Tascam M-512 - What is broken?

[theposterkid]

I'm trying to find out what is wrong with a Tascam M-512 mixer.

All the mic preamps work fine, and I am able to assign every channel to every buss without a problem. Also, the RCA direct outs on the channels work. The headphone output works fine in the both the left and right can.

-UNFORTUNATELY-

NONE of the RCA line ins work. NONE of the RCA Tape ins work either.

To make matters worse, on the auxiliary inputs labelled 'sub in', such as 'pgm' and 'aux', none of these work in stereo (when monitoring on the headphones), only in mono (when activating the mono button on the mixer...THAT is when you can hear it properly).

I have no experience with electronics. Could this problem be one big/simple thing, rather than every single thing that doesn't work having a problem with it? Does it work like a string of lightbulbs, ie one bulb dying causes all the bulbs not to work? I guess what I am asking is, what are the likely problems with it, and how much would it cost to fix?

Also, anyone in Austin that knows a good place to take it to get it checked out?

[tateeskew]

i can't remember, but i think those old tascam boards needed to be patched on the back because they were never normalled out of the box. it's been so long since i've seen on of those old desks, but i think the signal probably stops at the insert unless patched with a little rca/rca. does the back of the console have a bunch of those small rca/rca patches made already?

someone more familiar with the console should be able to help. i'm guessing nothing is wrong with the console, you're just having some trouble with how routing works on it.

[theposterkid]

Yeah, it does have a ton of those little RCA connectors on each channel. Not sure how those work. It is labelled something like "Send" Access & Receive" or something like that.

[Mark]

They're an early version of channel inserts. The send goes to the processor. The recieve comes from the processor. You need to get some very short patch leads to normal them

[lichthaus-media]

What mark said is EXACT. If the jumpers are not there, you will not have a signal at the buss. Test this by running a signal in the line-in jumping the send/receive with and rca cable.

-james

[Mark]

JUMPERS!


That's the word I was looking for. Ta James

[theposterkid]

Unfortunately, I think the problem is somewhere else. The jumpers are there, on every channel...they were when I tested it too...

There are so many of them...there are a bunch in the pgm out and stereo master out section of the mixer too...could something be normalled/unnormalled over there that is causing the problem?

In summary...the XLR mic inputs buss perfectly fine to every buss. But, I can't get any signal when going in the line-ins of each channel.

[drummerdan]

I have a similar problem: I have a tascam m-1516 that I got for $50 because the Stereo Out, Monitor Out External Input and Dual Out (mix/2) don't work at all. All these are in the upper right hand side of the mixer so I figured something blew. It a pain, but I mix and monitor through headphones, so I live with it. Everything else works great, and I LOVE the preamps. Sorry I'm just adding to the problem at hand, but maybe there is an old polio-like Tascam disease that crippled out mixers in the 80's, and now there is a cure (I hope)