424 mix-down issue (line out R connector)

  • Thread starter Thread starter rpopescu
  • Start date Start date
R

rpopescu

New member
Hi guys,

I've a 424 MK II connected to a Nakamichi 600 to mix down to (I'm looking into getting a Hi-Fi VCR to experiment with).
The problem is most of the times, the right channel is dead. Rotating the cable's connector (brand new) and switching it around (L <-> R) has no impact. The only way to get signal in R is to unplug the RCA connector, hit play, then plug it. 90% of the time that will work; but after playing is finished, a rewind-and-play produces no signal on the right channel.
Headphones do not exhibit this problem.

Any suggestions?
Thanks in advance!
 
It's very hard to say over the i'net, but...

the most common thing would probably be an intermittent or cold soder joint on the RCA connection to the circuit board.

Your scenario doesn't point to anything absolutely, but may also hint toward having a problem with the R- output amp.

That's indeterminate & bears out more investigation, starting with the simplest stuff.:eek:;)
 
Then I guess the "simplest" stuff is to open the thing up and check the connections. Hmm, that's a bit out of my league unfortunately... My soldering experience is limited to doing it about 5 times and helping about 10 times.
Is the 424 MK II easy to open and put back?


This is unrelated, but can someone help me out with using the 424 MK II?
Am I the only one confused about the instructions in the manual, especially regarding the use of the tape cue monitor system, and the monitor switches...
Is there a clear(er) explanation on how those switches need to be set so that:
- I can use the mixer controls to adjust volume, pan, eq of each track, listening to the output in headphones, for the purpose of either assessing how it's coming along, or mixing down to a stereo tape recorder through the line outs
- same as above for the purpose of recording a new track - I guess in direct mode so that I don't have to do the hard-panning thing which I find really unnecessary and just weird

Help? Please?

Best regards,
Radu
 
there's a manual?

Yeah, I don't know about the cracked-solder thing, but that sounds like what it is. I have the same issue in my home stereo; I've just been putting off getting it fixed. But hopefully I can answer your other question.

On mine, on the far right, there are two switches "L" and "R" which you want turned to the right. Those just send whatever's in the left and right channels to the monitor output, which also goes to the headphones. This is mostly all you want to hear, and if these are turned on, the mixer stuff on the left should function like you'd expect. The switch below that is the effect 1 monitor, which you only use if you have a track(s) going out to an effects loop and coming back in. The one below that serves two purposes. One is for the second effect loop and the other is the tape cue.

The purpose of the tape cue is for when you're recording in buss mode but don't want to bounce tracks. Suppose you want to record something on channels 3 and 4 from the dub input, but you need to hear what's on channels 1 and 2 to play along. If you have those channels turned on, what's playing will get recorded to tracks 3 and 4, so you have to turn them off. In this case you turn tracks 1 and 2 off, but turn the tape cue knobs up on those tracks and switch the effect2/tape cue switches to the right. On mine there are two -- one switches between tape cue mode and effect2 mode, and the other turns the monitor on for whichever one you're using. Honestly, I wish they'd have just put one or two extra switches on there instead of this toggling thing. This setup enables you to listen in on tracks without them getting recorded. I hardly ever use this feature, because I just record direct-in. This way it only takes input from the track-specific inputs. If I have to record from a dual-rca source, I just hook the two rca cords into the 1/4" jacks with some Radio-shack adaptor things and use direct-in anyway. The only time I ever used to use this was when I was bouncing three tracks to the fourth one, and also dubbing something else on top at the same time, to try to crowd more tracks on there.

hope this helps,

dw
 
Thanks Dan! I'll go through all these again when I record next time!
 
Back
Top