Category Archives: Gear Restoration

Tascam M3700 Refurbishment – Getting to Know You

Gear Restoration, Tascam M3700

As I wrote about in The Gear Keeps Arriving!, I bought a Tascam M3700 32 channel automated mixing desk. I came across the desk via a craigslist ad where the seller listed it as not working, for $200. Since I already have a Tascam M3500 I was planning to buy the M3700 for use as a donor. The M3700 has the full meter bridge, which my M3500 lacks, and the boards are so nearly identical I could use the broken board to keep the M3500 working for longer. Considering I had just spent $200 on 8 spare channels for my M3500, $200 for a whole second console is a darn good deal.

The M3700, like the M3500, is a large mixing desk that connects to a 3U rack mounted power supply. The owner explained that the power supply (PSU) was continually blowing a specific fuse, Fuse 2. When I arrived to buy the console he went into some detail about his testing process. He said that he had some success running the console with channels 22 and 32 unplugged, he then added that even with them unplugged the fuse still popped but after a longer delay. He also said that a friend of his who was a Tascam tech person advised him to swap the 5A fuse with a 7A fuse.

Let me start by saying that upping a fuse to a higher rating is a universally bad idea and I do not recommend it for any reason. A fuse serves one purpose: To protect the electronics that follow it in the circuit. The designers have chosen the proper rating for the fuse to be above what the circuit will draw but below the amount of current that will hurt the circuit. Changing the value of the fuse puts all down stream components in danger. Don’t do it! The tech friend said that popping a fuse was common on units with the larger meter bridge since it draws more power then the standard short bridge. That may or may not be true but the fuse that was popping did not feed power to the meter bridge. The fuse that does feed the bridge doesn’t appear to have ever popped and the extended meter bridge is a Tascam manufactured option, not something from a third party.

With the issues the seller was describing I was of the opinion that the problem with the board was in the PSU. The seller, based on the information from the Tascam tech friend, believe the issue was somewhere in the console itself. Either way, I need the board only as spares so I handed over my $200 and went on my merry way. Disappointingly, the fuse in question powers the audio path of the console so while I could see the board was in reasonably good cosmetic shape I really had no way to know if it was in any way capable of passing audio which did make it a bit of a gamble.

Putting the obvious functional issues aside though, the board was actually quite a find. I’ve already mentioned that the console has the full meter bridge, not too common in the US, but it also had the seemingly impossible to find balancing kit and an add-on to the onboard automation system. So far as I can tell, this board is completely maxed out. No other options that I know of were available for purchase. I wasn’t aware of these add ons until I arrived to take a look at the board and I will admit I got pretty excited!

Additionally, the seller told me that the owner before him had the first 16 channels of the board upgraded with new opamps and also did a full refurbishment. The opamps are a somewhat common upgrade on these boards for people to perform these days. An opamp is a tiny IC that does, basically, the volume gain within each channel. It’s a relatively inexpensive way to improve/change the sound of the board and the previous owner upgraded all five opamps per channel. Since the board was open they also went through and cleaned all the gunk and crap that tends to accumulate after 20 years of life.

Once I got the console home it was time to try my hand at getting it up and running again. I was now starting to really hope it would be a simple fix since the board had so many extras. With my M3500 already in good working condition it did give me a good base to start testing with. More posts to follow!

Robert

The Gear Keeps Arriving!

Gear Restoration, Tascam M3500, Tascam M3700

As I’ve been discussing, I’ve been giving a lot of though to how I want my new studio setup. Part of that discussion brings in the aspect of getting a few new pieces of gear to help with my changed workflow. The problem I keep running into though is that a lot of gear I’m looking for can’t be bought new and tends to be pretty rare.

For instance, I want to do a better job integrating my digital recording equipment with my analog gear. It’s not a common thing to do these days. Most people either sold off their analog gear and replaced it with digital or bought the equipment needed to make them play nice together years ago. I don’t know of anyone still making gear that will allow you to press one play button and have you tape machine and your computer start rolling.

Thanks to ebay though, finding those items is made a lot simpler. Specifically, Ebay has a feature where you can save searches. You do a search and then tell Ebay to save that search from near the top of the results window. Ebay will then perform that search for you every day and email you when new items show up that fit your criteria. It’s been incredible helpful.

Yesterday I was able to find a guy selling the ‘Timeline Micro Lynx’ which allows you to sync several devices, computers, tape machines, ect. and with the remote start them and keep then in sync. This will be wonderful as I will no longer need to cover my studio in remotes for every piece of gear I have.

It looks like I’m going to need to craft a few cables to make the right connections for my specific tape machines but it will be well worth the effort and a task I won’t have to perform more than once per machine.

In addition to that I found a localish guy selling a mixing board that is a variation of the M3500 I’ve become so fond of. The board is called the M3700 and it has an automation system built in but is having some problems. Since the two boards are so similar and the M3700 was being sold for so cheap I’ve committed to buying it and I’m picking it up this week.

The plan is to see what I can do with the M3700 in terms of repair and if it’s not fixable, or not worth fixing, it will be used for spare parts on my M3500. If it is fixable I will use the M3500 as spare parts for the M3700. The two board are nearly identical. They are both 32 channel boards and the M3700 comes with the full meter bridge, which my M3500 lacks. For what I’m paying for the M3700 if all I can use is the meter bridge, it will be well worth it.

If I’m able to make some repairs to the board, which the owner says is blowing fuses, it will be a great little cross-grade to what I have now. The only difference between the M3500 and M3700 is the automation system which I’ve heard is quite easy to use. Thankfully, I’ve got the Timeline Micro Lynx on the way which will go a long way in helping me keep the board in sync with the rest of the studio.

Robert

Studio on the Move!

Gear Restoration, Studio Construction, Studio Design, Tascam M3500

Wolf Den Recording is on hiatus at the moment as I’ve moved into my first house and not all of my gear has followed quite yet. It does put me into a unique position though where I get to redesign the studio, building on what I learned the first time around.

When I started trying to figure out what I liked and what I didn’t about my ‘old’ studio one idea kept bubbling to the surface: I want to do a better job integrating the digital side with the analog side.

The old location was basically an efficient setup to get audio recorded digitally. When I was setting up the control room I did a lot of research into how other similarly sized studios were setup and followed that general template. The configuration works quite well and I was never at a loss making something happen but it’s just not the way I like to work.

With the new space I’m going to focus on building a studio that suits the way I think and work. I’m going to take a big facility approach on a small facility budget.

When you work in a large facility they are often focused around a large mixing console that becomes the heart of the system. I don’t have the millions of dollars needed to afford a really large board but after doing some research I’ve turned up some consoles that work in the same way, at a price point more in line with the final plan of the studio.

I found a guy in New York that was selling a Tascam M-3500 in a 32 channel configuration. Beautiful console that, in very basic terms, functions the same way as the really large format recording consoles from companies like SSL and Neve. Each of the 32 channels is actually two separate channels, one for the Microphone/instrument and a second channel for the signal coming back form the recorder. This allows me huge flexibility both during tracks and  when it comes time to mix the song. At mix down, because of the boards configuration, I have access to 64 channels of audio plus 4 effects returns. The flexibility of the board is truly amazing.

With the console on hand I can now figure out the final design of the studio and where the console will fit in. The goal now will be to build a setup that allows me to work purely in digital, purely in analog, or a hybrid of both. Thanks to this new board, that should be a breeze.

The board is about 20 years old though and it needs a little TLC before it’s 100% again. I’ve been pouring over every light, switch, knob and fader and will have this board looking and sounding as good as new well before the construction on the studio is complete.

I’ll be using this space to update on the progress the studio is making as well as any side projects I take on, like restoring this wonderful console back to tip top shape. Stay tuned!

Robert