Scratch audio from Tascam DR100 really Buzzy, distorted

[Simon J Reilly]

Hi ,

So excuse my ignorance here, not great on audio, Got a Interview to shoot on Monday, and I am going to record audio on a tascam DR100
and send a scratch audio to my Scarlet , doing test today, and audio is fine in tascam but the signal being sent to the scarlet in almost completely
distorted, sounds like some one speaking on a cell phone while leaning out of a car window that is doing 100 on the 101...

I have line out on the tascam using 3/4 on to 3/4 in cable, I am thinking this is the problem , have tried other 3/4 cables and no change,
It is only for scratch to sync the audio, but it is quite horrible .

any ideas would be really appreciated.

thanks

[Les C.]

You cant' feed line level into a Scarlet.

Try markertek.com and look for a line to mic level attenuator or something to that effect?

[Ron Michael]

I use this exact setup and it works great. I set the Scarlet Audio to unbalanced and 45db gain with limiter off. Then I made a cable that was a Radio Shack 3.5mm stereo cable to two RCA jacks which I cut off the RCA jacks and put a right angle 3.5mm TRS plug on each end with the center conductor going to a 5k 1/20 watt metal foil resistor to the tip and a 100 ohm 1/20 watt resistor going from the tip to the shield ground. The ring conductor was left not connected. These small resistors fit within the metal right angle plug. This will create 20db drop of the line voltage to microphone level and both the Scarlet and DR100 both record excellent audio quality. I'm sure you may fine a professional made cable to do this but it was easy enough to make as well. Your choice but Les is right, you need a stereo to mono unbalanced cable with an attenuator on it to reduce line levels to mic levels.

[Simon J Reilly]

Thanks Chaps
I think I may just record directly to the scarlet with a shot gun , I am getting ok audio,
very low but usable as a scratch. And record the main track on the Tascam

thanks
again