Getting My Tascamm 688 to Work

[rosshossage]

I just bought a Tascam 688 and am slightly overwhelmed. I thought it was going to be similar to the 488 but I realized how much of a learning curve there is with this machine. I read/skimmed the manual and followed the step by step basic instructions on tracking but I ran into some problems.

Since I bought it on craigslist it seems that the previous owner had changed the factory preset "scenes" to be custom. When that possibility was mentioned in the manual it said to reset the factory settings but holding the "clear" button and powering down the machine on the back. I tried that and it didn't seem to work.

So I went on following the instructions, assigning the mic input to track one (since I was trying a mic) and I couldn't here anything in my headphones. There was no signal. And I double checked my headphones, all the fader levels and the mechanical buttons that may be disabling the signal from coming through. I'm really hoping that I'm just missing something here and that this thing isn't broken.

In other words, can anyone help a kid out here?? Thanks

 

[wkrbee]

Think of the 688 as a 10 channel mixer, and an 8 track transport.You have to assign the type of input,(mic,line or tape), to it's respective mixer channel on one screen,then assign the output of the mixer channel to a "group",(which is one of eight inputs to the transport). You cannot plug a guitar into the line inputs,-a very common error.You can set up a "scene" for playback,or use the monitor section for monitoring playback.If this doesn't help, I'll dig out the manual and verify the "factory reset" procedure you are using in correct