.html I'm really hoping a future firmware update will allow you to set marker points A and B and then you could have an option to have it automatically loop over and over. But as of v3.00...that sadly doesn't exist.

Yeah, the loops are fine and I do think they are recorded drums chopped up into smaller patterns that you can loop. They are ok and serve their purpose to create a backing track that you can play a guitar or keyboard to. I still always wind up replacing the drums after I get something down that I like with the guitar. The synth drum kit is serviceable for what it is...again, I just make something fast, loop it, and use it as a backing track to keep time while just freeform trying to create something with a guitar.

Yes, you can use the USB C port to connect to your computer and control a DAW. You need to download the driver from the Zoom website first, though. You can simultaneously record up to 8 tracks on the R20. If you have 8 mics around your acoustic drums, you could record all 8 of those as separate mono channels. Inputs 5-8 have phantom power. Inputs 1-4 do not have phantom power. Input 1 has a HI-Z switch for plugging in a guitar or something like that directly.

Hmmmm....I haven't really tried that yet. All the drum loops have an associated tempo in their name, and I pretty much use them at their stated rate. I'll have to check that out and get back to ya.

Thanks!

Hi, thanks for the tutorial Gaz! You can change the tempo of the rythm loop by changing the tempo of the metronome/click before you import the loop.

@@JohanLeijonhufvud Briliant Johan.....you answered my question! Thanks buddy 👍

You can definitely do a ton more with Logic Pro and an interface. No doubt about it. However, I've used multiple DAWs over the years, and for whatever reason I just greatly prefer recording on multitracker units for the simplicity and straightforward operation. Best of luck to ya and happy recording!

No. Not at all like the R8. What I demonstrated in this video is kinda all there is for drums. When it comes to drums, I think the R20 is mostly designed for guitar players who want to create some kind rhythm backing within 5 minutes and get to playing and laying down guitar tracks. And then go back and figure out "real" drums later after guitar, bass and vocals have been created.

I haven't found a way to route say...Track 8...to only go through the headphones and not the monitor out. You can mute individual tracks and you can solo tracks, but right now on v2.40 whatever you do for any track goes through both the headphones and the monitor out. So if you put your click on Track 8, it will have to go through both the headphones and the monitor out. If you want to create your own click track with snare hits or something, you can totally do that. The timeline grid at the top won't be perfectly in sync, but that's ok. That's just a potential guide. I don't pay attention to the timeline for certain projects I'm work on, I just free-flow it and drop markers at tempo change spots or changes from verse to chorus, etc.

@@GazRendar Thanks for your answer!

Sorry, I realized I missed this comment from earlier. Changing the tempo after you drop in your audio regions or record something does not time-stretch the audio. You have to time stretch the audio manually after the fact. When you work in a DAW, a lot of times those notes from your rhythm track are actually MIDI notes (instructions) that are fed into a VST that then creates the sound...kick, snare, etc from those instructions. So in the DAW if you change the tempo by 10 bpm faster or slower, it's super easy for the DAW to change the timing of the MIDI notes that are then fed into the VST to play the kick and snare. On the R20 when you drop in pre-built rhythm loop into a track, you are actually dropping an audio .WAV file. So once you drop it in at that tempo, it's a .WAV file at that tempo -- not MIDI notes. So if you change the tempo later, you won't be changing the .WAV file unless you go in and manually stretch it. I explain that in a little more detail in this video: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-BD5LXVWbdqU.html

Always appreciated. @@GazRendar

You can definitely work around the 3 available time signatures. If you have your own drum machine (or an actual drummer) you would just record your own rhythm track anyway and then layer guitars and synths based on the timing of the rhythm track you created. So, in my opinion, it's not a huge deal. The grid for splitting, copying, and pasting tracks just might look a little cleaner if you match up your recordings perfectly with the R20's click track.

I don't care that it's DAW like. DAW are not as cool as it supposed to be. So people should stop saying its like a DAW meaning it good. The R8 is million times better than this. From what this brother is telling us here about no DRUM PATTERN and no sequencer. When companies fail to realize that these machines need to be a real stand alone. Without the need of Computer or MPC's that also need computer some how. I am disappointed with this R20 should have had the stuffs in R8 then add these features. SHAME they think everyone want to sample stuffs and paste loops and already made audio together and call it music. People want to record. So which it can and 8 track is generous. But drums is something they need to take serious. I might stick with precious R8 and move on. I even prefer the the R8 Akai force, Akai One, and even the Mpc x too big and no rhythm. and not even sixteen track with how big those things are. The industry people are sleeping really.

@@makemoneyjourney7864 I hear ya. Good point. Thanks for sharing. I remember when the Boss BR-800 replaced the BR-600 it too left out a few features. So I understand.

I'm definitely keeping my R8...I love that thing. But I'm also going to keep the R20 too. The R20 is not for everyone. I'm only going to recommend it to people who want to record more than 2 tracks at once AND do some light track editing on the touchscreen. The advantages of the R20 are that the touchscreen does let you do some editing, and the effects are pretty good because you can change them up with the Guitar Lab software. If you want built-in, fully featured drums with maybe a drum sequencer, and/or you want a fully featured synth engine inside, do not buy the R20.

@@GazRendar I hear you. I am not expecting a super addictive drums level here or some super drum machine. But hey it can be done. maybe would have cost more. But then I would have bought it. See Akai Force is good but missing all the things the R8 can do. Guitar effects, click track. record using Condenser studio mics and battery powered I can record anything with few seconds. While the Akai's all load up like computers which is what I don't like I have a lot of computers. Am only wishing these companies actually wake up and give us ability to record for real without without. If R8 had a higher quality of drum sounds or if you could import your drum samples and use that to sequence and if you it had midi so you could then take the midi off the Zoom to computer and vice versa then you could build your live playing in here much easier than with a DAW and then finish up. Also I wish the quality was higher. You can't believe this R8 is around 12 years and people still buying but somehow the companies don't what people really need and want then make that. A MACHINE SMALL PORTABLE, WITH ENOUGH HIGH QUALITY DRUMS, PLUS USE CUSTOM SOUNDS PLUS LAYERING DRUMS TO ELIMINATE THE machine gum effect, Have Guitar effects/ tuner etc and sequencer Mic inputs 16 tracks. and this will sell by the millions. Computers are still too slow too headache for quick and straight forward. Or ATLEAST A HARDWARDE THAT CAN RUN PLUGINS Would end all these search. So then we just have everything we needs and no have to deal with Windows or Mac os and their unnecessary latency and stuffs not needed for music. For now I use what I have and make music and money.

I....don't think so. At least not in firmware v1.00. You can turn on the Snap to Grid option and then use that to help you move the MIDI notes around after you play them with a keyboard. But in terms of having a true quantization like you find on lots of sequencers, I don't see a real option like that at this time. However, that's something that feels like it could easily be added in a firmware update, so fingers crossed!

@@GazRendar thanks for answering my question, when you say moving midi notes around does that mean that there is some editing to individual notes within a recorded section or is it just the whole section of recording that could be moved as one? As I would imagine if the recorded section was to be split and trimmed into several sections you could potentially manually place the notes where you liked? Tedious but would that be possible? Thanks again.

@@JustMe-ue1hv I was referring to the MIDI grid feature. So after you record your synth track as MIDI notes using your MIDI keyboard, you could go into the MIDI grid to nudge a few individual notes over to their ideal spot. Check out the video I just posted about using the R20 as an instrument. That demonstrates editing on the MIDI grid. Let me know if that would help ya...

@@GazRendar Hi, thanks again for your reply; just watched the vid, it does look do-able without quantize. Just out of curiousity if you dropped your bass line back into the synth track after you'd sent it to track 3/4 as a wav would it convert it back to midi or could you save it as a midi file (before moving it) and just reload it if you wanted to alter it at a later date? Thanks again.

@@JustMe-ue1hv If you render it as a .WAV file, you cannot go back to MIDI. That's a one-way street. However, you can save tracks as either .WAV files if they are audio (mono or stereo) or you can save them as MIDI files (.SMF). If you save them as MIDI you can reuse and reload them at anytime into the current project or a new project. BUT...if you already have one active MIDI track...say it's track #6... in a project you won't be able to simultaneously import a saved MIDI track into say, track #8. Only one MIDI track can be active at a time within a project. That's why I made the simple bass line, and then turned it into a .WAV file, because it allowed me to then delete the bass line MIDI and instead use the MIDI track for the melody line.

Yes. You can record guitar, bass, vocals and drums with the R20. You do not need a DAW. You can use the R20 drums, but they are mediocre. I do recommend you use a drum machine. Even a simple drum machine like a PO-32 TONIC is better. I'll attempt a translation: Igen. Felvehet gitárt, basszust, éneket és dobot az R20-zal. Nem kell DAW. Használhatod az R20-as dobokat, de azok közepesek. Azt javaslom, hogy dobgépet használjon. Még egy egyszerű dobgép is jobb, mint a PO-32 TONIC.

@@GazRendar Köszönöm a gyors választ!

Désolé, un seul effet à la fois. Vous pouvez utiliser Mix Down pour ajouter un effet. Mixez une piste avec un seul effet. Importez ensuite cette piste de mixage dans le projet.

J'ai utilisé google translate pour écrire ceci. Désolé si ce n'est pas exact.

Merci pour votre réponse 👍j'ai compris. Merci beaucoup

Yep, you can set the audio file loops anywhere in a track and snap them to the timeline grid up at the top, much like a DAW. Also, if you want to have a full MIDI grid, you can do that too for a synth track...I posted a video about using the R20 as an instrument.

Yeah, it's pretty easy to do. But the loops you import need to be 24-bit, 44.1kHz .WAV files. 1) Import your audio files into open tracks on the R20 2) Touch the audio region. Use the white bar at the end of the region...just touch and drag that out to keep looping that audio region over and over again. Here's my video on how to import audio files: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-JMmjrkenS8s.html

Yes. It's easy and one of the strengths of the touchscreen. You can copy and paste whole tracks, or just audio regions. Here's a video I made about it: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-vHLHkb5ZFD8.html

I haven't had that problem happen to me, but people have reported bugs like that, plus bugs where it doesn't save a change...especially after adding a drum loop. Did you update the firmware to v2.0? That was supposed to fix some of those bugs. Also, converting the loops into a continuous audio file is how I would have handled it too. If I encounter any bugs like that I'll try to record them and post it for a video.

@@GazRendar thanks. That’s one thing I must do is update the firmware!! Cheers

You can apply those track-based effects during the recording process, or you can activate them after the track is recorded and you are mixing/playing back. You can only apply one of those effects though: noise gate, limiter, or compression for the tracks. If you want to apply other dynamic effects, like a different compression with a more extensive EQ, you'll have to use the send or insert effect patches for that. There are some extra ones that work well if you load them via Guitar Lab.

@@GazRendar hmm...I'll have to check into that. Thank you kindly

I'll briefly add that I find the track-based effects to be rather mild. They provide some effect, but they are not as powerful as some of the send/insert effect patches.

@@GazRendar if the insert effect works during recording and playback, does this mean that after recording it is necessary to disable this effect? Otherwise, there will be repeated processing. Right?

No. If you applied an INSERT effect during the recording process...say it's a distortion effect on a guitar...and recorded that to Track 1. When you playback Track 1 the guitar will always sound like distortion guitar because that's how it was recorded. You cannot remove the distortion effect at that point. You would have to re-record the guitar to get a dry signal. If you apply the distortion effect to the guitar as a SEND effect during the recording process, then the guitar will be recorded to Track 1 as a dry signal and you'll have to apply that distortion send effect again during playback if that's what you want the guitar to sound like.

Thank you!! And thank you for always coming back to check out my new posts!

@@GazRendar you're welcome bro!

You're not the only one who seems to be having some trouble importing files. I've brought a few files over to the R20 and it handled them ok for me. I'm going to test some stuff to see if I can figure out where people are running into problems. I'll try to create a short video showing how I import files to try to help.

Yeah, that's definitely the trade-off decision you have to make if you want to buy this unit. So far I've been ok with only having two combo jacks. I guess for most people you don't need 8, but I think Zoom should have made inputs 1-4 be combo jacks for maximum versatility. For what you're describing, I would recommend you at least take a peek at the L-8 or L-20 instead. That might be more of what you're looking for.

At least on v2.40, no. You cannot make tracks that run for like, 1:00 minute and when it reaches the end immediately loop back to 0:00 while constantly playing. You have to hit STOP, then STOP again to go back to the beginning, and then hit PLAY to start it up again. As a work-around, once you create your -- say 1 minute of music that you like -- you can just copy and paste those audio regions over and over again to make like a 20 minute track that will keep going.

Unfortunately, there is no way to sync with a synth or drum machine so far. I've been trying to get creative with the click track, but it doesn't sync with Pocket Operators. If Zoom provides better click options, you might be able to use that with a monitor out to create a MIDI clock, but right now, no. If you watch my Audio Editing video, you'll see that you can record a drum track from a drum machine, trim it up, and snap it to the timeline grid where ever you want. So a MIDI sync clock isn't totally, exactly necessary...but I still would have preferred one.

@@GazRendar thanks

Hmmm...that's a little odd. I've been able to import audio files that were made on other devices and bring them into the R20. It works for me. Let me test out a variety of different files to see if I can recreate some of the issues you are having. I can try to post a short video of how I import files into the R20 if that helps.

@@GazRendar of course my friend. I eagerly await your news. Thanks a lot.

I was having the same problem because when you import stereo wav files the R 20 needs to be changed in the settings to stereo wav.

If the wav files are stereo go into track settings and pair them in stereo the option is in track settings.

@@PPM820 Indeed my friend. I just discovered it when yesterday I got instructions from the manufacturer on how to import wav files. They are part of the manual that can be downloaded from the ZOOM web. This manual for me is complicated since it does not explain in easy terms but technical. Apart from the added difficulty of the language. It would be ideal to find a tutorial in Spanish. But ZOOM still hasn't even posted a manual in Spanish. Thank you very much for your help.

Yes, but it depends on what your expectations are. I haven't used a Beat Buddy, but I've seen it before. If you are playing guitar with the Beat Buddy, I recommend you run the guitar into Input 1 of the R20 and then run a cable from the Beat Buddy to Input 2 of the R20. There is no way to run a MIDI sync clock out of the R20 to automatically sync with the Beat Buddy. So you'll want to set the tempo on the Beat Buddy to match the tempo of the project in the R20. Then set the metronome on the R20 (with a count in). Run your headphones out of the R20 to hear everything. You'll just need to play along with the metronome like you normally would with a guitar, but you'll have to hit the stomp pedal of the Beat Buddy to activate it in time with the metronome. Just do that one time to lay down a drum track on Track #2 for yourself on the R20. If you lay down your drum track for the whole song, you don't need the beat buddy for that song any more and you can just lay down 15 other tracks of guitars, bass, vocals, etc. I do that all the time with a PO-32 Tonic. I just set up my song's drum track on that pocket operator, get the tempos to match, and hit record. Once my drum track is down, then the backbone of my song is made and it's easy to start to fill in the tracks from there.

Thank you for the info. I was planning on connecting the beatbuddy separately and lay down the whole track so that I don't have to worry about the drums for the rest of the song. Thanks again, and thank you for the awesome tutorials. They've helped so much!

You can just select the loop and keep dragging it out to 3 minutes. Now, there is a limit of 50 audio regions so it depends on the length of the initial loop and your song's bpm...but you might have to drag it out as far as it can go and then render it into an single audio file (region). Then come back and continue dropping loops to get the song to be over 3 minutes.

@@GazRendar Thanks Gaz, appreciate your reply and also all your excellent videos.

Haha! I order a bunch of stuff from Sweetwater, they have great customer service. Enjoy the R20 and happy recording!

@@GazRendar 💯

Yeah, sorry...I traded in my Yamaha DTX drum set in the past year because I wasn't using it much anymore otherwise I would have been able to make a video like that. I currently don't have an acoustic or electronic drum set at the moment, but it's a good idea for a video. I might be able to make something comparable down the road if I can borrow a set from someone.

@@GazRendar Thanks for the response! I’ve accepted the fact that I have to finish my songs in Reaper. That’s ok because the R20 does such a great job for what it is. The preamps are what they claim they are, really good and quiet. I’ll use the onboard drums for now since they are so easy to use vs other drum machines I have.

If I hear you correctly, you want to know if the R20 has a looper FX built in? I haven't used a looper FX in a DAW, but I have used like...a Boss RC-1 looper pedal. Sadly, as far as I know the answer is no, the R20 doesn't have anything to simulate that. To create that effect you have to go with your suggested option 2. Record the short couple bars you want to repeat first. Then touch that region on the track, and use the white tab at the end to have it loop/copy and paste so it repeats for like 5 minutes. Then when you hit play or record you could play solos and fills along with the rhythm guitar loop.

@@GazRendar Yeah Gaz that's what i thought. Bit of a shame. It's a very common feature in nearly all good DAW's now. I thought maybe i missing something using the flags or ability to highlight a section to loop. For example through FL Studios which i use this guy around 6:30 provides a good demonstration ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-reLzhONmLEg.html

@@GazRendar Hey Gaz, one more question. Other than changing the master volume of the overall project. Do you know a way to specifically change the volume of the click track? I was hoping it would just change with the hardware master volume fader. No such luck

Yeah, I got ya. I'm not sure I see the R20 adding that feature. If they do, I suspect they might add it in the effects panel and not executed within the track itself. To pull that off with the R20 right now on v2.00, you'd just have to add an external pedal, like the Boss RC-1, and run that into one of the inputs of the R20.

@@clintonweekes5226 You have a little more control over the click in the project settings. Open a project, then goto the settings within the project. You'll see the time settings, under the time settings are the Click settings. You can change the type of click sound, and you can further adjust the amount of click volume that runs to the monitor out vs. headphones. Hope that was what you were looking for?

Yes. You can choose between a compressor, a limiter, or a noise gate for each channel. But only one of those three, you can't simultaneously have compressor and a noise gate, for example. However, you could choose noise gate for the channel, and then do something like apply a send effect that is a compressor to a channel...but you can only apply one send effect at a time. Each channel also gets it's own 3-band EQ.

@@GazRendar thanks sir !

Nope. There is only 1 synth track per project...at least for version 1.00 of the firmware. I'm hoping to get a more detailed synth walkthrough video up in the next day or two.

A workaround is to print or export the synth track to audio then pick another sound. You can actually do that with the drums as well. Export or print the drum track, then go back and add another next to it. They will lock in on the grid. I've done it.

Can you also resample or bounce the Tracks?

@@wiggesobk You can't bounce tracks in a traditional sense of how there is usually a dedicated "bounce" feature on older multitrackers. At least I don't see that in v1.00. However, you can use the Mix-Down option -- just keep say...tracks 9, 10, 11, and 12 live but then mute all the others. You could "bounce" 9, 10, 11 and 12 together then and have full control over faders during the bounce. The end result will always be a stereo track, though. I don't think you can bounce two or more tracks into a single new mono track. But, I think the R20 can essentially do what you're asking.

@@GazRendar alright thanks for the answere.

You can only loop by dragging a section out using the touchscreen with that white tab that shows up at the end of an audio region. At least on firmware version 3.3. You can do a manual loop using markers (see my video on marker usage for details), but that's still not awesome since you have to physically hit the transport controls every time to loop.

I mean...yeah. No doubt. But c'mon, the L-20 is $999 vs. the R20 being between $399 - $449. That's 120% more cost and kinda equivalent to saying this Lexus RX350 creams a well equipped Ford Escape.

But that requires daw. Not really the same market.

I personally haven't had issues with disappearing tracks, but there were some vaguely reported bugs that mention the loss of saved tracks. Zoom reportedly (with no real details) fixed some of those bugs with the v2.0 firmware. Did you update the firmware to 2.0?

@@GazRendar I just got it 5 days ago, I was never informed of any updates and I don’t have it hooked up to a computer

@@augustjohnnycrashed No worries, you don't need to hook it up to a computer. But you'll need a computer to download the file to an SD card and you can update it that way. I made a short video on how to do the firmware update. Just watch the video and you'll see...it's easy. That might fix the lost save file bug you've run into...it's worth a try.

Where can I see this other video? Thank you

@@augustjohnnycrashed You can search R20 firmware update or here is the link ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-TBNtkzht09o.html

Correct. There is no 7/8. The time signatures are actually fairly limited. That's something I wish Zoom would address in a firmware update, but I have no idea if they will.

​@GazRendar barely understand what is pros vs r24 model other than touch screen. R24 was the pro machine.

That's just the rhythm loops for the device. If you are looking for that thing to completely lay down all your drums, yes, move along and definitely don't buy it. But if you want a stand-alone multitracker that gives you touchscreen-centric light editing features for your audio recordings, then it works well.

@@GazRendar I'm way old school, Teac A-3440. Also have the Zoom R24 portable and tied in with Studio 1. I don't do multi drum takes nor need the imputes. XLR only on 6 of the 8 is not acceptable.

Ha! Way old school is good. Reel to reel analog, nice! Just so hard to beat the warmth of tape for acoustic guitar strumming. And the R24 is still pretty awesome to this day, so if you already have that it's hard to justify picking up an R20. I was worried about the 2 combo inputs, but honestly, it hasn't bothered me so far. I posted another R20-specific video about overcoming the limitation of the 2 combo jacks. The only time it sucks is if you need to simultaneously record more than two 1/4" lines in. However, for me personally, I rarely record with a band these days. Everything that I've been doing with the R20 has been solo project stuff, and in that case, the 2 combo inputs are fine with the one Hi-Z guitar input.

The drums and synth aren't much. I use them as "placeholders." Easy to drop in a drum beat, loop it for 3 minutes, and start recording guitar and other things. Then later go back and use a drum machine to create a proper backing beat. But as a multitracker, the R20 works well at this price point for sure. Here's hoping Zoom puts some time in to upgrade the drums and synth features down the road.

You're not wrong. The R24 has been really good for a really long time that some simple updates to that would have been sufficient. That might actually still happen. Seeing as ZOOM is still selling the R8 and the R24, but not really the R16, it feels like they wanted to replace the R16 but do something new - the touchscreen. Right now it clearly has limitations, but at $399 it is still a solid choice for some people. I contacted ZOOM and they said a firmware update is coming out this spring, I think to v2.00. I'm waiting to post a full review until then because this unit has some strengths but at the same time it also feels like a beta unit at the moment. I'm hoping more of its potential is unlocked with a meaningful firmware update.

@@GazRendar I love both my r8 and my r24, I hope zoom follows novation and continues to respect their customers with updates on those 2 units.

Oh, you already have an R8 and an R24? I think you're good then. Unless the R20 gets some really awesome firmware updates in the next couple months, I would just stick with what you have. I love my R8 and still use it, and it pairs well as my portable unit with the R20 staying in one spot. The R24 has been great for so long, I highly considered getting it but then the R20 was released and I decided to take a chance on the R20. Right now I think it was the correct call for my needs, but I know I would have been happy with the R24 too.

It's going to be a personal choice. I'm still keeping my R8. Based on what you're telling me, I wouldn't recommend the R20 for you. If you need to record more than 2 tracks at once with a drum sequencer, you're best option today (if you want to stick with ZOOM) is to buy the older, but still rock-solid R24. I've decided to keep the R8 and R20. But I rarely sequence drums on the R8 now (I use a Pocket Operator or an OP-Z and record my beats as audio into the R8). The light editing you can do on the R20 is still going to be useful to me and I'm hopeful that the effects on the R20 are going to get better and better - especially for guitar players.

@@GazRendar At first I didnt realize I needed to sequence drums but when I kept playing one beat over and over I was like. Is there a way to program fills etc and arrange them and sure enough it wasn't so hard. No videos about this on RU-vid or not good enough I went to the owners manual and was a joy. I just want drums or a few background instrument while I play guitar on top . And the R8 is a God-sent for RU-vid videos. OMG I only which it had like 8 tracks of recording. But I think I will keep it. Only I wanna know more about R20 especially I would like someone to make VIDEO like a full songs while we see all the hurdles and step he or she has to go through making that a reality. That would show me all I want to know.

I won't argue against that opinion. The R24 had a lot of useful features, especially if you needed sample pads and a drum sequencer. For what I'm using it for, though, I like to be able to easily slice up and move audio regions around on the R20, though. What I really want is a true successor to the R24, since the R20 is merely an R16 update. A real flagship multitrack recorder would be nice...Or if Tascam updated the DP-24, I would take that too.

Yeah, the lack of punch in/out is somewhat confusing. Seems like an easy thing to add in the marker sub-menu. I wish it was there, but I don't miss it too much. However, auto-punch in/out isn't really needed with the R20. If you recorded something on say, Track #4, and you want to fix a small part, you can still just hit Play and then as soon as it comes up to the mistake part, you can hit Record, play something on your guitar and fix it, and then hit the Record button again to stop the new recording. It's punch in/out, but it's manual because you have to hit the Record button to do it. But you can functionally do the same thing by hitting Play so you can hear Track #4...but set up Track #5 to record. As soon as you get to the mistake part, just play the correct part and record it to Track #5. When you are done, use the touchscreen to splice out the mistake on Track #4, and then just trim up your fresh recording on Track #5 and insert it into Track #4. That works too.

Yes. It has a wide range of effects to choose from, and you can load more with free software from Zoom. Here is a video about it: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-PUaVJpqfWz8.html