Hi folks, just joined this forum AFTER buying a used soundtracs topaz (original version) locally -$960 without the meter bridge-perhaps I paid too much? (no shipping though, and in pretty pristine shape). Glad to hear people think highly of this board. It is NOT modular, but of motherboard type-the channel strip "separators" are painted on. I guess only their higher end mixers are modular.
I noted that the input trim has a strange pattern-much of the volume is at the very top of the level. Adds LOTS of noise, too-which, (correct me if I'm wrong), if it were truly before the preamps, it ought not do. Just to "yell fire in a crowded theater", I'll bet the new mackies are lower in noise. I put my guitar through the line ins, and even with a prior preamp it was pretty noisy. I understand that this involves level & perhaps impedance mismathc, though. However, running the guitar into the mic ins seems pretty quiet, the manual specs say that the line in noise is -95 dbu, wherease the mic noise is -129 dbu (why would this be?). The groups can be pretty noisy, too.
OK, so here's my (newbie) questions: Since the ins & outs are in the back I want to run things through a patch bay. I read that a nice strategy is to run the inserts through a normalled patchbay, that way the normal connection is unbroken. Would having this extra cable & PB in the loop add more noise than it's worth? (I'm recording to PC, 24 bits).
Question 2: the topaz has lots of outs, but since I'm mixing on a PC, I don't need all of them. Is there anything I would need the monitor outs for? (it has 2 control room outs & 1 studio out for a headphone amp).
This is my first studio mixer (as opposed to cheap live board), so I'm still figuring things out-more questions to come. Thanks muchly!
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