Its all gone.

Herm

Herm

Well-known member
As a few of you that may know me from the past I used to have a small collection of tascam gear. And after moving 6 years ago and finding out that it was crazy having all of it and hauling it from one house to the next I decided to sell it all so that if something happen to me my wife would not have to deal with it someday.
So saturday a nice young man came over and got the last of it. Here is a pic of the last of my recording equipment that I kept for my own use. After thinking long and hard on which recorder and mixer to keep it came down to this one. I know some of you will think im nuts for chossing this set up but it is the one I love the best and takes me back to a simpler time and found memeries of my recording and playing days in the 80,s.
 

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Hey...

I think that is a sweet setup.

Easily moved around, basically a 32 and a 34 in compact size. And I've always been drawn to the M-106. A VERY cool little mixer. That looks like a KILLER 4-track setup to me. Maybe I'm enviably jealous since, when done, my multitrack machine, mix deck and mixing desk will weigh in at over half a ton, but I KNOW you can get great sounds out of your setup, have a lot of fun and not be burdened with too much.

I say kudos. Nice pic too.

Congratulations.
 
Nothing wrong with selling of stuff that's not being used or taking up space un-necessarily. And that remaining set up looks pretty cool! ;)

Cheers! :)
 
yeh, that's a fine setup. In some ways my best recordings are the ones done on a very basic, small setup. shouldn't hold you back at all !
 
lonewhitefly said:
yeh, that's a fine setup. In some ways my best recordings are the ones done on a very basic, small setup. shouldn't hold you back at all !
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It's true. When you're a musician foremost, it can get kind of ridiculous worrying about all the engineering worries. It needs to be somewhat fun and hassle free.

Nice set up Herm.
 
My 4-track/2-track days...with my TASCAM Model 3 mixer...were some of my most enjoyable. That was the setup I cut my teeth on. I would spend entire weekends just recording, for like 16 hours at a time, get some sleep, and the next day all over again. Drop 4 tracks, mix down to the 2-track...then take the reel off the 2-track, move it to the 4-track, and lay down a couple of more tracks. The tracks lined up perfectly from the 2-track to the 4-tracks, as the decks and heads were same brand, same make...so I was able to skip one bounce.

I use to bang out 3-4 songs per/weekend....very lo-fi, home demo stuff, but it was great fun, and I miss those days of pure recording simplicity. :)
What made it special was that at time, everything seemed new and fresh...every technique was a descovery process. There were not to many "home rec" books, and there was no Interent, so trial-n-error was the method of the day for most stuff...and when you really hit on something sweet, it was such a rewarding experience! :cool:
 
"It's all gone" - I thought your studio went up in flames or something...

Definitely not all gone, you can record a career of music on that setup and enjoy using/listening to it.

I'm (personally) quite happy when I buy/add a new piece of gear to my studio but I'm just as happy/relieved/excited when I sell something.
 
Gary, nice, clean, simple and functional set up. Nothing wrong with it.
I'm sure that many of us have stuff that we don't really need but keep hold of it anyway.. I oft say that I sure wish I had a simpler set up but it's tough to get rid of stuff, especially when it's not really junk. ;)
 
Something that may be a surprise to many people is that the signal-to-noise ratio is slightly better on the M-106 than on the M-208, M-308 and M-512. And that’s channel per channel comparison, not simply because the 106 has fewer channels. The M-106 is straightforward with a clean uncomplicated signal path. I wish Tascam had made the 200-series mixers a little more like the M-106. They are close cousins in design, but the M-106 actually has more input/output options. Except for EQ and fewer channels I like it a bit better. I’ve got an M-106 too. I bought it a few years ago just to poke around and port over some of the in/out features to my M-208. I was going to sell it after I got all the info I needed, but I liked it so much I kept it.

I’m also a big fan of the 22-2, as you know. I’ve never use the 22-4, but if it’s anything like the 22-2 in performance, jam on my friend! You’ve got everything you need. :)
 
Yeah...I think that's why I like the M-106. It has everything you need to do a 4 or even 8-track project (or more) but its all business...while still having what you need as far as input and outputs. There are all these portable mixers with which the market has been glutted for years now but I look at the M-106 and its chunky looking. It looks substantial even with its small size.

Tim, do you recall if the opamps are TL072's? And it has individual channel cards. Maybe that's part of what I like about it...a lot of the cheapie little mixers have everything on one PCB, but IIRC the M-106 has individual channel cards...and a cool compact monitor section. I always thought it'd be a great companion to a 234.
 
sweetbeats said:
Tim, do you recall if the opamps are TL072's? And it has individual channel cards. Maybe that's part of what I like about it...a lot of the cheapie little mixers have everything on one PCB, but IIRC the M-106 has individual channel cards...and a cool compact monitor section. I always thought it'd be a great companion to a 234.
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Yes Cory, the M-106 is nicely designed with individual amp cards. There are two opamps on each channel. It uses the NJM2041D, which was one of the better performing low-noise variants popular at the time as an upgrade from the NJM4558. You'll find those opamps in the M-1B line mixer as well. Low distortion and pretty quiet... quieter than the NJM4560, which are usually found in mixers geared more for sound reinforcement or multitask mixers that try to do both.

You can always tweak mixers like that, like the 200-series to be better and quieter for recording than they are stock from the factory. The M-106 actually has a better layout for recording than does the M-208. But it can all be remedied. I don't think I've ever seen a mixer that has everything I need, so half of what I own in my studio I've modified in some way or other.
 
The other thing about the 2041 is that it has good drive (especially for period opamps) of 25mA and relatively high power handling (up to +/-22V).

I was just looking at the control surface layout of the M-106...yeah...cool "little" mixer.

Herm, again, like its been said, you've got a smart setup there.
 
I wonder how the rest of the components in the audio path spec out in terms of voltage handling. I'm assuming the audio rails are +/-15V, but with the 2041 being the opamps in there, if the rest of the audio path components have some untapped power handling capacity it would be pretty easy to up the power supply to something like +/-18V and increase headroom.

But that would be a project for the bored and demented. I am not the former, but arguably the latter...idea for another day. And regardless unnecessary if the M-106 is being used in a configuration as intended (with -10dBv nominal gear). Its the tweaker in me.
 
just a quick sidejack here;
recently been checking out the small/cheap/multipurpose mixer market.
really surprised how cheap stuff is.
Fully featured and compact too.

I guess cheap labor, cnc machines, single board fabs subtract down to super cheap.
at those prices you could ( should?) just buy an extra for a backup.

I realize they would be hard to service or mod, but I wonder how they sound compared to some of these tascam mixers from the dinosaur age.
 
I wouldn’t call the 80’s the dinosaur age my self, but more an age where innovation and quality peaked and trumped cost cutting. There was more real competition between manufacturers for performance. The market’s standards and expectations aren’t as high today, and thus we still have this vintage stuff circulating, outperforming and outlasting stuff that was made last year. Now everything is made in China and a brand is stamped on it. For example, you can find the exact same mixer inside and out branded and sold by Alesis, Mackie and Nady among others. The budget level is more cookie-cutter than we could have ever imagined. Companies don’t even design or make half the stuff with their brands on them. Performance and QC is dismal and listed specs aren’t even close to real world performance.

I would always rather restore a mixer from the late 70’s through the very early 90’s than I would buy anything in that same level category as defined today. It’s a lot better investment, now and in the long run. Plus you can now buy vintage higher end stuff that you couldn’t begin to afford when it was new… if you were around back then. As long as parts suppliers like Digi-Key and Mouser are around these mixers and other devices from the dinosaur days ;) will be around, and a lot of what I’ve owned over the last three decades has never needed any repair at all. It’s simply well made and made to last.

Single PCB surface mount mixers are a nightmare to work on. I’ve done it, but practically speaking when something made that way fails and is out of warranty you toss it and buy a new one that will also malfunction shortly after the warranty runs out, so you can buy a newer new one. Best to buy a vintage board for backup. :)
 
Beck said:
I wouldn’t call the 80’s the dinosaur age my self, but more an age where innovation and quality peaked and trumped cost cutting. There was more real competition between manufacturers for performance. The market’s standards and expectations aren’t as high today, and thus we still have this vintage stuff circulating, outperforming and outlasting stuff that was made last year. Now everything is made in China and a brand is stamped on it. For example, you can find the exact same mixer inside and out branded and sold by Alesis, Mackie and Nady among others. The budget level is more cookie-cutter than we could have ever imagined. Companies don’t even design or make half the stuff with their brands on them. Performance and QC is dismal and listed specs aren’t even close to real world performance.

I would always rather restore a mixer from the late 70’s through the very early 90’s than I would buy anything in that same level category as defined today. It’s a lot better investment, now and in the long run. Plus you can now buy vintage higher end stuff that you couldn’t begin to afford when it was new… if you were around back then. As long as parts suppliers like Digi-Key and Mouser are around these mixers and other devices from the dinosaur days ;) will be around, and a lot of what I’ve owned over the last three decades has never needed any repair at all. It’s simply well made and made to last.

Single PCB surface mount mixers are a nightmare to work on. I’ve done it, but practically speaking when something made that way fails and is out of warranty you toss it and buy a new one that will also malfunction shortly after the warranty runs out, so you can buy a newer new one. Best to buy a vintage board for backup. :)
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That is honestly the best post I have ever seen, and just validated everything I've always felt while growing up
 
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