No signal to external effects from sends

[Keith D]

I have tracks that I am trying to add external effects to and record those wet while maintaining the dry tracks. Problem is I cant get a signal from the sends to the outboard equipment. Set send 2 to pre, level at 127, master at 127. Same with send 1 but no signal at all making it to outboard gear. Cables are good, work fine when swapped to test?? Any thoughts??

 

[Keith D]

Also just for kicks tried sending signal from the monitor ports and still no signal. Monitors work fine as well??

 

[Felonious Punk]

Hi Keith. Do you have a return set up to one of the inputs on the Tascam?

You must send the signal back from the external effect to the Tascam.

FP

 

[Keith D]

Yessir. Returns set up, assigned to tracks (C & D assigned to 1 and 2) no signal there because no signal to outboard gear.

 

[Phil Tipping]

When you set it to PRE and turn up the send level, are you sure the correct track number is displayed at the top right of the mixer screen? There's a separate send for every track (and input), so the settings shown only apply to the currently selected item.
You can also press Monitor Select and choose to monitor the Send bus. This allows you to confirm you've set up the sends correctly before looking at the rest of the signal path out to the external unit and back again. If you can't hear anything on the send bus, there's something wrong before that point.

 

[Keith D]

Yes correct track on the mixer screen, send bus plays fine on monitor select but nothing out to external. Cant say about returns because I cant get a feed lol. While I got you here does the track need to be on a stereo bus? If so how do I put an already recorded track to a bus?

 

[Mark Richards]

Your returns from the external gear are to Inputs C&D assigned to Tracks 1 & 2.

Which of the remaining tracks are you using as the source signal(s) going to Effect Send 2?

If you have signal on the Effect Send 1 & 2 monitor bus, then I'd look to the external gear.

The portastudio Effects Send 1 & 2 OUT Jacks are 1/4"/6.3mm TS unbalanced; -10dBV; 200 ohm.

• What external gear are you trying to connect with?
• How is it powered - A/C or battery?
• What are the input jacks on your external gear - RCA; XLR; 1/4"-6.3mm TS unbalanced; or 1/4"-6.3mm TRS balanced; mic or line level?
• Is your cable a native match on both ends to the respective type of jack?
• What are the input specifications for your external gear? -10dB; +4dB; switchable?
• What type of input gain control does your external gear have?

 

[Felonious Punk]

Yes correct track on the mixer screen, send bus plays fine on monitor select but nothing out to external. Cant say about returns because I cant get a feed lol. While I got you here does the track need to be on a stereo bus? If so how do I put an already recorded track to a bus?

I'm not sure if this answers your question or not but I always have to assign my return tracks to the stereo bus if I want to monitor them through the mains.

I just go to the assign screen and highlight whatever input's stereo bus I am using for my return (s).

FP

 

[Phil Tipping]

If you look at the block diagram, the only controls between the send bus and the eff-send outputs are the send-masters, so if these are turned up full and you can hear a signal when monitoring the send bus, it must be present on the eff-send outputs.
How are you determining that you are not getting a feed to the external unit?
Try plugging something else such as your powered speakers into the eff-send outputs.
If there's no sound, something odd is happening inside the DP machine, in which case have you done the usual fault-finding steps such as checking the firmware is up-to-date and/or doing a factory initialise.
If there is a sound, you know the DP machine is sending ok and the problem is with the external unit or its connections, in which case check what Mark and FP said. You just have to be methodical and trace the signal through step by step.

 

[David Porter]

And - not sure if this was mentioned already - you can test the Send outputs by simply skipping the outboard gear and cabling direct from the Send out -----> to an input. That should tell ya something.

 

[Keith D]

First off, thanks to all for the responses. Really had me puzzled as all the troubleshooting steps of the send signal exiting were positive. Signal sent. London story short, my 1st step of outboard gear is my preamp and it was set to mic not line. So operator error. Thanks again guys, I know when I have issues I can always count on this group