Mix on 688 with headphones?

[telengard]

I have, and love, a TASCAM 688.

Lately I've been limited to doing music stuff late at night, and I am using headphones. This works OK for tracking/punching, but I can't seem to do any kind of mixing using headphones. Any EQ changes seem to be picked up on the outputs only (tape outs, main, etc).

I know this is not ideal, and I will eventually mix w/ my monitors, but I'm just wondering if there's a way to mix with headphones?

 

[SkywaveTDR]

Well looking at the OM the block diagram would suggest that what is not working on your headphone will not work on the monitor speakers either as they are fed from the same source. Pay attention on page 5 and 6 where the tone controls are located in a audio chain to resolve you problem. If you take a signal from an Insert that is after tone and you will never be able to apply tone modifications unless you send them back in the line in before the tone controls and of course the tone controls are activated. Some mixers have a off button to bypass them.

 

[JonHunt]

Hi. I’ve mixed several albums on a 688 through monitors and headphones both. Sky wave is correct, the signal to the monitor outputs is the same as what’s sent to the headphones. So there must be a routing issue somewhere.

Where are you plugging in your monitors? If you are taking them from the group 1/2 outputs (for example) and routing everything to 1/2, then you will hear your changes on the channel strips in your speakers. If you are sending cue monitor to the monitor section, then what you’re hearing isn’t going through the channel strips, but coming straight from the tape.

Here’s what I would recommend. Set inputs 1-8 to tape, and route channels 1-8 to group 1/2. If you still have your factory scene presets, then what you need is scene 12. Now make sure none of the buttons in the monitor section are pressed except for group 1/2 (not cue monitor). Now you’re sourcing channel strips 1-8 from the tape, sending them to group 1/2 and listening to group 1/2 in your headphones. I hope this helps!

 

[telengard]

Thanks so much for the suggestions, I'm sure it was something I was doing wrong w/ routing. I will try these out tonight.

As for monitoring outputs, I have all of the group outs going into my X32 rack.

 

[SkywaveTDR]

The Tape is selected at main input and not at Dual Input as that bypasses the EQ. All of the problems are easily seen if you consult the block diagram on page 5 of OM. These units with a routing switcher in them will cause some people problems but they like me have to learn how to use such a thing. I have the advantage of being in Radio where they had routing switchers that all signals went through. These were SAS devices that cost like $64000.

 

[telengard]

Thanks again for the insight Skywave, always helpful!

@JonHunt your suggestion worked perfectly, thank you!