VCR suggestions, cheap Sharp gave white noise
 

Can any one shead any light on this. I went out and purchased 3 Sharp VC-H960U VCR's to provide me with the decks to do multiple video tape recording. I own an XL-1 with the MA-200 Dual XLR Microphone Adapter & Shoulder Pad. I also have a Behringer Eurorack MX1604A Compact Mixer.

Here is my delima. I've resigned myself that these cheap-o Sharp VCR's are crap based on the video quality, what I'm trying to figure out is why when I am using my Mixer to monitor sound, and I have XLR output going to the XL-1 and RCA out to the VCR chains I get an ungrounded buzz through the entire system. Unplug the RCA outs to the VCR, no noise. (I noticed this when out on a shoot, the VCR's killed my sound, but I needed to make tapes of the dailies.) I bought these VCR's because of the price and sound features, but it seems that the RCA outputs are not grounded. I want to be sure this may be an isolated issue before I give up on this model. Please let me know what your thoughts are.

I have some very old Sharp VCRs. They work just fine. I'm not sure if you know this but when you AV-out from your video camera, you will not hear any sound from the camera. But the sound will still be recorded onto the VHS tapes. (Just a stab in the dark.)

I use 3 $70 JVC VCRs for my small run duplication. Never had a sound problem. Maybe it's your cables.

What I was doing was running mics to the mixer to split the signal to send sound to VCR's through RCA outs, in to the inputs on the VCR's and to the camera through XLR (Mic) main outs from the mixer to the XLR inputs on the XL1. I'm going to try to experiment with another VCR to see if I get that same problem. I'm just not sure why it was happnening.

I also thought it was my cables, but these are those high dollar "Monster" cables I am using. I may have to do a poor man's exchange and switch them out where I bought them.

Can you explain your wiring in more detail? You might have a problem there or your audio might be out of phase.

Here is my wiring setup;

Mixer:
Input - Boom mic, XLR
Output - 1, XLR, Lft channel, main out. Two RCA's, LF/RT Channels, "Tape out"

XL1:
Input - XLR out from mixer, into XLR input.
Output - Video, RCA, split with "y" cable, One signal to preview monitor, second signal to VCR chain.

2 VCR's, 1 VCR/TV combo:
VCR1:
Input - Video from XL1 into video input. Tape output from mixer into LF/RT channel RCA's input
Output: 1 channel video, two channels audio, RCA

VCR2:
Input: 1 channel video, two channels audio, RCA
Output: 1 channel video, two channels audio, RCA

TV/VCR Combo
Input: 1 channel video, 1 channel audio, RCA, LF.