Tascam M208 Problem

Kingofpain678

Kingofpain678

Returned from the dead
Okay, so I'm probably just missing something here... But I've got a mic and a DI box going into the XLR inputs of my tascam, when I play my bass I can see the VU meters getting signal, even going into clipping. My problem is that the main XLR out isn't really sending any signal out. Neither are any of the four buss outputs.

Obviously the mixer is getting enough signal and gain because the VU meters are showing me that it's being overloaded but from there, the signal is getting lost?

Any ideas anyone? And please forgive my ignorance :o
 
Have you pressed the 1-2-3-4 assign buttons down on the channel that the mic and DI box are plugged into and brought up the PGM and stereo faders?

Cheers! :)
 
I think that's what the OP means by "1/4""...

What are you connecting the XLR outputs to? The XLR outs on the M-200 series mixers are actually unbalanced, plus they are pin 3 hot. If you are connecting to a balanced or unbalanced device that is pin 2 hot the signal will get shunted to ground (which results in no signal) because pins 2 and 1 (the ground pin) are strapped in the mixer.

If you know that the device at the other end of the cable is pin 2 hot then you need to open up the XLR plug at that end and swap the wires connected to pins 2 and 3. Or...just use the RCA jacks since the M-200 mixers are unbalanced anayway. The RCA jacks are -10dBv nominal and the XLR jacks are (I *think*) 0dBv.
 
sweetbeats said:
I think that's what the OP means by "1/4""...

What are you connecting the XLR outputs to? The XLR outs on the M-200 series mixers are actually unbalanced, plus they are pin 3 hot. If you are connecting to a balanced or unbalanced device that is pin 2 hot the signal will get shunted to ground (which results in no signal) because pins 2 and 1 (the ground pin) are strapped in the mixer.

If you know that the device at the other end of the cable is pin 2 hot then you need to open up the XLR plug at that end and swap the wires connected to pins 2 and 3. Or...just use the RCA jacks since the M-200 mixers are unbalanced anayway. The RCA jacks are -10dBv nominal and the XLR jacks are (I *think*) 0dBv.
Click to expand...

The pin 3 hot was going to be my very next suggestion but I had no idea that it isn't an actual balanced connection! :eek: Odder still in that I used to own an M208 and an M216 for a short time but never used those connectors as I was running shorter cables that didn't require that connection! Good stuff, Cory! ;)

Cheers! :)
 
sweetbeats said:
I think that's what the OP means by "1/4""...

What are you connecting the XLR outputs to? The XLR outs on the M-200 series mixers are actually unbalanced, plus they are pin 3 hot. If you are connecting to a balanced or unbalanced device that is pin 2 hot the signal will get shunted to ground (which results in no signal) because pins 2 and 1 (the ground pin) are strapped in the mixer.

If you know that the device at the other end of the cable is pin 2 hot then you need to open up the XLR plug at that end and swap the wires connected to pins 2 and 3. Or...just use the RCA jacks since the M-200 mixers are unbalanced anayway. The RCA jacks are -10dBv nominal and the XLR jacks are (I *think*) 0dBv.
Click to expand...

I could have sworn I just plugged an Xlr to 1/4" TRS cable into my patch bay (which fed into my balanced interface input) and it worked just fine...

I'll have to check this out...
 
Can't answer your question without knowing what you hooking up to the M-208 outputs. If you want the answers then gimme the detail.

Your XLR-TRS cable might already be normalled for pin 3 hot, or the equipment you hooked up might be pin 3 hot before and not now...I don't know because you're not telling us what you are doing.

All I know is that the M-208 group outs on the XLR's are unbalanced pin 3 hot and if you hook them up to a TRS or XLR input on the other end that is pin 2 hot, balanced OR unbalanced, signal will not pass.
 
The Ghost of FM said:
Working through the XLR outputs without modifying any cables?
Click to expand...

Yes.

Only thing is, my DAW input is only showing about -45 dBFS while my the M208's VU meters are coming close to 0. I assume this is because the XLR cables aren't wired in accordance to the M208's XLR outputs?
 
Kingofpain678 said:
Yes.

Only thing is, my DAW input is only showing about -45 dBFS while my the M208's VU meters are coming close to 0. I assume this is because the XLR cables aren't wired in accordance to the M208's XLR outputs?
Click to expand...

I'm not sure in that I'm not familiar with your computer's electrical standards for determining how it calculates level or if you just need to trim up the digital inputs to get the two meters to more closely agree with each other.

The main thing is, you've got the mixer now working, albeit in a mysterious way as far as how you've described it.

So, now that its working, how did you plan on using the mixer with your set up?

Cheers! :)
 
Well I'm hoping that I can use the four pgm xlr outs along with some channel panning to be able to get four of the mixers pre's to their own separate outputs.

I'll probably do some sub mixes in the pc and then use the m208 to finish the mix too.

Either way, I really like this thing
 
srsly, is the output of this thing supposed to be that low????

I really like it except for the fact that I'd almost have to stick it through another preamp to get it up to line level....

Any Ideas?
 
I found this thread while working on exploring a Tascam M-216 and found these exact same issues. The 1/4" and RCA outs worked just fine, but the XLR connections didn't work - super low level, lots of noise, and I assumed that I was going to spend today taking the back off this mixer and re soldering the XLR connectors.

The mixer is not broken.

The XLR outs of the M-200 Series are unbalanced, but what they also are (as mentioned in this thread) is wired differently than standard XLR cables.
Pin 2 and 3 are swapped. This means that positive and negative are reversed (but pin 1, ground, is fine.)
I tested this theory by opening and changing the wires of two of my unbalanced XLR to 1/4" cables.
I traded pin 2 for 3 on both of them and didn't do anything to the other end.

For good measure I ran these cables into a pair of Boss DI-1 direct boxes to re balance the output.

The results are just fine. No level cut, no hassles at all.

I'd love to solve a few problems with this mixer:

1. XLR
SoundGas and some other folks highly recommend replacing these strange XLR connectors with 1/4" "direct outputs".
I've looked into the jacks and they would look nice, and that could be very handy to have an extra 1/4" output for the mains (monitor and record) and then 1/4" outs for the busses.

What I'd really rather do is have some cables which are correct.
I've never heard of XLR cables which are 1 Ground, 2 Positive, 3 Negative to 1 Ground, 2 Negative, 3 Positive before.
Is this typical? What do we call these? Are there adapters for them so we don't have to build cables?
So curious.

2. Monitor Section
It's a shame that the only output for the monitoring is headphones.
I'd love to listen in nearfields to the monitor mix but that's not really handy.
I am considering something like a Mackie Big Knob to connect between the headphone outs and my monitors (can insert the main outs as well and switch between them if I need to)
I wondered if there was something more Tascam/Teac ever produced as a solution for this?

3. Phantom Power
It's also a shame that there isn't Phantom Power included.
I've scored a simple little box which provides 48v Phantom Power for a mic (often needed) but wondered again if Tascam/Teac produced something more of the era which would do this for me.

I'm really glad this post was here. And thank you to @sweetbeats for calling our attention to the pins. That really did the trick!
 
1. You’ll find a variety of audio equipment that is pin 3 “hot” or “high”. Pin 2 high is more common and is the direction in which the industry has shifted, but as you step backward in time you’ll encounter an increasing number of devices that are pin 3 high. I don’t believe there are off-the-shelf snakes or cables that flip the high and low conductors. It’s pretty easy to do that yourself and label the cable or snake as an inversion snake. I typically reverse the connections at the jack…get out the soldering iron…do it once, done. But then I label the back of the device since the device now, even though it is more compatible with a greater number of other devices, deviates from how it came from the factory. I think there also may be adapters you can plug in that flip the pins.

2. I don’t know if anything Tascam produced to address your issue. They did make more expensive feature filled consoles which had the features you are looking for. They intended the control room monitors to be fed by the main outs if being used in a recording situation. But the M-200 series is more biased toward FOH applications. The headphone amp has a decent amount of oomph you could also split the output from the headphone jack, one set going to your near fields and the other to your headphones. This would involve a custom splitter/adapter or putting together a few adapters. It would work. It’s a little noisy. The Big Knob is an eloquent solution…a good augmentation to the M-200’s lack of features in this area.

3. Not that I’m aware of.
 
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