does the left led indicator show a signal? is it just gone from headphone signal, stereo outs, both? have you been having the heads cleaned and degaussed regularly?

no its pretty weird, like, its as if the panning knobs literally turned into volume knobs for each track. the indicators show it as if you were adjusting the volume levels, and not the panning. and yes i have a pretty decent little tape deck cleaner and i use it regularly.

degaussing is demagnetizing and should probably be done by an experienced dude. it can affect various recording/playback issues - anything to do with the heads - is this what is going on? no idea. but if you haven't re-wired or changed any connections or equipment its the first thing i'd do.

SHM wrote: the panning has become virtually non-existent. has anyone ever heard of this happening?
what goes on is that when you turn the knob to the right - clockwise- the tracks volume increases. the other way, and the volume decreases, until it is muted.

and this happens while you're monitoring a recording? if so, i'd say that you've got a separated stereo input (eg. two tracks, one hard left, one hard right) and that the channels you're trying to record on are set to their respective 'R' and 'L' settings. however, as there is no pan effect when monitoring a recording (they should separate when you track it, though) having your 'real' and 'intended' tracks reversed can cause the phenomenon you've described.

i've got the 414mkii and once had the same problem until i realized that i had switched around my normal input set-up.

if this isn't the case for you, refresh yourself on the basics as i'd not be surprised if this is just a little oversight. also, feel free to give us some more info and i'll see if i can't recreate the issue.

keep in mind that with tascam's 4 track recording pattern, there can only be two R tracks, and two L:
http://www.richardhess.com/tape/cass_trk_lrg.gif

also, richard's site has got a lot of good information that may help you figure out the cause of this panning issue.

furthermore, recall that when recording, pan selection only identifies where the track is going to be getting its information from (if you've got, say, a mixer feeding a stereo rca mix), and not how you want it to sound upon immediate playback. *while there will be separation in direct monitoring, playback through the monitor feed will always be mixed 50-50/mono. the panning pots only guide the signal when you're sending a mixdown via line out.

sorry if this isn't presented clearly; i'm on my way to class. regardless, the oft ignored optimist in me is convinced that nothing too drastic has randomly occurred in the last month that'd screw up your channel separation like this.

erm, kind of an old thread, but i hope you let us know if this works out for you.