TASCAM M3500....just picked one up!

My new RME UFX converter arrived today and I'm gob-smacked.

I haven't used RME stuff since about 2005 when I bought a 2nd-hand Carillon PC which had a Hammerfall 9652 card in it. At the time I'd moved onto the AKAI DPS24 and used it for a good few more years so never used the Hammerfall much, but I was impressed how well it clocked, whether it was master or slave, it always worked.

FF to today and the sound has just blown me away, even working at 44.1 / 16 bit. It could well be the combination of the sound of the M3500 as well, but everything has a life to it that I've strugled in the past to achieve. I really think I'm going to get some good results by tracking onto tape, shoving it in the computer and mixing it from there. For the moment I think I'm going to remove the MACKIE Ultramix out of the line up as I think I don't really need the added noise (not much but it was there) and I think I'm going to be able to get what I want from Reason and the M3500. Reason has definitely never sounded this good.....there is a body to the sound now and evrything just sounds clearer, more spacious, but not tinny or glassy. Those clever Germans know how to make things. It wasn't cheap, but with a 5-year guarantee thrown in, I'm going to bed now a very happy camper.

Al
 
Spent more than 12 hours tearing down the studio now I've decided on which gear I'm keeping. I needed to re-do the table I had built for the M3500 and decided to re-locate all the rack gear to the space underneath the desk. I'm going to move the MSR24 back into a roll-a-round stand that I have with the space I've gained.
Another day to plug stuff back in as my legs and back gave in after such a long stint crawling about under a mixing desk.

Al
 
Just wanted to say, man my studio is beginning to look good....pics to follow.

What with the MSR24 in a roll-around stand next to the M3500, we've got a TASCAMFEAST going on....

Hell it sounds good too, with the RME UFX.

Al
 
POIDH.... :)


I'm tearing up my old setup this weekend, and then I;'ll be getting the console in place...so I'm right behind you. :D
 
A couple of things....everything looks really great, but I gotta ask...do you really find it comfortable to have your racks underneath your console? I would hate kicking anything by accident, and especially having to get down on my knees to make adjustments, never mind having to patch things...???

One of the things I'm doing with studio revamp courtesy of the new console, is to adjust where I have things in my racks, and I'm moving all the patchbays to a higher rack so they are more at standing eye level. I didn't have them down as low as you do, more like hip level, but I was always hunched over trying to patch shit.
I try and put the gear items that are rarely adjusted on the lower portion of my racks, and the stuff I need to get at all the time, up higher.
Anyway...whatever works...just not seeing how that's comfortable for you.

Also...do you have any kind of acoustic treatment in the room(s)...? I see a lot of nice wood panels on the walls and a hard floor, but no trapping of any kind, though I can't see all the walls, so it's hard to say.
 
I hear what you say about the racks being under the desk.

I don't plan on doing a whole load of patching and now at the ripe old age of 52 reaching under the desk and squatting on the floor for a few minutes each day may be the only bit of stretching and exercise I get in a day.
Once I get some ball park settings for the TLA mic pres with the different mics I own, then once again they should be pretty quick to adjust.
I haven't got a whole load of rack stuff anymore as I plan on using Reason or other DAWs for any EFX. Probably the biggest pain will be the Presonus ACP-8 when adjusting drums, but we'll see. As it is, I've ripped the studio apart so much this is how it is at the moment.

Yesterday I designed a rack I'm going to make for my writing gear. I bought a Nektar Panorama P6 for use with Reason about a year ago that I've hardly used. The rack will contain that, along with a very nice Tascam 688 Midistudio that I picked up for a song about 6 months ago and a dual touchscreen laptop Acer 6120. This will handle all my Reason sequencing and Sibelius score-writing. I plan on building the rack on castors which can be easily moved around the studio.

As far as treatment goes, there is none at the moment. The room is quite balanced, but there is probably a node frequency down at 'A' on a bass guitar....I have sometimes noticed a bass lift round this frequency. Other than that though, I had my hearing checked about 5 years ago and I should really be wearing hearing aids (they sit in a box in the bedroom) as I have a 3-4 dB dip around 2Khz, so FWIW I'm thinking of getting a 31-band graphic strung along the monitor outs and trying to balance the system up to how other people hear things....I don't know if this will work or not? I may stick up some treatment at the time if necessary. I do think the listening situation is tempered by listening to other peoples stuff. What your CD library sounds like on your system I think is of paramount importance in then mixing and balancing your stuff against already released stuff.....or am I missing something?

Al
 
Oh by the way, you can't really tell from the pics, but the racks are set back about 18" from the console armrest, which means the engineer sits about 2 foot away from the equipment. It was a compromise that I thought was worth making in keeping the whole shebang nice and compact. I'm in no danger of kicking the equipment at that distance.
 
altruistica said:
I'm thinking of getting a 31-band graphic strung along the monitor outs and trying to balance the system up to how other people hear things....I don't know if this will work or not?

Al
Click to expand...

This is not the right way to go, the problem you have can be fixed with some simple acoustic treatment, a couple of bass traps to fix the low end and a few broad band absorbers can do wonders, no need to go overboard if the room is fundamentally OK.

Alan.
 
Hey Alan & Miro,

I think you misunderstand me......

I was talking about installing the graphic to compensate for my hearing loss at 2Khz (and 4Khz too).

It seems to me that people may treat their rooms scientifically (presumably by playing a series of sinewaves out their speakers at a certain level, capturing the playback via microphone and comparing the two), but miss out the main culprit to achieving a balanced mix......an evenly balanced set of ears.

Al
 
The problem with boosting eq on the monitors is that it introduces another set of problems regarding phase shift etc. With hearing loss you can compensate by being used to hearing albums and how they sound with the hearing loss, I know that my ears would have lost something over the years, yet I never get any body telling me that the mixes don't translate very well. Having a good balanced sounding room should help with your hearing, and being used to how commercial albums sound in that room will help more.

Alan.
 
Hey Alan,

Sorry I misunderstood your answer.
Then yes, I think we're on the same sheet.

I do use albums I know mostly as points of reference, to which I then compare the stuff I'm mixing. I'll save the pennies then and not bother trying the graphic idea.

Although the control room is basically a rectangular box (4m x 6m x 2.5m) with timber cladding on the walls, it does sound pretty clean and balanced to me. I wonder if that is because of the finish. Rather than plastering the inner block wall (the studio is standard construction - a cavity wall with 4" bricks externally, 2" cavity filled with polystyrene insulation board, 4" block wall internally) I elected to batten the walls and fit 1" polystyrene sheets to the walls for heat insulation. The timber cladding is fixed to these battens. The ceiling is doubled up with an insulated void of 12", followed by another ceiling with another 6" insulation on top. It insulates well and also keeps extraneous sounds from the outside air intruding into the studio. I think the sound (lack of reflective surfaces and a little sound absorption) is probably down to the accidental nature of all this insulation.

Al
 
The room may be nice and solid...no buzz or rumble...but it's all hard surfaces. You really need something to trap the low end, and some broadband trapping too. That's what will balance out the room.
 
GO hang out in the Studio Building & Acoustic Treatment Forum...there's all kinds of info in to stickies, plus every thread is about some kind of treatment consideration.

I think if you started out with a a few broadband, and some low end, traps...that would get you in the right direction.
Lots of that can be DIY projects, if you like doing that stuff, and basic materials are plentiful....or, check out some of the ready-made stuff from places like GIK Acoustics or Real Traps...etc.

With my studio revamp due to the console swap, I'm going to be doing some add-on trapping to tighten up the low end a bit more...and while I can make my own, I'm most likely going to go for some the GIK extreme low end traps (forget the model), that have a membrane that makes them mostly trap the very low end.
It's something I've wanted to do for awhile...and this is a good opportunity to do it.
 
altruistica said:
Thanks Miro,

Have you come across any videos describing the procedure that you think may be useful?

Thanks
Al
Click to expand...

I came across a video that helped explain acoustics, the info was a bit laking in bass trapping but the explanation of image and reflection was very helpful, I started a topic here.

Alan
 
Just came across this old post - I thought I recognised that particular M-3500 as I used to own it!

I bought it from a guy in Nottingham; he had managed to find a M-3700 to upgrade to and used his existing M-3500 for parts - this is the mixer I bought for about £350. It was missing a lot of knobs and some faders, didn't work properly in many ways, looked a mess but at least had the original PSU and cable. I wanted a restoration project anyway as I love electronics and audio.

I poured about £500 into it, including making up the looms and patchbays. I removed every module, socketed every IC, upgraded all the electrolytics to Panasonics. Many replacement pots, faders and knobs (thanks to Charles Hyde & Sons who were the UK spares guys for Teac/Tascam). I reckoned the mixer was dropped at some point by a previous owner, or maybe even fell over! I had to straighten the chassis and reflatten some of the fader plates. The main modules had several broken connectors and ripped pads. The blank plates (where the M-3700 automation goes) were rusty and had to be sanded and painted, as were the metal frame ends. I made a new armrest (using rubber mousepads for the main cushioning, with faux leather over the top) and eventually got everything fully working.

I didn't have time to fully enjoy the console as I had to sell it (and my Telecaster - boo-hoo!) to fund a months rent in-between jobs; the guys who bought it came down from Edinburgh (7hr trip!) to collect it in an estate car. and paid £750 in total.

My next part of the restoration was planned to be re-engineering the main section by improving the main pcb that everything connected to and replace the horrible connectors that caused so much trouble. I was designing daughter-board PCBs that would replace the 2mm pitch connectors and convert them to dual-pin 2.54mm headers, the idea being to make a new motherboard and use gold pin connectors for reliability.

I did try out several op-amps in the pre-amp, EQ and Main Bus (I think it predominantly used JRC 4580 throughout) - I was trying out Burr-Browns and classics like NE5532, TL072 - the idea was to mod a block of channels and A/B them. I was also building a G-SSL main bus compressor to fit in the blank strip! Sadly all these things never got done.

It's great to see how well you've restored it - fabulous job well done sir!
 
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