Hi,

I have a Tascam 58 tape machine that has -10 (RCA) style ins and outs as well as XLR sytle +4 ins and outs. My Allen and Heath mixer appears to only be able to interface with the tape machine with the unbalanced connection. My question is, if I get some good unbalanced cables and run them no longer than 10 to 15 feet would I be losing that much with respect to sound quality and noise issues instead of using the balanced connections?

I wish I could run balanced being that I already have snake cables to run balanced but when I run balanced I have to crank the board (and it distortes) to get the signial hot enough (0 VU) over to the tape machine and when I come out of the tape machine into the board's inputs the signial is too hot even with the pad and the gain all the way down and it again distortes the board. I also just calibrated the whole tape machine so I think I'm good there. Any suggestions, advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Scott

Actually, you get a somewhat cleaner signal running your 58 unbalanced, because you bypass the balancing electronics. A 10-15' unbalanced run should be fine, as long as you're careful not to run along power cable or near AC transformers.

Assuming your deck is calibrated properly, it sounds like you may not be using a true +4 output on your board, if it craps out like that. Also, are you sure you have the tape returns running into an actual +4 line level return? A lot of cheaper mixers just put a 20dB pad in front of the mic pre and call it good.

hey scott-

what's your mixer? on many mid-level mixers you have the option of globally swithing from -10 to +4. if yours is capable of this (and something tells me you have a mixwizard, and i think you can do that on that one) simply making the mixer +4 should address your problem. on some it's as simple as a switch on the back, others there is an internal jumper... check your manual - it should be relatively straightforard to get this resolved.

good luck.

nk

Thanks for the responses guys. Yeah its a Allen & Heath Mixwizard 16:2 DX. According to Allen & Heath, the direct outs are an impedance balanced TRS jack. They say the line level signal is operating at 0 dBu. The source is set using an internal option jumper for each channel. The factor default setting is pre-fade, this may be change to post-fade if preferred." I called Allen & Heath and they are convinced that the board should be able to accomdate a +4 input given the fact that the output is operationg at 0 dB and +4 is closer that -10 but when I run from the output of the board its not a hot enough signal for the +4 in on the tape machine. I've just about given up and am going to get some nicer unbalanced cables. The only other thing I've been told by some people is to check the pin configuration on the tape machine to make sure that it agrees with the board. Any other thoughts? Thanks again,

Scott

I think I finally got this figured out. I finally got my Tascam 58 manual and come to find out that the XLR in/out on the tape machine is pin 3 = hot, pin2 = cold, pin 1 = gnd. The Allen and Heath board is 2 = hot, 3 = cold, pin 1 = gnd (standard XLR pinout). I started looking in to the history of the Tascam 58 and saw that it actually was manufactured in the early 80's rather than the later 80's as I thought. This makes sense to me as to why the XLR pinout are swapped as it wasn't standardized back then. This is probably the case with your 48 as well...

Scott