The 5th and 6th (7th/8th) inputs on Tascam 424III

[MoonAndTheSun]

Hello!
I have been trying to master my 4 track (Tascam 424 MKiii) and there is one thing I have been trying to figure out.
What can you do with the 5-8 inputs? Can they be used just like the 1-4 inputs? Or are they something completely different? I am getting ready to do some live recording of my band so I want to see how many inputs I am going to be able to pull off at a time (hopefully 5 or 6)

 

[TelePaul]

I assumed they were used for your stereo mixdown?

 

[Whale Bone]

You can feed the L R or cue busses with them (on my 424 original). I used them as stereo returns for two effects loops on mixdown.

I eventually discovered that you could have two effect loops using an insert cable in the effects send. The tip is the effects send, but the ring is the cue send (the manual says this, but the jack itself isn't labeled as such). So I'd send the effects to a reverb and the cue to anything else I wanted at the time. Then using two more insert cables I could get the effects back into channels 5-6 and 7-8 in stereo.