TEAC 80-8 Setup Help

Dudethestallion

New member
Hi there. Fist time posting here but you seem very helpful so I figured I would give it a go. O have a TEAC 80-8 8track reel to reel recorder. I have (had) a pretty good idea to hook it up to a mixer for recording. Get a 16 track mixer with direct outs for the first 8 tracks and get 16 rca to 1/2 inch adapters. So I would have the 8 direct outs going individually to each direct in on the reel to reel recorder. Then have the 8 rca outputs running into the mixer on channels 9-16. The only problem is I can only find one 16 channel mixer with 8 outputs to record into the reel to reel and I lost the bid on it. My question is, would this even work and is this my only option? Im honestly a one or two tracks at a time recording type of guy. Maybe 2 for drums. Any advice or help would be appreciated. Thanks!
 
I would get at least a 24 channel mixer, even a 24 channel mixer with inline monitoring.

A good mixer for this would be a Tascam M2524, or a M2516 if you really only want 16 channels. These mixers were designed to be used with the Tascam 8 and 16 tracks. They have rca tape ins and outs and in line monitoring. They also have midi scene and mute controls if you have a sequencer handy to run it. They sell very cheap nowadays.

Alan.
 
What he said ^^^^....and also.....

Do you plan to/need to record 8 tracks at once?
You may not need to go 8 direct outs at once.
I use a 24 track recorder, and usually I'll be recording 1, maybe 2 tracks at a time, and I just go from my outboard preamps right to the deck....I don't even use my mixer for recording.

If I had to do say....more tracks at once than I have outboard preamps (or if I had only the mixer pres)....then yeah, either the mixer's group outputs or the channel direct outputs.


Most any mixer will work if it has enough channels....and many have separate tape returns (outputs from the tape deck)....so when you are tracking, you're really using the tape returns and monitoring there...so depending on the mixer, you can have several options for tracking/monitoring/mixing.

Not sure what your question is really asking....is that what your only option and in what way?
Just look for another mixer to bid on. :)
 
Cool thanks, few questions. How do you listen to the tracks you already recorded? And do you hear whatever you are recording through your preamp at the same time? And what exactly is an outboard preamp? Thanks!
 
I monitor the recorded tape tracks through my mixer....they don't go back through the mixer's preamps...they got to the tape returns, which are line inputs.

Outboard preamps are just preamps in a rackmounted case. They come in all flavors and configurations....1,2 & 4 channel are the most common. They often tend to be better than premps found in lower budget mixers.
 
Thats why I suggested an inline mixer, Inline means that each channel can go to the recorder, either by the direct out or the sub group, and then play back on the same channel and be monitored via the studio monitors or the headphones. You also have the option of recording on 1 channel and monitoring on another as well, plus proper studio mixers have a proper control room monitoring section for the studio monitors/headphones and recording outs to a 2track machine/computer when you are mixing. For the price you can buy a secondhand studio mixer nowadays don't mess around trying to get a live style mixer to work.

Alan.
 
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