Hi Geoff , welcome to our community. 

Searching, I find something related to the +3dB or -6dB not being clearly marked on the face of the EQ control. Not sure if this helps.

Sounds like a good question for Boswell .

Hi Geoff - a couple of questions:

1) What are you using to record and replay the mix?

2) If it's an analogue recording, I presume you are recording the mixer's master outputs. What route through the mixer is the replay taking?

Hi, 

Thanks for your replies - Very kind of you to take the time to give me a hand.

Hi audiokid,

Have has a look on the desk - And I believe that all of the dials are labelled properly.. Thanks for your suggestion however! 
 

Hi Boswell, 

Think I’ve tracked down the problem. The desk itself is ok I believe, But the recording signal is taken from the hard drive box - Which I believe to be the problem..
Do you have any idea if the issue would be with the hard drive itself or with the ‘mixer computer’ that it is played on? It’s been neglected for the past decade, and I’ve just dug it out to see if it still works.

Thanks everyone for your suggestions so far.

- Geoff. 

Is the "hard drive box" you are talking about the Mackie SDR24/96 recorder? You didn't mention it in your first post.

I've only used SDR24/96s once they have been wired up, so I don't know the details of setting one up. I don't believe there are level controls that determine the analogue signal levels - the Tascam cabling simply carries a +4dBu (+22dBu peak) balanced signal in or out of the recorder, so the recorder should behave as unity gain. If all the tracks are giving you their correct signals on replay, it's hard to see how these could be at a level that's different from the recorded one.

What I didn't understand about your last post is the phrase "But the recording signal is taken from the hard drive box ". How is the signal you are recording coming from the recorder itself? Do you mean "recorded signal", and you are mixing down? If so, see my first post about needing to know what route this is taking through the mixer.

Hi again Boswell,

Sorry for the confusion, Indeed I did mean ‘recorded signal’ rather than ‘recording signal’.

To confirm the box I am using is the SDR 24/96. - I am considering purchasing another SDR, as I am still unsure of what the problem is.. However, I am unsure if it could be fixed..
Where am I able to find your post regarding the route through the mixer?

I am also led to speculate that the cables could be the problem, However I don’t believe they are..

Do you have any idea whether the issue is down to the SDR 24/96 itself, Or rather the hard drive that the song data is stored on?
 

Thanks for your help so far!
 

Cheers

-

Geoff. 

Hi all,

Just to confirm the issue that I am having is that the Playback volume (Replay volume) is much lower than the volume of which I record a track at. 
Sorry if I have confused anyone!.

Thanks.

-

Geoff.

It's not going to be a problem with the hard drive in the recorder. The drive does not know what this data represents and would not have any way of reducing the amplitude by an arbitrary amount.

My reference to the replay route through the mixer was in my first post in this thread, question (2). It was basically that we need to know which connector you plugged the jack plugs on the Tascam replay lead into, how you set the trim control on the mixer channels, and what level you set the channel faders at in the mix. Also confirm that the mic/line switch on all channels is set to line, and that there is nothing plugged into the insert jacks. Finally, when you state that the replay level is lower than the record level, how are you measuring the two levels when you say this? What is the difference (in dB) between them? Is the difference the same on all channels?

Hi again Boswell,

I've removed all of the inserts and I've also set all of the inputs to line. I've measured it - and during recording i hit a peak of about +2, then in replay, the bar reads about 7 for the same peak..

I'm going out of the 'Control room' output, into a pair of NS-10m studio's.. - The control room knob is set to exactly 9 o'clock, and I've selected the L/R mix switch down.. (Without this depressed no noise happens..) For both the recording and and the playback the sliders have stayed at the same place (Kept at Unity..)

The issue is also happening on all channels.

I'm considering getting a new SDR.. What are your thoughts on doing that? - (If this one cannot be fixed that is..)

Thanks.

-

Geoff.

The trim knob is also set to about 1..

Thanks.

I don't quite follow your meter readings. Is the "7" reading 5 more than the "+2" that you quoted, or should it be "-7", i.e. 9 less?

It's not easy tp know that you have exactly the same gains in the recording and replay paths.. For example, leaving a trim knob in the same position but using a different input to feed the channel (XLR vs. TRS) could give the same effect as a rotation on the knob if the TRS input is attenuated.

The fact that the apparent problem is the same on all channels goes against it being a single fault with the SDR box, so I would not go out and get another one, for the moment at least. What would be useful is an a.c. multimeter and a way of generating known amplitude signals, e.g. a 1KHz sinewave at 0dBu. You could then make objective measurements at different points in the record/replay chain, and determine where exactly the signal level is lower than you think it should be.