same old 488 baloney

[Pirateking]

Hi
I know I've seen this request before, but thought I'd give it a try. I bought a 488 on ebay, $310 thank you very much, but got no instruction booklet. Anyone willing to copy one for me? I don't know if it's a MKI or MKII, but have a feeling it's a MkI since I have read about an XLR mic input on the MkII which I don't have, but any help would be appreciated.
If not, I have one question: what's the deal with track 8? Is it only a sync track? The one time I tried to record on it nothing happened (got no input measure on the LED)

 

[overseas]

Welcome to the world of the 488!

Hello from South Korea! I, too, recently purchased a 488 w/o the manual, but I pretty much know how to operate mine because I've played around with these machine quite a bit. I have an mkII, but it does sound like yours is the mkI. I have used those before, but it's been a few years! Anyway, you most certainly can record stuff on track 8 besides sync tones. When recording, always remember these things:

(1) Check your input connection, making sure that the pan pot on the channel to which your input cord is connected is turned to the "right" side. On most multitrack machines, panning to the left sends input signals to odd-numbered tracks 1,3,5, and 7, and panning right sends the signals to the even-numbered tracks 2,4,6,8.

(2) Be sure that the switch for "input" and "tape" is set to "input."

(3) The input fader on the channel you're coming in on AND the master fader should both be up. Ideally, they should both be at around 7-8.

(4) If you're using a mic, check to be sure your unit is set for "mic".
Usually, this means you need to increase the gain to get a decent signal sent to the track you've chosen to record on. There should be a little knob for that near the input (if my memory serves me well).

(5) Activate the "record" mode on the track you wish to record. There's a little red light that lights up on the display that shows you when you're in "record" mode.

(6) Press "record" and "play."

Try these, and let me know if you get the results you wanted.

Bruce Ray