stuck relays or ..?... Help needed

B

blues-hacker

New member
I've been slowly getting my new deck and mixer going, Tascam M320B mixer into a Tascam 38 deck, taking my time learning the mixer while waiting for some snakes and tape to arrive.

The deck suffered a little in shipment, and needed reel table adjustment, which is done, and tape path is thoroughly cleaned. Got it all hooked up, and started to lay down some trial tracks, on some new Quantegy 456.

I've got a good signal out of the mixer, going into the 38, and I'm seeing corresponding meter movement on the activated tracks in the 38. When I go to play back, the meters are showing me an equal to recorded strength signal, but what I'm getting out seems to be down about -35db - the signal is hardly there at all.

I did some retries, and I have a few very momentary patches where the signal out seems to be at proper volume, then drops right back to nothing - yet the meters are showing good signal on the tape.

Any ideas ?????

here's hoping......

thanks

b-h
 
Yes. Your relays are sticking. I had the same problem with my 38 when I got it.

Turn it on and let it warm up for at least an hour and a half before using it. Cycle the record and playback a lot on the synch head even if you are not recording. This will help to clean the relay contacts.

Mine is fine now, but relays on tracks 2, 3, 5, and 7 were sticking intermittently at first. It was recording just fine, but playback sucked big time for awhile until the contacts cleaned up.

In case you have a relay fail on you all together, here is some information you WILL need. Check your channel board schematic
for the location of these relays. They are easily changed if you have a bit of mechanical aptitude and can skillfully use a soldering iron.

For relay G2E-184P use part number E0037880. This relay is available for $12.80. Relay RP1A-24/PG1A-24, part number 5290009800 is also available for $12.80. For relay G2V-2 (5290008900) use part number 5290010400, it is available for 12.40.and the shield case, part number 5800303900 is available for $1.77.
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Parts Department
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muchas gracias, senor!

As an aside, I am just overwhelmed with the flexibility, capability, and sound on the M320 mixer, as opposed to some of the modern little mixers I looked at as possibilities. That was money definitely well spent!

b-h
 
Hey blues-hacker, love the name man! Whats your fav blues of all time. Just one that you'll never tire of. Well, I'll let ya have two:D One of my best friends made up a jimmy reed backer live one time called "I've got the go out in the rain at midnight, and git my baby a Kotex blues". Ha! What a crack up! Most people never paid attention to the words tho! Played it all the gigs! Hey, didn't I just here some of your stuff? I don't know cause I listened to a bunch last week. I'll check it out. What do you play? Have a band? Studio? Well gotta go finish my water main:rolleyes: I'll holler later.
fitz:D
 
Yo Rick - I gotta sympathize on the water bit, man. I've lived in rural areas for quite a while now, had to dig up my share of wells for unscheduled maintenance from time to time. Pulled 200 ft. of pipe out of our current well, in March (in New Hamphshire) 3 years ago - submersible pump at the bottom let go and had to be replaced. Yup - if ya can't flush the potty, peoples gets pissed.

Ya probably heard me from another post, but anyways, only thing i"m on right now that out on the web is at a friends site - go to mp3.com, search on Pat Ginnaty, and listen to "And What We Could Do". That was a 1 take, live studio jam session 2 years ago at Pat's home studio. Recording was 3 mic's into the board, mixed out to stereo, and left running, while we played all afternoon.

I play in a band, lead guit and vocals - 3 piece blues band, in a slow session right now while we break in a new drummer.... also have to keep it slowed down some to keep the S.O. happy. Gigged every sat nite for 6mo. straight early this year and just about lost it, if ya know what I mean.

I've got a couple of faves - love to string Get Your MoJo Workin straight into Crossroads, another is Driftin' Blues. Kind of heavy on BBKing, Clapton, Paul Butterfield, but just loose covers - like Clapton said - take the song and make it your own - and he's made a career outta that pretty well. I'm just an old hack out havin fun.

I started this whole thing back in the 60's, at which time you had to get impossibly lucky AND give away your left nut to get anywhere near a real studio, so to be able to put together home studios of this caliber now is just too much fun.

And a studio ain't a studio unless there's some reels turnin !

b-h
 
:cool: Mines Hooker, Reed, Freddie, and... well, you know, theres a million of em. Oh yes, Jack Bruce, with clapton. Sheeeezeus. My all time fav is Honky Tonk. Love that stuff. Hey I'll check ya out man. Good luck with your new kicker. And your band. Keep those blues alive. Ha!! Oh yea, I love your favs too!
fitz:)
 
Dohhh !!!! Thunk !! (bitch-slap to head!!)

Yowzaa - the 38 is up and running, and firing on all 8 cylinders!!

I decided to put my engineering head back on, so with channels 1 thru 8 set up for direct out, fired up my keyboard with a sequence endlessly running, took the keys output, and with all channels armed for record, and the deck running, I plugged into 1, check meter, lay track for about 50 on the reel counter, unplug and replug to 2, check meter, etc., all the way down the line.

Now, I have the returns plugged into channels 13 thru 20 on the M320B, so activate them, rewind, and play... see meters, hear nothing, s***, activate all 8 and raise faders..... Bingo!!!

Make a long story short - I had inverted the hookups, so channel 1 going out was recording on ch 1, but coming back in to ch 8.


So anyways - the deck is running fine - though the relays in my head seem to be sticking....

b-h
 
I had inverted the hookups, so channel 1 going out was recording on ch 1, but coming back in to ch 8.
Click to expand...

Boy, I thought I was the only one who did stuff like that. I have a studio master 20/8/2
The returns are set up wierd. T1 returns into channel 8. T8 returns into channel 1. The mixer is setup that way for the monitor section. Wierd setup. Took me a month to figure that one out. And it was labled:rolleyes: What a moron!!(need to wear my glasses more often. Ha!)
fitz:D
 
I didn't know the M-320 was a split console design. You have no tape returns to the channels?

I like in-line better. Less confusion.
 
Yo - Senn - it can fly either way, I beleive.... another Dohhh..... when I first got it, I looked quick at the in and outs on it and the deck, the deck is RCA's, the console had 1/4" DO's and Line in's on every channel, so I bought 2 - 1/4" to RCA snakes to set it up, using the split console format.

Turns out it does have tape returns for 8 channels, those are RCA in, so I'll have to get another snake to do that, plus - and I'm not sure on this, according to the manual it looks like the Tape Return shares the Line in Circuit, so I'm thinking if using tape return on a channel, I can't use a Line in on that channel, only mic in - haven't played with this yet, but I do use Line in to take a direct feed from the bass amp, and the keyboard. Each channel strip has a switch to select from Line or Mic in, then the eight tape returns sections each have a tape return switch - so maybe it is possible - I just need to jury rig something to try it before spending $ on another snake.

Another thing I need to try out, even though it's only a 4 buss, each buss has dual outs, that are lined up with the tape ins, and I'm guessing that if I went to buss 1, panned hard left, and another channel to buss 1, panned hard right, I would effectively get 8 discreet outs thru the 4 channel buss???

Considering that for the last couple years, I was using the front end of a Tascam 414 as my mixer, I appear to be suffering from overwhelming abundance with this - and loving it !!

b-h
 
Considering that for the last couple years, I was using the front end of a Tascam 414 as my mixer, I appear to be suffering from overwhelming abundance with this - and loving it !!
Click to expand...
I know what you mean. When I went from my TASCAM 488 MkII to the M-1516 console I didn't know what to think.

I really don't know much about your console as far as the descreet buss outs are concerned, but that "Tape" switch in the channel strip should bypass the mic in and the line in jacks.

I don't even have any buss outs on my desk. The direct outs double as buss outs when the "Direct Out" button is in the up position and the 1/2 or 3/4 switch is depressed. It's very convienent if I ever have to bounce or if I want to mic up a drum kit and send to the recorder on two tracks, I don't need a patch bay to do it.

Have fun.
 
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