Tascam Da78 help?

[Radioshack]

Howdy folks it's been a while since I posted anything here on HR but recently I have picked up a Tascam Da78 that I want to record and mix on. the problem is I am not sure if you can really use this thing as a mixer. Does anyone know? It has a submixer onboard according to the manual but I am having trouble playing back stereo tracks while I record. It has an internal patchbay but it seems to only let you patch one track at a time to the outputs whereas I need all the tracks coming out of 7 and 8 in stereo.
Are there any users of this machine who might be able to give me a few pointers? The sound quality is the best I have ever dealt with but I am hurting when it comes to making it do what I need it to. thanx, Chris

 

[Brad]

Hmmm. As a stand alone mixer, I don't think it will do what you want it to, but I am not sure - having the submixer onboard might be a little misleading. Normally, the DA-78's main mission is to be a multitrack recorder used in conjuntion with an outboard mixer.

But getting all of your tracks down to two is definitely possible. What is it exactly that you are trying to do - by that I mean: what other pieces of gear are you using with the DA-78 and what is the final goal?

Brad

 

[Radioshack]

Thanks for responding Brad. What I am trying to do is just get 8
nice tracks recorded to the tape for now. Afterwards I will transfer it to my computer for CD replication. I am using a Mackie 406M as my preamp and it sounds great. The confusing thing for me is that the internal mixer isn't described very well in the manual. I want to monitor a recorded track while recording in and
be able to adjust levels as I go but it seems that you can't adjust
settings on the go unless in submix/mixdown mode. Once there though you cannot record. Also I'm wondering can output channels output more than one track at a time because that's all I've been able to output while in record/playback mode?