DM4800 Pan problem

Tejo

Member
Joined
Apr 13, 2014
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From
Netherlands
Gear owned
DM 4800
Hi all,
Maybe somebody can help me with this pan problem.
When I touch a fader on the dm4800 or I click the select button then something strange happened. Pan of a channel that is hard right goes slowly by itself to the left. This only happens by selection. It doesn't matter if it is a stereo mix or a surround mix. It doesn't matter if automation is on or off it happens all the time by selecting a channel. You can imagine that I cannot make any mix anymore. I checked everything for 2 days but I can't find the solution.

Does one of you had this problem before. What are your suggestions to solve this problem.

Thank you very much for your help..

Regards,

Tejo
 
That's super weird and I never heard of such a problem before. Just out of interest: what happens with two tied channels for stereo? And do all channel pans move to center or only channels panned right?

All I can suggest is to perform a factory reset (start up the DM while holding Shift and Output Assign 1 and 2). You'll get to the diagnostics screen where you can do a factory reset but also other tests. Try the attached document.
 

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  • Tascam DM-3200 Factory Reset Instructions.pdf
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This is probably a long shot but is it possible that the encoders / faders were flipped via the "Flip" switch.
 
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Thank you very much for your answers and your help.

Arjan thank you for the reset manual. Two tied channels do the same. Doesn't matter how panned they are, full right, half right, or in the middle they go to the left.
I will do the factory reset and check if I still has the same problem. I was thinking that this maybe comes because I shutdown the dm4800 with the on/off button of a extension block after the message you can now shut the machine down. Maybe I really have to shutdown by the shutdown button. I come back later after the tests.
 
Nah, it's very unlikely that the shutdown procedure has anything to do with it, as long as you see the 'you can shutdown now' dialog. I use the same shutdown procedure - I don't even have access to the board's on/off switch.
 
I have experienced a similar fenomenon. Every now and then a parameter changes by itself. I.e. an aux send moves to full scale. And when I recall the snapshot, the same thing happens again. In most cases a project reload helps. It does not happen very often, so I can live with it. No idea what causes it however.
 
Thank you Headroom for your writing. It feels good not to be the only one! :) I did a reset of the system but nothing changed. It goes on the same way. The amazing thing is only by selection of the channel. It doesn't matter what setting I use. Stereo, surround! I even tryed very old settings when this fenomenon was not happening. Now it does!.
I was thinking maybe it has something to do with the cmos battery if there is any in the system. A low battery gives strange behave. Is there a cmos battery?
 
Very strange indeed! As a test, maybe you can disconnect the mixer USB and FW and see if this phenomenon still appears with the mixer on its own - to exclude possible external input data being responsible.
 
For anyone here with this problem. I had the exact same issue today. Seems like the problem was with the PAN encoder in the AUX send section, to the left of the screen. My guess is, that the encoder was stuck in between values and was causing an anomaly. Just had to twist it briefly and the annoying "ghost" pan was gone. Yeah!
 
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The horror...

I didn't encounter this behavior (yet?), but from what you guys are writing I don't want to experience this at all!

Now I'd be very interested in whether the description MRHRS gave solved the issue for Tejo and Headroom!

@MRHRS: unfortunately I could not follow the instructions you gave. With "PAN encoder in the AUX section, to the left of the screen" - what exactly do you mean? Thank you :)
 
The PAN rotary is only present on the DM4800. To the left of the screen, there's a section with 12 light grey rotary knobs for controlling the AUX SEND. Down right corner in that section, there's a 13th knob, sitting in it's own little box with the PAN written above it. It's THAT little bugger that was causing my problem at least. I think. It went away after i briefly touched it and hasn't come back after that. Kind of makes sense if you know a little about digital rotary encoders. They can easily send a false signal, if the software implementation isn't perfectly executed. Actually surprised there aren't more problems like this with the DM's.
 
Alright, seems like a pretty random solution anyway :) So what did solve your problem back then @Headroom ? Just in case it happens gain.
 
The PAN rotary is only present on the DM4800. To the left of the screen, there's a section with 12 light grey rotary knobs for controlling the AUX SEND.

Thanks for clarifying!

Kind of makes sense if you know a little about digital rotary encoders. They can easily send a false signal, if the software implementation isn't perfectly executed. Actually surprised there aren't more problems like this with the DM's.
As far as I can tell, the DMs are build rock solid, when it comes to implementation of hard/software. I guess the rotary encoder in question is a endless-encoder as well?
In theory there should be no problem at all - they work a lot different like "normal" potis that regulate voltage by increasing/decreasing electric resistance.
It might be a bug in the software though that might get invalid values in some positions that just don't add up to the math a certain algorythm might need.

Anyway: it's speculative, and whenever this error occurs, I guess no one wants to hear fancy explanations, but a rock solid solution :D

Could be, this error only exists on the 4800 model.

Fingers crossed, I hope you guys get rid of that mofo ;)

cheers
snafu
 

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