heres a question for anyone who can help: i have a tascam 488mkII portastudio and recently acquired a Teac(tascam) Model 3 mixer (The mixer seems to be a few years older than the portastudio). Besides mics, these are the only two pieces of equipment i have for recording and wanted to ask if anyone knew the best way to incorporate the two together? any help is appreciated, thanks!
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How can i use my mixer with my 488mkII?
- Thread starter napoli187
- Start date
sjjohnston
New member
Boy ... that's a tough one.
Yes, the mixer is a "few" years older than the Portstudio: about 20. I think it came out in 1976 or so.
You could:
- Use the Model 3 as an extension (or submixer) when tracking, so you could record more inputs. I think the Model 3 has 8 mic inputs (yes?); the 488 has 4 (two with XLRs, two 1/4" only) + 4 line ins + 2 stereo line ins. So you could hook up 12 mics and a quite a few synths or drum machines, or line outs from amp modelers, or something, and record them all at once. You can only record to 4 tracks simultaneously, though. Do you have 12 mics?
- Use the Model 3 mic preamps in place of the 488 mic preamps, by running into the line-level ins on channel 4-8 of the 488. I'm not sure if there's a good reason to do this. The Model 3 preamps are, presumably, somewhat different from the 488's. Whether that's a good thing or not, I couldn't say.
- Use the Model 3 to mix down. Unfortunately, this is sort of crazy. The 488 has no direct tape outs, so you need to kluge up a way to get the tracks out* ... once you do that, you might as well just use its mixer.
*e.g.: track:
1 from channel insert
2 from channel insert
3 pan left and assign to 1-2 bus, take from line out L
4 pan right and assign to 1-2 bus, take from line out R
5 pan left and assign to 3-4 bus, set monitor to 3-4, take from monitor out L
6 pan right and assign to 3-4 bus, set monitor to 3-4, take from monitor out R
7 from aux 1
8 from aux 2
Yes, the mixer is a "few" years older than the Portstudio: about 20. I think it came out in 1976 or so.
You could:
- Use the Model 3 as an extension (or submixer) when tracking, so you could record more inputs. I think the Model 3 has 8 mic inputs (yes?); the 488 has 4 (two with XLRs, two 1/4" only) + 4 line ins + 2 stereo line ins. So you could hook up 12 mics and a quite a few synths or drum machines, or line outs from amp modelers, or something, and record them all at once. You can only record to 4 tracks simultaneously, though. Do you have 12 mics?
- Use the Model 3 mic preamps in place of the 488 mic preamps, by running into the line-level ins on channel 4-8 of the 488. I'm not sure if there's a good reason to do this. The Model 3 preamps are, presumably, somewhat different from the 488's. Whether that's a good thing or not, I couldn't say.
- Use the Model 3 to mix down. Unfortunately, this is sort of crazy. The 488 has no direct tape outs, so you need to kluge up a way to get the tracks out* ... once you do that, you might as well just use its mixer.
*e.g.: track:
1 from channel insert
2 from channel insert
3 pan left and assign to 1-2 bus, take from line out L
4 pan right and assign to 1-2 bus, take from line out R
5 pan left and assign to 3-4 bus, set monitor to 3-4, take from monitor out L
6 pan right and assign to 3-4 bus, set monitor to 3-4, take from monitor out R
7 from aux 1
8 from aux 2
i was thinking about doing the second option you mentioned, that is, using the Model 3s preamps for tracks 4-8. but how exactly would i do this? on the back of the mixer, each input has a direct out and a cue out, both of which look like RCA outputs. the 488 has 1/4" inputs, so would i need some sort of RCA to 1/4" cord to do this?
sjjohnston
New member
napoli187 said:... so would i need some sort of RCA to 1/4" cord to do this?
Yes. Exactly an RCA to 1/4" cord.
I don't know enough about that mixer to tell you where to take the output from. The "direct out" you refer to sounds like it's probably right. Another possibility would be a channel insert, if it has them.