Thread Connecting an old tascam M80 mixing board to my audio interface

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Dmurph

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1 Posted on 05/06/2016 at 15:29:47

Hello everyone, I acquired an old tascam m80 mixing board recently and its been sitting around taking up space and i want to actually find a way to put it to use. I just bought an m-audio mtrack quad, and id like to be able to hook it up to the interface, using the inputs on the mixing board for mics. I'm not sure if all the inputs on the board work but im curious to give it a shot. My question is, would this be worth it?? Using the interface alone lacks the edge i want and im looking for ways to bring more character and life to my recordings. Should i go thru the trouble of finding cables and whatnot, or would i be better off investing in a pre-amp? I know that with the mixing board there are more options as to modifying the sound in pre-production, including a reverb setting i believe. Input is greatly appreciated, thanks!!!

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Mike Levine

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2 Posted on 05/07/2016 at 05:10:00

I was initially going to say, just get a nice mic pre and don't go through the hassle of dealing with the mixer, but I did a little looking around online and Tascam mixers from that era get some good comments about the sound of their mic pres. What I read was about the M30, and I'm assuming it has similar preamps to the M80 (I couldn't find out for sure, as there's very info available about the M80). Anyway, what I read about the M30's pres was that they're on the noisy side, but have a nice warmth to them. At least it might be worth trying them out, if you can do so without spending much on cables. It shouldn't be too hard to connect the output of the mixer to one of the line inputs on your M-Audio interface. Does it have direct outputs for each channel? That would probably be the way to go if you want to connect multiple mics. Good luck!

Dmurph

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3 Posted on 05/07/2016 at 09:15:33

Thanks Mike, thats good to hear!!! I figured it would give the recordings somewhat of a vintage warmth. There are direct inputs, so it should not be too hard. Correction: The mixer is an M-308, which i believe is slightly newer?? It has more inputs and features then the one pictured below. Excited to take a crack at it, thanks again for the reply, its much appreciated.

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