Teac 15 Mixing Console

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statictrash

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Hello,

Sorry if this should be in the digital department, it was hard to decide, since this is an analog piece of gear.

Anyways, I just scored this Teac 15 mixing console for free. It's the 24 track 8 bus version. Everything works and comes with 8 additional channel strips and 8 additional bus strips, plus an extra power supply. It's in really good shape.

40990_10150241890665052_623890051_14417558_3562168_n.jpg


My thoughts are to eventually use it with an 8-track reel to reel (once I get a hold of one) but for now I would like to use it with my digital setup, mostly to see if I can get some other color with the preamps and use it to premix drums down before they hit my DAW.

I am working with a 10 input daw system thru a Focusrite Saffire Pro 40 and a DBX 386 spidif.

But I also have a Yamaha MT8X II - 8 track tape recorder with 1/4" ins and RCA outs. I could use the mixer to track drums to two tracks, bass to one and guitar another, then send the tracks out to my daw separately.


My question to you all is what you think about this mixer in my digital setup.... using this mixer directly with my interface.

I should be able to run channels to 8 buses through the board without any patchwork, right? Then send the bus mix to my daw as 8 separate tracks?


Thanks for anything!
-j
 
(Here is my compulsory preface: I'm no pro. I don't pretend to be. I will answer to the best of my knowlede [partly to push myself to learn more] and try to help the best I can. If i'm wrong, I do apologize.]


Yes you can run the mixer into 8/10 of your digital inputs. Depending on the setup you have (how many outputs you have on the digital side) you could possibly run the outputs through the board for mixing, overbubs, etc.

What you would want to do is use your boards routing functions to assing inputs to the busses. The cool thing here, is that you have 24 ins, so you can have a lot of things hooked up all at once. Lets say inputs 1-4 are drums, 5 is a 57 on an amp, 6 is a bass DI, 7 is a vocal, and 8 is an acoustic. You still have 16 inputs to have for other things (key boards, additional instruments.) Now for the first run, you could assing everything to a buss that corresponds to it's number (i.e. input one to buss one, input two to buss two, etc) and you can track your take eight inputs to eight tracks.

Then you have your next eight inputs. Say 9-16 (or really any other eight, or some of the first eight, whatever, just a different set of 8)

reassign the inputs your using to the busses and you get another 8 tracks.

If you are at all like me, you're a fan of early decision making. YOu can actually use more inputs than 8 if you want. For instance; inputs 1-8 could all be drum mics. You could put the kick to one buss, the snare to another, say half of the toms to another, half the toms to another (so you can pan your fills) and your over heads to another buss, now you have, whatever, eight mics on 5 busses, and you still have another three to use for other stuff. This approach can get you really powerful results if your willing to commit to premixing a few things. It will let you push your i/os further. (This is especially important when tracking to tape and you have limited tracks.)

This is all based just on how I understand things. I'm more than willing to admit that I could be off. But I think I'm right. Anyone else?
 
Nate's right. The other option if you don't want to buss stuff is to use the direct out jacks on the strips, but since you have 10 inputs to the DAW and likely don't track more than 8 sources at once then bussing is a great way to go...the groups act like an infinitely variable 24 x 8 patchbay which is really convenient, and like Nate said you can have all your stuff hooked up all the time and when you want to track this or that you just assign as needed, set your levels and go...no repatching. And also like he said you could run the outputs from your DAW back to the board for hands-on analog summing.

Try some of these things out and you'll find what flow and setup works best for you but that mixer will give you lots of options.

The Model 15 was Teac's first real serious stab at a medium format mixer...transformer mic preamps and I'm sure by now you have experienced its 400+lb girth. A beast.

Congratulations...a fully loaded Model 15 frame with spares galore for free is indeed a VERY good find...And how DID you get it for free??? :eek:

Keep us posted.
 
Thanks for the info guys!

I encourage anyone else to lay down more info/ideas if possible.

About 10 months I began building a project studio. An old friend of mind contacted me recently asking if I wanted this unit. He had it at his house but was moving to California and didn't want to take it or worry about selling it, so he offered it to me. He only paid 200 for it initially.

I might be willing to sell it if it doesn't meet what I am looking for. Lots of extras and an extra working power supply.


My first test with this thing will be to bus multiple channels into my daw and the second test will be to record to my 8-track tape recorder and transfer that to my daw.
 
sweetbeats said:
Nate's right. The other option if you don't want to buss stuff is to use the direct out jacks on the strips, but since you have 10 inputs to the DAW and likely don't track more than 8 sources at once then bussing is a great way to go...the groups act like an infinitely variable 24 x 8 patchbay which is really convenient, and like Nate said you can have all your stuff hooked up all the time and when you want to track this or that you just assign as needed, set your levels and go...no repatching. And also like he said you could run the outputs from your DAW back to the board for hands-on analog summing.

Try some of these things out and you'll find what flow and setup works best for you but that mixer will give you lots of options.

The Model 15 was Teac's first real serious stab at a medium format mixer...transformer mic preamps and I'm sure by now you have experienced its 400+lb girth. A beast.

Congratulations...a fully loaded Model 15 frame with spares galore for free is indeed a VERY good find...And how DID you get it for free??? :eek:

Keep us posted.
Click to expand...

Quick question, before I try to figure it out on my own.

Do I need patch cables to use the buses? Or should the board itself send input channels to the buses? This is a very new thing for me.
 
Thanks. So, what's the use of all the patching available on this unit for?
 
Can you clarify what you mean by "all the patching"?
 
It's all RCA based. I read that you should have easy access to the back so you can patch stuff.

Another question I just thought of.

How is it possible to record, let's say, 12 tracks all at once (drums, guitars and bass), then send those to 8 buses (pre-mixed) and have those buses feed to my interface, while all at the same time using the mixer to send out separate headphone mixes to 4 different musicians through my crappy behringer 4 channel headphone amplifier?
 
statictrash said:
It's all RCA based. I read that you should have easy access to the back so you can patch stuff.

Another question I just thought of.

How is it possible to record, let's say, 12 tracks all at once (drums, guitars and bass), then send those to 8 buses (pre-mixed) and have those buses feed to my interface, while all at the same time using the mixer to send out separate headphone mixes to 4 different musicians through my crappy behringer 4 channel headphone amplifier?
Click to expand...

The direct outs allow routing of one signal source to one tape track. Whenever possible, this is the way to go. 8 buss outs + 4 directs = 12. (Hint: Get patch bays to bring all the rear panel ins/outs to a more convenient place in your control room.)

The Model 15 will not allow you to create 4 independent headphone mixes.
the best it can do is 2 and only if you are willing to give up having an effects send.
 
Well as far as patching it all depends on your setup and what you want to do. Teac built in a lot of access points and so depending on how you want to use that stuff that's what will determine what you are patching. The jacks labeled ACCESS RCV/SEND jacks are your insert points but they are on separate RCA jacks rather than a single TRS jacks...and then you've got your input jacks.

In the master section your aux and buss modules are and that's where you might do most of your patching.

AFIK the Model 15 only has 2 aux busses so you can only setup two completely independent cue mixes though you DO have some monitor mixes you can setup on the buss modules.

You need to read the manual.

There's no problem submixing 12, 15, 24 channels...whatever...to the 8 groups. That's the whole point.
 
sweetbeats said:
The jacks labeled ACCESS RCV/SEND jacks are your insert points but they are on separate RCA jacks rather than a single TRS jacks...and then you've got your input jacks.


You need to read the manual.
Click to expand...


It's worth noting that when in remix, the 15 sends the signal back through the mic pre. Unnecessary & not such a good idea. It can be bypassed by patching the tape machine outs to the receives of each input channel. Things clean up quite a bit that way.
 
You lose the PEAK LED function in doing so right? But absolutely, yes, that gives a direct line path to the strip.
 
I am over here now trying to test this thing out. After going thru all the channel strips only 17 of them reach overload when tapping on a mic but all of them light up. I have all the buses and aux installed, plus the remaining control and studio channels.

I'm trying to get stuff sent over to the buses so I can test out the VU meters but nothing is happening. I assume the 8 VU's are for the buses plus the two VU's for the master aux.

Can someone explain how I can get a signal to the VU meters? I'm most likely doing this wrong but have no manual. I'm also on my phone.
 
statictrash said:
How is it possible to record, let's say, 12 tracks all at once (drums, guitars and bass), then send those to 8 buses (pre-mixed) and have those buses feed to my interface, while all at the same time using the mixer to send out separate headphone mixes to 4 different musicians through my crappy behringer 4 channel headphone amplifier?
Click to expand...

Ok, good question. Let's break it down a bit.

You aren't recording 12 tracks at once and sending them to the 8 busses. Think of a buss as . . . . a bus (like school bus.) You have 12 passnagers (6 drum mics, 2 guitar mics, one bass D.I., one vocal, and two piano mics) that need to get to their location (your recorder.) You only have 8 busses (or school buses.) So you decided which passangers ride on which bus. You tell the kick drum to ride on one bus, the snare to ride another, the toms to ride one, and the over heads to ride one. Now they are on four buss/buses. you still have 6 passengers and 7 busses so you have to decide which two passangers have to double up. I would say the two guitar mics. Put them on one bus so you can leave your piano on two seperate busses and get a stereo image. But whatever.

So now that you have the busses assigned you have to "pre mix them." All that means is that you have the two guitars on one bus. WHich guitar is louder? How do you want them eq'd because once they are on that buss, they are ONE SIGNAL not two any more. So that's what we mean by pre-mixing. You determine what signals are louder in each buss.

As far as your headphone mixes. .... not sure. If you don't have the aux outs for it, don't worry about it. Having miltiple mixes is not really neccessary as far as I can tell.

I hope that helps some. Or maybe I made it worse. Let us know. (But yes, you need to read the manual. It will save your ass.)
 
statictrash said:
I am over here now trying to test this thing out. After going thru all the channel strips only 17 of them reach overload when tapping on a mic but all of them light up. I have all the buses and aux installed, plus the remaining control and studio channels.

I'm trying to get stuff sent over to the buses so I can test out the VU meters but nothing is happening. I assume the 8 VU's are for the buses plus the two VU's for the master aux.

Can someone explain how I can get a signal to the VU meters? I'm most likely doing this wrong but have no manual. I'm also on my phone.
Click to expand...

Ok. So the meters work if I use a cable from say channel 1 send to bus 1 rcv, then move it to bus 2.and so on... But shouldn't this work with the board alone? How do I do that?
 
statictrash said:
Ok. So the meters work if I use a cable from say channel 1 send to bus 1 rcv, then move it to bus 2.and so on... But shouldn't this work with the board alone? How do I do that?
Click to expand...

Each send/rcv pair should have a jumper in order to normal the internal routing. You can't assign anything to a buss otherwise. All buss masters need to be up for anything to get through them and get metered.
 
Have an idea of what u mean but not really. Could u help by explaining to me the way to go about setting this all up?
 
I can relate to wanting somebody to walk you through every step but don't expect we'll be able to do that. You need to get the manual.

What Rick is talking about are the ACCESS SEND/RCV jacks...if there isn't a little jumper from the SEND to the RCV jack nothing goes through. Usually on more contemporary gear the insert jack is "normalled" meaning it will pass signal even if nothing is inserted. Your Model 15 has to have something connecting the two jacks in order for signal to normally pass that point. The mixer came with a little solid jumper between the two and if that's missing you have to use a short RCA cable.
 
I apologize, really... its just that I don't have a manual and haven't had time to get one printed up yet, plus I don't have the internet at my studio right now so all I have is my little iphone and can't pull anything up.

So, I need to have a jumper from the send to the rcv on each channel? This means the signal goes out and back in? then to the board and onto the next channel?

IS that the same for the bus strips too then?

I really appreciate what you can tell me. That's what this is for right? :drunk:

Now it's time to drink and watch the Packers whoop it.
 
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