Mackie ProFX12v2 output to USB questions...

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imsharris

Member
Hopefully this is in the right place. I had a quick question for people that have some experience with the Mackie ProFX12v2. I actually have a different setup that I use for recording at home. I got the ProFX12v2 specifically for live use but one of the things that I liked about it was that I could record live shows via the USB to computer or even iPad. My question though is that the output from the mixer to the computer through the USB seems to be low. Is there a way to increase the output from the mixer to the computer through the USB? I haven't been able to spend a lot of time with the mixer yet, but so far I really like it. The effects are very usable for live use and it is very quiet and clean. Seems really well built too. I have not tried using the equalizer yet because I haven't really felt the need to do that.

Any of you with the ProFX12v2 I would love to hear some tips, tricks and settings that you use!
 
I don't have the V2, but the original version has a 'USB output' volume control. Note that turning it up too high results in a 'whine' that gets recorded.
 
The manual shows that Mackie mixer has the bog S 16 bit USB stereo link that is so common to such devices.

This form of USB converter has a problem in that it does almost always generate noise, "hash", "whine" on the track. The level it records should be adjustable in Windows Sounds menu and you generally find that set to 100% as default. That is way too high and give the noise. In this instance it must be set very low at 1 or 2% (0 gives you nowt) Try around 5%.

Naturally, with a 16 bit system, and a poor one at that, you need to be careful about level setting to avoid noise or distortion but for a band recording, not SO bad because the basic "room" noise is likely above the converter hash. You would however do much better to get cheapo AI and run at 24 bits. Then you could set the level such that "King loud" hit about -8dBFS then forget about it for the rest of the gig. Low level stuff can be brought up in post because "24 bits makes no noise".

Dave.
 
Okay, I think that I may have gotten it figured out! I actually had my Gain set too low. Since there is not really a proper "Solo"-type way to set the Gain I thought that I had it where it needed to be. Upon further playing around with it and reading I found that I had the Gain set too low. Bumped it up, reset the Main level and it seems to have worked! I really like the board, sounds good, easy to use, etc. and I don't get any of the "noise" that I have read about. It records just fine and works well for Live recording. I am doing mostly solo acoustic stuff so one guitar and vocals and it does a good job with that. I won't be recording an album with it, but that is really not what it is for. I do notice that I really have to set the Gain levels much higher than I do on my VLZ4 board, but they are not turned all the way up and it sounds good, so hopefully all is well! Hahaha! Long-time musician, just long overdue at learning how to run my own sound. Always something new to learn!
 
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