So, I took the plunge and bought a 32 channel M-3500. I ask myself, what have I done? (Actually, so far I'm really enjoying the board)
I've been going over every switch, pot, fader, input and output looking for all the little issues the board will no doubt have.
A couple of things have come to my attention and if anyone has any insight about them your opinions will be most welcome.
First, what I think is a minor one. Several of the channels have weird issues with the lights. Many buttons have a little light to indicate if it's on or off. EQs, Mute, Solo, ect. On some channels between 1-10 when you press a button instead of it's light coming on, all the rest of the channel's lights go out. The functions all work, just not the lights. Seems like a short circuit perhaps? Odd that it's about 5 channels and all between 1 and 10. None of the channels past 11 have that issue at all. They are LEDs. Some channels the lights go out totally, other they all just dim way down, but it only affects that one channel.
Second issue is that the right side of 'Stereo Out' doesn't pass audio. CR Out A and B as well as 'Studio Out' pass audio, it's only the output destined for a 2 track mixdown deck. I'll have to open it up and see what that is but it leads me into my next questions...
The outputs for CR A and B as well as 'Studio' all seem quiet to me. I have a pair of known working active monitors plugged in, via XLR cables, and when the mix buss shows the mix is right around 0db I need to crank the 'CR' or 'Studio' volume knob to about 75% to get a moderate level. If I go higher on the board, it distorts. The speakers themselves have volume knobs as well and they are both cranked up as high as they will go. I checked each output one after the other and they all were at about the same volume for the same position of the volume knob. Right now for testing I'm just feeding in a stereo pair of my iPod.
When I got done with various CD and Studio outputs I started to move an XLR to the 'Stereo Out' connectors which are offered on XLR (as well as RCA). I was of course using the same XLR cables as before and when I started to plug in 'Stereo Out' left the audio was super loud. Mind you, the board is still reading just about 0db on the meter and nothing else has changed. The level of audio coming out seemed on par, frankly, which what I would have expected the other outputs to be. I unplugged the cable from 'Left' and pulled the channel faders down to -40 and the master bus down to -40 and plugged the speakers back in. Left works fine and was at close the same moderate level the other outputs where at but of course the VU meter was barely reading at all since I had it turned down to far. The 'Right' side of 'Stereo Out' was dead.
All that being said, I'm waiting for Tascam to get the manual back in stock, which they tell me will happen next week. Right now I have no manual and no schematics. I have some experience on much more complicated consoles like the SSL 9000j series and the Amek 9098i so I don't find this console confusing or difficult to use but without the manual I could easily be doing something wrong without knowing it. The meters are showing what I expect them to show but the speakers are much quieter than I expect...
Any ideas?
I've been going over every switch, pot, fader, input and output looking for all the little issues the board will no doubt have.
A couple of things have come to my attention and if anyone has any insight about them your opinions will be most welcome.
First, what I think is a minor one. Several of the channels have weird issues with the lights. Many buttons have a little light to indicate if it's on or off. EQs, Mute, Solo, ect. On some channels between 1-10 when you press a button instead of it's light coming on, all the rest of the channel's lights go out. The functions all work, just not the lights. Seems like a short circuit perhaps? Odd that it's about 5 channels and all between 1 and 10. None of the channels past 11 have that issue at all. They are LEDs. Some channels the lights go out totally, other they all just dim way down, but it only affects that one channel.
Second issue is that the right side of 'Stereo Out' doesn't pass audio. CR Out A and B as well as 'Studio Out' pass audio, it's only the output destined for a 2 track mixdown deck. I'll have to open it up and see what that is but it leads me into my next questions...
The outputs for CR A and B as well as 'Studio' all seem quiet to me. I have a pair of known working active monitors plugged in, via XLR cables, and when the mix buss shows the mix is right around 0db I need to crank the 'CR' or 'Studio' volume knob to about 75% to get a moderate level. If I go higher on the board, it distorts. The speakers themselves have volume knobs as well and they are both cranked up as high as they will go. I checked each output one after the other and they all were at about the same volume for the same position of the volume knob. Right now for testing I'm just feeding in a stereo pair of my iPod.
When I got done with various CD and Studio outputs I started to move an XLR to the 'Stereo Out' connectors which are offered on XLR (as well as RCA). I was of course using the same XLR cables as before and when I started to plug in 'Stereo Out' left the audio was super loud. Mind you, the board is still reading just about 0db on the meter and nothing else has changed. The level of audio coming out seemed on par, frankly, which what I would have expected the other outputs to be. I unplugged the cable from 'Left' and pulled the channel faders down to -40 and the master bus down to -40 and plugged the speakers back in. Left works fine and was at close the same moderate level the other outputs where at but of course the VU meter was barely reading at all since I had it turned down to far. The 'Right' side of 'Stereo Out' was dead.
All that being said, I'm waiting for Tascam to get the manual back in stock, which they tell me will happen next week. Right now I have no manual and no schematics. I have some experience on much more complicated consoles like the SSL 9000j series and the Amek 9098i so I don't find this console confusing or difficult to use but without the manual I could easily be doing something wrong without knowing it. The meters are showing what I expect them to show but the speakers are much quieter than I expect...
Any ideas?