Setting up Tascam 38 and yamaha RM804

johnbilben

New member
I feel like a damn fool posting this thread. I've repaired and maintained my recently purchased Tascam 38 so everything is clean, operational and ready to go. I bought a roll of tape and I also have an 8 channel Analog mixer from the 80's called the Yamaha RM804 which is also ready to go. Here's my silly delemna: I don't know how to hook them up. I have this big box of cables which i was told is everything i need to get it going. Can anyone guide me through the process of connecting everything to start recording and mixing?

Thanks again
 
John,

You need 16 RCA to RCA cables to do it.

The 8 outputs the Tascam 38 connect to the 8 "TAPE IN" jacks on the RM804 (located directly above the XLR mic inputs according to the manual).

The 8 inputs of the Tascam 38 connect to the 8 "DIRECT OUT" jacks on the back of the RM804 located directly above the TAPE IN jacks, again, according to the manual.

This is if you are wanting to record straight from your board channels 1 ~ 8 to tracks 1 ~ 8 on the 38.

So that will get you started...what next? How will you plan on using the board (i.e. give me a scenario and I'll tell you how to patch it)?

I feel like a damn fool posting this thread.

Hmm...John, you opened up your 38 and got what was left for dead going again...in fact, for a moment I bet you felt like leaving it for dead, but you didn't, and you are going to have a great time with your 38. So, you have my respect. Besides, I have several hundred posts where I felt just like you putting this one up. But I learned, and I bet others did too...people will see this thread and it may help somebody. That's cool :cool:...and fortunately for me a bunch of really smart nice people payed it forward...I'm just trying to do the same. ;)
 
awesome. this is definately a solid start. thanks tons man once again.

ok so heres a scenario:

2 Guitar tracks one on each ear.

1 Bass guitar track in both ears

1 keyboard track in the right ear.

1 Vocal track in both ears.


thanks again cory.
 
Just a note, you can leave your 38 output permanently patched to the TAPE IN jacks...whenever you want to listen a specific track you just latch the switch on the mixer channel from MIC/LINE to TAPE.

Are you performing all the instruments in your scenario?
 
So what you'll need to do then is manually patch the DIRECT OUT of whatever track you want to record to on the 38. In other words, let's say you're going to use channel 1 for everything on your project (guitar, bass, keys, vox...)...Each time you go to record a track you'll need to patch the appropriate inoput cable from the 38 to the DIRECT OUT on channel 1 of the mixer.

You probably won't be using one channel on the mixer for everything, my point is that if you want to record on track "x" of the 38, you'll need to connect the cable that goes to the input of track "x" on the 38 to the DIRECT OUT of whatever channel you are using on the mixer for that instrument/voice. Make sense?

This is one reason why people use patch bays.
 
cool i think ive figured it out. thanks a bunch man. one thing i cant figure out is why when im hearing my guitar/voice through the microphone i can pan it to the left or right but when i record it everything is centered. how do i edit this?
 
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