244 track 3 won’t record or playback (remix mode) at volume.

  • Thread starter Thread starter christiandaelemans
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christiandaelemans

christiandaelemans

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so i was minding my business today, recording on the 244, and it sounded great. an hour ago, something dropped near the transport and i was freaked out but it looked like everything was fine. meter 3 wasn’t moving on playback (remix mode), but it had been having that problem anyways for months.

now though, the signal i recorded to track 3 and channel 3 on the mixer is only audible when the 2 faders (channel and master) are alllll the way up. the sound is blown out and quiet. cue mode still plays recorded audio fine. also worrisome is the fact that it won’t record signal at volume at all either. what’s up with this?
 
it almost seems as though it’s having trouble amplifying whatever is going into channel 3 on every mode except cue, and when in cue it’ll only play what has already been recorded.
 
interestingly, it’s not that the fader needs to be high up to hear anything because of a low volume. there’s just simply no volume until the channel faster is about halfway between above unity and the top of the fader, or between 9 and 10.
 
Can you clarify what you mean by “something dropped near the transport”? What dropped, where did it land…
 
sweetbeats said:
Can you clarify what you mean by “something dropped near the transport”? What dropped, where did it land…
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i had a dbx 4 channel unit drop by about a foot and a half into the transport. it looked like it hit right on the edge of the unit, right underneath the transport door button. it freaked me out, but when i went to play back and move around the cassette i had inside the 244, it was still moving around so i figured it was fine.

to me, channel/track 3 sounds as if you were on a different setting or had the headphone amp all the way down, except yknow you aren’t. it sounds like the quiet and blown out signal of when you have the phones all the way down and everything maxed out; so it’s in the red sounding but extremely quiet. i might have knocked an already loose component out of shape considering that the vu meter for channel 3 was already not working on playback.
 
i’ve already flipped around the cassette and used different tapes, so i’m certain it’s an issue with channel 3 on the unit and not a tape track problem.
 
also, it seems when i max out the faders, the other vu meters (1, 2, and 3) just jump and stay still in the red like there’s some sort of loud sound going through them. it happens at the cusp of 10 on the channel 3 fader, and the audio from channel 3 jumps from barely audible to a bit audible but completely blown out with a little high pitch frequency in there as if it’s screeching slightly.
 
after reading other threads, i tried routing a recorded signal on channel 1 and 2 into track 3 using panning and record select switches, and the signal made it onto track 3 fine but channel 3 still will not amplify it well. this tells me the problem is in the amplification circuit (or whatever the proper term is) of the channel, as clearly track 3 of the tape is still getting signal, it’s just that channel 3 cannot properly amplify what i give it on the way in, nor can it amplify the signal it’s already received on playback.

the good news is that at least i can still record faint blown out audio to channel 3 for maybe crappy double track vocals. i just don’t have the full fidelity of it.
 
I’m having a really hard time following what you’re doing and what’s happening…that may be my fault but the shotgun approach to posting about the issue isn’t helping…it’s hard to sort out what seems like conflicting information. Can you post a pic showing where the noise reduction unit landed on the 244? Can you post a video showing what’s happening? You’re making assumptions you can’t make yet. And I can’t offer advice because the scope of your issues is not clear. Understand signal doesn’t go straight from an input channel strip to a tape track, and neither does it go straight from the tape back to an input channel. The record and reproduce amplifier stages are in between all that, and those PCB assemblies are inline with the master L-R buss fader…and you’ve also got all the control PCB circuitry which controls where and how signal passes and those are underneath the transport control panel. Try and record tone from one input channel to all 4 tracks (so in two passes…PAN centered so it goes to both L and R buss, record on tracks 1 & 2 and then on tracks 3 & 4). Then monitor the playback from the TAPE OUT jacks 1-4. What do you have there?
 
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sweetbeats said:
I’m having a really hard time following what you’re doing and what’s happening…that may be my fault but the shotgun approach to posting about the isn’t helping…it’s hard to sort out what seems like conflicting information. Can you post a pic showing where the noise reduction unit landed on the 244? Can you post a video showing what’s happening? You’re making assumptions you can’t make yet. And I can’t offer advice because the scope of your issues is not clear. Understand signal doesn’t go straight from an input channel strip to a tape track, and neither does it go straight from the tape back to an input channel. The record and reproduce amplifier stages are in between all that, and those PCB assemblies are inline with the master L-R buss fader…and you’ve also got all the control PCB circuitry and controls where and how signal passes and those are underneath the transport control panel. Try and record tone from one input channel to all 4 tracks (so in two passes…PAN centered so it goes to both L and R buss, record on tracks 1 & 2 and then on tracks 3 & 4). Then monitor the playback from the TAPE OUT jacks 1-4. What do you have there?
Click to expand...
i’ll do this when i get home. it’s def my fault for muddying the water, considering i do post rapidly whenever some issue arises with my units. when doing the tape out test, is doing 2 at a time suitable? my interface only has 2 inputs and i’ve only got rca to trs cables with 2 inputs per cable.
 
christiandaelemans said:
i’ll do this when i get home. it’s def my fault for muddying the water, considering i do post rapidly whenever some issue arises with my units. when doing the tape out test, is doing 2 at a time suitable? my interface only has 2 inputs and i’ve only got rca to trs cables with 2 inputs per cable.
Click to expand...
One at a time, two at a time, three at a time…it doesn’t matter. I just need you to tell me if you have normal sounding signal on tape and at a normal level for each track at the TAPE OUT jacks, and if not which track or tracks is abnormal and what is abnormal.
 
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