688 HELP!

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fire.is.real

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I just got a used 688 off of ebay and I'm really loving it so far, but i'm having some problems. I'm kind of new to this stuff, so bear with me:
I hooked up 7 mics to it to record my band's practice, set all the inputs to "mic", selected to record tracks 1-7, and hit record. It seemed to be working fine, but when I played it back, everything was on tracks 1 and 2 and i couldn't mix it at all! I see that under "assign main", all the inputs are set for groups 1 and 2, but if I change that for any of the channels, the mics dont seem to come through. Can anyone help?

Also, does anyone know where I can score a manual for this beast? It seems like you can do so much with it - I want to learn how to use all this crazy stuff!

thanks,
nick
 
Sometimes assigning tracks can be tricky. If you want to record each input on its own track, follow these steps:

1. Turn the thing on!

2. Hit the "up" or "down buttons in the track assignment controls (far right) until you reach a scene that has no data. (It's easiest to start clean)
Once you find one, hit "recall".

3. Push "input," and then push "Mic/group 1" under the "assign main" column.

4. Push channels 1-7 (1/11 2/12 3/13, etc.) under the "Channel main/dual" selections.

5. Now hit "Assign main"

6. Now push "mic/group 1" again, and hit channel "1/11" under the channel main/dual menu. Now push "line/group 2" under the "assign main" column. Hit channel "2/12" to assign channel 2 to track 2. Continue this process until it looks like this:

______1__2__3__4__5__6__7__8__9__10
GRP 1_==___________________________
GRP 2___==_________________________
GRP 3______==______________________
GRP 4_________==___________________
GRP 5____________==________________
GRP 6_______________==_____________
GRP 7__________________==__________
GRP 8______________________________

Get the idea? Now, to record it and monitor it, you need to make sure that "cue monitor" is the only button that is pushed in the monitor section, and that channels 1-7 are turned up and panned properly in the cue monitor mixer section. (black & green knobs on far right of mixer section)

Also since we're doing 7 tracks, you'll need to have all 4 of the master faders turned up. Make sure none of the channels are panned in the regular mixer section.

You won't be able to monitor anything, though, until each channel's corresponding record function is on (blinking red lights), so you'll want to push those at some point.

To play it back just as you heard it, change the inputs from mic to tape for channels 1-7. Leave everything else the same. When you want to mix down to 2 tracks, or your computer or whatever, set inputs 1-7 to "tape" and then assign each channel to tracks 1 and 2 so it looks like this:

______1__2__3__4__5__6__7__8__9__10
GRP 1==_==_==_==_==_==_==_________
GRP 2==_==_==_==_==_==_==_________
GRP 3______________________________
GRP 4______________________________
GRP 5______________________________
GRP 6______________________________
GRP 7______________________________
GRP 8______________________________

Now you can use the normal mixer section of the 688 to remix if you want, and since you assigned each track to both channels, you can use the pans to decide how you want to arrange your parts for left/right (stereo).

To monitor in this particular downmix mode, you'll need to choose "group 1-2" under the monitor selections. (group 1-2, cue monitor, aux 1, etc.)

So hopefully that'll be of some help to you!

BTW, I have parts of the manual that were sent to me. I could try to put them in Adobe Acrobat format for you, but it might take a while to download. Let me know if you're interested.

Isaiah

[Edited by Prism on 12-19-2000 at 08:49]
 
thanks, bro

thanks a bunch, bro.

i'll be emailing you about those manual pages.

you're a lifesaver,

nick
fireisreal@yahoo.com
 
The manual is available from the Tascam parts department for about twenty bucks. You're really going to need it.

Tascam parts phone# is 323-727-4840

=Bob

----
Beware of Brockton Music Works & Boston Guitar Works
Details at: http://bostonguitar.cjb.net
 
In the meantime, I can try to copy some of the most important pages of the manual and put them in Adobe PDF format.. just hang on a little while and I'll get 'em. I've got a ton of stuff to do, so when I get a minute I'll give it a shot.

Isaiah
 
right on... many thanks

thanks tmx bob and thanks again prism.
 
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