Can anyone comment this mixer? I´ve heard people telling good stuff about it...

C´mon I can´t believe no one heard this console!!!!! It´s 11 years old!!!

Well, I've got one, but I haven't had it for very long and haven't quite run it thru it's paces. It's a cool lookin' board, HUGE, compared to compact mixers today, and with VU meters, which always scores bonus points in my book. It is pretty full featured, especially with an 8 channel moniter section. It was, of course, originally designed to be used in conjunction a 38, or another one of tascams reel to reels.
The main consensus seems to be, that for the 200-300 bucks you can score one for, it beats out any other comparably-priced, compact modern mixer, esp the pres. The biggest beef i think is the fact that it comes in 12 and 20 channel flavors, 16 and 24 would prolly be more usefull to people today. For more info check out the tascam forums at homerecording.com. If you do a search you'll prolly find all sorts of info on tascam boards.

The thing is I can score one for aroud $800 american dolars. A brand new MixWizard 2 is around $1400 and an Onyx 1620 is around $1700.
What do you think about this?

Do you remember why there are 3 knobs on the EQ section? I think it´s something like 2 semi-parametric bands and a hi-shelv? Or maybe a filter instead of a shelv?

can't help you on the eq thing, but I can tell you 800 usd is pretty damn steep. Check ebay, you'll find they go for anywhere between $250 and $450. Is this thing like brand-spankin new or something?
I also don't know shit about mixwizards or the Onyx except that, for one mixwizards are live boards and have features of such. (ie no monitor section tape returns, single buss). And the onyx I thought was a digital mixer? Or digital mixer and interface? Are you looking for a frontend to a daw or are you looking for someting to MIX with?

Sweet jesus, now you've gone & reminded me...

M-312 had a fixed hi shelf @ 10 or 12kHz, & sweepable bell filters for mids & lows. The best thing I can say about a Tascam M-300 series board is that it was a major improvement over the M-500 series. Pretty colors, too.

God, somewhere out there are records I made on Tascam 38's & M-320's. I will surely rot in hell for that...

So you guys do like the console huh?

there are mixed feelings on vintage tascam gear. Some people swear by it, others think it's shit. I say it's cheaper than mackie.
All the same, I would not spend 800 bucks on that board.

I'm new at this thing.

Why, did you happen to acquire my old 312?
(That would be with the 'Steal Your Face thingy on the right front IIRC.

I'm sure it's better than peavey

It's not 11 years old. It's probably closer to 25 years old. IIRC those came out in 83 or 84.

I always loved the Tascam stuff when I was young. I had a Fostex R8 and longed for a TSR-8 (which I got) and used a M320 with it.

The faders on those were so smooth and they felt really nice. For the time they sounded good too. Especially because there was no software and most of us had a stereo compressor and an effects box like a Quadraverb.

IIRC (again, this is going back), they had RCA connectors, which was not a prob as the r2r decks I owned did as well. Today that may cause some probs.

Also, 800 is way too much. Here is a similar board for $400 with no bids.

Tascam M320 Mixing Console - eBay (item 320482222446 end time Feb-07-10 09:02:39 PST)

Déjà vu all over again..
312, R8, then, since I couldn't swing a pair of ADATs right off went with a RD8, chased SMPTE for 15 tracks for a while.. finally dropped the R8 and added CX-8' (Fostex was doing it, kept with em. (Still have that pair out back..
Got about $350 for the 312 IIRC.
thumbsup

Yup, sweepable low and sweepable mid with fixed high shelf. Not sure if the low is a shelf or peaking filter. I think it's peaking.

Anyway, I got my M-308 (same as M-312, but 8 channels and no phantom) for $300. It sounded quite good (surprisingly). But, $800 is a bit steep. If it has issues and isn't clean, don't bother. I've owned the Mix Wizard as well and honestly, it wasn't too much of a step up.

As stated above, the 300 series is a major improvement over the 500 series. The 500's look cool, but man do they suck.

Funny, I was going to comment on the 512 thing. Glad
we agree. I thought I would upgrade my 312 to a 520 back in the day...no good.

why are the so much worse ?
I have a m320 and it is quite nice, warm, noisy...

had one for a minute. . . pretty noisy, and 'cloudy'. I would HIGHLY recommend something along the lines of the yamaha m series (m406, m512, m916) these have the same transformer balanced channels as the pm 2000. I've been using an m406 and am VERY happy with it. I had a BAE 312, and it is in ways similar, although a bit more mid-forward and 'gritty', but I used it for pretty much all the same applications, so I sold the Averill and upgraded my computer.

500 series: noisy as hell, 4558's throughout. Completely useless for making anything that sounds decent.

300 series: useable, quiet enough, decent EQ's actually. Uses a lot of 5532's, alps switches, faders and pots. Basically, it's full of parts that aren't too bad.

4558's SUCK SUCK SUCK. That's the truth.

I have an M320 I am modding. $800 is definitely too much. They are old and will probably need a re-cap no matter what. I would try to stay around $400 and less. Beyond that, I think there are better boards out there. I got mine for way cheap....

The design is pretty standard, nothing fancy, decent routing. The 100mm faders and bypassable EQ is very cool. The EQ is pretty decent though.

New Opamps and caps and such in the output section makes a huge difference. I have gotten through a couple of channels, and they do sound better than the stock channels (OpAmps and caps), but not sure if it is the caps or the opamps that made the biggest difference. It isn't the quietest board out there, but I use it for mixing with no problems. With the new output section it sounds great with some mojo.

There are lots of JRC5532's which to me are better than the JRC4580's you find in just about everything else. Then since it is through hole, it is a great platform for modding and you can get the schematics from tascam with the service manual.

The board is also very large for the number of channels, but it does look cool Considering how cheap you can get the boards for, it is pretty cool.

Love or hate, the boards back then were made to last with pretty good components. I have some big plans for mine, we shall see how far I get without breaking the bank.

I bought an M-312B for a good price about 6 months ago and one thing I can say about it is that anybody could operate it. It's very user friendly. I gave mine a pretty thorough cleaning and had to replace 1 bad pot. After that it looks and sounds nice.

aortizjr: I'd be interested to know more about your mods and the results you get out of them. Have you put more into it since the last post?

I haven't put any more mod time into it since it has been in use. It does sound great. The M-312B has phantom power which is sweet.

I would definitely do the output section without a doubt. That made a huge difference. The rest of the channels still sound good, but I get a bit more clarity out of the modded one. JRC5532's are pretty good though, so I am betting the caps may have made most of the difference there.

If I can get some cash together I really want to do all transformer I/O with like Edcor's or something like that for mojo on the cheap. Carnhills or Cinemags would be cool too, maybe on the outputs.

For me things tend to go in spurts and cycles. Haven't gotten back to the soldering cycle yet.