Tascam 246 mixer and general questions

[ianbernacett]

Hey y’all

I was wondering if someone could maybe give me a little break down of the mixer section on the Tascam 246?

I understand tracking happens with monitor switches down in both meter and phones section and vice versa PGM is mainly used for play back when tracks are in remix/RMX. What I don’t understand is why the monitor gain/pan knobs are still in play when in RMX/PGM mode?

Does this make sense?

I’d like to be able to use faders and PGM masters to control volume and panning when I’m in remix and not have to worry about the additional monitoring section of the mixer.

Also I was wondering if there’s a way to effectively be able to mute powered speakers plugged into the monitor outs on the back of the 246? Maybe a minor luxury but I’d like to not have to turn off powered speakers every time I switch to headphones from monitors.

This machine was just fully worked on by a great tech in the New York area it’s all up to spec and was calibrated to Maxell UD II tapes. I was wondering though it seems like there isn’t much of a gap between sweet spot -3 through 0 and peak light indicator going off. It seems playback is at a more usable level when I hit tape pretty hard (peak light going off every so often not fully blown out in the red) Whereas when I’m more gentle with the audio coming into the 246 I get pretty low levels upon playback having a hard time finding that in between.

Think this is a good start as I couldn’t find as much information about the 246 outside reading the owners manual a couple of times and it still has me stumped a bit. This machine probably has the most complicated mixer I’ve seen on a four track. I was pretty good at using my 424 MKIII and didn’t fully dive into my 388 outside of basic home recording before I sold it. I’d like to fully understand this mixer and machine and be able to use it to its full potential.

Thanks y’all for the help and any advice is much appreciated!

I

 

[j.harv]

Im in the same boat. Just broke out my 246 and can't seem to monitor the PGM mixes through my powered monitors. The only way i can do that is to plug my monitors into the headphone jacks on the front. I would rather not do this, I would preferably keep them plugged into the monitor outs on the back.

 

[ianbernacett]

I’d try to put the 246 in RMX mode press all the pgm buttons in headphones, meter, and pgm/cue section. Also make sure the tracks in record function section aren’t blinking. You can use rca to 1/4” or rca to XLR cables in the monitor out or PGM 1 and 2 out on the back of the 246 into your powered monitors make sure all your tracks are in RMX mode and press the L/1 and R/2 assign switches down on all four tracks. It’s weird but you’ll have to play with the monitor sections gain switches and master volume switches and the individual track faders to get levels in RMX mode. It’s mainly for listening to playback mix or sending tape to a daw or another mastering machine.

When tracking or overdubbing just hit the monitor switches in the headphone and meter section make sure cue/pgm button is up and the track your recording in the monitor sections volume is to the right along with the master knob to the right as well. When just listening to play back make sure lights in record function aren’t blinking or you won’t hear play back.

I found some helpful advice from someone here asking about muting powered speakers instead of reaching around back of monitors when recording acoustic guitar or something like that and this passive switcher seems like the perfect tool.

Hosa SLW-333 Passive stereo switcher

Basically you can just switch your speakers off when monitoring through headphones. I ended up getting a good grasp of the mixer so if you have any other questions feel free to ask.