Help with 2488 neo

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rax2112

rax2112

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Hey! I've been doing the home recording thing since 1985-86. I started with four track cassette recording, and I've had the 2488 neo for about 13 years. It's an awesome machine. I do have a major problem with it though. Last week I dropped something very heavy on it, and it knocked out all of my faders, and my master volume control. Its stuck at about -40 db. (Just a whisper) . I did a factory reset which wiped out a good 10 years of music, and that didn't help. All other functions work fine. I even recorded a quick thing, mastered it, and burned a cd. Its sounds fine in my car, but on the machine I got nothin. I've backed it up all on CD ( about 20 of them). I'm convinced that it's something internal. I'm in Oregon, and can't find anyone who does repairs on this thing. To paraphrase Dr. Bones McCoy, "Damn it Jim, I'm a musician not an electrician!"
Any bright ideas?
Dig the forum! Thanks for letting me whine.
STEVEN.
 
Sorry about your luck.

If you have screwed up all the faders, there could also be damage to the circuit board underneath. You say you recorded and mastered a track... are you able to move the faders at all and do they work? Is it just the master volume that is broken?A repair would probably be expensive, even if you can find someone. You would be talking several hours, and a tech will probably charge by the hour, plus any parts, and that could easily exceed the cost of the unit.

I would be looking for a replacement 2488 on Ebay or Reverb. Since the hard drive is obviously good, you could swap that out if there is anything left that you want after your Factory Reset. I see 5 or 6 listed on Ebay, from $125 to $400. If you can find one really cheap for parts, you might be able to get the fader board swapped out. I don't know how modular the neo is versus the original 2488.
 
Thanks man. I had a feeling that repairs would be so expensive. I was actually looking last night on eBay and Marketplace for a used one. I guess I could always use the hard drive from the bad one for an external. Or is that possible? Thanks again for the advice.
 
Or... I could just breakdown and buy a computer. But with all the DAWs and modules and interfaces, is it really worth it for a hobbyist?
 
I'm a hobbyist, and I've got a computer with a Tascam 16x08, and an Zoom R24, and a Yamaha AW1600. Guess which one I use for my personal recording...

The AW1600 is really nice, but with a 40GB drive, it doesn't work for long sessions (like a 3 or 4 hour jam). For that I use the Zoom, and just swap out SD cards. I like it's portability. But I have my computer set up in the basement, and can plug in, fire up Reaper, and be recording in 10 minutes, most of which is spent getting the mics up and the cables plugged in. My monitors are plugged into the Tascam already. It's really so easy for me. I have purchased one plug in so far. MT Power Drumkit is super useful.

But there are people who have a DAWphobia. They don't want to deal with a mouse and a screen. If that's the way you work best, then stick with a all-in-one unit. There's nothing wrong with the 2488neo. You've obviously are comfortable with it. If you've already got a decent computer, then you can easily add an interface and have both.

As for using the old drive as an external one, I see no way to connect an external drive to the Neo. It's not really needed since you have USB connections, and can back up to there. You've got 80GB to work with already, so that's quite a bit of space. I was just saying that if you have projects already on the old computer, you could swap out the drive, but it might be better to just back up the old one, and then dump it to a new one. Keep the old unit as a spare for parts if needed.
 
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