M-308 blues

E

EDAN

New member
Just got my M-308 in today. Was looking forward to finding my way around it as I bought it on the advice of you fine people out here. Long story short (well, in all honesty it's a very short story), plugged her in, turned her on and..... nothing! Well, almost nothing. The VU meters "jump" when powered on, but no lights on the unit work. According to the auction only one meter light was out, but none of them work, in fact, none of the indicator lights anywhere on the mixer work period. I don't even know if I should go through the hassle of hooking it up to my TSR-8 to see if it gets a signal. What to do...
 
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EDAN said:
Just got my M-308 in today. Was looking forward to finding my way around it as I bought it on the advice of you fine people out here. Long story short (well, in all honesty it's a very short story), plugged her in, turned her on and..... nothing! Well, almost nothing. The VU meters "jump" when powered on, but no lights on the unit work. According to the auction only one meter light was out, but none of them work, in fact, none of the indicator lights anywhere on the mixer work period. I don't even know if I should go through the hassle of hooking it up to my TSR-8 to see if it gets a signal. What to do...
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I'd say the seller grossly misrepresented the item. Another possibility (tho less likely) is that improper packing damaged the internals of the mixer significantly to cause the problems you specify. How was the unit packed and can you see any obvious damage to the mixer ? Is there any chance that you can provide us with the original link to the auction so that we can read the item description ?

Daniel
 
EDAN said:
Just got my M-308 in today. Was looking forward to finding my way around it as I bought it on the advice of you fine people out here. Long story short (well, in all honesty it's a very short story), plugged her in, turned her on and..... nothing! Well, almost nothing. The VU meters "jump" when powered on, but no lights on the unit work. According to the auction only one meter light was out, but none of them work, in fact, none of the indicator lights anywhere on the mixer work period. I don't even know if I should go through the hassle of hooking it up to my TSR-8 to see if it gets a signal. What to do...
Click to expand...

Just jump in the car and drive over to my house and we will see what we can find. ( if you are within driving distance )
 
cjacek said:
I'd say the seller grossly misrepresented the item. Another possibility (tho less likely) is that improper packing damaged the internals of the mixer significantly to cause the problems you specify. How was the unit packed and can you see any obvious damage to the mixer ? Is there any chance that you can provide us with the original link to the auction so that we can read the item description ?

Daniel
Click to expand...

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=7348304926

The unit was packed fairly well, an oversized box with at least 5-7 inches of compacted shredded paper on all sides, plus thick 1" corrugated cardboard inserts on bottom and top of the mixer inside. To the naked eye the unit looks like a solid 8 out of 10, a few very very minor scratches, a small (inch x 1/4-inch) area where the wood veneer is separating. I doubt it was damaged internally via shipping. The seller does has a 99.8 positive feedback rating with over a thousand transactions so the likelyhood he knew seems small. My guess is it's been sitting for years and years, but what do I know. He emailed me back and said "sounds like you don't have the channels turned on." Am I missing something? all the lights should still come on before it's hooked up to a recorder.. right?
 
EDAN said:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=7348304926

The unit was packed fairly well, an oversized box with at least 5-7 inches of compacted shredded paper on all sides, plus thick 1" corrugated cardboard inserts on bottom and top of the mixer inside. To the naked eye the unit looks like a solid 8 out of 10, a few very very minor scratches, a small (inch x 1/4-inch) area where the wood veneer is separating. I doubt it was damaged internally via shipping. The seller does has a 99.8 positive feedback rating with over a thousand transactions so the likelyhood he knew seems small. My guess is it's been sitting for years and years, but what do I know. He emailed me back and said "sounds like you don't have the channels turned on." Am I missing something? all the lights should still come on before it's hooked up to a recorder.. right?
Click to expand...

Yes, the VU's do light up when the unit is turned on. What you noticed, is that the needles bounced so that is a sign that the power is getting through to the mixer .... but that's where my electrical know how ends ...... The seller states: "THE ONLY THING I'VE NOTICED, IS ONE LIGHT, IN THE METER BAY IS OUT. EVERYTHING ELSE WORKS FINE." Obviously this would indicate that the mixer was turned on a short while ago. I make this point 'cause lets suppose a mixer was unused for years then upon powering up, it MAY have blown a fuse or some other shit, due to non-use. This however does not apply 'cause the seller obviously powered it up with all but one VU working. This of course is speculation and I don't really know what to recommend. You also said that not even any indicator lights work, is that correct ? Shit, I'm stumped here ...

Daniel
 
EDAN said:
I don't even know if I should go through the hassle of hooking it up to my TSR-8 to see if it gets a signal. What to do...
Click to expand...
Would be worthwhile doing to get an idea of what's happening, or at least connecting the outputs to an old stereo or something and running a CD through it to see how the signal path is.

Then its time for a schematic to work out what voltage feeds the indicators (e.g. is it a common rail separate to the audio? if so your fault is there somewhere).
 
cjacek said:
You also said that not even any indicator lights work, is that correct ? Shit, I'm stumped here ...

Daniel
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Correct, Daniel. No lights whatsoever work on the unit.



arjoll,

I guess I'm going to hook it up later today and see if the mixer itself is working, although no lights mean no fun :( ... not to mention a confusing work environment
 
Gaaaaaa....I feel for you man. Especially since I was one of the orignal responders
Lets see...when you depress the solo buttons above the faders, do the red leds light?
How bout the green leds for the channel ON indicators?
I'm lust lookig to see if you have power in the main area of the board, not just that the VU lights are out.

If none of these light, I doubt pushing audio thru the board is going to work.
If they DO light, then there is a good chance that you may not have defined a complete signal path thry the mixer. The 308 is a bit more complicated than the 388 you are used to.
Let me know what you find and we'll go from there.
 
Sorry, re-read the orignal post where you say NONE of the indictors work.
Strange, since if the meters "bouce' yu are at least getting power into it.

I don't know if the illumination is separatly fused, and I dont have the manual here at work. Try the audio test and I'll look up the schematic later.
Hang in there....John
 
John,

Can't get a signal to go through any channel. I hooked it up to my TSR-8 and nothing, I patched it different ways and nothing. The mixer should still get a signal read to the meters via a mic when it's not hooked up to a recorder, right? Remember now, I was a slacker for a while, but no more! In any event nothing seems to go through the mixer, no signals register, and no ohh soo mood inhancing glow from the meters and indicator lights .. notta.
 
start with the basics

Well the meters bounce so there is "something" comming out of the power supply.

First step is to do a visual inspection. Outside (I;m sure that you have done this) looking for obvious problems and inside looking for the obvious.

Unseated boards, loose connectors, cracked boards, burnt parts (do smell for burnt parts). Visual the fuses.

Second step is to check the power supply voltages with a voltmeter. You will need a schematic or other documentation on test points and voltage levels.

Regards
 
I'm all for the "easy" stuff first.
> fuses
> unseated /badly seated circuit cards?
> this thing came from Florida (?). Maybe a bit of oxidation on the connectors?
> Bad power switch?
 
My 308 is really noisy when I first turn it on, I mean really noisy, but after about 2 hours (patient sitting) the noise goes away, maybe it has to warm up..
 
Ok, there is hope yet. I took a screw driver to it! All fuses are good, BUT, I found the problem with the lights. The "solo" light was sitting at an angle, I carefully repositioned it and just like that all the indicator lights work! However only one VU light works. My thinking is that the rest may be burnt out, (even thought the auction said only one light was out? hmm) although it's almost impossible to see them good enough to tell. I'm going to hook everything back tonight and see if i can get a signal of some sort to register.

Now, dumb question number 1,598 .. Should the mixer register (via VU meters) a signal just plugging a mic into a channel? or does it need to be hooked up to the recorder? (ok, stop rolling your eyes).

Also, for now the solo light I spoke of is on all the time, should this light turn on and off and if so, how?

Thanks friends :)
 
EDAN said:
Ok, there is hope yet. I took a screw driver to it! All fuses are good, BUT, I found the problem with the lights. The "solo" light was sitting at an angle, I carefully repositioned it and just like that all the indicator lights work! However only one VU light works. My thinking is that the rest may be burnt out, (even thought the auction said only one light was out? hmm) although it's almost impossible to see them good enough to tell. I'm going to hook everything back tonight and see if i can get a signal of some sort to register.

Now, dumb question number 1,598 .. Should the mixer register (via VU meters) a signal just plugging a mic into a channel? or does it need to be hooked up to the recorder? (ok, stop rolling your eyes).

Also, for now the solo light I spoke of is on all the time, should this light turn on and off and if so, how?

Thanks friends :)
Click to expand...


Yup, this was my feeling from the beginning that the handling must have cause some internal "injuries" to the mixer or perhaps made worse a pre-existing condition. When you said shredded paper ..... well ..... suffice to say it's not the best packing material no matter how many inches were used. My first instinct seems to have some merit as this looks like internal damage from the handling. Note that your 308 mixer most likely was doing nose dives and drops from several feet so something disloging or tearing or dislocating on the inside (without any obvious damage to the outside) would be a possibility. It would be to your advantage to very closely examine the guts of the unit. Hey, if you have a friend or someone who has some electrical background that can examine the unit, to no cost to you, then do it.

Yes, the mixer should register (via VU meters) a signal just plugging a (dynamic) mic into a channel. No need to plug it into a recorder.

Btw, I can't help but feel that the seller sold you a mixer with a pre-existing problem, which crept up full force after you had received it.

~Daniel
 
No recorder needed on the outputs. But a condenser mic does need phantom power. Connect up a cd player to your tape in or add phantom power.

Regards
 
Meter indication with power on, but no indicators or audio.

Check the supply rails with a multimeter - possibly no positive rail?
 
Ok, plugging a mic into each channel gets me a signal to the main stereo VU's, but I can't get anything to register on the channal meters?
 
BAsed on your first dscovery and fix, it sounds like perhaps the leads on the led were touching and shorted, and thus shunted the power to the indicator lights. There is a good chance that that this may be present elsewhere, perhaps as was noted in previous posts, due to handling issues.
If you are geting VU levels on the mains, you have established a signal path to that point. The "channel" VU meters display either the levels of the program Busses or tape returns.The metering source is determined by the meter select switch.(very top button on each master fader section).
You have to assign the individual inputs to an output buss to get the signal to these meter, using the channel select buttons and pan pot on each channel strip.. This is unlike the 388, where each channel had a meter.
 
First off thanks to all. I really need to get the manual for this thing. Ok, so far I'm getting the meters to register a mic signal. I'll put the mic through any channel and using the 1-2-3-4 assign buttons can assign them to different channels. I'm just trying to figure out how for instance I plug in direct to say channel 8 and then use channel 8 and not assign it elsewhere. I can only get a VU reading when I assign the signal coming through channel 8 (or 5 6 and 7) to channels 1 2 3 or 4. I believe this is where my lack of buss understanding is really confusing me.

Trying not to overload the system here so I'm trying to keep it to one of two questions a day. Any "recording for dummies" books out there?

Thanks to everyone.

Edit: Ok, Tech I missed your post above before I wrote mine. I need to re-read yours and then re-read it again and try to apply what you are teaching me. I think you have answered my question.
 
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