M-520 Mix insert work-around

[lo.fi.love]

Hey folks,

The Tascam M-520 doesn't have dedicated main mix inserts as far as I know. I'm curious, though, if anyone has a clever workaround for this, say if I wanted to add a compressor to the mix buss. This would be instead of just grouping everything into two groups and then applying whatever patches to the buss inserts, which is the only (but really impractical) workaround that I can think of.

Any takers?
Jeff

 

[ethyrvalve]

Hi Jeff,
I've always assumed that the Stereo Master A and Stereo Master B were intended to be used as monitor feeds, are you sending one of them to your 2-track? I always use two of the eight busses for my mixes and insert effect as you mentioned. My neighbour also had an M520 and his came with little tascam-made removable links that could couple two bus faders as stereo pairs.
I really wish there were a couple dedicated effects returns that could be sent to Stereo Master A and B; that way I could hear effects when using the tape returns in the monitor section.
When I'm recording on the 16 track and I run low on tracks, vocalists can get a bit freaked out hearing their voices dry (if i didn't print the reverb to tape). That's probably my biggest pet peeve with the board.

 

[lo.fi.love]

Hi Jeff,
I've always assumed that the Stereo Master A and Stereo Master B were intended to be used as monitor feeds, are you sending one of them to your 2-track? I always use two of the eight busses for my mixes and insert effect as you mentioned.

I have my M-520 configured so that Stereo A feeds my monitor speakers, and Stereo B goes directly to two-track. I've been experimenting with the monitor section of the board to get the shortest path from input to mix master but it can be really frustrating when I need to keep certain tracks in separate groups during final mixdown.

The best I can think of would be to connect Stereo B's outputs into whatever devices I want to use (Comp, EQ) and split the resulting output signal with one pair going to the ATR and the other going to an external monitor. It's kind of clumsy, and it really makes me wish for a more streamlined signal chain and workflow, but it's the best solution off the top of my head.

 

[ethyrvalve]

Hi Jeff,
I thought about doing that, and experimented with a few things but I opted to use two busses to feed the 2 track. It's more flexible IMO if you don't mind re-patching.
I currently have the stereo master A going to a set of powered monitors and the stereo master B going to both a headphone distribution amp and the power amp for a 2nd, passive set of monitors. Then I switch the power amp off while tracking and turn it on for A-B'ing during mixes.
I don't have the manual in front of me, but are you sure that stereo master B is a cleaner path than the Bus outs?
One thing I've done to avoid too many gain stages is to avoid busses most of the time during tracking (i've put all the channels direct out and my my multi-tracks' inputs on a patch bay). In fact, since I've built a number of outboard preamps, I've recently taken to avoiding the mixer altogether during the tracking stage by directly patching the preamp out into the tape machine.
Sorry to ramble here... I actually love the M520 during mixdown time. I love the fact that you can trim each channel down for ideal gain-staging--a great feature that's missing from a lot of larger, more expensive mixers.