Universal 6176 into a Tascam DM3200...

K

killertwin

New member
I'm new to digital mixing desks but have one on the way in the form of the Tascam DM3200.

I'll be using it with the firewire add on card option which will enable me to run it as a 24 channel audio interface into my laptop running Cubase SX 3 as well as giving me all the useful features that a hardware mixer can!

I wanna continue to use my Universal Audio 6176 as my frontend when tracking vox, bass & guitars etc.

My question is - what would be the best way to hook up the 6176 to the DM3200?

Would I just do what might be the obvious thing & run the line out of the 6176 into one of the 16 line in's on the DM3200?

Given that I can run the 6176 in either split or join modes, I'm thinking it might be more useful to run it in split mode & do the above while running the 6176's compressor I/O to the DM3200's insert bus?

???

Please forgive my complete ignorance - I'm kinda new school I guess & have mostly done all my previous mixing inside a DAW... any help or suggestions here would be much appreciated!

Cheers & all the best to everyone! :)

K
 
Well, idealy I would want to go staight to the recorder out of the pre without having to go through any other devices besides converters. If you use the line in,( or an aux assignable returns) see if you can go straight to the firewire out without having to use any gain stages on the board (or at least mininal). They say the expantion card turns it into an interface so there might be a way to do that.
As far as using the comp, I like to send the signal out through an aux send and return it into a line in on a channel. You have a little more flexability plus eq , and the un compressed singal if you need it . But thats just me.
It looks like a cool board though. I still feel more at home mixing on a console than with a mouse.
 
The 16 line inputs will still route the signal through the DM-3200 preamps. So you'll want to go into the line inputs that aren't also channels with preamps. I think there are four aux inputs, those are what you will want to use.
 
Yes, exactly. The four assignable returns are line level inputs that do not have preamps, and go directly through the converters.
 
I have the dm24 and what I've done on that is use the insert in.

If you go line in, it runs it through the pre and you need a lot more gain out your 6176. Go insert in, you'll notice a huge difference.

However it will not work with a pre that's not balanced. Then you'll have to go line in.

This works on the DM24 which is the previous version of that board, so I'm thinking it would work on that as well.

Cheers!
 
Nice one.

Thanks In Tune.

And how do you find your DM24?
Are you happy with it?
Do you run it with the firewire addon card?

Cheers,

K
 
No Problem!

I like it a lot. I mix in the box so it's nice to have a control surface. It wouldn't be me first choice for a board if I mixed out the box.

I've taken it to do live sound before and love it. There's latency on the fader movements but nothing that can't be worked around, but it's great to call up mixes in that context.

It's so versatile and can do so many things. A lot of people say it can be quite complex, which it is, (not trying to sound arrogant) but routing and wiring is something I really enjoy and comes naturally to me so it wasn't bad.

I don't have the fire wire card. It came out shortly after I got it. I have two ADAT expansion cards in it so I have 24 channels of ADAT. I find it really handy. I have the RME Hamerfall HDSP 9654 card in my computer and it all synced with no problems and works well. PLus I have a Fostex D2424LV hard disk recorder for location work, and again straight into the ADAT no problems. I've been very happy.

Hopefully you'll like your new board!
 
Hey In Tune...

So let's say I run from the 6176 preamps output, into the insert of the first channel on the DM3200 is there a specific type of cable (wired a certain way) that I should be using?

Incidentally what type of pre's are you using when bypassing your DM24's in this manner?

Cheers again.

K
 
That's a good question!

I'm not 100% sure. Every cable I have running is balanced mogami. Now that I think of it, what you'll need to do is make or buy some female XLR to balanced quarter inch. Almost all the outputs on my pre's are XLR and the insert is quarter inch. I've used this with my Avalon 737, and Focusrite ISA 428. I have an old Joe Meek VC3 that has quarter inch outputs and it doesn't work because I think the outputs are not balanced. IT also doesn't work with the RNC which I know doesn't have balanced outputs.


I have a buddy who also has the DM24 and he uses a 6176 like this, as well as an Avalon 737, the new Neve Portico and a Distressor, and they all work fine with an XLR to quarter inch cable into the inserts of the DM24.
 
Cool.

I'll give it a shot my board gets here & post back the results.

I'm stoked to have found this forum.

Take it easy.

K
 
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