REPAIRING TASCAM 688 - Analog Multitrack Tape Recorder - Audio Cassette - DIY Tutorial
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- Опубліковано 2 гру 2021
- Another episode of drones´n´diy.
I know there are so much more things you can do and I did a lot of that off camera. For example cleaning or resolder all the jack and xlr sockets, checking the Azimuth and replacing the battery. It just takes to long to put out a camera for every little step ;). I think the SNR of the mixer is in my case higher than the noise floor of the tape, so there is no need to replace all the caps or op amps. If the unit develops an obvious hum problem I will see where I can improve this.
Filmed with the Sony A7 iii and the Tamron 28 75 2.8.
If you want to get a unit repaired you can contact me at www.tae-audio.com if you're interested.
wooden side panels made by syntholz.de
You can find the background song here:
timpanic.bandcamp.com/track/p...
#tascam
#tape
#analog
#multitracker
#diy
#electronics
#cassette
#music
#studio
#recording
#soldering
#audioengineer
#audio
#vintage
#sonyalpha
#sonya7iii
#tamron
Werner Herzog is running out of topics
Or he finally found the interesting ones.
How I dreamed of owning one of those when I was a kid. Great video
This video was so satisfying. I wish I had your courage to open my 688 and fix the fluctuating tape speed problem. ✌️
Yeah that's the hardest issue of these machines. Can be the motor, the caps on the Speedboard or the overall condition of the Capstan drive. Nostalgia is not a cheap hobby when you're into tape :)
Just like the Giovanni Georgeo Monologue.
:) Just checked "him" out. I am afraid you are right.
Great video! 😄we did our first album on the 488. The 688 though is hilariously amazing
I bought one of these in mint condition and it is super fun! Love recording to all 8 tracks and it syncs with my Tascam 48-OB flawlessly... i like doing drums individually into the Tascam 48, then guitars and synths and bass in the 688 for some lo-fi distortion amazingness!! Lol all with tube amps/compressors and outboard effects for some flavor... great video cheers!
That sounds like a great setup.
I had one back in the day - it was a fun unit!
Thank God, when mine arrived from eBay, it was in perfect working order
I really like your wooden side panels.
I understand. 👍🎸
Love the wood side panels !
Very cool video. I love 70's/80's gear. I have a TASCAM 238 syncasette that I need to see if it works. It was give to me by Roger Boyd. His band, Head East, had a hit back in the 70's with Never Been Any Reason.
Now that I have a studio with every digital/recallable/thing, I feel like I would really love to purchase an analog desk just to do the final mix on. I have some great pre-amps already and just feel like I would like to do some mixing on an actual analog mixer rather than a DAW controller.
Anyway, great video. I really enjoyed it.
Yeah! I also have a 238 here connected to my midas venice. Hybrid Setup is the way to go today imo.
Awesome video! Love the 688!
Beautiful!
Fantastic man👌👌👌👌
The drums and the phaser efx on the electric guitar sounds heavenly
Thank you so much. I recorded this song 25 years ago ;)
Ugh. I just bought one of these after having owned one in the past and being stupid I sold it. It arrived with multiple issues, and onward I go, hoping to one day arrive back in a place of peace. Absolutely love the side panels! Mine are original and unbroken, so can't really justify but would love to know where you got them. If I get the machine back to it's former glory I may copy you.
I spoke to syntholz.de/ for my sidepanels ;)
Excellent video and you did a great renovation project there too! I'm also a 688 user, I've had 4 over the years and I've just managed to get my most recent one working. It still needs a bit more tlc but I'm happy to have one again!
Thats great!
Does the mixer add good sound to recordings?
@J M Depends on who you ask :) With a 688 it's not about the mixer but more about the "Tape" and the dawless analog workflow. If the 1/8 Tape size with 8 tracks suits your sound style depends on you. I can guarantee that the mixer itself won't do anything to your music beside summing and basic eq stuff.
@@timpanic really ? I had a 414mk2 and used to run stuff through the mixer without tape and it was great … so the 688 doesn’t Colour the sound at all without the tape ? Find that strange
@@saren6538 Compared to what is the question here! A Mackie, SSL, API, Midas or passive summing, your DAW with UAD Plugins etc. Some say color some degradation ;) The question was if it ADDs a GOOD SOUND to a recording. I say NO. If you need this mixer to make your music sound better you have a problem elsewhere in the chain. What should it add which was not already there beside hiss,hum, crossover and distortion. We first must define what "better" is. Best electrical performance or a "musical" "better" which can only mean harmonic distortion here and is even more subjectiv.
If you take your guitar or bass and go straight into the line ins of the 688 and compare it to >500€ preamp you should hear a big difference in clearity and usuable noise free dynamic range.
Fact is the mixer alone has nothing to write home about or was supposed to have a sound by the designers beside getting the wave as good as it can through the circuit with a curtain BUDGET for components of that time. Imho it has even less mojo ( distortion in this case) than the older tascam mixers ( m208 etc) which I also had. It has no special transformer, normal ic op amps, no special poly caps ( even has a lot of elkos in the signal path which get "old" much sooner), no class a, etc...so its not "better" or more RUPERT NEVEish than every mackie or soundcraft from that time. Doesn't make it a bad mixer. Not at all. It could be a good alternative to a mackie vlz. Or other: if you use this mixer as a pure summing box and have better results as your daw+goodbasicplugins you have a monitoring or measurement problem or you don't know anything or dont care about SNR etc, which is totaly fine ;)
that was very entertaining. I think you covered the repair and the lore with perfect balance. Music gets a bit loud, but that's the whole point I think 🙂 I'm looking to get a 688 or 238 to transfer my homebrews I made on borrowed 688s in the 90s. Watching your video makes me a little nervous about going 688, tho...238 might be easier to repair if required.
I also bought the 238 as a backup. It had other problems for example a complete detuned azimuth ;). A common bug is that the speed changes over time caused by bad caps on the pitch board which is a little different than on the 688. If you have a good.mixer and don't need that "all-in-one" box feeling the 238 could be a smarter move.
@@timpanic thanks for that! I don't have a desktop mixer larger than a couple of little Yamaha MG06X...and the 688 meter bridge is pretty nice. I have a RME UFX+...I'm under the impression that the 238 RCA outs are unbalanced -10dBU instrument level...I best get the manuals out to confirm...and I do understand the 688 routing matrix reasonably ...I/O on the 688 is surely better and worth the extra cost and space in my studio...I do have plenty of space
Awesome video! Have a 688 myself. I'd love to get some of those wood panels for it. Mind letting me know who I could contact?
Thank you. Yeah, just go here: syntholz.de/
Love my 688. Have low green led meter bridge output. Anyone know how to fix? Red is ok
!!!!!
Great video! Recently bought one of these and everything seems to be functional except for mic line 1. I plug in the mic and turn up the gain but don’t hear a change in level nor does the light turn red when maxed, where as it does when tested on all other channels. I hear sound and the eq works, but there is no increase in volume. I’m Thinking there is something maybe with the gain knob? I wondered about your thoughts and maybe I am missing something. Thanks
Hi Nathan. Can you switch the input of that channel from mic to line to tape? You can see that on the LCD Screen. When it´s switched to MIC there and it still doesn´t work with the xlr input it can only be the defekt mic pre or the electronic for switching the input is defekt.
@@timpanic thanks Tim. Yes it switches in the routing matrix, but nothing seems to happen in the mic/ with xlr input. Figured something was defected, but just wanted to be sure I’m not missing something-Thanks for the confirmation.
Mostly a transistor or elco blown in the signal path. It's only 2 transistors for the mic pre-amp on each mixer pcb. But it's a lot of work to get the pcb out.
Beautiful video! Love the tone and pace!
I have a question!
Did you just go in and replace all the caps or how did you know which ones to replace? Sort of a newby when it comes to getting nitty gritty into the electronics
Thank you Patrick :) Its better to loacate the cap in the circuit to know where it is in the schematic. I started with the caps on the pitch board cause it will produce some nasty speed artifacts when the elkos getting old there. In general its more about elko! replacement. Leave the ceramic and poly caps in at first, they live much longer. Also only replace the caps if you really have a problem and know it must be A or THAT cap. You will have a hart time replacing every Elkos in the mixer without making anything "better". Also start with elkos of the psu when hum or problems in general appear and see if that improves something before replacing every cap in the channelstrips...hope that helps.
@@timpanic thank you ! That is helpful! No hum yet so I’ll leave it alone! Managed to score a near mint barely used 688 for a trade for a KARP odyssey module. Psyched on it!
@@patrickyeo2016 Wow thats great. Yes better do nothing ;) Get fresh tapes, clean the heads with isopropanol and you´re good to go ;)
Hey i had a question about the 688, and it seems that you may now the answer. I have one VU meter that upon startup peaks and stays lit while the machine is on, with nothing plugged into it, any ideas?
Hi! Since I didn´t ever had this problem I can not give you a short fast helpful answer. So the channel itself is clean and full functioning in the audio domain, right? Also with all sources? It´s just all LED on all the time? So It must be something in the LED Driver Circuit. Start with checking all cabling from the Meterbridge to the mixerboard. If nothing obvious is broken or caps are blown you have to dive much deeper I am afraid and follow the rails from the meterled to the point where it sees the channel signal with a multimeter or ozilloscope. Worst thing could happen is a default led vu driver ic. Not a hobby job, takes a little bit of afford.
Elco 0,68 Uf on vu pcb. I thought. It's naar each vu bar. You need to remove the back plate and pcb carefull with hinges. Replace failing one. If it works Replace all elco's 0,68 Uf.
Bought a non working 688 (already own a working one)
It plays back too fast and wobbling,I changed the belt but it is only slightly better
Read that it could be the motor which is not working anymore,already ordered a "new" one and hope that it will solve the issue...
Can also be an error on the pitch speed pcb. Try to change the caps there when the motor exchange doesn't help.
Hey,it was a problem with the motor AND a mechanical issue (the tape path/pinch roller do not get proper contact with the tape,so I will have to clean the whole tape mechanism,did the same with a non working Porta One before)
But now track 3 won't record/playback anymore :(
Any idea were to start? (All channels of the mixer work,heads are cleaned and demagnetized)
That's a hard one! You must dive in and check the signal path then step by step. Does the signal reach the recordhead or is the playback the issue? I don't think the head itself suddenly broke, so it should be some problem before or after. Is there a small signal on the tape or nothing at all? Most issues I had with track issues were head dirt related in the end. Or naturally routing problems to or from the head.
@@PsyProgBerlin try-out the routing to another input. If not working either it must be the recording pcb or the cables or mixer back plane. It can be a loose wire on the rec/pb head.
What's the music playing in the background? I'm sure I've heard it before but I just can't remember who it's by or what it's called.
Hi! Nice that you like it. It's played all by me. The synth pad part was played by another guy in my old band. As I remember it was recorded around 1999 and I tracked drums and stuff with the 488 Tascam 8 track and tracked the rest with my old terratec sound card in cakewalk.
@@timpanic I'm sure I've heard it before - either way, it's a great tune. Is it on Spotifiy or somewhere else?
No it's not but I will upload some old projects on bandcamp and soundcloud. You can find my music under "Susan Screen Test" ( also on Spotify) and "Tim Panic" ( SoundCloud and bandcamp). The Song here was called "periode of happiness ".
No because I haven't uploaded it yet. I will!
@@timpanic D'oh!
hi you know the tascam 238 i got a tip from this model how to make the 238 alot better i copy this deck i put in a
same kind of motor drive and the bad servo is now not playing up any more
the 238 has a very poor servo motor set up allways playing up all the time and the cost of getting the same parts
so i binned the old servo and made myseft a new servo set up use a motor drive like in this one runs ace now
bigger range of speed now 2 ips to 7 1/2 about
Do you have a link where people can buy this motor? You mean the capstan motor, right?
So I just received one of these that was unfortunately not packed well. Most of the functions seem to work as advertised except for a major one- I can't seem to get the thing to record anything to tape? The meters are working, I get sound in the head phones, monitors, etc. The tape runs, FF, rewinds, all of those functions, etc. However, when I go to play back what I supposedly recorded nothing? I followed the manual, pages 18-19, word for word and still nothing? I even tested my new cassette tapes just to make sure those weren't bad, but that wasn't it? I'm at a loss and may need to return the item? But I thought that I would try these 688 comment sections first, just in case I was totally missing/not trying something, etc. Anyone on here who may have some words of wisdom, know these units well, and might know what is going on, I would sure appreciate it- Thanks.
Hi. It is very unlikely that ALL channels are broken, isn´t it. Are you sure you have all channels really record ready? Is the routing in the important routing window and recording matrix right? You must select the right scene to be able to record to tape. In one window you can select on which track you record which source. So this, panning and leveling the to tape signal must be correct. As mentioned it is unlikely that all channels are broken so it would be easy to find out with an oscilloscope or signal tracer how the signal flows til the record head.
@@timpanic Hi. Yep, the channels are record ready, go from blinking to on when I start recording, as they should, etc.? And yeah, the channels are producing sound in headphone, monitors, meters, etc. Also, a cassette will produce sound and the recorded tape from the 688 will play on my 4-track? It has to be a routing/scene thing, but what I followed from the manual pg 18-19 should work for a test record, supposedly? I'm just not sure at this point, and appreciate the help.
I guess you already know these clips but here you can see how the matrix should be set up:
ua-cam.com/video/YoaEy937ffI/v-deo.html&ab_channel=wehappyfewmusic
ua-cam.com/video/cXhmLN5IPos/v-deo.html&ab_channel=JoshuaSwannMusic
When you set up everything right it can only be a physical damage. It could be just a cabling issue or the matrix ic is broken. First I would just open the unit and check for loose cables. Otherwise there is no other way but to grab the schematic and a signal tracer or osci and check if the signal is leaving the multiplexer and is reaching the record head or not.
$1000 on my non-existent website 😂
You got it :D !!