Bumping up an old discussion- it might be several years old, but thats ok, some very useful information can be found from the
knowledgeable folks who took the time to describe all the various details back then, which does not go to waste when someone such
as myself, who recently acquired an M-30, is trying to becoming better familiarized with all its signal routing functions and so forth.
In my case, I am starting out in a very simple way- before I even get into trying to record any instruments, I just want to review the basic steps
of how to input a source (a cd player) and route the music cd to headphones and speakers.
There does not appear to be any stereo inputs on the M-30 so I just connected the left & right channels of the cd player to Line In 1 & 2
on the mixer, and just use channel assign 1 and 2 which seemed to allow me to hear the music in stereo thru headphones without needing
to pan each channel hard left and right as I thought would be required.
Next step was listening to the music cd going into the mixer and out to monitor speakers. I know that cd's are line level, so I was not sure if an'
amp was really needed to drive the speakers, or if the mixer's preamps had enough gain to hear the music loud enough without needing to turn the faders
up too high.
It seemed like an amp would be beneficial, so I did connect a vintage Roland SPA-120, which was the only amp I could use anyway, as the monitor speakers
only use 1/4" jacks (unlike regular stereo hi fi equipment that nomally use bare wires to connect to speaker terminals).
Then I compared the volume level of the music cd thru headphones (
Beyerdynamic DT-770) with the same sound coming thru the speakers.
Being late at night, I wanted the sound to be heard louder thru the 'phones, and not too loud thru the speakers, but when I tried adjusting the
faders and knobs, I noticed the levels affected BOTH the 'phones and the speakers in the same way.
I tried reading thru the M-30 manual, and in some ways, its very detailed and logical, but in other ways, I wish they had a separate Quick Start guide so that a novice can resolve an issue without it turning into a time consuming effort when that manual was written back in '82.
Rather than strain my eyes & brain trying to pinpoint the info in the manual, I just reconnected the M-30 to the speakers using the SUBMIX OUT, instead of the Monitor Out (via Rca to 1/4" cables) and finally success- doing this allowed me to separate the headphone level from the monitor speakers, so that I can adjust them independently of each other.
Hopefully, I can build up some momentum, because there is lots left to learn and do, its frustrating to consume hours to simply do what I described above, but I suppose we all have to start somewhere and you just have to learn by doing.
I guess the Point is: As nice as it is to have the Op Manual for the M-30, I wish they could have a section where simple things are mentioned, in this case, just tell the user, if you want the headphone level independent from the speaker's volume, then use the Mixer's Submix Output, instead of the Monitor Output, rather than have so much info buried within a whole bunch of technical details throughout all the pages.
I also have an M-106, so I think I will try the same thing tonight with the headphones and speakers and see how it compares to the M-30.