That would definitely work for parallel. The switches I was speaking of would be on the circuit board of the WU-8111 input modules; I'm including a photo of the switch on the WU-8101 module circuit board from the 8616, for reference if they are similar. If the switch is present and set to "off," flip it to "on," and the stereo image on the master bus should match that of the group buses when routed to from that channel.

Thanks for the efforts, but no luck. The buss modules are WR-8117, and have no such pan switches....I didn't see anything that could be either flipped or jumped.

Oh well...

Right, but the switches to change the way the signal is routed to the buses would be located on the input modules, not on the buss modules. The mono strips for the 8428 should be the WU-8111 modules. If you have any mono input modules in the board, I would pull one out and check there.

I've uploaded the Ramsa 8428 operation manual. The answer might be on page 9 as far as the internal switches go for the busses. Hope this helps some Ramsa 8428 users around here. I somehow skipped page 34 but I don't think its a very important page, its just like page 35. The service manual is quite large so I don't know if I'll scan that.

Thank you so much! This is really valuable reading material for me, even if I don't own the board.

Also, Unknown Soldier, the manual does say that the WU-8111 Mono Input Modules do have the Pan on/off switch on the circuit board, and it is factory set to off. If you just pull each of your mono strips and flip the switch to on, you should have a matching image on your groups and master bus when routed.

Wow, thanks a bunch for the manual! I see now about the 8111 modules...you have make the pan change on the input modules, not the buss modules. I did pull one out and make the change, will do the rest when I have time.

Did some tracking for the first time today with the Orion 32 and the ramsa today. I thought it sounded great.

Nice! Your rig looks great. What all did you run through it? I really love what the Ramsa pre's do to just about everything, honestly.

8 channels of drums, 1ch bass di, 2 ch synth, 2 ch iPad, 1 ch vocals, 1 channel guitar, and 1ch room mic. Used the effects sends and returns also, seems like everything works. I have to open it up to get the solos to be post fader though. This “hybrid” mixing thing is really cool. It’s fun to ride the faders while recording the stereo buss back into the daw, so cool. I think next purchase will be some outboard compressors and a better reverb unit.

That's awesome to hear it's working well for ya. I definitely agree about hybrid mixing; it opens up possibilities that aren't there when working solely in analog or digital. I also like recording the master mix directly off the 2-bus, since it allows me to easily get a raw mixdown without ever having to render anything in Reaper.

Does the 8428 have pre-fader inserts on master bus? The 8616 does not have them, which is the one thing I wish I could change about it.

Unfortunately not, I really didn’t even think about it until you mentioned it.

I am so happy to have found this thread after many years of owning a ramsa wr8428. I’ll have to tell you the story about how I got my user and technical manual.

I am interested how you hooked up the Orion and the ramsa. Can you speak about this setup and the specific type of cabling you used and operation.

I’m currently looking for an Orion and was hoping to utiliz the db25 in’s and outs on the board to keep cabling as clean as possible.

Sure, I have a 16 channel snake going into the ramsa’s mic inputs (xlr) for mics in the studio.

Two 8 channel db25 to 1/4 trs snakes for the line outputs of the ramsa (trs) into the audio in of the Orion (db25) this feeds my daw the 16 tracks I’m recording from the mics.


Three 8 channel db25 to xlr male snakes for the line ins of the ramsa (xlr) to the Orion audio outputs (db25) this lets me send the daw tracks back to the ramsa for additional mixing and summing before I send it back to the daw.

One 8 channel db25 to xlr female snake from the various xlr outputs of the ramsa into the Orion audio in (db25).

I send it back to the daw from the control room out (xlr) of the ramsa into channel 7 and 8 of my db25 to xlr female snake. So they show up in the Orion as channels 23 and 24.

The Orion has been great so far, I recommend it.

That’s sounds like a great setup. However, I am looking at using the breakouts on the ramsa in conjunction with the Orion. They should work together as the Orion uses the tascam standard for their pinout and the ramsa seems to be using the same Tasman pinout.

I am hoping to avoid using breakouts to keep the worrying as clean as possible.

My setup with the ramsa was running through two presonus fire studios and a digimax fs. Xlr to 1/4” snakes. But presonus has stopped updating software so I need a new interface. Hence my interest in the Orion.

Did you try to use dn25 to connect the ramsa or did you go straight for breakouts?

Here are the pinout diagrams. And you can see that the ramsa has a similar pinout to the tascam standard but again I’m not 100% sure.
Take a look and see what you guys think.
Also If you have an extra db25 to db25 maybe try to hook it up and see what happens.

Here are some picture of my ramsa and the rack that used to House the presonus stuff. It’s all still In my basement but it’s not in working order until I get a new interface. It’s been almost a year now and I’m ready to get it back going strong.

It looks like your 8428 has the WU-8112 tape monitor strips, I don’t have them in mine. So I can’t use mine like yours. Here’s a pic of the manual explaining them. I would make sure they will work how you want them before you buy the snakes (db25 to db25 cables). I noticed your symetrix cl150’s. I just got a cl100, cool. Nice 8428 also!

Noticed that picture is not great, there is a link a few posts up of the manual. It’s a lot clearer.

Thanks for the compliments. I remember seeing this the other day.
I have a printout if the manual. The 8111 module also says that it pulls from the multi pin connector. This is getting confusing lol.
I really love the ramsa though. It has been a great board.

I got the board from a friend of mine that deals in vintage gear. He got it from a church. That church got it from a church and so forth. I believe it had been donated to three or four different churches since the eighties. Needless to say it’s got a little Jesus in it.
After I got the board I was looking for the manual like the thread starter. I scoured the Internet and forums and found nothing. I ended up calling Panasonic. They had hardly heard of this thing and a guy called me back a few days later who had been with the company forever. I ended up paying shipping for them to print a new manual for me. It was still warm when I got it delivered. So I thought it was cool that you found a digital copy. I saved it a few days ago. This thread rocks!

I just scanned my manual and put it up here, I’m glad people are finding it useful. Another thing I remembered reading about those db25 tape returns and sends. I think the returns bypass the mic preamps. So like if you had a vst synth and you wanted to route it into the board you wouldn’t get the sound of the mic pres. I’m sure it’s debatable in how much that matters but it’s a thing to consider.

As the OP, I am so happy you found this thread as well! Please do share about the manual.

I have to play some catch up with the posts here. I have been busy and really thought this thread was mostly dead!

Thanks for all the information and photos, everyone. I've had questions about this console for years and I'm happy to know they're out there and as awesome as I'd assumed.

I read somewhere that the Ramsa's non-standard db25 wiring is an issue with most other db25 setups . . . I appreciate you posting the pin outs of both, because I have never investigated this.

It looks like despite the cable pairs being on the same pins as the tascam, the way they are organized are different. For example, on the Ramsa, Pin 1 is hot, Pin 2 is cold, and Pin 14 is ground, but for Tascam-wired db25, Pin 1 is hot, Pin 2 is ground, and Pin 14 is cold. So, you would be running the ground pin on the Ramsa into the cold pin on the Orion, and the cold pin into the ground pin. So, if you see problems when wiring it up this way, you may have to wire a new db25 cable to interface it with it.

Also, I just read the story of how you got your 8428. That's awesome! One day I'm going to get one, but considering how far I had to drive for my 8616's, I might be in for a voyage. Really cool that Panasonic sent you the manual; besides this thread, I can only find it in one place, and they want a fortune for it.

This is the most information I've found on my board. I buy storage units, and found a Ramsa Gs900, with the power supply module. They appear to be in great condition. All I've been able to find out is that Carnegie Hall supposedly uses the same one. The thing is massive, and takes at least two people to carry. I mean, I play guitar and all, but my house is too small to pull this one off. I would rather have someone use it to its potential. Does anyone have a general idea as to validating these things? I'm in Colorado, Would shipping be a deal breaker.

Thanks,
Daniel Venezia
Ps.. I hope I didn't stray from your OP too much..

*valuation rather than validation.

Hi Daniel,
I have never personally heard of a Ramsa Gs900, so I'm not sure where to start in terms of valuation. I would probably test the thing and make sure it is fully functional before doing anything else, as the number one influence of value here is going to be whether or not it works. If it works and is good to go, I'd maybe start a thread on Gearslutz trying to find other people who have them. It took a while, but it worked for me finding out about the Ramsa WR-8428 at least.

If it's a large format console, shipping is probably not going to be very possible, or at least require freight. I have two Ramsa WR-8616's, and despite being fairly small frames that weigh about 150 lbs, I had to drive out of state to pick them up myself because nobody would ship them.

I'll try and do some research and see if I can find any information on it for ya.

Are you sure it’s not a ramsa c900? If it is it’s a left/center/right theater mixing console. I’ve found the msrp to be $8000, have no clue if that’s really accurate though just what I found on the google.

There's one of these for $100 on the Los Angeles Craigslist at the moment... someone please buy it so I don't.