Hooking up the Digital 8

Cabling and Hookup
1. Connect the digital cables between the TASCAM tape decks and the DIO-8 cards in the Digital 8-Bus.
Note: You must use the special dubbing cables provided by TASCAM, part number PW-88D (1 meter) or PW-88DL (5 meters). These cables are reverse wired. Do not use a standard DB25 computer cable, which is wired straight through pin-to-pin.

2. Connect the sync cables (TASCAM part number PW-88S) between the master deck and the
slaves in a daisy-chain fashion. Make sure the last deck has a Termination Plug connected to its SYNC OUT connector.
For the DA-38: An MMC-38 MIDI Machine Control interface must be used prior to the SYNC IN connector on the master deck to implement MMC transport commands and track arming for up to three DA-38 machines.
For the DA-88: You must have an SY-88 card installed in each DA-88 to implement MMC transport commands and track arming for up to three DA-88 machines. The SY-88 cards also provide SMPTE chase lock operation. Alternately, an MMC-38 MIDI Machine Control interface may be used prior to the SYNC IN connector on the master deck to implement MMC transport commands and track arming for up to three DA-88 machines.

3. Connect a BNC cable from the first DIO-8 (Tape 1-8) card’s SYNC connector to the WORD
SYNC IN connector on the master deck.

4. Connect MIDI cables between the MIDI OUT connector on the Digital 8-Bus’ Remote CPU
and the MIDI IN connector on the MMC-38 (or SY-88 on the master deck), and between the
MIDI IN connector on the Digital 8-Bus’ Remote CPU and the MIDI OUT connector on the
MMC-38 (or SY-88).

Settings
MMC-38
1. Set SW2 DIP switches 6 and 7 to the up position. All other switches should be in the down position.

SY-88
1. DIP switches on the SY-88 are set internally. The DIP switches labeled S2 assign the device ID
numbers (see the TASCAM SY-88 Owner’s Manual for ID setup information).

TASCAM DA-38/DA-88
1. On the front panel of the TASCAM, select WORD CLOCK as the clock source.
2. Also on the front panel, turn the DIGITAL IN on.
3. Set the Machine ID on each recorder, with the first deck (master) having the lowest number and
the last deck having the highest number. DA-88s start with ID #0 and DA-38s start with ID #1.

DA-88 DA-38
Deck 1 0 1
Deck 2 1 2
Deck 3 2 3
Note: If using a DA-88 as the master and a DA-38 as a slave, assign the DA-88 ID #0, and the DA-38 ID #2.

D8B
1. Click the “Setup” button in the lower menu bar of the SVGA monitor to open the General
Setup window.
2. Click the “Digital I/O” icon on the left side of the window to open the Digital I/O dialog box.
3. Click each Tape Input and Output box and select TDIF for each DIO-8 card installed.
For DA-38s with the MMC-38:
a. Click the “Locator-MMC” icon on the left side of the Setup window.
b. Set all Device IDs to 1 (all D8B Device IDs must be set to 1 in order to arm tracks from the
console).
For DA-88s with the SY-88s:
a. Click the “Locator-MMC” icon on the left side of the Setup window.
b. Set all Device IDs to one digit less than the dip switch settings (S2) on the SY-88 cards for
their respective machines. For example:
SY-88 D8B
Deck 1 1 0
Deck 2 2 1
Deck 3 3 2

Other Notes
1. You must turn on the Digital 8-Bus first, then turn on the TASCAM recorders.

2. Make sure the MODE DIP switches on the SY-88 have the 2nd DIP switch in the up position and
all the rest of the switches down. This selects the MIDI input.

3. The MMC-38 should have firmware version 1.05.
The SY-88 should have firmware version 4.01.
The DA-88 should have firmware version 4.01.
To determine the firmware version installed in the DA-88 and the SY-88:
DA-88: Hold down the STOP/PLAY/REC buttons while powering up the DA-88 to display the DA-88 ROM version.
SY-88: Hold down the PLAY/REC/FF buttons while powering up the DA-88 to display the SY-88 ROM version.

4. If using any of the newer 24-bit DTRS machines, you should have version 2.1 EPROMs installed in the DIO-8 cards (DIO-8 cards shipped after 7/2000 have version 2.1 EPROMs installed). If the label on the socketed IC (located on the bottom left corner of the DIO-8 card, near the edge connector) has anything but “v2.1” printed on it, you should get the free upgrade by contacting Mackie’s parts department at 800-258-6883.

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