How do you route around your Mackie?

  • Thread starter Thread starter A1A2
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A1A2

A1A2

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hello, fellows

I was wondering if you could share your routing with Mackie boards.
I have my main outs to monitor, Alt outs to soundcard, so, whichever track I need to record, I just hit the Mute/Alt button to send it to soundcard. and have Main Mix faders to control monitors' volume and Controal Roon fader to control headphones volume.

The down side of this is, have to push the Control Room fader to 0db to send enough gain via Alt Outs, and can't hear Aux fx in headphones, and can't record the Aux effects.

How do you route yours??

Thanks in advance

AL
 
thanks, B

anyone else? I know many of you use Mackie here....... right?

AL
 
A1A2 said:
The down side of this is, have to push the Control Room fader to 0db to send enough gain via Alt Outs, and can't hear Aux fx in headphones, and can't record the Aux effects.
Click to expand...

Hmmm.. I can see some definite limitations in using your board that way. A quick fix would be to return effects back into one of your stereo channels instead of the effects return. Just make sure your Aux sends are all the way down on that channel before you do it or you'll get some nasty feedback. Then push your Mute/Alt button on that channel to bring your effects into your record mix.

Are you lacking any other way of adjusting your monitor volume other than by the main faders?

An inexpensive Rolls headphone amp (HA43) will give you some control over your headphones and provide 3 additional phones outs. This way you could record off of your mains, control the monitor's volume off control room fader and have the Rolls for headphones control which is probably how the board is designed to be used. Mackie just cut a corner by not providing a dedicated phones fader. Some have criticized them for this.
 
Thanks, jm. Sending the fx eturn to a stereo ch sounds like a good idea.

AL
 
you should be sending your main outs to whatever you use as your two-track master recorder. I'm not a hundred percent sure about the mackie, but most budget mixers have better circuitry design on the master left and right outputs. There should be "control room" outputs somewhere which you use for monitoring. oh, it sounds like you are using one of those notepad type mackie mixers. Do you have channel inserts? you could tap the send portion (insert one click with a balanced trs cable) and send that to your soundcard. you could use the aux sends to send individual channels to your headphone amp. That way you could do an actual headphone mix. A patch pay might be a good idea.
 
The reason I use main outs to monitor is so I can control volume on monitors with Main faders, and Control Room fader for headphones.

As for Inserts, I can't hear that ch. with headphones once I send a ch. to soundcard vis insert.

AL
 
Sweetnubs is right. The mackie boards inserts can be used two ways. With a 1/4 TRS connector (stereo plug) you can send and return to a compressor, effects... But, if you plug a mono 1/4 inch plug "partially" (about 3/4 of the way in), you "tap" the signal directly after the mic preamp. This split is before the eq, pan and volume fader...
This should work for all but the loudest sound sources... (snare drum), since most Mackie boards don't have a pad switch, a loud snare puts out a HOT signal. There are of course many ways around this... an external pad (Shure makes one), is one way.
 
...You're asking me ? :eek:

Route around Mackie ? :confused:

What more can I do with my 1202 ? :rolleyes:

:D :D :D
 
still don't know what type of mixer you have but it sounds like one of those 1402 vlz notepad makcie ones. I have about 6 that i use for individually controlled heaphone mixes. If i remember correctly it has two sets of main outs. 1/4" and xlr. Not shure if you can use both at the same time but you should be able too. Do you have a headphone amp? Control the volume there. (not ideal but will do in a pinch) You could wire your inserts to one of those cheap neutrik patchbays. Set them up so the top row on the patchbay is half-normalled to the bottom row. Now you can "tap" the top row to send the signal to your sound card. Since the connections between top and bottom are"normalled" the insert circuit will be completed and you will still be able to monitor your individual channels. Use your control room outs to monitor. You should have a volume knob on your headphone amp right? Are you making sure your operating levels match, ie +4 to +4 and -10 to -10? Use one aux send for your headphones. You can do a headphone mix buy turning up the corresponding pot on each channel. There are also tape inputs and outputs. Even though they are on rca's you can still use them. I think the tape out is a duplicate of the main out. My final suggestion is to get a different mixer.
 
I use a Mackie 1202 VLZ Pro.

I use my Aux channels to soundcard (to my Mbox). This is assuming you're okay with just having two outs (one stereo). If your PC interface is capable of handling more, you probably don't want to waste the extra available ins.

The soundcard outs go back to a channel on the board.

This is the only way I can mix control room and sends independently.

Seems like that's what you want to do - and with a limited budget, that's the only option.
 
rockem said:
whouldn't it make the headphones mono ???
Click to expand...

Sure, why do you need a stereo monitor mix? Nost home recorders don't even know what stereo really is.
 
TexRoadkill said:
Sure, why do you need a stereo monitor mix? Most home recorders don't even know what stereo really is.
Click to expand...

umm...I am not sure if I understand this statement. Isn't a stereo channel just a pair of mono channels? or was it a joke?:confused:


Al
 
TexRoadkill said:
Sure, why do you need a stereo monitor mix? Nost home recorders don't even know what stereo really is.
Click to expand...

well ... you don't need to know really .. just listen
 
This is potentially the best thread I have found in a long time. I am in the market for a new board, and have been looking at the Behringer UB series simply because I need routing flexibility PLUS affordability. The Mackie 1604 VLZ Pro is way out of my range for $$, but I could handle the 1202 VLZ Pro financially. I had thought that I could only get 4 outs from the 1202 board (2 from the aux sends and two from the alt 3-4). This is more than adequate for now, as I only have a Audiophile 2496 with two ins, but I want to upgrade to a card with more ins.

Correct me if I am wrong, but it appears that the 1202 VLZ Pro could be routed to give 2 outs on the aux sends, 2 outs on the alt 3-4 and 4 more outs if I tap the inserts straight to a sound card. Is that right? I could actually pull 8 outs from this mixer if I don't use any outboard gear on the inserts?

Then I can route the soundcard outs to the tape in on the board, and set up the soundcard to send all my monitoring signals back to the tape-in, and be able to monitor 8-ins and whatever I have already recorded?

If someone tells me this is true (and means it ;)) then I have solved a major purchase dilemma, as i would love to get away from a Behringer board if I can.
 
If the 1202 does have all those inserts, alts and so on, then yes, I believe you can do that.

The only thing I am not certain of is the tape-in, I haven't had the luck figuring out how to use it. But, I think if you just route the outs from your soundcard to a stereo channel on 1202, then you should be able to hear the playback from computer.

One thing tho, the Alt outs only work when the Alt/mute buttons are pressed, so, you have to bring the control fader to 0 in order to have enough gain on the Alt sends, this means you probably won't be able to monitor thru the headphones since it's gonna a) bleed to mic when you record b)make your ears bleed...

I just unplug the headphones when I use Alt sends, but if you have to monitor thru headphones, this might not be an option.

There might be a way around this, but I don't know how.

ps. have you considered a used 1402??

Al
 
There is a way around the problem you mention with monitoring: if using the Tape In from the soundcard, you select "send 2TK to Control Room", and the only thing you hear in the control room send is whatever you have your soundcard setup to playback (i.e. set up input monitoring on the soundcard), then you control the volume level with the soundcard mixer.

As for the 1402, I don't see much benefit to it over the 1202 (unless I am missing something obvious). The only thing I notice is that it has two more mic preamp channels.....which have their uses, but I do most of my recording solo, so having 6 mic preamps is a bit of overkill. ANy other major difference between the 1202 and 1402?

The one thing I am fairly certain of is that I would like the VLZ Pro series mainly for the quality of the preamps.
 
well, from what chessrock told me, there isn't much difference, if any, between the reg VLZ and the pro, you might save yourself some money if you get the VLZ. just a thought

Al
 
I have a Mackie 1604. I take the feeds
to my 16 convertor channels from the "insert"
point on the Mackie, with the cables pushed
in only to the first click.

So I record straight from the trim pot out to
my I/O racks.

I use the rest of the Mackie for monitoring.
Put a TC D-2 Delay on one Aux pair, a TC M-one effects
on another, feed them in for monitors to the musicians.

I use the "Pro Source Mod" (page 29) tape back trick
(from the Mackie manual) so that the
control/phones output to the headphone amps are fed
the same main mix, pre fader. So I can control
the room monitors with the main fader and the
headphone amps with the Ctrl/Room pot.

And I run a FMR RNP/RNC pair set back thru
the Mackie for monitoring, altho they go
directly to the I/O card.

Fundamentally, I use the Mackie preamps when I need
more than the good preamps. I do all my mixing in
the DAW. The mackie is for monitoring.

There are probably other tricks that I can't remember.
Hacking the setup was fun.
 
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