Mackie VLZ gone tits up - advice needed!

J

Jeppo

Member
My Mackie VLZ "pro" 1642 mixer has started to mess me around. Here's the problem: whenever I use the mixer one (or more) of the channels craps out on me. It's not even a consistent fault. It's as though a channel will stop working & only come to life when a sufficient amount of signal comes through to 'wake up' the channel. Strangely enough, I can record for a couple of hours without this problem, then suddenly it will go funny again. It's infuriating because this "musical chairs channel crap out" stuff has already spoilt a couple of recordings. It's not as though it's happening on a particular channel, it's a random pest!

Anyone else had this problem? Is it fixable? Or more to the point - is it worth fixing? I bought this thing mainly for the XDR preamps, which are fab when they work. My warranty on this thing has passed and I don't know if sending it away to be fixed will be the best investment of time & money. This brings me on to my next question (deep breath):

If I put the Mackie to one side for a moment, my minimum requirement to keep things ticking over would be 4 channels of preamp that could at least be as good as the Mackie. I'm after 'clean & quiet' so please offer any suggestions.

Many thanks,

Jeppo
 
The symptoms sound allot like the ribbon problems they have had.
Check out the Mackie forums. It might be a fairly inexpensive repair (and a decent mixer is always a nice thing to have around.)
Wayne
 
It does indeed sound like a ribbon connection problem. The current revision is "G". Depending on how old the board is, you could be revision "A".

This problem was solved for $176.10 (US)
 
Thanks for the suggestions. Not sure where to find 'the mackie forum' if you could give me some directions that would be great. I'm based in the UK, so getting stuff repaired might not be as straightforward/cheap as it would in the states.

A further note: I recorded a band today & had the mixer powered up for at least 6 hours. It didn't crap out! Not once, not a murmur. Every channel was fine. The toms/ overheads sounded great through the Mackie. I still think the XDR preamps are excellent value for money.

Jeppo
 
Jeppo said:
My Mackie VLZ "pro" 1642 mixer has started to mess me around. Here's the problem: whenever I use the mixer one (or more) of the channels craps out on me. It's not even a consistent fault. It's as though a channel will stop working & only come to life when a sufficient amount of signal comes through to 'wake up' the channel. Strangely enough, I can record for a couple of hours without this problem, then suddenly it will go funny again. It's infuriating because this "musical chairs channel crap out" stuff has already spoilt a couple of recordings. It's not as though it's happening on a particular channel, it's a random pest!

Anyone else had this problem? Is it fixable? Or more to the point - is it worth fixing? I bought this thing mainly for the XDR preamps, which are fab when they work. My warranty on this thing has passed and I don't know if sending it away to be fixed will be the best investment of time & money. This brings me on to my next question (deep breath):

If I put the Mackie to one side for a moment, my minimum requirement to keep things ticking over would be 4 channels of preamp that could at least be as good as the Mackie. I'm after 'clean & quiet' so please offer any suggestions.

Many thanks,

Jeppo
Click to expand...

I've been having similar problems like you with my 1642 except its not the channels, it's the main outputs. It would all of a sudden make this spitting and popping sound, sort of like a cap going bad. So I took it apart and hooked it up apart and it works perfectly fine, no problems at all. If i rub my fingers along the edge of the PCB board over the 47uF caps, I can recreate the sound. So it seems to me like there is something touching. Mine is the revision A model. As soon as I get this puppy back together and working normal, it's for sale. There are better preamps out there that are cheap and sound better. Not that the Makie's pres are bad but they just don't have any life to them, and this is just going out through the insert straight to my Multiface sound card.
 
My parents were using a 1642 for the PA mixer in their church.
It got a little batty after a few months. Two of the busses would
stop working, and then come back on again. It had to go back to
Mackie for a new ribbon cable.
 
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