Nice little mixer, isn' it? I have its' big brother, the WRT-820 (20-channels/8buses/inline tape monitoring). Looks like yours has the same sweet 3-band/all sweep EQ, too. These boards are great bargains and I'm discovering that the pre's sound great, with the whole enchilada having great headroom and build quality.

Anyway, your board has some, uh,"unique" features designed into it, and these can be a bit confusing. It's been a long time since I played with one of your model, but I will try to clue you in...

First off, the section that has the 2 blue knobs labelled Sub Mix 1 & 2 are your "Aux" Sends. They have a center detent that is "Off". If you rotate the knob away from the center in one direction, it takes the signal "post-fader". If you roll it the other way, it takes it "pre-fader". Several manufacturers from that era did things this way, even Peawee. Now here's the catch...

I'm not 100% on this, because I can't find a diagram of the rear panel of your mixer, but I THINK the mixer is hardwired so that the channels' audio path feeds the sub mix section. If not, you will have to patch a jumper cable from the channels' line out ("direct out") into the channels' "Sub input" to connect the 2 circuits together. Mixers from some other manufacturers (namely TaxScam) made it so that you HAD to patch them together to get it to work like a "normal" mixer does these days. Otherwise, what you have is essentially 2 mixers-1 with a mic pre, EQ, 4-bus assign-and-panpot, with a fader; and the other mixer with a pair of pre/post send controls. Per channel, of course. Are you with me so far?

Now, you are asking, why did those Japs do it this way? Simple. You could patch the 8 outputs of an 8-track multi-track recorder to the channels' sub inputs and set up 2 monitor mixes with the Sub Mix section WHILE STILL USING THE CHANNEL STRIPS TO TRACK and it wouldn't take up any more real estate than your standard mixer...a crude sort of "inline monitoring" like that found on "modern" analog recording mixers.

Also, notice that you have a concentric pair of gain pots at the top of each channel, 1 is labelled "Sub In". This is to help trim the level of an external source run into the sub mix section so that a tape deck won't overload the input. Very well thought out, even if it is a bit confusing. Hopefully your Ramsa is hardwired so that a channel "normals" to the sb mix section unless you plug an external source in to interrupt that. When I had a TaxScam many, many moons ago, I hated that it did not have that feature...you HAD to jump everything around and that's just asking for trouble, because patchcords were not as reliable back in those days.

In any case you will really have to get your hands on the little devil and play with it to know for sure just how it's connected internally. Good luck, PM me with any questions...and know that mixer is no toy!

Thanks Moonbaby, I've loved the Ramsa so far for its pres and eq, and I got it for free, so I'd call it a good deal. If I wanted to hook up an outboard reverb unit as part of an aux send, would I go from the sub mix out or the aux out on the back of the board? I think the aux outs are part of the sub-group section, so I'm not sure what their purpose is. There is also a master "effect in," which is another thing I'm not certain about.

Also, what are the access in/outs?

Thanks,

Damian

"Access in/outs" are the same as inserts, they let you patch in outboard processing like compressors.
To use a reverb (or other such FX unit), you would take one of the Sub Mix outs and run that into the processor, then RETURN the output of the processor to the Effects In.

I'm not 100% on this, but my hunch is that the 1/4" outs are the outputs of the Sub Mix 1&2, At least, that's where I'd start,
You got this mixer for FREE? 8-) It's a treasure, to be sure. I've worked with all sorts of Ramsas over the years, they're all good. Take care of it, keep it clean and it will last another 20 years.

I just ran into a wrs 840 for a good price. how do the pres sound on this I want a good sounding board not a half ass. I have never heard of ramsa till yesterday when I ran into this board. Reviews seem good but ya know. Panasonic makes these right?

Yes, Ramsa is a Panasonic Professional product. Now everything they make is digital gear for broadcasters. The WRS-840 was made for large-scale sound reinforcement. Claire Bros. were known to offer it as an upgrade over the Yamaha PM line during the heyday of analog live mixers.
They made several models of mixers, from compact 8-channel models, to big 40-channel models that did major world tours. They are all good, made with reasonably high grade components. Their preamps have a good reputation, as do the EQ circuits.
I recently purchased a WRT-820 (8-bus/20-channel recording board). All I can tell you is that it sounds pretty good, ALMOST as good as the Neve Melbourne I used to own a couple of years ago. You might want to consider one of these. There's currently one on e-Bay for $400 in Tampa. I'm really tempted to take the 4-hour drive down there to snatch it up.
But there's a caveat here:
These boards are all getting to be 20 years old (or older). Components go awry. Capacitors "dry up", faders get scratchy, resistors go out of spec, switches go bad, etc., etc. And you never know what kind of treatment a board that size got during its original ownership. So be prepared to THOROUGHLY check it out - all functions - with a pair of headphones and a handheld condenser mic (so you know the phantom power is good on all channels). Test all the faders, switch functions, and pots. Does it smell like a bar? Do all the lights and meters work?
How much for it? Currently there are 2 WRS-840's on e-Bay : one is $995, the other is $4995 !!! I wonder if the $4995 is worth 5 times the price of the other one... :wink:

Great info thanks MB