serious four track woes

[ramsel]

i am a student filmaker trying to record a simple soundtrack. i am going from a dat recorder to the four track. i believe that all the cords are connected correctly. when i record each track, that goes fine. however, when i try to mixdown, there is no noise, no sound. i can see the lights flash indicating sound, but i get nothing. what is my problem? is it the connections or the track or what? could it be that there is a problem with the tape the music is recorded on---the vu meter reads the sound at around -10...the far left. i have a big time limit and i have no clue what to do. please help

 

[lazyboy]

Hey Ramsel,

Welcome. What model 4 track is it that you are using? I have a 424 (No MK) so if thats what you are using, write a pretty specific post about how you have things setup, and i'll see if i can help you. For starters though, for mixdown you have to set the input selector to "tape" position and make sure your faders are up. For your headphone mix, you want to have the left and right buttons depressed and the cue button up. Oh yeah, -10 is too low, get em up in the red.

What are you mixing down to? Make sure the RCA outputs are set to L-R line out (on my machine) If your talking about not hearing anything through a speaker monitering system to set your mix, you may need to make sure your mixdown deck is in record-ready mode (Record and Pause).
Hope this helps,
I might be calling on you because I'm about to put together a homemade montage with 3 vcr's, my 4 tr. and an A/B switch. Outta look pro huh?
Oh yeah, I know I guy who's in film in pgh, are you him?-lzb