Getting external sends to work on Tascam 2488 MKII

[John Magee]

Hi, I have been through the manual a couple of dozen times looking for how to
use the external effects send at the rear of the 2488MKII. I have tried
connecting an effects unit to the sends but there appears to be no signal
out of the send which probably means the effects unit is not 'hearing' anything from the 2488.
I would really appreciate any help in getting up and running with this. My
apologies if this is a dumb question, but I am new to Tascam and just got the 2488.
Thank you

 

[Christopher North]

Hey John - I know this is an old post, but I found a way to do this. It's not how I want to do it, but it works. If there's someone else with a better way, I'm all ears.

1. Connect a 1/4" cable from the EFF1 jack to your effect module's input.
2. Connect a 1/4" cable from your effect module's output to a track (e.g. 8).
3. On the channel you want effect (e.g. 1), toggle the EFF1 level from the 'send' button.
4. Raising/lowering the fader on channel 8 will increase/decrease the gain of the effect being sent. Raising/lowering the EFF1 value from the 'send' option will toggle the amount of mix against the dry signal.

Preferably, I was hoping NOT to use a channel for the effect. I was hoping that an insert cable from the EFF1 jack would send the dry signal, and return the wet signal back to the bus, and whichever channel I mix the EFF1 level from the 'send' screen would give me the mix. Or, assign the EFF1 signal to the 'SUB' channel, which again, would not require me to lose a channel.

If you found out how to do it, let me know. Likewise, if someone else is aware on how to patch an external module without taking up a hard channel, please reply!

Chris

 

[John Magee]

Hi Chris,
Thank you very much for the information. I appreciate your taking the time to respond

I am still concerned with not seeing any input to the eternal effect in the volume meters of the external effect. I am wondering if either the EFF1 jack is dead or if I am doing something wrong somewhere else in the signal chain ?

Nevertheless I am looking forward to trying out your solution .

Again, Thank you Chris.

Regards

John

 

[Rand782]

Christopher is right, there are no "send returns" or inserts on the 2488; the send is returned via an unused track. But to answer the rest of your question, there is a "send" button to the side of the fader section, where you see the EQ, mute & solo, etc. Select the track you are applying the outboard effects to, then press the "send" button. This will bring up a screen where you can set how wet or dry you want the signal to be, whether pre or post-fader, master gain and pan etc. You can also set up a stereo send/return by setting send 1 as left and send 2 as right; just pan hard right or left on the tracks you are using. You wont see the outboard send signals on the 2488 meters; you control levels the way I mentioned above along with monitoring the channel(s) you are using for a return.

To use outboard sends for insert effects like compression and eq, set the source at 100% wet, pre-fader, and use the return tracks, muting the source tracks. This works for me on the Neo.

 

[Badsneaker]

I have a Mackie 16 channel board that I was thinking about using for external effects. That would at least get me into a kind of side chain that I could route tracks to different effects, individually, or several as a whole, for example reverbs, chorus, and compression on back up vocal tracks.

I'll post what I end up with once I can get it set up.

Thanks.