688 Setting up to monitor and record

spantini

spantini

COO of me, inc.
I wish the internet and YouTube was in full swing with videos like this when I had my 688. Watching this guy's straightforward video on how to set up, monitor and record would have saved me tons of hours of stumbling through the user manual. He verges on getting sidetracked, yet seems to stick to the point. Though he does admit to being a bit pedantic, it's not too bad at all.

 
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Absolutely. Today, the phrase that pays is "Google is your friend". Between that and Youtube, you can find so much information that in the past was either found by trial and error (lots of error), or you happened to know someone.

Last week, listening to The Guess Who, I wondered what the chords are for Undun. Lo and behold, Randy Bachman himself told me how to do it! It doesn't get any easier than that.

 
Here’s another one.

Jeff Carlisle of 38 Special teaching ALL the guitar parts for “Hold on Loosely”.

How cool is that? An almost one and a half hour lesson from the man himself. (well, it does take him a bit of time talking before he gets into the meat)

 
RFR said:
Here’s another one.

Jeff Carlisle of 38 Special teaching ALL the guitar parts for “Hold on Loosely”.

How cool is that? An almost one and a half hour lesson from the man himself. (well, it does take him a bit of time talking before he gets into the meat)

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Damn! That was lonnnnng. But very cool 😎 One bad ass song - an all-time favorite of mine. I found it particularly interesting at the beginning where he explains the origin of his riff coming from The Cars' tune. When I used to do a lot of driving around town, I'd have the radio on and would constantly find myself doing just this. In the middle of a radio song my brain would latch onto a small fragment of it and instantly create a riff of different melody and/or rhythm - many times creating a complete new song from that in just ten minutes or so.
 
spantini said:
Damn! That was lonnnnng. But very cool 😎 One bad ass song - an all-time favorite of mine. I found it particularly interesting at the beginning where he explains the origin of his riff coming from The Cars' tune. When I used to do a lot of driving around town, I'd have the radio on and would constantly find myself doing just this. In the middle of a radio song my brain would latch onto a small fragment of it and instantly create a riff of different melody and/or rhythm - many times creating a complete new song from that in just ten minutes or so.
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Very cool. I came across it about a year ago while playing in this cover band. Figured instead of ‘winging it’. Translate faking it, I should learn it proper.

Came across many tutorials, and the bam! One from the man himself. He won my viewership. :)
 
spantini said:
I wish the internet and YouTube was in full swing with videos like this when I had my 688. Watching this guy's straightforward video on how to set up, monitor and record would have saved me tons of hours of stumbling through the user manual. He verges on getting sidetracked, yet seems to stick to the point. Though he does admit to being a bit pedantic, it's not too bad at all.

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But going back to your original posting.....

I had a friend get a brand new 688. I took a look at it and went nope! Too damn complicated. And then I heard his frustrations with figuring it out.

I said a resounding double nope and went and bought a mixer and a rack mount 238

I was happily making music that evening
:)

First thing I recorded was “simple man”

Just kidding ;)
 
I feel sorry for anyone who's had, or is having difficulty learning the operation via the user's manual. In the video I posted, the details of how to set it up and get down to recording take only a couple of minutes - try to derive that from the manual. Ain't gonna happen.

Once I established all of that, I bought my Tascam 38 1/2-inch and dbx units and had no problem integrating. I virtually replaced the cassette tape operations with that 38 and totally ignored the MIDI aspects.
 
spantini said:
I feel sorry for anyone who's had, or is having difficulty learning the operation via the user's manual. In the video I posted, the details of how to set it up and get down to recording take only a couple of minutes - try to derive that from the manual. Ain't gonna happen.

Once I established all of that, I bought my Tascam 38 1/2-inch and dbx units and had no problem integrating. I virtually replaced the cassette tape operations with that 38 and totally ignored the MIDI aspects.
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So you did the same thing with 38?
 
Yeah. I just patched in the 38 and dbx units and used the 688 as a mixer. I didn't use the cassette or MIDI. I did go back to using the cassette some years later after I had gotten rid of the 38.
 
spantini said:
Yeah. I just patched in the 38 and dbx units and used the 688 as a mixer. I didn't use the cassette or MIDI. I did go back to using the cassette some years later after I had gotten rid of the 38.
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So you still have a 688? But ditched the 38? I can see using just the mixer of the 688 to feed the 38 that makes sense to me.

But that other guy....geeez.

That whole video confused the shit out of me. I was going the whole time what’s the point. Was he recording onto the cassette? Daw? both?
It all seemed like babble to me and his presentation style didn’t keep my attention.
 
I lost the 688 in the big liquidation of nought-9. Everything but the clothes on my back went with that one.

I ditched the 38 back in '93. One track stopped recording, took it into the Authorized Tascam Repair Center. Got it back and that track was working again but the adjacent track had stopped recording - same problem as the original track it was in for. Took it back in, got it back and the original stopped recording again with the other working again. They were just flipping boards back and forth. They wouldn't do anything to remedy the situation, so I wrote a letter of complaint to the repair center and Tascam and then threw the unit in the dumpster. Never heard a peep back from either of them. That was Chuck Levins Washington Music Center - still listed as one of Tascam's Authorized Repair Centers.

Looks like this guy's recording to 688 tape through the DAW. It's also being recorded to the DAW (Cubase). He doesn't go through how he set all that up, just the 688 connections and routing.
 
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I spent a fair amount of time studying the 688 manual and working with a 688 in order to translate how it works to what I was mentally and logistically used to. After that I captured this video so I could remember later, and maybe help others. As usual there’s probably too much information/pontification, but I think at least it goes some distance to sort out where the manual sort of conceptually falls short. And let’s face it…sometimes, a lot of times with this stuff, it’s really helpful to just have somebody show you how it works.

 
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spantini said:
I ditched the 38 back in '93. One track stopped recording, took it into the Authorized Tascam Repair Center. Got it back and that track was working again but the adjacent track had stopped recording - same problem as the original track it was in for. Took it back in, got it back and the original stopped recording again with the other working again. They were just flipping boards back and forth. They wouldn't do anything to remedy the situation, so I wrote a letter of complaint to the repair center and Tascam and then threw the unit in the dumpster.
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Well that sucks. (Your service experience)

But had I known, I would have hopped onto my private jet and flown to your neighborhood to do some dumpster diving.
;)
 
RFR said:
Well that sucks. (Your service experience)

But had I known, I would have hopped onto my private jet and flown to your neighborhood to do some dumpster diving.
;)
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:LOL: I wouldn't have blamed you. Looking over at Reverb, they're going for $500-3000. Hell, it'll probably cost that much to ship it - they weigh a ton.
 
Small jet. Only seats 10 people. But still, I have to have a big garage.

Neighbors get ticked off when I taxi it out of the cul de sac and take off from the street.

Eh, they’re just jealous. All they got is Harleys and riding lawn mowers.

I got a fucking imagination...... I mean Jet!
 
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