Connecting CD Recorder

[Southpoint]

Our Church has a Mackie SR 24.5 Board. I just recently started running it and don't have alot of experiance. Our Sony RCD-W500/W100 is hooked up to the Tape in & out on the board, but the recording when played back has to be really turned up to here it.
Is there a better way to connect to board so I can use the board to control the input to the Sony recorder??
All we record is the sermon.

[audiomatic]

I wasn't able to find a Mackie SR 24.5 mixer on their website, but there's an Owner's Manual for the SR 24.4 mixer under their Discontinued Items. If this is the board you're using, you really need to download the Owner's Manual. Whatever their failings, I've found Mackie Owner's Manuals to be very insightful and easily understood.

The SR 24.4 mixer has a Tape Out with RCA jacks with a nominal output of 0dBu. It also has a Mono Main Out with XLR jack with a nominal output of +4dBu and a level control next to it. Since you're only recording the sermon, mono should suffice. You'll need adaptors and a splitter to go from a single XLR jack to two RCA plugs.

If your SR 24.5 is different than the SR 24.4, I can't advise you without seeing the Owner's Manual.

Good luck!

[EmilBarnabas]

If you are recording only the sermon, and I assume that that is a single microphone input on the mixer, here are two options.

Is one of the Aux sends not being used? If so, route your sermon mic to that Aux send and then come out of the Aux send with a 1/4" plug wired to the RCA inputs on your CD recorder. This gives you control over the volume by adjusting the Aux control for the mic channel and the Aux master.

Or here is what I did for many years at my church with that same board (24.4).
You need to make up a special cable to do this. Can you solder?
Start with a cable that has two RCA plugs at one end. Chop off whatever is at the other end. You are going to connect this to a TRS 1/4 plug. Some call this a stereo 1/4" plug.

Connect the two shields in the cable to the shield on the TRS plug. Connect the two center wires on the cable to both the tip and ring on the TRS connector. You are shorting the tip and ring together and connecting this to the hot wires going to the left and right RCA plugs.

Plug this TRS plug into the INSERT jack for the sermon mic. This will split the signal and send a copy of it to the recorder. Because you shorted the tip and ring on the TRS connector, the signal still gets routed to the main mix.
The TRIM knob at the top of the channel strip controls this volume as well as what is going to the main mix.