Topic: I can't get my usbpre2 to pass signal to my dr-680 mk2

[mepaca]

As the heading says I can't get my usbpre 2 to pass signal to my dr-680 mk2. The clocks sync up
via coax spdif but signal willl not pass to the recorder.  The recorder itself sounds quite good on
it's own but I would like to have the extra 2 channels. Thanks for any help.

[Ultfris101]

You probably already checked this, but one thought is to make sure you have the latest firmware for both. Since you are getting clock sync that's probably not the problem but just figured i'd ask.

The mk2 version is new enough I wonder if anybody has tried this before? It might be worth dropping SD a line to see if they've heard of this issue.

[danny3]

Since you are getting the DIN Lock message, it would seem all is well with your connection. I use a UA-5 for passing digital signal to a 680, and know little about the USB-Pre.
I don't presume to know your familiarity with the 680, so please take no offense if you are already past these steps, but here are two things that come to mind when I read your post.

In the REC menu, select TRACK, and then arm the ST tracks by pressing the MIX button on the front. This will arm the stereo digital input tracks (channels 7/8.)
Also, to monitor the signal going to these tracks, press the HOME/FUNC button, scroll to 'MIX MON' and press enter to switch to DIN MON.

Don't know if that helps any.
Dan

[mepaca]

Thanks Danny3- Switching to DIN mon shows passing signal on the meters and sound in the
headphones while in record or record pause. There seems to be no way to listen to the
recorded signal on play back. When I load the card on to the computer the signal has
definitely been recorded whether the DIN mon is enacted or not. It would be nice to hear
upon play back on the recorder though. This is a very good sounding recorder with mouse
quiet preamps.

[Gutbucket]

You cannot playback the stereo channel simultaneously with the six 'normal' channels. 

However,  (trying to remember) I think you can switch to stereo mode for playback of the stereo channel by itself by using the stereo/multi-channel button on the top of the machine.

[dallman]

As the heading says I can't get my usbpre 2 to pass signal to my dr-680 mk2. The clocks sync up
via coax spdif but signal willl not pass to the recorder.  The recorder itself sounds quite good on
it's own but I would like to have the extra 2 channels. Thanks for any help.

I had the exact same issue and I emailed Tomuo twice but never heard back which was disappointing. I eventually partly solved it and was able to record SPDIF on channels 5 and 6, so at that point I was satisfied that I probably could get the SPDIF to work on 7 and 8, but have not tried. I do not have the menu or deck in front of me, but I can check the menu settings and get back to you, but it was not what I thought the obvious selections would be. From memory: On the I/O menu, tracks 5 and 6: "DIGITAL", but that will not work unless on the record menu for "ST REC" the setting is at "MIX", Not "DIN" as one would think. 

I can check my recorded and confirm.

[dallman]

As the heading says I can't get my usbpre 2 to pass signal to my dr-680 mk2. The clocks sync up
via coax spdif but signal willl not pass to the recorder.  The recorder itself sounds quite good on
it's own but I would like to have the extra 2 channels. Thanks for any help.

I had the exact same issue and I emailed Tomuo twice but never heard back which was disappointing. I eventually partly solved it and was able to record SPDIF on channels 5 and 6, so at that point I was satisfied that I probably could get the SPDIF to work on 7 and 8, but have not tried. I do not have the menu or deck in front of me, but I can check the menu settings and get back to you, but it was not what I thought the obvious selections would be. From memory: On the I/O menu, tracks 5 and 6: "DIGITAL", but that will not work unless on the record menu for "ST REC" the setting is at "MIX", Not "DIN" as one would think. 

I can check my recorded and confirm.

The above is correct for spdif on tracks 5 and 6. For tracks 7 and 8, a/k/a the mix channels, it is necessary to have on the I/O menu tracks 5 and 6 as "ANALOG", and" ST REC" as "DIN", and on the function menu "MIX MON" (the default) changed to "DIN MON". This is the piece that directs what is on the Mix Channels (7 and . If the "DIN" is set for 7 and 8 and the meters register, but you do not get a recording, remember that on the record menu under "TRACK",  "ST" must be highlighted. I had this turned off because I didn't want to record the mix track and when I switched to digital, I never turned it back on, so I could see it (just like I can always see the mix tracks) but it was not recording those tracks. That ("TRACKS" determines which of the 6 plus mix or 6 plus spdif channels actually records to the card.)

[Gutbucket]

[a quick note on terms to avoid confusion- there is no channel 7&8 on this recorder, there is a 2-ch stereo channel, separate from the 6 main channels. Tascam refers to it as the stereo channel, and it will be less confusing to users not familiar with this machine if we all use the same terms.  The stereo channel can be used to record a 2-ch stereo mix of the six, or it can record the 2-ch digital input separately from the other six.  The second scenario provides the ability to effectively record a total of 8 separate channels of information in total, but it's really 6+2, rather than 1 through 8. That becomes apparent through use of the machine, and it's more helpful to think of the recorder as capable of 6 main channels + the 2ch stereo channel rather than as an 8 channel recorder.] 

Sir dallman is correct, except that the RECMON setting doesn't matter.  If set to DIN MON the digital input is sent to the headphone jack as well as the SD card, if set to MIX MON the mix of the 6 main channels is sent to the headphone jack, yet the digital input is still sent to the SD card.  Either way, if set as indicated below, the digital input will be recorded to the stereo channel:

-------------------------------------------
To record the digital input to the stereo channel, set channels 5 & 6 to ANALOG and set ST REC to DIN on the I/O menu.  Unless it is set to arm by default in the menu setting, you'll need to "arm" the stereo channel by pressing the TRACK button under ST (as well as those under whatever other analog input channels you want to record.

Make sure you get a DIN LOCK message.  Make sure you have a black dot indication under the meter for each channel you want to record, including the stereo channel.  Make sure you see appropriate levels on the meters.

Playback- To switch playback mode between listening to only the stereo channel or the other 6 channels (which can be either 6 individual outputs or a 2-ch stereo mix of the 6), press the multi/stereo button on top of the recorder.
-------------------------------------------

[Gutbucket]

Suggested approach-

If I'm recording the digital input, and often even if I'm not, I just leave the machine set to record a digital input to the stereo channel.  That's partly because I find doing so more straight forward and user-error-proof than recording a digital input to channels 5&6.  To record digital input to 5&6, in addition to setting 5&6 to DIGITAL on the I/O menu, you must also remember to set all channels to record as stereo files on the record menu.  It won't work if set to record individual mono files.  If the digital-in is sent to the stereo channel instead, it doesn't matter if mono or stereo files are written for the 6 main channels (the stereo file is always a 2 channel interleaved file). 

And, because I usually don't care about recording a live stereo mix, I can just leave ST REC set to DIN.  That way, regardless of my file output preference, I don't need to go in and change any menu settings when I'm doing any of the following-
1) recording analog inputs only, using the recorder's internal clock.
2) recording analog inputs only, syn'cd to the digital input clock.
3) recording both analog inputs and the digital input, syn'cd to the digital input clock.

I only need to arm whichever inputs channels I want to record, regardless of the combination of digital and analog inputs I happen to be using.

If no digital input is attached, the recorder will report DIN UNLOCK upon entering record or record/pause mode, but will record normally using it's internal clock.  That message can be dismissed by pressing the enter button or with a push of the control knob and the recording proceeds normally using the internal clock regardless of the message being displayed or dismissed.

The only time I'd consider recording the digital input to channels 5&6 is if I either wanted to record a live mix of the first 4 analog inputs and the digital input to the stereo channel (I think that's possible, never tried though), or if I wanted to be able to simultaneously playback the recorded digital input channels and the first 4 analog input channels the from the machine.

[mepaca]

Thanks for all of your help everybody. That's the beauty of these forums. I now understand what
confused me before and I'm sure that I got a more concise and complete answer more quickly than
had I contacted Tascam.

[dallman]

Suggested approach-

If I'm recording the digital input, and often even if I'm not, I just leave the machine set to record a digital input to the stereo channel.  Partly because I find that is more straight-forward than recording a digital input to channels 5&6.  To record digital input to 5&6, in addition to setting 5&6 to DIGITAL on the I/O menu, you must also remember to set all channels to record as stereo files on the record menu.  It won't work if set to record individual mono files. 

However, because I usually don't care about recording a live stereo mix, I can just leave ST REC set to DIN.  Then, regardless of my file output preference, I don't need to go in and change any menu settings when I'm doing any of the following:
1) recording analog inputs only, using the recorder's internal clock.
2) recording analog inputs only, syn'cd to the digital input clock.
3) recording both analog inputs and the digital input, syn'cd to the digital input clock.

I only need to arm whichever inputs channels I want to record, regardless of the combination of digital and analog inputs I happen to be using.

If no digital input is attached, the recorder will report DIN UNLOCK upon entering record or record/pause mode, but will record normally using it's internal clock.  That message can be dismissed by pressing the enter button or with a push of the control knob and the recording proceeds normally using the internal clock regardless of the message being displayed or dismissed.

The only time I'd consider recording the digital input to channels 5&6 is if I either wanted to record a live mix of the first 4 analog inputs and the digital input to the stereo channel, or if I needed to be able to playback the first 4 and the digital input simultaneously from the machine.

I agree that this (above^^) is a very good approach. I don't use or need the mix of my mics either, but I do occasionally like to use the digi in with my SD USB Pre2. The mistake I made was that when I turned off the mix so it wouldn't record to my card, I didn't think or realize to turn it back in to record digi (spdif) in on the "stereo channel". Like the stereo mix, you see it on the meters but it does not record. So what I am struggling to say clearly is that under "TRACK" on the record menu, turning the "ST"  track off, will stop it from recording to the card no matter what is input to those tracks, BUT you will see those tracks on the screen.

On a different note having switched from the original DR680 to the MKII, there are some menu differences as well as a few buttons that are different from the original. I like the small improvements. I also think the pre's sound very nice. I have the DR60d, and while I love that deck for its size versatility and shape, the pre's while nice just don't have the as detailed a sound (IMO). If I am in a recording situation where that kind of nuance matters, I'll go with the larger DR680mkII every time.

[Gutbucket]

^
Have you noticed any difference between the preamps on the MKII version of the 680 and the original (MKI) version you were using previously?

[dallman]

^
Have you noticed any difference between the preamps on the MKII version of the 680 and the original (MKI) version you were using previously?

Honestly I am not sure if I think the Preamps are better because I want to or because they are. I like the layout and some of the changes they made, but honestly the DR680 is a great machine and if the price is dropping, people should hop on. I sold mine on ebay for a pretty good price when the new one was announced, so I only added a few dollars to switch although I waited for what seemed like forever to get the new deck. The sound is very crisp and clean, but that is what I remember from the previous machine, so I cannot honestly really give you any revelations abut the MKII sounding better or not.  I wish I could have had them both at the same time to do some direct comparisons...

[AB52]

If you go on Jwsound forum, private message a guy named Tom Duffy who works for Tascam.  He is VERY responsive!!!

Good luck.
AB

[dallman]

If you go on Jwsound forum, private message a guy named Tom Duffy who works for Tascam.  He is VERY responsive!!!

Good luck.
AB

I emailed him twice and never heard back.