H4n alone, for separate tracks (channels?) for source & LWC

Here's my latest reply (I'll e-mail it to him as soon as I post it here):

"As I re-review your question, it seems you are trying to do the oral-annotation process ("BOLD"), all in one box. Is that right? If I'm following correctly, there are two possible interpretations to your described process:

1. record a vernacular wav in its entirety, then (while it is still in the H4n), pause or break the source recording at various points to insert LWC-translation on a separate channel.
2. while recording a vernacular wav, pause at certain points for the insertion of LWC-translation on a separate channel.

Now that I write it out, I doubt you are meaning #2, as that is just a matter of having two microphones going in to separate channels. Even if you only have one external mic, you could put that through the XLR input, and use the internal mics on the H4n for the second channel.

For #1, I don't see the need for utilizing MTR mode.

1. record the source wav
2. the H4n should be able to make a copy of it, to another folder.
3. the H4n should be able to slice/dice one of those, at the necessary break points. I believe this will be destructive editing, meaning the wav file itself is changed. That is why I mentioned step 2: one should preserve the source file.
4. once all the derivative files are created...

hmm, now we reach the sticking point. one could:

1. Play the files, one at a time for the translator, then make a new recording of him speaking the translation. I would think (guess) that the (phrasal?) recordings would consistently go to the folder you chose in your settings.
   
   • So, in theory, we could end up with one folder for the source file, another for the chopped-up-source derivative files, and a third for the oral, phrasal translations of the derivatives.
   • this will be quite complex for the recordist, who will need to bounce between play mode and record mode, and perhaps between folders.
   
   
2. Would you then want to stitch these together, to have a single file with the derivative segments, say, on the right channel, and the translations interspersed on the left channel? The H4n may have some sort of 'merge' capacity, I don't know. I've never tried to construct a 'play-pause' 2 channel wav file, I've only tried to de-construct them; the task has never been in tune with the goals I had for the data.

Am I way off?