Mixer died?

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plingativator

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While I was using my mixer to run keyboards into some speakers today, the sound suddenly cut out. It had been playing for a while already, and it was completely without warning. I checked the speakers, and the keyboard, which were fine. The mixer however was not acting like it was supposed to.

It displays the "power on" light, but any signal that I put into it will not display on the level indicator thing, essentially, no sound will come out. I tried mics, and the keyboard, and my computer soundcard, all of which normally play fine into the mixer, all from different outputs.

The mixer is an ALTO S8, and I have had it for less than a year. It is in fine condition and I have never done anything like drop it or spill liquid on it. I find this really frustrating because it happened completely out of the blue, and I have no idea what the problem is or why it happened.

If anyone has any advice, experience, or ideas, please let me know. I would really like to figure this out because I am the kind of person that can't stop worrying about something until it is resolved.

Thanks for your help.
 
it could be that the mixer has died, but before digging the grave, just check the signal routing on the desk. i have had expriences in the past where i have lost the signal, only to find that i had done something dumb without realising, liking muting all tracks, or routing the wrong buss to the control room, or other things like that.
 
Yeah, that would be a good thing too check, but I don't think that was the problem because it happened in mid-use. One second it was working, one second it stopped working. Even stranger, I tried it again today and it was working again.

I realized that my warranty is still good so I will be taking it into the shop next week to see what the problem is. Ideally, I will be able to get a new mixer, because I really don't trust this one anymore after the randomness of the problem. Does anyone know exactly what the deal is with warranties and what I can expect?
 
It sounds like the problem is the mixer and that the problem is intermittent. This could make it very hard to solve. If you take the mixer in and they can not recreate the problem, than they don't really have to give one to replace it with. It seems to me that the mixer could possibly be overheating. Alto mixers are built pretty cheaply and may use a lot of parts that heat up pretty nicely without an adequate cooling method. That would be one reason why it worked fine the next day, but is really just a stab in the dark since I was not there to see the problem happen. Good luck:)
 
xstatic said:
It sounds like the problem is the mixer and that the problem is intermittent. This could make it very hard to solve. If you take the mixer in and they can not recreate the problem, than they don't really have to give one to replace it with. It seems to me that the mixer could possibly be overheating. Alto mixers are built pretty cheaply and may use a lot of parts that heat up pretty nicely without an adequate cooling method. That would be one reason why it worked fine the next day, but is really just a stab in the dark since I was not there to see the problem happen. Good luck:)
Click to expand...

Hmmm, might be worth throwing some heatsinks on the regulators in the power supply. You can score heatsinks at Radio Shack for few pennies.
 
Another cause of intermittant problems like that are similar to xstatic's in that the symptoms are heat-related: an expansion crack. This would be a hairline crack in a circuit board that in most conditions is not a problem. But when the unit heats up, the board expands somewhat. As the board expands, do does the crack, to the point where the gap is enough to cut across the circuit traces and interrupt the flow of voltaqge across the crack. Once the boad cools back down again, the board and the crack contract back to the original dimensions and the voltage is free to flow again.

This is all fun to speculate, but it's pretty academic, really. Your mixer is under warranty. As long as they don't trace the problem to some kind of purposeful or accidental misuse or abuse on your part, you should be covered regardless of the specific cause.

G.
 
Hmm, I was playing around with it a lot today, and it didn't have that problem again. But I found another one. If someone can explain it to me, that would be great. First, I will give a detail of my setup.

S8 mixer main mix output --> EMU 0404 analog in --> EMU 0404 analog out --> S8 mixer 2-Track in --> S8 mixer control room output --> monitor speakers

I push the button that says "2TK to control room" so that the signal from the computer goes right out again to be monitored. I don't know if this is supposed to happen but the signal from my instruments becomes much weaker when I push the "2TK to control room" button. They just get much quieter. Why is this? Sorry if it is blatantly obvious. I'm still learning how to use my mixer to its full potential.
 
Without being there in person my gut says that the 2 track return activates sopme sort of dim circuit when fed to the control room out. This is a little odd since typical dim circuits are only related to talkback sections, and not 2 track returns. With the way you have it right now, I take it the 2 track return in no way shape or form feeds the Left and Right Main outputs. If it did and you were recording off the main outs, you would have an endless loop, and some real phase issues as well. Personally, I would do everything I could possibly do to get them to give you a new mixer before your warranty is up. The problem you had the opther day sounds liek the start of a more serious problem that will trun up later on, probably after your warranty is up. If it is a thermal issue, than your board is slowly and constantly undergoing added stress and heat damage, even when it is not malfunctioning. Plus, you can never have piece of mind knowing that at any minute it could just quit on you.
 
Ok, I feel somewhat stupid. The problem with the quiet control room output was that the sound card was only running at half volume. It had muted itself randomly for no reason before, and I had to set it back up, but I didn't realize that I should put it at full volume. Now when I compare the two volumes, (direct to monitors/through soundcard), they are the same. I am glad that problem is solved.

I'm wondering about the shut off problem that I initially had. Would it get worse with time and become more frequent? I think it would be difficult to trade it in if they can't find any problems with it at the store, and I plan on upgrading to a better mixer at some point, maybe a mackie? If this one will stay together until then I think I will be fine. Do these types of problems typically exacerbate over time?

Thanks to those that are helping me. This is a good learning experience.
 
Typically, yes they would happen more frequently. In the end though it really depends on exactly why it shut down. If it shut down due to prolonged use and heat that it created itself, then yes, eventually it will happen again and most likely will develop into other problems as well. If however it freaked out due to an external problem (maybe heat was caused due to it sitting on top of a power amp while you were running it) than the problem may never happen again. In any case, if you are at all worried about it, I would dop my best to get rid of it and get a replacement. Also, if it happens again, take mental or literal notes of exactly what happened and what all surrounding circumstances were. Was it in a smoky stuffy hot room? Was part of the console unusually hot to the touch? Are certain pots noisy or cutting in and out? Basically, arm the repair guys with as much information as you can, even if you think something that seems out of place may not be important to them. Allow them to rule things out. Good luck:)
 
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