Yamaha MT400: 4 Tracks Out At Once?

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russtanner

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Any help on this may save me a lot of time and money, so many thanks in advance!

I have a bunch of old 4-track cassettes made with a Tascam Portastudio 244 20 years ago and I need to transfer them into my DAW. Getting all 4 tracks out at one time would greatly speed up and simplify the transfer process.

I have a chance to get a Yamaha MT400 4-Track at a good price and am wondering if anyone knows if you can get all 4 tracks out at one time.

I have checked the online manual extensively and 2 tracks can be sent to the stereo buss (panned left and right), but I do not know if I can send the other 2 tracks out on the monitor buss at the same time.

Any help is greatly appreciated.
 
You may be able to.

See the pic of the back of the unitvgpd6cy6wdsnd38olf64.jpg

If you can send channels 1 and 2 panned hard right and left to the stereo out, then send channels 3 and 4, also panned hard right and left out to the the monitor out, that would give you the four independent outputs you need.

You may aslo be able to use the two aux sends, so long as they are pre-fade.
 
Thanks for the reply.

That's what I was thinking. I'm just not sure if you can send both the stereo out and the monitor out at the same time. It seems that you should, but I can't get a definitive answer from the manual.
 
i own the mt400 but i'm not sure of your question...

a four track allows you to monitor all four tracks at the same time... i don't see why you couldn't do that with a machine that is specifically made for that.

you can monitor all four tracks at the same time by using the stereo out or the monitor out. and you can pan/eq each track however you like.

i don't know what gecko is talking about having to pan your tracks hard left/right to be able to hear them through the stereo out; the machine itself is a mixer and you are able to pan the tracks however you want and hear it in a full stereo sound.

also, i don't understand why you'd want to use both the stereo out and monitor out. just use one of them to hear all 4 tracks.
 
assman said:
i own the mt400 but i'm not sure of your question...

a four track allows you to monitor all four tracks at the same time... i don't see why you couldn't do that with a machine that is specifically made for that.

you can monitor all four tracks at the same time by using the stereo out or the monitor out. and you can pan/eq each track however you like.

i don't know what gecko is talking about having to pan your tracks hard left/right to be able to hear them through the stereo out; the machine itself is a mixer and you are able to pan the tracks however you want and hear it in a full stereo sound.

also, i don't understand why you'd want to use both the stereo out and monitor out. just use one of them to hear all 4 tracks.
Click to expand...

The nature of OP's problem is that he wants to take all four tracks separately out of the mt400 and input them onto separate tracks into the computer.

What you describe is exactly right if you are recording and mixing within the mt400.

To get four tracks out separately requires some creativity seeing as the mt400 only has a L & R main output, and that means using other options, such as monitor outputs or aux sends. That explains why you would pan two tracks (say 1 and 2) hard left and right, so that 1 only comes out L, and 2 only comes out R. Then you have to figure out how to get tracks 3 & 4 out.
 
Get channels 1 and 2 via their normal left and right settings. Send channel 3 to aux 1, and send channel 4 to aux 2, and then take the signla from those two outputs. However, that would only work if both auxes are prefade. My bet is that one of the is prefade and the other is post fade.
 
Thanks for your reply! Unfortunately that didn't work.

But what DID work was panning 1 & 2 hard left and right and then doing the same with 3 & 4 and then applying a little trick.

Tracks 1 and 2 are going out of the "stereo out" on the MT400 into input 1 and 2 of a UR44. 3 & 4 are going out of the "monitor out" on the MT400 and into input 3 and 4 on the UR44.

On the MT400 track 1 and 2 are set to "tape input" and track 3 and 4 are set to "line input" with "cue" turned up on both. This gets separation between all the tracks...well sort of.

The first two tracks are separate but the "cue" tracks ( 3 and 4) are sent out as a stereo mix regardless of the panning. It's actually great for my purposes. Sounds awesome. Still trying to figure out how to get the "cue" tracks to separate but I can live with the results. You got me thinking and helped me figure it out. Thanks so much!

Cheers
 
Brilliant! Absolutely brilliant. Can't wait to try this on my machine. A picture is worth a thousand words.

You're a hero. Thanks so much!
 
I totally get your situation. I used to mess around with a Tascam Portastudio myself. From what I've seen, the Yamaha MT400 should do the trick for all 4 tracks. Maybe someone here can confirm it for you. Good luck! 🎵
 
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