ideas on downsizing?

P

purerad

New member
Due to moving etc..........I think i need to downsize a bit.
My question is what would you keep/and or get rid of...........

have
Carvin mx1608.......mixer is probably too big for my space unless i mount it vertically on the wall...........
teac 80-8......nice machine but with my wife in college etc....money is tight to buy fresh tape
tascam 238......have two with remotes.........sold the sync unit............
thought about keeping these two and possibly getting a smaller mixer?
several tascam patchbays.............
some lt sound preamps.

i do have a small 10x 18 ft space i could move stuff into but it's not heated in winter and doesn't have a great power service. If i moved to that space i would probably be better off going all digital.
any ideas? i'm on a budget...............
 
Ugghhhhhh....

If you don't necessarily need money from sale proceeds because money is "tight", and you're just saying you don't have money to spend on more equipment...man...that 1608/80-8 is a nice setup and *someday* you will likely have more discretionary funds for fresh tape...If it were me I'd be looking for a safe place to put the Carvin and Teac away for a season of life, sell off one of the 238's and use the proceeds from the sale of the remote and the 238 (sell them separately) to get a Tascam 200, 300 or maybe 1500 series 8-channel mixer. An M-308 could be had for likely less than you will get from the sale of the 238 and the remote and has the features and routing flexibility to accomodate the 238 and something like an 8-channel DAW interface (like, for instance, a Tascam US-800 used for a little over $100). You'd still have the analog aspect and a DAW component for maybe little or none out of pocket and the whole rig would take up a lot less space and you'd still have the Carvin/Teac rig for later.
 
It's not a money thing right now, more of a space problem, and don't have extra money for tape. A cassette studio sounded fun as well.
Liked the suggestions on the mixers........will have to look into them. do have a m audio 24/96 card that i use with an old lt sound reverberator/preamp for voice stuff etc..... do like your ideas........
gonna have to talk it over with my wife some and see where things are at......
Just trying to get some more ideas.......sometimes we can get thinking and create a box and getting others opinons can help!
thanks!
 
Yeah...good luck. I understand the space limitation factor AND the money factor too of course. I suppose it also depends on how devoted you are to the Carvin/Teac setup. The Carvin is chock full of 5532 opamps and has a fairly good build quality as far as I recall...separate channel cards and good basic inline mixing features so its a bit of a sleeper find AFAIC...and the wood side panels go with the 80-8 don't they? Now I'm just getting cosmetic. And the 80-8...my old Teac 3340S is STILL one of the nicest sounding machines I've used in that format (1/4" 4-track, 1/2" 8-track) and I believe there are similarities in the amp sections of that machine to the 80-8...lineage anyway. But the 80-8 has more character than the later 1/2" 8-track machines I believe so that's just a neat setup you have there. If you have that kind of emotional attachment to that setup and are happy with it and it is working well it just seems it would be a shame to send it on if this is just a season in life. If there is *permanent* change needed are wanted, well then that's different. The other thought then is to sell it all, get a good/affordable DAW interface and get a 388. Better fidelity potential for sure than the 238 (not knocking the 238), good small mixer which would be effective with the DAW using a patchbay and relatively small footprint...more affordable tape media...middle ground between the 80-8 and the 238 with simplicity and space-saving to boot for small spaces.

Just more ideas.

Or dash it all and be like me and go out and get a tape machine/mixer setup that weighs in at well over 1/2 ton and takes up half the room. :rolleyes:
 
the carvin is definatley a sleeper.........most people almost laugh at it...........the guy i bought it from was the original owner and i got all the orginal paper, schmatics etc........ has a few simple mods, nothing major. He also has a q1608 that he bought new too.......that sucker is modded to all get out and looks new even though he's roaded since new! He's one of those guys that maximizes all his equipment.
He claims the 238s in/out cars were moded with better quality components for lower noise but i can't find pics/specs on oem so even though i've opened one up to look, i couldn't quite tell.
Love that ampex you have.......very cool! definatley don't have the room on this end.........lol
i have a 700 sq ft house that was gonna be just me and the studio after my divorce...........now i'm remarried
and just don't have the room but a fairly understanding wife.
even thought of selling everything but the carvin and "gasp".........getting an alesis hd24 and having room for 8 funky preamps later on.......lol
if i can just figure out how to get the carvin in a good place i'd use it and a 238 for demos and stash the rest................
hmmmmmm more ideas and figurin.........lol
 
Can you get me out of here.....?

For many years I was the proud owner of an upright piano {had fun lugging that up the stairs !}, a Fender Rhodes, a Hammond organ {dropped it on my toe and was subsequently no longer afraid to hit the high notes !}, a double bass, a cello, a tambura, a sitar, a couple of electro~acoustics, a bass, an electric guitar, a mandolin, a couple of amps, a drumkit, congas, bongoes and a couple of portastudios. Then my wife told me she was pregnant and suddenly, space was an issue. The piano, Fender Rhodes and Hammond had to go. Three years later when she was pregnant again, the double bass, cello, sitar, tampura and drums had to go.
Although the drums subsequently returned, my point is that downsizing appears a reluctantly daunting task initially, but once you take the decision which things have to go, you shouldn't regret it after. I only regret selling one item down the years ~ but once software keyboards appeared, I soon forgot that !
It can be done. And you don't die.
 
Have you considered a Fostex R8? It would only take up a bit more space than the 238 and like the 388, would fill the gap between the 80-8 and cassette. 1/4" tape is around £10 a reel so it could be a lot cheaper to run than 1/2".
 
grimtraveller..........
yeah, i know downsizing can be good for the most part.............i used to be in the guitar repair buisness...........yikes! I had piles upon piles of stuff.............that's all gone..........just trying to steamline stuff so i can actually use it and less fidling.........lol thanks for your comments.
Jamesk......... haven't looked much at fostex units before, i'll have to check that one out. thanks.
 
And always remember that changing doesn't always mean simplifying as you never know what you're going to get; what bugaboos lurk under the skin. There's always more to do thatn you initially bargained for. Not trying to rain on ya but just speaking from experience.
 
probably gonna moth ball the 80-8 for now and use the 238's, what's the best way to do that? i thought of several ways to hook them up
any opinions? I sold the sync unit as i don't need 14 channels and they never synced up well anway. First, i could run both machines through the channel inserts and would be able to work on two different projects. Or, i thought of hooking one up through the channel inserts and one through the buss out's and able to mix 8 tracks down to the buss unit to one or two tracks for projects needing a few more channels. This is all singer/songwriter, solo stuff so i can't see using more than 10-15 tracks at most ever. Any other options?
I will be mixing down to two track to the computer or do u suggest mixing down to a nice cassette deck?
thanks,
 
sweetbeats said:
my old Teac 3340S is STILL one of the nicest sounding machines I've used in that format (1/4" 4-track, 1/2" 8-track) and I believe there are similarities in the amp sections of that machine to the 80-8...lineage anyway. But the 80-8 has more character than the later 1/2" 8-track machines I believe so that's just a neat setup you have there.
Click to expand...

I have to agree. I haven't used it as much lately, but I have the 3340S hooked up again. Those old Teacs are not the easiest machines to calibrate. The heads on mine have a lot of wear and the edge tracks can't quite meet spec on the HF end, but when it comes to subjectively great sound for most of what I do, it's still as good as anything I've used. The one real weakness is that super low tones don't come back at all off the tape, but they produce a lot of modulation noise, so I avoid that.

Cheers,

Otto
 
So you're wanting to have both 238's hooked up to the Carvin all the time? Why? And regardless why would you use the insert jacks instead of the group 1~8 outs and 8 of the line inputs?
 
sorry, this mixer is a bit different than others i've used before.............beside mic and line inputs
each channel has send/return/channel out, it was being used though i believe the line ins and channel outs before cause those are all -10 unbalanced, kinda weird way to do it but it worked. wish the user manual was a lil more user friendly...........lol
 
So watcha gonna do as far as hooking stuff up? Let me know if you need help. I've read the manual and have a clear understanding of what goes where and how the ins and outs are to be used.
 
think i will try hooking one up as you suggested and see how that works first before going any further.
my problem is all the people i've learned from in the past always did everything weird for various reasons.......lol
 
Well, "right" can be a dangerous thing sometimes if it cross-grain with your particular situation you know? I just know what was intended as far as hookup goes between an 8-track machine and the Carvin console. Let me know if I can help.
 
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