Tascam M-520: 20 channel 8 bus console
| August 22nd, 2010EDIT: We have since replaced this console with a linked pair of Studer 169s
We use the Tascam M-520 here, and we like it quite a lot. It’s very intelligently laid-out and it has great routing options. And the build quality is superb. Our only quibbles with this desk are the design of its channel mutes (they’re prone to getting noisy) and its somewhat limited EQ (I’m cool with the fixed bandwidth, but I wish the Q was broader).
Here the brochure for this mixer and its little brother (the 12 channel M-512):
And here’s the manual (minus the schematics):
Tip: The manual has a great section on the fundamentals of sound engineering that’s really useful for any novice or intermediate analogue recordist.
And finally here’s some weird, elaborate, interactive flash model of the mixer:
We recently gave our M-520 a bit of a cleaning. So if you have this mixer, or are thinking of acquiring one, here’s what the channel strips look like when disassembled:
Tascam M-520: the knobs from a one ‘bucket’ of four channels
These pin-and-header connectors are a bit fragile; the pots are all bolted to the metal–which is great for durability, but a major pain-in-the-ass to disassemble for cleaning
It’s not a bad idea to label those headers
Yep, that’s a lot of annoying ITT Schadow switches to clean…
Another view of the channel buckets disassembled.
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