Tascam M-208 (again)

  • Thread starter Thread starter Kingofpain678
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Kingofpain678

Kingofpain678

Returned from the dead
Ok either I'm confused or stupid or both confused and stupid. Probably confused and stupid.

Ok so before I was having trouble getting my signal up to a proper level, well I figured that part out...

Now what I want to do (or thought I could do) is use the four pgm outputs on the tascam m208 by routing four channels to the four PGM outputs. By doing this I had hoped to isolate each of the four channels from each other and then send the four separate signals to the inputs of my DAW.

In theory this is a good idea (in my mind anyways) but I CANT SEEM TO GET IT TO WORK!!!

I can't freaking figure it out! Is this even possible with this mixer? If so then WTF AM I DOING WRONG?!?! My brain hurts!!
 
I'm not a DAW expert, but are you sending the outputs of your Tascam into 4 seperate inputs of your interface?
and is your computer/DAW configured for an analog option?

I know that on my computer running Windows XP, if I go into "sounds and audio devices"...it has that option. Don't know if that matters or not,..but it's worth a try.
 
VESSEL2020 said:
I'm not a DAW expert, but are you sending the outputs of your Tascam into 4 seperate inputs of your interface?
Click to expand...

Yes

VESSEL2020 said:
and is your computer/DAW configured for an analog option?
Click to expand...

lolwut

VESSEL2020 said:
I know that on my computer running Windows XP, if I go into "sounds and audio devices"...it has that option. Don't know if that matters or not,..but it's worth a try.
Click to expand...

Are you using an inegrated sound card or are you using an audio interface?
 
KoP,

The 4 program groups are controlled by the 1-2-3-4 buttons and the pan control on the mixer's 6 input channels.

If you assign a Mic, as an example, to PGM 1, you accomplish that by panning hard left and pressing the 1-2 assignment button.

If you pan it the other way, hard right, you will send the signal to PGM 2. Or, if you leave the pan control in the middle, it will feed the signal to PGM 1 and 2 at the same time.

Don't worry about the pan controls on the main PGM faders. Those are for sending a signal to the left or right stereo buss only and don't affect the PGM output jacks.

Cheers! :)
 
Okay I half figured it out...

Ok so mixer channels one and two have the "PGM 1-2" buttons pushed in and the "PGM 3-4" buttons left out. Channel one is panned hard left and sent to PGM out 1 and channel 2 is panned hard right and sent to PGM out 2.

All is well as this point. I've got my XLR cables wired with pins 2 and 3 switched since the unbalanced xlr outputs on this mixer are pin 3 hot rather than pin 2.
With me so far?

Ok, SO pgm output one and two are sent to my patch bay which are then patched into my DAW inputs. Only problem is, I've lost the left side of my audio (or channel 1 on the mixer). I'm getting the right side just fine...

Ok so this is where I start losing my mind... there is no left side of the sound... there is NO CHANNEL 1... EXCEPT for when I pan channel one hard right the sound comes back. Only problem now is that channel one and channel 2 are being mixed together and sent to the same output which is exactly what I DONT want.

Now I pan channel one back to hard left. I check my PGM out 1 xlr cable to make sure that it's working properly, which it is. So now wtf do I do?

As I start to lose my mind I notice that I hear a sound as I pull the TRS patch cable of the PGM out 1 on the TRS patch bay a little I hear a noise... wtf was that? So I pull the patch cable out just so the tip of the TRS patch cable is now touching the sleeve contact inside of the patch bay. THERE IS SOUND!!! WOOHOO!!! so now my obvious thought would be to take the hot and cold pins and switch them right? cause now the cold pin is hot and the hot pin is nothing. Except when I do that, I lose sound altogether...


WTF AM I DOING WRONG?!?!? This doesn't make any sense and my brain is in shut down retard mode.
 
The Ghost of FM said:
KoP,

The 4 program groups are controlled by the 1-2-3-4 buttons and the pan control on the mixer's 6 input channels.

If you assign a Mic, as an example, to PGM 1, you accomplish that by panning hard left and pressing the 1-2 assignment button.

If you pan it the other way, hard right, you will send the signal to PGM 2. Or, if you leave the pan control in the middle, it will feed the signal to PGM 1 and 2 at the same time.

Don't worry about the pan controls on the main PGM faders. Those are for sending a signal to the left or right stereo buss only and don't affect the PGM output jacks.

Cheers! :)
Click to expand...

THAT'S what I did and it's not working!!!

Read my last post in this thread, I explain in detail what I've done and what I'm experiencing.
 
Do you have any other way to check the output on channel one? Say just plug it in to the back of a -10 input, like a receiver or whatever is handy? Just to see where the problem is. If it's the mixer or the patch bay.

Never mind. I reread your last post. The M208 has balanced program outs.

Try panning channel 2 to the left and see if that goes through. If channel one is the problem you can you use the 2-5 instead. Otherwise it's the patch but you should definitely be able to do what you're trying to do, easily.
 
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SteveM said:
Do you have any other way to check the output on channel one? Say just plug it in to the back of a -10 input, like a receiver or whatever is handy? Just to see where the problem is. If it's the mixer or the patch bay.

Never mind. I reread your last post. The M208 has balanced program outs?
Click to expand...

unbalanced
 
And I went straight from the PGM output 1 directly into the inputs on my monitor... worked fine. Then I went straight into my audio interface... worked fine.
 
What you're trying to do is exactly what the mixer is made to do.

I looked at the back in a picture and it looked like balances outputs. You have 4 xlr program outs aren't there? :confused: Or both?
 
Well it does have XLR outputs but they aren't balanced and of course the RCA and 1/4" outputs are unbalanced.
 
I don't know what it is KOP. It sounds like you have it hooked up right. You should be able to hear if the signal is present in your headphone mix too when you pan to the left. It's probably something simple.

I'm a little confused as to why you have to swap the hot and cold pins. But I don't know the gear you are plugging in to. Also the xlr outs (should be) +4 balanced outputs. :confused: And then of course you have the basic -10 rca outs. So depending on the gear you're plugging into.
 
Kingofpain678 said:
And I went straight from the PGM output 1 directly into the inputs on my monitor... worked fine. Then I went straight into my audio interface... worked fine.
Click to expand...

So are you saying you got it working now or not? :confused:

Also, when you said you lost PGM 1, was there any signal showing up on the mixer's meter?

Sounds like either a bad patch cable, (intermittent) or perhaps a bad connection on your audio interface box/gizmo that is with your computer...but its only a wild guess as your descriptions are vague and bizarre.

One more question; did the previous owner of the mixer report any issues with the board prior to when you got it?

Cheers! :)
 
Your audio interface remains a mystery...what is your computer interface make and model??

What kind of patchbay (make and model)?

At what point in the signal chain did you swap pins 2 and 3?

I think it worthy to note that somebody could have done some internal swapping on the mixer at some point. All I can say is that according to the specs and the schematics I can confirm that the M-200 mixers' program group outputs are designed to be unbalanced pin 3 hot XLR jacks with a nominal 0dBv level.

Check and make sure that the signal input on channel 1 can be heard in the headphone mix when assigned to group 1.
 
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I edited my last post...I meant to say "pin 3 hot" instead of just "pin hot"...Its fixed now.

Its actually pretty common...a lot of 70's and 80's gear with XLR jacks aren't balanced...always good to check...plus the whole pin 2 vs. pin 3 hot thing wasn't really settled on an accepted standard until...like...the late 80's or eraly 90's? Not totally sure about that but I know it was later than I would have thought.
 
F*ck. Idk...

I'm using an emu 1212m pci card and a behringer patch bay. I just took the xlr end of a xlr to 1/4" and switched pins 2 and 3 around.

I'm off tomorrow so ill work on it some more
 
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