got this mixer but its behaviour is questionable,suspectedly...without a manual! but really knowing a few shortcuts would be fair. its RCA jacks in to their respective places on a TSR-8 and all's well but when recording it seems we can record only 4 tracks at once since signals spill into other channels lest we can figure how to record 8 seperate mics onto their respective channels. in other words: mic #1 records ALSO on track 5,mic #2 records ALSO on track 6,e.t.c.right down the line....and no MUTE buttons only RTN buttons....feedback,playback problems,you name it.
so....can anyone help....we appreciate your support immensly.
regards
krys
Hi KRYSKEPT,
Glad to see you joined the forum.
While the M-308 was a outstanding mixer for 8 track recording, if you really need to record more than 4 mono or 2 pairs of stereo tracks at once, you are asking for more than it was designed to do in a normal configuration. It is a 4 buss mixer.
Look at this picture courtesy of Cory:
https://www.torridheatstudios.com/ftp/Share/Pictures/Tascam M-320B/Rear view.JPG
The program OUTS go into the tape recorder inputs. The tape in's are the returns from the recorder. Are you sure you have it hooked up that way?
Once you confirm you do you can do a test with your oscillator.
I am going from memory - it's been years since I have used this mixer.
Plug your oscillator into channel 1 on the mixer and use a 1K tone at .775 volts.
Gain stage the level by pulling up channel 1 fader to unity gain and adjusting trim to achieve 0dB on meter 1
Take the channel out of the mix by lifting the orange button below the bus assign buttons.
Pan the channel straight up the center. This will send an equal amount of signal to both ODD and EVEN BUSSES.
Press buss assign buttons 1 and 2 on channel 1.
Pull up Busses 1 and 2 until they show 0 dB on the mixer meter which is now showing output levels for buss 1 and 2.
if you where only wanting to use an odd buss/track you would pan HARD LEFT. HARD RIGHT for even busses.
Enable record buttons on tracks 1 and 2 on the recorder.
You should now see tone going to track 1 and 2 on the recorder.
Turn on channels 1 and 2 on the mixer monitor section. When on, the green LED will light.
Pan the monitor section channel 1 hard left and channel 2 hard right.
Pull down buss 2 and you will see that the signal is not sent to that track any longer.
Disable recorder track 1 and enable recorder track 5.
The tone is now sent to track 5.
It is important to understand that TRACKS 1 and 5, 2 and 6, 3 and 7, 4 and 8 share busses.
As I said, it is a 4 buss mixer.
You can send channel 1 to any track on a 8 track recorder by using the even - odd panning on the channel and buss assign switches. The same with all 8 channels.
For now put everything back to the configuration outlined above to record on tracks 1 and 2.
Print the tone on those 2 tracks.
Hear it by rewinding and lifting the tracks record enable buttons on the recorder. press play. IT should now be heard through the monitor section.
Everything you just did to set up the mixer is for recording mode. What you recorded will play back through the monitor section NOT through the mixer channel strips.
You have 3 independent mixes going on now. 1 mix is properly gain staging the INPUT LEVEL by using the channel faders and trim level. The second mix is establishing the appropriate RECORD level by setting the busses at the proper level. The 3rd mix is the Control room MONITOR MIX which is set by the rotary pots in the monitor section. More mixes can be obtained by using the auxes, for talent cues for example.
Next step is to become fast at assigning channels and monitor mixes without thinking about it too much to record and playback various recorder tracks. Practice a while and you will get the hang of it. The beauty of the system is that once set, you don't have to change levels anywhere while recording and playing back.
You can monitor with reverb while recording or monitoring by turning up the Blue pot on the channel while the mixer is setup in record mode. That wet mix is not printed. This is assuming that you have a reverb properly wired into the echo circuit and the levels up on the reverb master.
Let me know how this all works and I"ll post more info. Hope I got most everything right. Again, it's been years since I used the M-308.
Most guys that needed to be able to record more that 4 tracks at once used 2 M-308's cascaded.
Regards,
Danny
opps, Cory beat me to it.