2488MKll Rewind and FF buttons dont work, and my new DP32SD is no good at all

[Håkan Nilsson]

Is there new buttoms for sale, or is it possible to make them work?
Ive had this recording machine for many years and I love it, I hate computers, I use with some of the best outboards in my studio.

Now when the buttons dont work I bougth a new 32 channel SD
https://www.bax-shop.se/multitrack-...ningsapparat?gclid=CJOUm-yqgdECFYjJsgodUegLfg
and after some weeks use I realize the new one is crap, no good in nothing.
I cant open EQ when I record
When I try to punsch in record it takes about a second delay before recording
If I make a a drum loop it starts at the in mark and when it comes to the outmark it stops some time before it start again. 2488MKll just made the loop go on forever.
Compressors cant be used at all after recording! Totally insane.
If I record drum overhead on a stereo channel I cant set the faders to nine and three oclock. Only all the way out.
And I cant copy a mono channel to a stereo channel. That makes this 32 channel machine having less channels than the old 24 channels.
There is no way to hear my Lexicon outboard reverb without recording it.
The owerall sound is much better on the old 2488MKll. The EQ section on each channel sounds like shit on the new one.
DP 32SD must be a totally catastrophe for Tascam. Seen a lot of writing of it on internet...

So how could I fix my old 2488MKll? I wish I could have a new one.

 

[Phil Tipping]

Sorry to hear your disappointment Håkan. You may be able to return your dp32 for a refund if it's not too late, but there are not many alternatives out there for free-standing multi-track recorders. I only know of the Zoom models as I considered these when making my choice. I'm not going to defend the dp32 as I'm just one of many happy users and I never had a 2488 so can't really compare. All I can suggest is to try to get to grips with it; it will be different, but maybe not as bad as you think if you give it some time. Some of your concerns are explained below just to get you off the ground, but it's Christmas week so don't have a lot of time to address everything - I'm sure others will chip in with answers to the remaining issues.

EQ during record
There are 2 ways of setting EQ. One is via the Mixer button, which displays the EQ and other settings and remains displayed until you exit the screen manually. The other is by moving any EQ control or pressing the EQ on/off button. This 'pops up' the EQ subset of the mixer screen, but it only remains on screen while knobs are being turned; it returns to the home screen automatically after a few seconds.
It's this second method which you can use during recording.
Note that any adjustments apply to the currently selected track or input, so you need to select it first. If you check the block diagram, you'll see the track EQ is on the output (playback) side of the track so this will not affect recorded signals. There is another EQ block shown on the Input path so you need to select this instead of the track, i.e. press the Source button for the reqd. input. The EQ controls will then affect the recorded signal from this input during recording.

Compressing after recording
This is possible using the Insert(Guitar) effect block; there's a sticky post at the start of this dp24/32 forum showing all the effects.

Outboard reverb
You can send a submix out to your Lexicon via the Effect Sends, and feed it back in to a spare input, which you can then route (assign) to the stereo bus. This means you can hear it without recording it.

Hope this has helped (a bit!). Season's greetings to you.

 

[RustyAxe]

You need to spend more time in the user manual. Yes, some things are different, but nothing you've complained about is valid. It's not fair to blame the device because you haven't learned how to use it.

 

[Roundhill]

If you send your 2488 MKII to TASCAM they can replace all buttons that stick. Don't know the cost or how long they would guarantee their work. I don't know if this is a DIY project. Good luck and I too preferred my 2488 to my DP24.

 

[Håkan Nilsson]

Thanx for reply!
I had my guitar repairman fix the old 2488MKll, he did in one day for a very low cost. So now Ill try to sell my new DP32.

Im not talking shit when I say that punch in takes about half a second to start. Ive been doing vocalrecordings on the DP32 today, and its impossible to punch in if its not a silence part between the words.

Today i made a mix and a master of a song. When I was finished and had saved it I first made a copy of the song, and renamed the copy and made another master using the multibandcompressor (First master was without multibandcompressor) And saved that too. Then I took the SD-card and when home to listen in my iMac. Then to know wich soundfile is wich is impossible. The new named master is not named, cant find it, there was six files from the same time today, but to know wich one was the latest one?

 

[RustyAxe]

Good for you. I'm happy that you're happy.

 

[Phil Tipping]

Good news with the 2488. Re. dp32, the mastered file name is based on the current song name and saved in the Song folder (not AudioDepot), so if you rename the song and master that, you should get a different master file. This definitely works for newly created songs, but haven't confirmed it with renaming so maybe there's a bug... or are you sure it was the copied version which was loaded when you mastered it the second time? It shows the current song name on the home screen. There will be at most 2 mixed/mastered files for each song - the one without a 'z' in the name is the one to use; the one with the 'z' is the previous version used by the machine for Undo purposes. The machine does not retain date & time so the files are not timestamped properly. If you copy them to a computer, the only timestamps you'll have are the ones planted by the computer when you copied them.

Just my 2-cents on your other issues:-

Punch-in delay
I've not used punch-in so cannot confirm your timing problem.

Copying mono tracks to stereo
You can do this by bouncing, although this will be a real-time process so maybe not ideal.
The issue re. no. of tracks has cropped up on here before. The terms tracks & channels can be confusing as stereo is sometimes regarded as a single item as it handles left & right signals as 'one', e.g. levels and EQ are common to both, but they obviously use up 2 separate recordable 'tracks'. The pan control on a mono track is replaced by a balance control for adjusting relative levels. The dp32sd only has 20 playable 'tracks' (the dp24sd has 18) - count the faders. The mono/stereo split is fixed on the dp24, whereas on the dp32 you can switch any stereo track to mono (note it only becomes a single mono, not 2). So whether Tascam have been misleading by using the terms 24 or 32 is really down to interpretation - the spec. is absolutely clear though so you'd know this before buying.

Recording drums on stereo
Not sure what the issue is here. I'm not an expert but would have thought if you want an accurate stereo recording using 2 mics, use a stereo track and adjust the mics to get the spread you want. If you want to control the spread without moving the mics, then use 2 mono tracks and pan each one as reqd.

EQ quality
Can't comment on this but no amount of RTFM is going to solve it, so you should have sent it back if you weren't happy. Don't know if you have Distance Selling regulations as in the UK, but you could have got a full refund if it wasn't suitable for you.
Update: just a thought - if you've got a high-quality Lexicon anyway, why not use the EQ on that? It might even be better than the 2488

 

[Joe M.]

Hi,my name is Joe and I'm new on here.I have a 2488 Mk.II that also has a button sticking problem.I bought it about 10 years ago and I always had a problem with having to push on certain buttons harder to get them to work.Should have got it fixed long ago but it wasn't much of hassle til recently.The right cursor button doesn't work at all and now having problems with transport buttons also.Was wondering if it is a major fix or something minor that could be done.Any advice would be appreciated, thanks!