Hi, I'm making the step up from basic home recording to a more
substantial setup. It's still very basic (I wouldn't even go as far as
to call it a studio) but I've been accumulating some fairly cheap gear
to get started with. The aim is to replace with better gear as time and
funds allow. It's good enough to get an idea of what I'm doing in a
learn-as-you-go kind of way.

Anyhoo, the main reason for this post is that I've managed to get my
hands on a Teac "Tascam series" M-15 desk. 24 channel, 8 bus, looks its
age but has been reasonably looked after and supposedly everything
works, although I haven't fully tested it yet. It's certainly been used
til very recently in a local recording studio (they got rid of because
they were upgrading).

However I'm struggling to find any info or a manual or anything about
this desk. The internet seems pretty sparse and I'm not sure where to
look for companies or organisations who might be able to help.

Does anyone have any thoughts on the desk, or any suggestions where I
might be able to get more info?

Thanks in advance,

Tim

Big Tim wrote:

However I'm struggling to find any info or a manual or anything about
this desk. The internet seems pretty sparse and I'm not sure where to
look for companies or organisations who might be able to help.

Call Tascam. The complete service manual is available, and I think it
is around twenty dollars.

Start with 213-726-0303 and ask for Tascam manuals.
--scott


--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

In article . com writes:

Anyhoo, the main reason for this post is that I've managed to get my
hands on a Teac "Tascam series" M-15 desk.

However I'm struggling to find any info or a manual or anything about
this desk. The internet seems pretty sparse and I'm not sure where to
look for companies or organisations who might be able to help.

That console was from the pre-Internet days, and back when they
printed manuals rather than produced them as PDF files. It didn't
become a "legacy" product and you simply won't find much about it. I
have the Product Information Bulletin on it that describes the
controls on the modules, has the specifications, and a block diagram.
It's nine pages, more than you usually see today, and is reasonably
informative. It's not going to scan well, at least not with my
scanner. If you'd like me to copy it and send you a copy by mail,
it'll cost you a few bucks for my time, trouble, and postage.

By today's standards, it's pretty crappy. I hope you didn't pay more
than a few dollars for it. It's a good learner and looks pretty
impressive, but with all RCA ins and outs, and a lot more EMI floating
around our environment than at the time that the console was designed
(and TASCAM gear of that period always had pretty poor EMI rejection)
it's far from "quiet enough for digital."


--
I'm really Mike Rivers )
However, until the spam goes away or Hell freezes over,
lots of IP addresses are blocked from this system. If
you e-mail me and it bounces, use your secret decoder ring
and reach me he double-m-eleven-double-zero at yahoo

On 27 May 2005 15:29:23 -0400, (Mike Rivers)
wrote:


In article . com writes:

Anyhoo, the main reason for this post is that I've managed to get my
hands on a Teac "Tascam series" M-15 desk.

However I'm struggling to find any info or a manual or anything about
this desk. The internet seems pretty sparse and I'm not sure where to
look for companies or organisations who might be able to help.
snip

By today's standards, it's pretty crappy. I hope you didn't pay more
than a few dollars for it. It's a good learner and looks pretty
impressive, but with all RCA ins and outs, and a lot more EMI floating
around our environment than at the time that the console was designed
(and TASCAM gear of that period always had pretty poor EMI rejection)
it's far from "quiet enough for digital."


I rather liked my Model 15. Never had EMI problems. RCA
interconnects: signal doesn't really care what the connection is as
long as it gets to where it's going clean. Use good wire and it's not
an issue.

The Model 15 is fully modular, making it relatively easy to hot rod.
Dump the stock 4558/59's for something decent, put better xformers on
the front-end, make sure everything else is up to snuff and you got
yourself a pretty nice console.


Rick Ruskin
Lion Dog Music - Seattle WA
http://liondogmusic.com

In article writes:

I rather liked my Model 15. Never had EMI problems.

As close to those radio towers as you are? That's impressive. Maybe it
has do do with the screen wire cage. g

RCA
interconnects: signal doesn't really care what the connection is as
long as it gets to where it's going clean. Use good wire and it's not
an issue.

Yeah, but balanced inputs are pretty common today and that goes a long
way toward keeping interference out.


--
I'm really Mike Rivers )
However, until the spam goes away or Hell freezes over,
lots of IP addresses are blocked from this system. If
you e-mail me and it bounces, use your secret decoder ring
and reach me he double-m-eleven-double-zero at yahoo

Thanks for the info guys. I didn't pay anything for it, so there's
nothing to lose on that front!

I did wonder about the RCA connections, and it came with some god-awful
handmade cables which didn't exactly inspire confidence. But I've
bought all-new cables which are of decent quality so I'm not expecting
problems on that front now. In fact, as it's going to be hooked into a
DAW, it means I can buy an M-Audio Delta 1010LT and hook it in without
having to make lots of custom cables. I'm only going to be doing mostly
"good demo" quality, garage rock stuff to start with, so it's not too
critical for it to be especially quiet.

I heard from the guys at the studio it came from over the weekend and
it seems they may now have found the manual, so hopefully I'll be able
to learn some more about it soon. If that falls through though, I may
well be interested in your offer, Mike. Many thanks.


Thanks again for your time.

Tim

In article .com writes:

Thanks for the info guys. I didn't pay anything for it, so there's
nothing to lose on that front!

That's a great deal, provided you have the space to set it up. Learn
what all the controls do, and make the best mixes you can with it.
When you start to hear hums and buzzes that you can't get rid of, or
brittle mic recordings that sound better when you borrow an outboard
mic preamp, or you have problems with operating levels when you try to
interface it with other equipment, then you'll know what to look for
when you replace your free console.

One thing that you should check before you get frustrated is that there
is a jumper between the ACCESS Send and Receive jacks on each
channel, or, as I did when I had a TASCAM Model 5, connected them
to a normalled pair of jacks on a patchbay. These are the equivalent
of the INSERT jack on a modern mixer. Without the Send connected
to the Receive (either directly or through an outboard device such
as a compressor or equalizer) you won't get a signal from the selected
input through the console. The original TASCAM setup had a U-shaped
wire jumperb etween the two jacks, but these may have become lost in
the shuffle.

--
I'm really Mike Rivers )
However, until the spam goes away or Hell freezes over,
lots of IP addresses are blocked from this system. If
you e-mail me and it bounces, use your secret decoder ring
and reach me he double-m-eleven-double-zero at yahoo

Although using adapters isn't necessarily always a good idea, I've found
that RCA adapters of decent quality when used with decent grade video cables
worked quite nicely. A group of them can be quite ungainly, but if you find
any RF problems, this is one possible solution. Or a Faraday cage, as Mike
mentioned! g

--


Roger W. Norman
SirMusic Studio
http://blogs.salon.com/0004478/
"Big Tim" wrote in message
oups.com...
Thanks for the info guys. I didn't pay anything for it, so there's
nothing to lose on that front!

I did wonder about the RCA connections, and it came with some god-awful
handmade cables which didn't exactly inspire confidence. But I've
bought all-new cables which are of decent quality so I'm not expecting
problems on that front now. In fact, as it's going to be hooked into a
DAW, it means I can buy an M-Audio Delta 1010LT and hook it in without
having to make lots of custom cables. I'm only going to be doing mostly
"good demo" quality, garage rock stuff to start with, so it's not too
critical for it to be especially quiet.

I heard from the guys at the studio it came from over the weekend and
it seems they may now have found the manual, so hopefully I'll be able
to learn some more about it soon. If that falls through though, I may
well be interested in your offer, Mike. Many thanks.


Thanks again for your time.

Tim