Tascam MMR-8 - Manual (Page 14)

MMR-8 TASCAM MMR-8 Owner’s Manual • Chapter 1 • General Information 14
Front Panel
The MMR-8 front panel contains 45 soft-touch keys with most of the common dubber and audio playback
functions available through one or two keystrokes. There are also seven large illuminated motion control
buttons (Play, Stop, FF, Rew, Reverse Play, Record, Rehearse) for track playback and “play head”
locating, and an Online button for setting the MMR-8 offline (as a local machine) or online (as a
synchronized slave or a master machine). When the MMR-8 is the master and is online, then any number
of external SMPTE/EBU, MTC or biphase devices will follow the MMR-8. When the MMR-8 is set as a
slave, it can chase time code, biphase, a TimeLine Lynx™ module, or another MMR-8.
A 40-character (two line by 20-character) LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) serves as the MMR-8 status and
control text window. The top line typically shows the machine status and current time code or feet/frames
location, while the bottom line shows various time code registers (In, Out, memory, slip. etc.) and accepts
input from the front panel. The entire display may also alert the operator to any machine or user error
conditions. Text can be scrolled horizontally or vertically, using the Wheel or arrow keys, for entering
Panel/Display state and setup information, or for finding and loading tracks.
As with other 8-track recorders, there are dedicated front panel LED peak meters that always display
monitor level information for the track outputs whether in audio input or playback. Each meter contains
seven green, yellow and red LEDs plus a CLIP/Hold LED for easy at-a-glance level monitoring. An
additional 74 status LEDs instantly identify current synchronization modes, bus control modes, sample
and frame reference settings, record format settings, transport status, and front panel input status.
Rear Panel
The MMR-8 rear panel contains all the audio and synchronization connections. To minimize connector
footprint, female DB-25 connectors are used for the audio connections. The eight analog audio inputs are
on one female DB-25 and the eight analog audio outputs are on another female DB-25. Each analog
connector mounts on a separate card within the chassis, and is labeled Input or Output. The connectors are
pin-compatible with the TASCAM DA-88 analog audio connector.
The DIO card allows direct digital audio transfers into and out of the MMR-8. Because it uses standard
AES/EBU digital signal conventions, there are four stereo digital inputs and four stereo digital outputs
with odd-even track pairs. Tracks 1+2 are on the first AES/EBU connection, tracks 3+4 on the second
AES/EBU connection, and so on. All eight tracks (four pairs of in and out) are on a single female DB-25
connector. Any of the digital inputs can serve as a sample rate reference and any of the input pairs can
also be routed through an on-board sample rate converter. Note that this connector carries AES/EBU
digital signals and is NOT pin-compatible with the TASCAM DA-88 TDIF digital audio format
connector.
Built-in biphase control allows the MMR-8 to automatically lock to and chase biphase devices
without having to use an external biphase to SMPTE LTC adapter. Up to four biphase input
signals can be simultaneously connected to the MMR-8. The active biphase input is linked to the active
Sync Group assignment and is determined by menu selection (Setup Menu 100). A biphase throughput
connector passes through the selected incoming biphase signal. Software Setup Menu 300 bank
parameters (frame rate, pulses per frame, input type) allow various biphase devices to be used with the
MMR-8. The biphase connector is not intended for public telecommunications network connection.