Echo Mona - audio reels

Things you'll need to digitize reel tapes with the Echo Mona:

The Basic Requirements

• A Mac G4
• The Echo Mona analog to digital audio converter--the one at the top of the picture.

• A Reel Tape Recorder/Player

• 2 Shielded XLR microphone cables

• Reels!

Sound Monitoring via External Speakers

• The Mixer

• 2 speakers
• A stereo RCA cable
• 2 XLR stereo cables
• Stereo 1/8 inch mini jack to dual RCA cable.
• 6 RCA to 1/4 inch jack adapters

The Setup

The Audio Editing Station

This station should be set up already, but if it's not, here's what needs to be connected & where.

1. Plug the Stereo 1/8 inch mini jack into the headphones jack of the G4. Connect the dual RCA (red & white usually) ends to the 2 adapters and plug the Red end into channel 4 and the other end into channel 3 on the mixer. Remember, Red is Right. In the following picture, the yellow arrow points to channels 3 & 4.

2. Plug one end of each XLR stereo cable into the L or R jacks in the "Main Out" section of the mixer (top right and corner). Plug the other end into the respective speaker.

3. Connect the dual RCA (red & white usually) ends on an RCA cable to the 1/4 inch stereo jack adapters on each end. Plug one end of the stereo RCA cable into channels 1 and 2 on the mixer. Channel 2 is right and channel 1 is left. Plug the other end into outputs 1 & 2 on the back of the MONA. Output 1 is left and output 2 is right.

4. Plug everything in and turn it on.

• Now you're set up to hear sound from your computer and from the MONA on the external speakers!

The Reel to MONA Connection

1. Take the 2 shieled XLR microphone cables and plug one end of each into channels 1 & 2 of the "line output" section on the back of the Reel Recorder. Channel 2 should be right; channel 1 should be left.

2. Plug the other end into channels 3 & 4 of the ECHO MONA. The cable in channel 2 of the reel recorder should end up in channel 4 of the MONA (right) and the cable in channel 1 of the reel recorder should end up in channel 3 of the MONA (left).

Software Settings

Using Peak 4

Audio Output

1. To adjust the audio output settings in Peak, open Peak. Click on the menu Audio>Sound Out>Core Audio. A CoreAudio Playback window will open.

2. Make sure the settings in the CoreAudio Playback window are as follows: Clock Source: Internal; Sample Rate: 96000; Play Through: Out 0 1 & 2.

3. Click on "Hardware Settings..." and make sure the settings are as follows: Input Device: Mona slot-5; Output Device: Mona slot-5; Buffer Size: 4096. Click "OK" on this window and then on the CoreAudio Playback window.

4. Now you are set up to hear audio from Peak 4.

Audio Input

1. Click on the Record Settings button on the toolbar.

2. In the Record Settings window, click on "Device and Sample Format".

3. The settings should be as follows: Record Through: In 2 3 & 4; Sample Rate: 96000; Clock Source: Internal; Channels: Stereo; Bit Depth: 24-bit. Click "OK"

4. Click on "Hardware Settings..." and change the settings to the following: Input Device: Mona slot-5; Output Device: Mona slot-5; Buffer Size: 4096. Click "OK" on this window and then on the CoreAudio Playback window. (See above image from 3. under "Audio Output".)

• Now you are ready to digitize!