Bypassing a Mixer's Internal Pre's

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Rozman

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My question concerns using an external preamp and running from it into the channel line in on a Mackie 1202. There are no mic/line switches on this model mixer. If I just turn the channel "fader" all the way off, have I just bypassed the mixer's preamp for that channel? I tried this with my Aphex 107, (mic running into the 107) and the overload light on the 107 came on just after I turned up the 107 loud enough to hear it working. In other words, "can't hear it, can't hear it, now I hear it and it's overloading." Do I effectively have two pre's going at once even though the channel level on the Mackie is set to zero? Is the Aphex 107 "fighting" with the Mackie's internal preamp in some sense, rendering 107 unable to amplify the signal without overloading itself (if that makes any sense). Thanks.
 
remember that the faders have nothing to do with the level of the INCOMING signal - they control the OUTGOING level

just plug the external preamp into the line in on the mackie(or the channel insert, if it has it), then turn the preamp gain all the way down and bring up your faders

this will send the signal out from your external pre, thru the circuit for the mackie pre, but without affecting the level of the signal coming in. then the signal will pass through the preamp to the rest of the mixer's circuitry
 
The problem with using the line inputs is that the signal is still routed through the internal preamp. So on any dual mic/line channel, using either input will route the signal through the preamp. To avoid this you have to use the inserts, I believe you push the jack to the first "click". The other way to avoid going through the preamps is you bring the signal into the mixer through any channel that is line level input only.

Even if you turn the preamp all the way down, you are still running through the electonics of the preamp, you have just tunred the volume down.
 
These are the reasons why inserts are so important to me. Mackie is one of the few companies who seems to understand this, in regards to this market.
 
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