Tascam 424mkiii Acoustic Guitar Issue's

Jzoha18

Member
Hello, im back with another tape problem! I wondered if anyone with more expereince can give me some input on this one. Basically im recording an acoustic guitar into a Tascam 424mkiii with a Samson Co2 condensor mic plugged into an Art TPSii tube mic preamp for phantom power into the XLR input on the back of the Tascam. Weirdly my bass and drums recorded direct in perfectly fine but the acoustics high frequencies are sort fizzing out and distorting at low volume levels in relation to the bass strings.Its a very hard sound to describe but imagine the high strings being crinkled and just farting out. This is abnormal as i recorded a song last month with acoustic guitar that was strong and full. I have tried adjusting the impedance on the preamp to no avail as well as both inputs. EQ has no effect. I Gave up and cleaned my heads and saw 3 tiny specs of oxide but im unsure if that was the cause as i clean my heads before and after each session. Any Ideas? This 424mkiii was bought barely used and is in superb condition so im kinda stumped here. Any input it Appreciated!!
Btw tape is an 80s Maxell XL60 that appears NOS and i already have recorded a direct in track with perfect results!
 
You should be using the line output on the ART preamp to the line input on the Tascam, not the mic input. Try that.
 
Yes. The phantom power is actually traveling to the mic, so the output coming from the preamp doesn't have anything to do with it.

The problem you were having is that you were preamping the mic signal, which got it up to line level, and then sending that to the Tascam's preamp again (via the XLR input). Since the signal is at line level once it leaves the ART preamp, you don't need to amplify it anymore. So you should run a 1/4" cable from the the ART pre to a 1/4" input on the Tascam and set the channel input trim knob to "line" instead of "mic."
 
That doesn't work with these machines as both XLR/1/4" inputs accept line levels. And the trim pot has to be adjusted with external preamp to get ahot emou signal to tape. On a whim I popped out the tape and put a brand new one in and problem solved. Kinda stupid on my part. thanks for the input though!
 
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